Graduate School Archival Education Scholarship Applications are Open

Applications are now being accepted for MARAC’s Graduate School Archival Education Scholarship (2020-2021). Deadline for submissions is October 31, 2020

Purpose:  To provide financial assistance to a student in the MARAC region and to promote the study of archival administration.

Award: One-time $1000 award for the 2020-2021 school year (to be awarded for the spring 2020 semester). The award will be paid directly to the educational institution. The award also includes a $20 student-level MARAC membership for a total award value of $1,020.

One award is available for the 2020-2021 cycle.

Eligibility: In order to be eligible for the scholarship, an applicant must be:

• a resident or full-time student residing in one of the following states: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and in the District of Columbia
• currently enrolled or accepted into a graduate program in archival studies or archives related program such as history or information studies

Application: Applications are to be sent to marac.scholarship@gmail.com and due October 31, 2020 and must include the following documents:

• Current resume including: Essay of no more than 500 words outlining the applicant’s interests and future goals in archival administration and how the scholarship would help you meet them. 

• Current Address
• Education (undergraduate and graduate); anticipated graduation date
• Relevant (archives related) employment/volunteer/internship experience
• Honors, scholarships, or awards received
• Memberships in professional organizations

• One letter of recommendation (sent directly to marac.scholarship@gmail.com)
• Documentation of “good standing” with the educational institution (may be a letter or official transcript)

The scholarship recipient is required to submit a brief article to be included in the next issue of the Mid-Atlantic Archivist Newsletter following the award.

The above information is also available for download here.

Questions? Please contact marac.scholarship@gmail.com

Saratoga Springs Meeting Cancelled

The MARAC Executive Committee has made the decision to cancel the Spring 2021 Meeting in Saratoga Springs. Read the entire letter from the MARAC Chair and stay tuned for updates on virtual offerings coming instead:

Dear MARAC members, On July 24, MARAC’s Executive Committee, with the approval of the MARAC Steering Committee, voted to cancel our spring 2021 meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY. This is now the third in-person meeting cancellation we have faced since April.

This was not an easy decision, however, as many of you know, pulling together an in-person meeting takes almost a year to do, and the Program Committee was running up against some deadlines. We made the decision together to cancel the in-person meeting so that we could focus on a robust and inspiring all-virtual conference in April 2021.

I want to thank everyone who worked to plan our Saratoga Springs meeting and specifically our Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chairs Melissa McMullen and Jamie Brinkman as well as our Program Committee Co-Chairs Gregory Wiedeman and Rachel Appel. These committees had already put a great deal of thought and effort into what I am sure would have been a wonderful meeting.

There will be more information forthcoming about our April 2021 virtual conference. We are in the process of assembling a group to lead the coordinating committee.

Thank you again for your understanding, and I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Jennie Levine Knies
MARAC Chair 2020-2021

The Occasional Webinar Series Continues

The MARAC Communications and Education Committees invite you to enjoy the second of a new Occasional Webinar series on August 5, 2020 at 4:00 pm.  The webinar is free, but we ask that you register at WebinarRegistrationAug5.  Zoom details will be provided upon registration.The webinar is limited to 100 attendees and will be recorded.

Title: 
Publishing and Archiving the Lehigh University Campus Newspaper Brown and White During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Presenter: 
Matt Veto is a professor of practice in the Department of Journalism and Communication at Lehigh University. He earned his master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism in December of 2013 after working in numerous newsrooms across all platforms beginning in 2000. He continues to write and create short documentary videos in addition to teaching multimedia classes and advising the Lehigh student publication, The Brown and White.

Description:
For 126 consecutive years, Lehigh University’s “The Brown and White” student newspaper had been delivering campus and community news to its readers, and it continued to do so despite the university’s closure due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In anticipation of Lehigh’s likely closure — and just hours before the official announcement — the student editors and faculty adviser developed and launched a remote production protocol that ensured the continuity of the print product despite the challenges of displacement. Sending their first remotely produced paper to the printer mere minutes before a 5 a.m. deadline, the team officially commenced its journey of news production in a new era. The cover of that issue blared “GLOBAL PANDEMIC: COVID-19 fears force students home; Lehigh goes remote” and was followed by 11 more hard copy editions to go along with 24/7 coverage online. The team of more than 150 student editors, reporters, photographers and videographers became a group of global correspondents, continuing to cover events close to home, while also providing perspective from afar.

Occasional Webinar Series Starts July 29th

The MARAC Communications and Education Committees invite attendees to enjoy the first of a new Occasional Webinar series on  July 29, 2020 at 4:00pm.  Register here and read more about the presenter and topic below.

Title: Bethlehem Steel, Industry, and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Presenter:
James Higgins is a lecturer at Rider University and instructor at Jefferson University.  He earned his doctorate at Lehigh University.  His 2009 PhD dissertation’s title is Keystone of an epidemic: Pennsylvania’s urban experience during the 1918–1920 influenza epidemic and it is available as fulltext to PQDT subscribers. His first book, The Health of the Commonwealth:  A Brief History of Medicine in Pennsylvania, will be published by Temple University Press in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Historical Association in October 2020.  He has researched the influenza pandemic of 1918-1922 for twenty years and frequently publishes scholarly articles and lectures on the subject of epidemic disease and public health.  He has consulted for documentaries, podcasts, private industry, and media outlets on avian influenza and COVID – 19.

Abstract: 
The autumn of 1918 was the most acute and deadly phase of the 1918-1922 influenza pandemic, the worst pandemic in human history in terms of lives lost.  The Lehigh Valley was part of a regional network of rail lines that stretched to the great ports of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  As such, though it was populated by only small cities and modest towns, its exposure to the virus that caused the influenza pandemic of 1918-1922 was far more akin to that of the great Mid-Atlantic metropolises.  The valley’s connections to the region’s great population centers became even more explicit during World War One as critical war industries, notably Bethlehem Steel (the world’s largest producer of munitions and weapons), Mack Trucks, Trojan Powder (a major manufacturer of explosives), as well as the United States Army Ambulance Corps training base, Camp Crane.

The Lehigh Valley was forced to balance responses to the disease with the need to remain economically operational for the sake of the war effort.  

Lehigh University was in the midst of both the war effort and efforts to combat the disease.  For the first time in its history, the university, which had dozens of young men enrolled in the Student Army Training Corps, closed its doors indefinitely and attempted to carry on with the training of students both intellectually and physically.  The drama that unfolded behind the gates of the university, where students sickened and were cared for on campus, and where a dozen students died in buildings still in use by the university, was a microcosm of the larger struggle waged outside the campus.  

The university’s loss of life from influenza far exceeded its losses from World War One and were the greatest loss of life in the shortest period in the university’s history.  

Lehigh University closed only two other times for extended periods: during the 1958 Asian flu and during 2020’s COVID-19 outbreak.  Nothing, however, compared to the story of Lehigh University during the sad autumn of 1918.

MARAC Statement on Black Lives Matter and Resources

MARAC Statement on Black Lives Matter and Resources
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) stands in solidarity with protesters against violence and racism towards Black Americans and people of color. We condemn the systemic and institutionalized racism, militarization of law enforcement, and unchecked violence committed by the state that led to the murder of George Floyd and so many other Black people. We affirm that Black Lives Matter and support the right to protest peacefully against injustice without violent response.

We recognize that archives have historically been located in institutions and frameworks that reinforce white supremacy and that our organization needs to do more to support efforts to dismantle the historical legacy of oppression both within our organization and within our individual institutions. 

We ask our MARAC members to commit to addressing anti-blackness and to leverage whatever skills, power, and privilege they have towards dismantling oppressive systems in our institutions and communities. We stand with communities everywhere demanding justice.

Ethical Collecting of Protest-Related Materials
To archivists and institutions who are considering collecting protest-related materials, there are important ethical considerations to be aware of, the most important of which is prioritizing the privacy and safety of protesters. It is also appropriate to NOT build protest-related collections if such collection building cannot be done mindfully, safely, and ethically so that they cannot be used to inflict harm. Institutions should also be aware that secondary trauma can be experienced by staff members processing these types of collections. 

For further guidance on ethically collecting protest materials, please consult the Guidelines from Documenting the Now and Guidelines from Witness, as well as resources found on the Archives for Black Lives site.  

MARAC will also host an online discussion on safe and ethical collecting on June 16, 2020 at 1 PM Eastern Time. This informal event, facilitated by members of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, will be a forum for members to share ideas and concerns and discuss ways in which we can support the efforts of those already doing this work. Contact administrator@marac.info for invitation.

MARAC Diversity and Inclusion Resources
Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links directly in the MARAC Diversity and Inclusion Resources Google Document. We hope that you will find these resources useful and empowering.   

MARAC Mutual Aid Network
We would also like to remind you about MARACs mutual aid network, which aims to connect MARAC members with vital resources to those members experiencing need. We hope to leverage this network as a tool during this time of crisis to help facilitate support between members and show solidarity across our community.  

In solidarity and on behalf of the MARAC Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the MARAC Executive Committee.

MARAC Mutual Aid Network

Dear MARAC Members,

Thank you for your ongoing support of MARAC in these difficult times. MARAC is aware that many of our members are currently facing “unprecedented” challenges in both our professional and personal lives as the entire world copes with the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we acknowledge that this difficult reality disproportionately affects our must vulnerable members.

This is why we would like to invite our members to participate in launching a  MARAC Mutual Aid Network  that allows our community to come together and support one another. A form for members to either request or provide assistance is available here:  https://forms.gle/jGfkXaU9U7vLyMcR8 .

MARAC Mutual Aid Network

The “Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit” explains that mutual aid is: “a practice and politics that emphasizes solidarity rather than charity” and that “recognize[s] that our well-being, health and dignity are all bound up in each other.” In an effort to engage our community and to strengthen our bonds at a time when we are all feeling the enormous pressures, MARAC would like to organize a way for community members to connect to one another. If you’re interested in reaching out to support colleagues in need or in offering your support for the greater community, please use the following form to let us know. We will follow up to put individuals in contact and coordinate a group effort to share resources, spread well-being, and support archivists in need.forms.gle

For those unfamiliar with Mutual Aid Networks (MANs), the Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit defines MANs as  grass-roots efforts that “emphasize solidarity rather than charity” and that allow community members to “plug in where we can make the most impact–locally.”  MANs are simple efforts that allow a community to connect individuals willing to share their resources (whatever they may be) to uplift those in need.This form is a first step in helping understand the needs of our local body of archivist and archival workers.  

It is important to note that all submissions will remain private and no respondent’s contact information will be used without express permission of the respondent (and for those who wish to remain anonymous that will always be an option). 

Thank you for considering participating! If you should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Caitlin Rizzo, the MARAC Secretary at cur585@psu.edu or 301-266-0202. 

Fall 2020 Conference Cancellation

Dear MARAC members,

Late last week, MARAC’s Executive Committee voted to cancel our fall 2020 meeting in Long Branch, NJ.  Again, this was not an easy decision but we were facing too many unknowns.  We could not risk the health of our attendees and canceling now limits the financial repercussions for our organization.

I want to thank everyone who worked to plan our Long Branch meeting and specifically our Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chairs Tara Maharjan and Melissa Ziobro as well as our Program Committee Co-Chairs Don Cornelius and Alan Delozier.  I have no doubt that Long Branch would have been a fantastic meeting, and I am sorry that you will not be able to bring it to fruition. 

I do hope to see everyone at our spring 2021 meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY, which will be held April 8-10, 2021.  Check out https://www.marac.info/spring-2021-conference for more information.  We are also planning to increase our online educational opportunities and publications for members in the coming months, so please stay tuned!

Thank you again for your understanding, and I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Rachel M. Grove Rohrbaugh
MARAC Chair 2019-2020

Support for the Archival Workers Emergency Fund

Dear MARAC Members,

The Society of American Archivists Foundation recently announced the creation of the Archival Workers Emergency Fund (AWEF) to support archival workers experiencing financial hardship during the COVID-19 crisis.  The fund will supply grants of up to $1,000 to financially vulnerable and at-risk workers.  All U.S.-based archival workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis are eligible to apply, including archival workers who are not members of SAA.

Today the MARAC Steering Committee voted to donate our remaining FY20 advocacy funds, $1,370, to the AWEF.  We encourage you to also consider donating individually if you are able.  Donations are tax deductible.

To donate or to apply for a grant, please visit https://www2.archivists.org/groups/saa-foundation-board-of-directors/archival-workers-emergency-fund.

Sincerely,

Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh
MARAC Chair, 2019-2020

MARAC Mentoring Cohort 2020-2021 Accepting Applications

Dear MARAC colleagues,

The MARAC Mentoring Program is seeking participants for the 2020 cycle! The year long  program will begin in July 2020. All interested mentors and mentees are encouraged to sign up by the end of April. We also encourage folks interested in being mentors to consider self-selecting a co-mentor to work with. Is there a colleague you’d like to partner with? Encourage them to sign up with you!

Applications and more information about this exciting program are available here.

WHY PARTICIPATE?

The MARAC Mentoring Program offers members an opportunity to participate in Mentoring Circles, small groups that typically consist of four to five mentees and two mentors. Diverging from the traditional one-on-one mentoring model, the circle fosters mentoring relationships between mentors and mentees, but also peer mentoring relationships and can help you network with new colleagues gain new useful skills for your archives career.

Mentoring Circles are designed to:

-Encourage the exchange of experiences, challenges, and opportunities to facilitate goal-setting for career and personal development.

             -Build competence and character to reach those goals.

             -Foster self-confidence, communication skills, and collective growth.

Mentors and Mentees are matched to a circle depending on their interests, goals, availability, and geographic location. Circles typically meet in a combination of virtual and in-person meetings. The application process includes an initial survey to determine everyone’s interests and support the initial grouping. All participants should be current MARAC members, able to commit to a full cycle of the program, and be ready to actively participate in every meeting.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Please visit the MARAC Mentoring page to learn more about the program and to apply to join. Applications will be accepted through June 10, 2020. Applicants will receive placement information by July 1, 2020. If you have any questions about the program, please contact the MARAC Mentoring Subcommittee: mentoring@marac.info.

Resources for Archivists

As we continue to work around and deal with the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, MARAC is dedicated to providing help to our profession. We’re compiling a list of resources for archival professionals to assist with those working from home, as well as those looking to document their community and/or institutional response to the pandemic. We are also open to sharing other resources not mentioned here. To submit ideas or suggestions, please contact us at marac.communications@gmail.com. We will also be able to share such ideas with other members via our social media platforms, as well as an updated blog post.

• The Society of American Archivists’ Documenting in Times of Crisis toolkit
• Resources for archivists working from home, courtesy of SAA’s Accessibility & Disability Section
• A list of resources and other institutional responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, created by Elizabeth James at Marshall University
• Resources for displaced archival workers
• American Institute for Conservation’s Book and Paper Group Executive Council have compiled resources for Conservation & Working From Home
• A crowd-sourced list of free webinars and trainings for academic library workers

We are also looking to share ideas for practical responses already in place by archives professionals in the MARAC region. If you or your coworkers have a project related to COVID-19 response, please feel free to share it with us – we are happy to help promote your activities further. You can find us on Twitter (@MARACTweets) or on Facebook in the MARAC group.