Congrats to our Wilmington Scholarship Winners!

The Scholarship Committee is excited to announce the following recipients of travel awards for the Fall 2018 conference in Wilmington, DE:

• Marsha A. Trimble Meeting and Travel Award Scholarship ($400): Emily Flint
  Emily is currently pursuing a MLIS with a concentration in Archive and Digital Curation at the University of Maryland. At Maryland, she works as a student assistant for Special Collections.
• $400 Travel Award: Eboni Jones
  Eboni is currently pursuing her MS in Information and Library Science with an interest in archives and records management at the University at Buffalo. She works at the Rochester Institute of Technology as an adjunct professor and at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York.
• Joan Echtenkamp Klein Meeting and Travel Award ($250): Nicole Pease
  Nicole is an Archive Consultant in Rochester, New York, where she has done work for the Rochester Institute of Technology, The Out Alliance, and The Strong: Museum of Play. She earned her Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2010.

  MARAC Scholarship Committee
  Cindy Bendroth
  Alan Delozier
  Colleen McFarland Rademaker
  Elizabeth Wilkinson
  Christy Fic, Junior Co-Chair
  Emily Cottle, Senior Co-Chair

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MARAC Wilmington Scholarships

Apply today for MARAC Wilmington Scholarships!
The deadline to apply is Friday, September 7.

MARAC offers the following meeting scholarships:
· Marsha Trimble Meeting and Travel Award ($400)
· Joan Echtencamp Klein Meeting and Travel Award ($250)
· Karen A. Stuart Local History Collection Workshop & Conference Attendance Award

Update: There will be a second $400 award available for Wilmington, bringing the total number of available awards for this fall conference to four.

Additional information about each award is included below.

APPLICATION: Applicants for either award should submit the following:
· Cover letter that includes:
· Award for which you are applying (name and amount)
· Statement of financial need
· Expected benefits of attending the conference (citing specific sessions or workshops of interest)
· Resume
· Letter of reference from a person with knowledge of the applicant’s work (sent directly to the MARAC Scholarship Committee Chair, Emily Cottle, via email at MARAC.Scholarship@gmail.com)

DEADLINE: Wilmington meeting, Friday, September 7, 2018.

TO APPLY: Send a single PDF of the cover letter and resume to Emily Cottle, MARAC Scholarship Committee Chair, at MARAC.Scholarship@gmail.com. Letter of recommendation should be sent by the reference as a PDF directly to Emily Cottle, MARAC Scholarship Committee Chair, at MARAC.Scholarship@gmail.com.
Please include MARAC Scholarship Application in the subject line. All
applicants will receive an email confirming their application has been received.

Information about awards:
MARAC Meeting & Travel Awards
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) offers travel awards of $400 (Marsha Trimble Meeting and Travel Award) and $250 (Joan Echtencamp Klein Meeting and Travel Award) for attendance at its conferences held twice a year around the region.Scholarship funds may be used for conference registration, workshops, lodging, conference meals, and other travel expenses. Persons meeting the criteria outlined below are encouraged to apply.

QUALIFICATIONS: For this award, an individual must currently:
· Be employed in the MARAC region in an archival or archives-related position,
OR
· Be enrolled as a graduate student in a program that includes courses in archival administration
OR
· Be a MARAC member in good standing

Karen A. Stuart Local History Collection Workshop & Conference Attendance Award
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) offers awards for one full or half-day workshop, and conference registration, including the Friday Luncheon and Saturday Breakfast. Please note this award does not cover any travel expenses, but only the registration costs outlined above. Named in memory of Karen A. Stuart, a Library of Congress archivist who had been head librarian at the Maryland Historical Society, this award is expressly aimed at those associated with Local History Collections. Active with MARAC on the Publications Committee and also as Maryland Caucus Chair, Karen maintained a life-long interest in local history and genealogy, respecting and encouraging the scholarly practice of each. In her career, she assisted thousands of researchers investigating Maryland local history, and through her guidance she also impacted the careers of local history practitioners throughout the state. Karen loved local history so it is fitting that this award bears her name as MARAC supports the professional growth of others dedicated to the field.

QUALIFICATIONS: Individuals must currently be associated with a local history collection that is open to the public on a regular basis in the MARAC region. Volunteers as well as paid staff are eligible. Priority is given to local history collections located in the meeting’s host city for the purpose of networking opportunities, but will not exclude other applicants.

MARAC Spring 2019 Meeting Call for Proposals

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) is seeking session proposals for the Spring 2019 meeting to be held April 11-13, 2019 in Morgantown, West Virginia. The deadline for proposals is September 15, 2018.

 

We are looking for proposals that align with the theme of Working Archives: A Labor of Love

 

Suggested tracks:

• Working in archives: project descriptions; workflows; systems, etc.
• Workers in archives: recruiting and hiring diverse archivists; wage equality in archives, libraries, museums, and other memory institutions; permanent staff/soft money; MLIS vs. PhD
• Working archives: making collections and services accessible to a broad audience; working class records in academic institutions
• Labor: topics and or/collections dealing with labor, history of labor, unions, etc.
• West Virginia/Appalachia history, literature, art, music, architecture

 

Use this Google form to submit your proposal for a session.

 

For further information, please contact Program Co-Chairs: Marie Elia (eliam@buffalo.edu) or Liz Scott (emarzuoliscott@gmail.com) or visit the conference website: https://marac2019morgantown.wordpress.com/

Guest Post: Archon Day 2018

Archon Day 2018 was held at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, on June 29 with participants from institutions in Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, and Ohio. Next year we hope to enable participation from Archon users outside the Midwest by hosting a virtual meeting. Archon users hail from all parts of the country.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future viability of Archon, the availability of alternative tools, their utility for Archon users in particular, and the Archon Users Collaborative future work in 3-5 years. In 2015-17 some members of the Collaborative paid LibraryHost to update Archon’s code for compatibility with 5.6 PHP. This launched in 2017 and is freely available from the Collaborative’s blogspot (URL below).

At the meeting, the group formed teams focusing on research, code development, and user community communication. Each team has specific objectives and welcomes new team members.

Ideas that were generated include:

• Explore updating Archon code to work with PHP 7, building off what Calvin College has already completed.
• Hold Archon Day 2019 virtually and work on communication to get others outside of the Midwest actively involved.
• Create a comprehensive directory of Archon users to include international institutions for posting on our website.
• Find partners and look for funding for future development.

For the full meeting report and for more information, visit  http://archonusers.blogspot.com.

Anne Salsich
Oberlin College

Archival Educators Section survey reminder

Dear Colleagues,

About a month ago, the Archival Educators Section (AES) Steering Committee, distributed a link to a survey so we could learn more about adjunct faculty in the archival profession. The response rate has been wonderful so far, but we are hoping for a few more participants. If you have already completed the survey, we greatly appreciate your help! If you know of friend or colleague who has taught archival courses in the past five years, please forward him/her this message.

 

As a reminder, the purpose of our project is to analyze the duties, obligations, and experiences that adjuncts have while teaching archival courses. We hope to further a conversation about the role of adjuncts and their value in higher education.

 

The outcomes will be reported at the AES meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 15 from 2:30-3:45 PM. The steering committee may also publish the report to inform the archival community of the findings of the survey.

 

The findings of this research will begin to provide directions for how archival educational programs may improve the working relationships with their adjuncts to enhance the experiences of the students within these programs.

 

To assist with our project, we are requesting that you complete the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J36YHXC

 

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

 

At the end of the survey you may provide your contact information voluntarily for follow-up purposes. The confidentiality of all participant data will be maintained. Any information that may identify a participant will be removed prior to the data analysis process and not connected to your responses.

 

There will be no costs or direct payment for participating.

 

If you have any questions about the study or study procedures, please do not hesitate to contact one of us.

 

Thank you,

Donald Force (force@uwm.edu), Ph.D., Chair AES

Miriam Meislik (miriam@pitt.edu), Steering Committee Member, AES

Archival Educators Section seeks adjunct survey participation

Dear Colleagues,

The Archival Educators Section (AES) Steering Committee is seeking to learn more about adjunct faculty in the archival profession. The purpose of our project is to analyze the duties, obligations, and experiences that adjuncts have while teaching archival courses. We hope to further a conversation about the role of adjuncts and their value in higher education.

If you are adjunct instructor who has taught at least one archival course within the past 5 years, we would greatly appreciate your participation in this survey.

For the purposes of our survey, adjuncts are defined as those hired on a part-time basis to teach one or more courses at an institution of higher learning. They may be referred to as adjunct professor, adjunct lecturer, adjunct instructor, or by other titles deemed appropriate by the institution. The positions are non-tenure track and are on a contractual basis with variable pay, resource availability, and access to benefits such as health insurance and retirement

The outcomes will be reported at the SAA AES meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 15 from 2:30-3:45 PM. The steering committee may also publish the report to inform the archival community of the findings of the survey.

The findings of this research will begin to provide directions for how archival educational programs may improve the working relationships with their adjuncts to enhance the experiences of the students within these programs.

To assist with our project, we are requesting that you complete the survey found at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J36YHXC

The survey should take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

At the end of the survey you may provide your contact information voluntarily for follow-up purposes. The confidentiality of all participant data will be maintained. Any information that may identify a participant will be removed prior to the data analysis process and not connected to your responses.

There will be no costs or direct payment for participating.

If you have any questions about the study or study procedures, please do not hesitate to contact one of us. Please feel free to distribute this email if you know of adjunct instructors in your program who may not be subscribed to this list.

Thank you,

Donald Force (force@uwm.edu), Chair AES

Miriam Meislik (miriam@pitt.edu), Steering Committee Member, AES

 

SAA’S DESCRIPTIVE NOTES SEEKS SUBMISSIONS

Dear Colleagues,

The SAA Description Section seeks submissions for the Summer 2018 issue of Descriptive Notes, the newsletter for SAA’s Description Section.

Descriptive Notes comprises announcements, articles, progress and project reports, collection images, cartoons, illustrations, and other newsy content. Are you in the middle of a project and want to let your fellow archivists in on what you’ve accomplished? Let us know! Have you come across a unique descriptive challenge in a collection? We want to know about it!

This is your forum. Your colleagues want to hear from you!

For examples of previous issues of Descriptive Notes, check out http://www2.archivists.org/groups/description-section/description-section-newsletters#.VzIemmY0prs

Please send submissions to: cherijcrist@gmail.com.

*The deadline for the Summer 2018 issue is July 21.*

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I look forward to your submissions!

Cheri Crist
Description Section Newsletter Editor