MARAC Technical Leaflet Series

Dear MARAC members,

The Communications Committee is seeking new submissions and suggestions for the MARAC Technical Leaflet Series (Print ISSN 2577-9400 and Electronic ISSN 2577-9419). This is a double-blind, peer-reviewed serial publication that provides practical guidance for specific archival tasks not commonly addressed in the professional literature.  

Since 2018, the Editorial Board of the Technical Leaflet Series is aiming to produce at least two publications per calendar year (spring and winter). The latest Leaflet, Preserving Scrapbooks, was recently published and can be viewed on the MARAC website. Topics of particular interest for future publications may include:

• Creating and maintaining acquisitions files
• Curation and storage of oversize objects and realia
• Data analytics
• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives for archives
• Handling of classified or proprietary materials in a government or corporate repository
• Oral history in archives
• Preservation, handling, and description of any of the following:
  • 19th-century photographs
  • Audio-visual materials
  • Datasets
  • Email
  • Textile materials
• Reparative (re)processing of archival materials
• Web archiving

Please submit any proposals or topic suggestions to marac.communications@gmail.com. Publication guidelines for submissions are available on the MARAC website. Authors are encouraged to observe a soft limit of 25-30 pages of content. Summer 2021 submissions have a projected publication date of Fall 2022. Our next call for proposals will be in October 2021 for the Gettysburg Conference.  All submissions will be reviewed by members of our Editorial Board.  If you have any questions or would like to discuss your leaflet ideas further, please contact us.

Sincerely,
Alex Japha, Editor-in-Chief
Heidi Abbey Moyer, Editor
Diane Wunsch, Editor
MARAC Technical Leaflet Series Editorial Board 

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Historic Summer Scenes

Check out historic scenes of summer fun in the MARAC region submitted by your archivist and library colleagues in Virginia and West Virginia throughout the summer 2021 issue of the Mid-Atlantic Archivist. Don’t miss it!
Read it now here:
https://marac.memberclicks.net/assets/maa/maracsummer21.pdf

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  [Leesburg Baseball Team.] 1938. Photograph. Russell Gregg Photograph Collection (VC 0008), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

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  7001st Army Service Unit (ASU) Women’s Army Corps (WAC) softball team, Fort Myer, Virginia. 1950s. Photograph. 2540-001. Jean E. Mestler Collection. Military Women’s Memorial.

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  Red Star Baseball Team, Red Star, Fayette County, W. Va. ca. 1915. Photograph. West Virginia & Regional History Center. 

Spring 2022 Meeting Call for Proposals

Dear Membership,

The Program Committee for the Spring 2022 MARAC Meeting is formally opening the call for proposals. The theme for this meeting is Communities Big and Small, which seeks to highlight small and community archives, underrepresented collections, and the aspect of archiving that makes a group of people a community. The conference will take place in Harrisonburg, Virginia on March 24-26, 2022. The Program Committee is planning to host this conference in a hybrid format, and are recruiting both fully in-person or hybrid sessions.

The session proposal form is available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxBZOnhKJ2SOZZPK8ZwdIznUotYCU7IeO1WP6k8LYkgB-Npg/viewform?usp=sf_link 

The Committee will consider proposals, encouraging the following themes:

• Community archiving projects
• Collections on intangible heritage (ex: music, food . . .)
• Profiles in small archives (ex: Town historical societies . . .)
• “Scaled down” best practices
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in small archives
• Topics related to Appalachia and Western Virginia
• Outreach and inclusion of local communities that surround archives

Any questions for the Program Committee can be sent to sheridan.sayles@shu.edu or tystump@pa.gov. The call will be open until close of business on August 15, 2021. If anyone has an idea but needs more support, this Google Sheet can be used to find other co-presenters, or flesh out an idea, or gain feedback.

Thank you all, and we look forward to an enriching conference.

Best,
Sheridan Sayles on behalf of the Program Committee

MARAC Member Minute: Meet Annette Montgomery!

Annette Montgomery
Norfolk State University, since 1986. Archivist and Records Officer. I also oversee the African Art Gallery. The most interesting thing about my job is the research, and being able to manage three positions.

As a kid, I wanted to be… a teacher.

My little known hobby or talent is, Sewing, making gift baskets, and watching classic movies.

I joined and stay with MARAC because I believe it to be a great organization with great opportunities and perks.

Any position(s) held in MARAC: None

My recommendation to anyone interested in getting involved is: to not think about it, just do it.
Final words: I have enjoyed being a member of MARAC, attending the conferences, workshops, webinars, receiving newsletters, and the wealth of information via emails.

Exhibits and Events Resource Bank Survey

E2 (Exhibits and Events Standing Committee) of the Society of American Archivists is building an Exhibits and Events Resource Bank! This new project seeks to create a hub for relevant examples of exhibition and event-related policies, procedures, contracts, and other germane materials for archivists, special collections librarians, public historians, and other professionals who hold these work responsibilities. The goal of this resource bank is to serve as a source of inspiration and reference for our professional community as we revise existing and create new documentation for the work we do. 

Your colleagues in the E2 Resource Bank committee are looking for survey respondents to help in identifying resource gaps and beginning this work of resource sharing!

In this brief survey, you will have the option to:

1. Indicate the types of related documents in use by your institution and/or

2. Upload your existing exhibit and event related documents for consideration by the E2 Resource Bank Committee

Acces the survey & contact information, if you have further questions, here: https://forms.gle/Znxx8QqQ3kMNqCFEA

DEADLINE for survey responses: July 27th

Call for Poster Proposals: MARAC Fall ’21

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) is seeking poster session proposals for the Fall 2021 “Sites of Memory” meeting scheduled to be held October 7-9 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We welcome proposals from both professionals and current students. 

The poster proposal submission form and more information are available at http://bit.ly/marac_fall2021_poster. 

Proposals will be accepted until September 1, 2021.