News & announcements

As you might know, the Society of American Archivists runs a Mentoring Program for its members. Information about the program can be found here:
http://www2.archivists.org/membership/mentoring 

SAA's Mentoring Program is designed to bring together members with shared interest in different aspects of the archival profession. The goal is to cultivate career development and communication between members with areas of expertise and members who want to build their knowledge within those areas.

In addition to seeking general career advice, we currently have someone waiting for a mentor in Seattle, specifically.

If you feel you have something to offer our newest colleagues, please consider signing up to be a mentor. You can submit an application to the program here:
http://www2.archivists.org/membership/mentoring/application (click on "Apply to be a mentor").

For those of you who have been mentors or proteges, thank you for participating in the program!

Thank you for your consideration,
Alison Clemens
SAA Mentoring Program
alison.clemens@gmail.com 

The NAGARA Internship Program provides a $1,500 stipend to each of two students enrolled in archival and/or records management graduate programs. The internships will occur during the Summer of 2020 at one of two locations:

In addition to providing institutions and students opportunities for collaboration, the Internship Program seeks to create good will with institutions and students where both parties can learn from each other and from the experience. Descriptions of the internship projects, student requirements, and application forms can be found here on the NAGARA website.

Applications are being accepted now through February 28, 2020 and winners will be announced April 1, 2020. We invite you to forward this e-mail, or share the attached flyer, with students you know who might be interested in such an opportunity!

Dear colleagues,

We’re planning an edit-a-thon of SNAC records related to North American anthropology and archaeology for the spring of 2020. We welcome individuals working with archival material in these fields, and anyone else interested, to participate. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of SNAC.

For more information, and to fill out a brief survey about participating, visit: https://forms.gle/m61N8CHBCJTpoLGn7 

Goals of this edit-a-thon

1. Facilitate access to archival material that has been dispersed to multiple repositories.

2. Create more and fuller records for Indigenous people and any other historically unrecognized individuals in these fields.

3. Facilitate knowledge sharing of related archival material through a community effort.

What is SNAC?

From the SNAC website: “SNAC is a free, online resource that helps users discover biographical and historical information about persons, families, and organizations that created or are documented in historical resources (primary source documents) and their connections to one another. Users can locate archival collections and related resources held at cultural heritage institutions around the world.”

Project structure and participation options

The edit-a-thon will be in Spring 2020 (exact dates TBD). Participants will have SNAC training sometime in January-March 2020. Both the training and edit-a-thon can be done remotely.

For those not able or interested in doing SNAC training or the edit-a-thon, contributing to a list of records to be edited or enhanced by others would be equally valuable. Please fill out this brief survey if you are interested in participating at any level: https://forms.gle/m61N8CHBCJTpoLGn7

Participating in any capacity is unpaid - if this represents a hardship for you, or makes it impossible for you to participate, let us know in the survey feedback section so we can address it in further planning stages.

About us

Katherine Meyers Satriano is the Associate Archivist at the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Irene Gates was formerly the Temporary Archivist at the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, and is now a project archivist at the Harvard Law School Library.

Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship Applications Solicited

MAC is soliciting applications for the 2020 Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship for Students of Color (http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley). The scholarship is designed to provide financial assistance to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival administration and to encourage ethnic diversification of the MAC membership and of the archival profession as a whole. Two $750 scholarships, accompanied by one-year memberships to MAC, will be awarded. 

In order to be eligible for a scholarship, the applicant must be of African, American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Latinx decent; must be a student currently enrolled in or accepted in a graduate, multicourse program in archival administration; and must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in their academic program. If the program is not listed in the SAA Directory of Archival Education, http://www2.archivists.org/dae, the applicant must provide proof of the multicourse standard by submitting copies of course descriptions from the institution’s current departmental catalog. The applicant must also be either a resident of the MAC region or registered in a qualified program, onsite or online, that is based in the MAC region.

Applications are due March 1, 2020 and must include the following documents:

• Completed Application Form (pdf), available at http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley 

• Transcript from the applicant's most recent academic program (unofficial transcript is acceptable)

• Essay of not more than 500 words outlining the applicant's interests and future goals in archival administration

• Two letters of recommendation.

Completed applications should be sent to:

Lara Friedman-Shedlov

Description and Access Archivist

Kautz Family YMCA Archives

University of Minnesota Libraries

318 Elemer L. Andersen Library

222 21st Ave S, Ste 318

Minneapolis, MN 55405

Telephone: 612-626-7972

Email: Ldfs@umn.edu 

Applications must be emailed or postmarked by March 1, 2020. 

Awards will be announced no later than June 1, 2020.

It seems like we just elected a new group of officers and yet we're already looking for the next batch.  Are you interested in running?  Or if that's too much to commitment at this point: do you think you might be interested in running, maybe?  If so, nominate yourself.  If you know someone who you think would be a good candidate then please nominate them too.

Elections typically occur around March so you still have lots of time to consider running, think of great candidates, and even change your mind a couple of times.

Officers in the next election will be:

• Vice-President / President-Elect
• Idaho Representative
• Oregon Representative
• Montana Representative

I sincerely hope you will be one of them!

The following link goes to the survey which is anonymous and can be submitted multiple times https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NWA2020Nominations.  Should you have any issues with it or any questions about running for office or about this year's elections in general do not hesitate to reach out and let me know.

Thank you for your assistance,
Bryce Henry (bhenry@pdx.edu)
2020 Nominating Committee Chair & Past-President

The DLF Labor Working Group has just posted an extensive list of groups and campaigns working on labor issues in and around LAM, as well as key resources and publications. You can find it on the Labor WG wiki as a table or as a list. 

NWA is on the list for our job policy requiring salary, the Archivist-in-Residence program, and the salary survey conducted last spring.

To recommend a group or campaign for the list, use this form. 

Hello!

My name is Rosemary K. J. Davis and I’m the Accessioning Archivist at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. I’m collaborating with Meaghan O’Riordan, Accessioning Archivist at Emory’s Rose Library, on a long-term research project focused on archival accessioning. We’re interested in making accessioning work more visible in every way, primarily by illuminating the sorts of labor and relationships required in order to steward archival collections during the initial phases of acquisition and accessioning. We want to ground our research in the firsthand experiences of people directly involved in this work.

To that end, we have crafted a survey that collects information and experiences related to the intellectual, emotional, and physical labors involved in archival accessioning.

https://yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Vza9JzfyNvQSZ7 

Developing a better understanding of how repositories define and navigate accessioning is crucial to performing special collections stewardship that is rooted in transparency and mutual trust between all parties, and ultimately results in richer archival description, faster processing of materials, and greater access for researchers. What’s more, raising the visibility of individuals performing accessioning work will hopefully contribute to the creation of an empathetic and engaged community of practice, while also making this work's value more readily apparent throughout archival profession.

This survey will be open through December 20, 2019.

We encourage you to give yourself plenty of time to give specific and thoughtful answers. We’re interested in collecting information about the nuts and bolts of accessioning work, but we also want to hear about how this work is valued, how individuals navigate the complexities involved in their work, and how a more supportive community of practice might emerge.

Thank you all for your time and feel free to reach out to us with questions: accessioningresearch@gmail.com. 

All best,

Rosemary K. J. Davis

Accessioning Archivist

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Meaghan O’Riordan

Accessioning Archivist

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

Northwest Archivists, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of the Archivist-in-Residence application! Please read on for more information about this important pilot program and for links to residency criteria and application.

Problem: Unpaid internships have become a problem in our profession. They serve as a barrier to entry into our field, especially along the lines of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and class, contributing to an imbalance in our profession. Unless an individual is willing and able to work without compensation, they are deemed unqualified for even entry level work in the field. 

Second Problem: Many institutions in the Pacific NW rely on internships to complete project work. While some do have the resources to fund internships, many others do not. Many archival programs would like to invest in the next generation of professionals through training programs and internships but are severely limited by their budgets.  

Solution: NWA will set the example for how we can combat unethical practices, support interns, and assist under-resourced institutions though the Archivist-in-Residence program.

Northwest Archivists, Inc. is offering a $5,000 stipend for one graduate student (or recent graduate within two years) to receive an Archivist-in-Residence opportunity. The purpose of this residency is two-fold:  1. To offer upcoming and new professionals with paid career development opportunities to apply knowledge in archives, libraries, museums, or a related field; and 2. To provide an opportunity for archival organizations to work toward the long term goal of eliminating unpaid work within the field.  The residency may last up to 12 weeks during the summer months.The resident will receive a one-year complimentary membership to Northwest Archivists.

This is a unique experience for a new professional to develop a project based on their goals and skills and work directly with an organization to determine the project’s scope, goals, and outcomes. The Archivist-in-Residence will be managed by an on-site supervisor assigned by the host organization, though the resident may interact and work under the temporary direction of a number of other employees depending on the scope of the project.

Please read the Archivist-in-Residence criteria document for more information on resident, host organization, and proposed project requirements. More program details can be found here and application here.

The NWA Paid Internship Committee would like to thank NWA membership and our Gold-level sponsors for their support of the Archivist-in-Residence program.

NWA Member Publishes Copyright Article!

Oregon Historical Society's Dana Miller (Collections Management Librarian) and University of Nevada, Reno's Teresa Auch Schultz co-wrote an article for the Journal of Copyright in Education and Librarianship titled "Academic Special Collections and the Myths of Copyright". Dana and Teresa (and some excellent panelists) presented on this topic at SAA in Austin. Access the article via https://www.jcel-pub.org/jcel/issue/view/1501.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archivist – Closes November 24, 2019

Photograph Archivist

Montana Historical Society

Helena, MT

$31,312.00 - $35,360.00  Annually

This is a full-time, permanent position to arrange, preserve, describe, catalog and provide access to the still and moving image collections at the MHS Research Center.  The Photograph Archivist is responsible for evaluating, arranging, describing, and providing access to a wide variety of still and moving images, responding to inquiries about the materials in the Photograph Archives’ collection, and is responsible for the care of existing collections and the assessment and acquisition of new collections.

Education/Experience:  This position requires skills and abilities typically acquired through a Bachelor's degree in history, American studies, or a related field and the completion of a Master's degree in Library Science, history, photograph or moving image preservation or a related field.

Please visit this website for a full description of the position and to apply.

Contact:  Molly Kruckenberg, MHS Research Center Manager, mkruckenberg@mt.gov.