News & announcements

The Society of American Archivists’ Awards Committee is seeking nominations for the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Criteria for nomination include:

·         Involvement and work in the Archivists of Religious Collections Section (ARCS) of the Society of American Archivists.

·         Contributions to archival literature that relates to religious archives.

·         Participation and leadership in religious archives organizations.

·         Evidence of leadership in specific religious archives.

Only individual archivists are eligible for nomination. The award is sponsored by the Society of Southwest Archivists, in conjunction with Society of American Archivists.  It is named in honor of Sister M. Claude Lane, the first professionally trained archivist at the Catholic Archives of Texas in Austin, who served there from 1960 until her death in 1974. The award finalist is recognized with a certificate from SAA and a $300 cash prize provided by the Society of Southwest Archivists at the annual Society of American Archivists meeting. 

For more information on the Lane Award, including past winners, see:

http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-lane

To nominate an archivist for the Lane Award please follow the guidelines provided in the Nomination Form via the link on that page.

All nominations shall be submitted to the Awards Committee by February 28, 2015.

If you have any questions, please contact:

David Kingma, CA

Foley Center Library

Gonzaga University

502 E Boone Avenue

Spokane, WA 99258-0095

509-313-3814

kingma@gonzaga.edu

Call for Nominations: 2015 SAA Waldo Gifford Leland Award

Please help us to recognize the best in our profession!

Have you read a great new book about archives? Seen an exceptional new finding aid? Encountered a new documentary publication that is head and shoulders above the rest? Has a new web publication really stood out to you?

If you have, please consider nominating it for the Society of American Archivists Waldo Gifford Leland Award. Nomination forms, a list of previous winners, and more information are at http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-leland. The deadline for nominations is February 28, 2015. 

The annual Leland Award – a cash prize and certificate – recognizes “writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, and practice.” 

 (Please note that periodicals are not eligible.) 

Established in 1959, this award honors American archival pioneer Waldo Gifford Leland (1879-1966), president of the Society of American Archivists in the1940s and one of the driving forces behind the founding of the National Archives.

C.F.W. Coker Award

As you may know, the deadline for Society of American Archivists’ awards is just around the corner! Each year, the C. F. W. Coker Award is given out to recognize an outstanding and innovative finding aid, finding aid or descriptive system, or finding aid/descriptive project.

Established in 1984, this award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce effective finding aids. To merit serious consideration for the award, nominees must, in some significant way, set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have a substantial impact on descriptive practices. The following types of works or activities may be considered:

1.    Finding aids, including, among others, multi-institutional guides, record surveys, repository guides, special subject lists, finding aids to individual collections or records groups, and narrative descriptions of holdings.

2.    Finding aid systems, including, among others, manual or automatic indexing systems, computer databases, or current awareness systems for notifying users of holdings.

3.    Descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids, including, among others, subject thesauri, authority files, data element dictionaries, manuals establishing descriptive standards, and such reference works as atlases and administrative histories.

4.    Projects that involve innovative developments in archival description, including, among others, cooperative ventures that result in the exchange of finding aid information among repositories, efforts at building national information systems, and survey projects.

Last year’s submissions were great and we had to make a tough decision. This year, we’d like to have to make a difficult choice again, but we need your help!

Do you know of an outstanding and innovative finding aid or description system published in 2014?  Have you created a finding aid or designed a descriptive system or tool that you feel breaks new ground in the field of archival descriptive practice? Would you like to see the author(s) or editor(s) recognized for contributing to descriptive practice and the archives profession?  Please consider submitting a nomination prior to the deadline of February 28, 2015.  Self-nominations are welcome!

The nomination form, additional information, and a list of previous winners can be found at www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-coker.

Many thanks in advance from the 2014-2015 C. F. W. Coker Awards Committee!

Mosaic Scholarship

The Mosaic Scholarship was established to provide financial and mentoring support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, to encourage students to pursue careers in archives, and to promote the diversification of the American archival profession. The award is given to applicants who demonstrate excellent potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.

Up to two scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded. In addition, each scholarship recipient receives a one-year complimentary membership to SAA and complementary registration to the Society’s Annual Meeting.

For more information on the scholarship, eligibility requirements and instructions on applying, please visit: http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-mosaic.

See the Events Calendar for details!

Protecting Cultural Collections:

Disaster Prevention, Preparedness, Response & Recovery

Part 1:  ON-LINE WEBINARS - Prevention & Preparedness (archived 2½ hours total)

Part 2:  IN-PERSON WORKSHOP - Response & Recovery

Yakima, Washington, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 – 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. – Yakima Valley Museum,  2105 Tieton Drive, Yakima, WA 98902

Participation in the in-person workshop requires viewing the archived Part 1 webinars BEFORE attending the Part 2 in-person workshop AND completing the workshop assignments. Any exception requires the permission of the instructor.

Sponsored by Western States & Territories Preservation Assistance Service (WESTPAS)

Instructor: Gary Menges, Librarian Emeritus, University of Washington (UW) is retired Preservation Administrator at the UW Libraries, Seattle. He is a WESTPAS trainer and a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC CERT).

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The “Protecting Cultural Collections” training is presented in a sequence of two archived webinars plus one in-person workshop to produce the following outcomes:

• Complete a disaster response & collection salvage plan
• Learn how to train staff to implement your plan effectively
• Set pre- and post-disaster action priorities for your collections
• Understand practical decision-making skills needed during an emergency
• Experience salvage procedures for books, documents, photos & objects

The webinar sessions and the in-person workshop are scheduled to enable participants to prepare short assignments between sessions, resulting in a completed disaster plan. Participating institutions will be invited to join an informal network of WESTPAS trained personnel to provide mutual aid in the event of emergencies involving collections in your region.

Who should attend:    Administrators and staff responsible for emergency preparedness, response and decision-making, in all types of cultural institutions.  By registering for the workshop, the institution commits to supporting the attendee(s) to achieve the workshop's disaster preparedness goals. When possible, please commit two attendees so they can work together on the disaster preparedness activities.

Cost:    No charge to the institution.  Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Registration:     Pre-registration required. Register online for an IN-PERSON session at WESTPAS workshop (go to October 15th on the calendar):

http://tinyurl.com/ot4kve2

For registration assistance contact: Alexandra Gingerich  gingerich@plsinfo.org For general & content information: Gary Menges menges@uw.edu

It is time to vote for new NWA officers. Below you will find links to the NWA 2014 ballot.
Background on the candidates is provided before your ballot choices in order to familiarize yourself with the candidates, their backgrounds, and their interests in serving NWA.

All members may vote for Vice President/President-Elect and Secretary. Montana, Idaho and Oregon members may vote also for their respective state representative.

The ballot is available from https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B6MRJGX

You may only vote once! Voting will close at the end of the day May 19.

Archives & Special Collections at the UAA/APU Consortium Library is sponsoring a series of electronic records trainings from the Society of American Archivists (SAA), June 16-20. The week is being offered as an intensive (price break for the week if you attend all) but you're also welcome to sign up for individual elements. 

 

Early bird registration rates are good through June 1st.  Full details on the course schedule, intended audience, intended level, and registration costs can be accessed here:http://www.consortiumlibrary.org/blogs/archives/2014/02/12/doyouknowwhereyourelectronicrecordsare/  

We’ve also arranged for dorm space for those of you who may have to travel here for these workshops and are trying to do so on a limited budget. For non-Alaskans, UAA's Conference Services tells me they'll allow dorm reservations for up to a week before and a week after, if you're thinking of finally doing that AK trip, and can use Anchorage as a base. More details via that link. 

Please share widely!

 

Monday, 6/16, free to those who register for the week, $10 individual registration fee otherwise, 1.5 hour web seminars:

*Basics of Managing Electronic Records

*Beginners Guide to Metadata

*Electronic Records, the Next Step

*Information Architecture

Tuesday, 6/17, all-day course:

*Digital Curation, Creating an Environment for Success

Wednesday-Thursday, 6/18-6/19, two-day course:

*Arrangement and Description of Electronic Records, Parts I and II

Friday, 6/20, all-day course:

*Digital Repositories

 

These courses are all part of SAA’s coursework toward the Digital Archives Specialist credential. You do not have to be pursuing the DAS credential to take any or all of these courses. If you are interested in pursuing the credential, more information can be found through the link. We also hope to do another intensive in June 2015 so those of us Alaskans pursuing the credential can do all of it relatively locally.

A new statewide network of 33 volunteer mentors trained in collections care and emergency management will work directly with Oregon museums, libraries and archives starting today. Mentors will voluntarily work directly with Oregon archives, libraries and museums to improve the care of cultural artifacts, and prepare for emergencies.

            “People who care for these collections of historic objects and paper are seeking more skills and knowledge to address issues of preservation and disasters,” said Kyle Jansson, coordinator of the Oregon Heritage Commission and the project director of the new Oregon Heritage MentorCorps. “MentorCorps members will provide consulting, mentoring and training on these topics in ways that meet the needs of the 1,000 cultural heritage organizations in Oregon.”

            Mentors’ experience ranges from graduate students to retired heritage executives with decades of experience. Mentors will work with organizations in their region of the state. All nonprofit and government archives, libraries and museums will be able to access the free service.

            “We appreciate the mentors giving these organizations directly skills and knowledge,” said Jansson. “In the process of helping organizations, the mentors are also indirectly supporting the heritage of their own communities and regions.”

            The MentorCorps takeoff is funded by a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, and funds from the Oregon Heritage Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Project partners include the Oregon Heritage Commission, Oregon Library Association, Northwest Archivists, Oregon Museums Association, Oregon State Archives, Oregon State Library, Oregon Historical Society, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, and other organizations.

            The MentorCorps website is located at www.mindyourcollections.org

Mentors, by region, include:

Portland Metro Region Mentors: Angela Arena, Hillsboro; Sarah Cantor, Lake Oswego; Kathleen Daly, Clackamas; Todd Mayberry, Portland; Lloyd Musser, Happy Valley; Quinn Robinson, Portland; Alex Toth, Portland; and George Vogt, Portland.

Willamette Valley Region Mentors: Dave Hegeman, Newberg; Dannie Helm, Springfield; Heather Kliever, Eugene; Marie Longfellow, Cottage Grove; Jennifer O’Neal, Eugene; Lindsey Stafford, Eugene; Sara Swanborn, Salem; Ashley Toutain, Salem; Heather Woodward, Salem; and Rachael Woody, McMinnville.

Coast Region Mentors: Tom Chandler, Toledo; Jerry Ostermiller, Astoria; Jeff Smith, Astoria; Vicki Wiese, Coos Bay.

Central and Eastern Region Mentors: Patricia Dawson, Pendleton; Shannon Maslach, Joseph; Randall Melton, Pendleton; Carolyn Purcell, The Dalles; Christie Sweet, John Day; and Terri Washburn, Cove.

Southern Region Mentors:  Wanda Chin, Ashland; Dorothy Cotton, Phoenix; Terry Dickey, Ashland; Amy Drake, Medford; Debra Griffith, Ashland; and Dru Ellen Smith, Ashland. 

The Awards section of the Policies and Procedures Manual for NWA has been published. Updates to the various sections of the manual will continue over the coming months. Check back for more updates.