ACRL ~ Archives Panels

I went to a panel presentation called "Paving a Two-Way Street: The Rewards and Challenges of Archival Projects with Community Partners," presented by Eva Guggemos (Pacific University), Joanne Riley (University of Massachusetts Boston), Kathleen Spring (Linfield College), and Rachael Woody (Linfield College). Besides its focus on archives and community, I liked this panel because it had a very local flavor (Linfield College is in Oregon) while also embodying the theme of community by demonstrating cross-continent and cross-institution collaboration. Images of the actual archival documents that composed the case studies were an added bonus to viewing the presentation, as was the historical or regional significance of the projects covered in the case studies!

Archival Projects with Community Partners!!! #acrlcommunities let's get this party started #acrl2015
— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@kelci_kelse) March 26, 2015

Joanne Riley from UMass Boston was the first to speak, and she covered a couple archival collaborations with community partners: one with The Irish Ancestral Research Association, another with the Boston Police Department Archivist Margaret Sullivan, and lastly with alumnus and Board of Visitors member Jim Conway. In all cases, Ms. Riley discussed how these projects transformed into a two way street, which largely involved making the data contained in the archive records more usable and engaging with the community of creators, stewards, and/or users of the archival information, often by creating a need for the information by building it into course curriculum.

Professional standards constrain agency of community volunteers in community partnership archival projects #acrlcommunities #acrl2015
— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@kelci_kelse) March 26, 2015

Next up was Eva Guggemos from Pacific University, and her talk focused largely on the technical aspects of an archives project that was composed of community collaboration from the get-go, WashingtonCountyHeritage.org. Ms. Guggemos described the process of engaging with specific community groups that wanted to add to the archive, the training method, the data quality check process, etc. and identified bottlenecks and gave recommendations for streamlining similar processes.

How cool would it be to be a @winearchivist? Oregon wine pioneers going on the record! #acrlcommunities #acrl2015
— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@kelci_kelse) March 26, 2015

The third speaker of the panel was Rachael Woody, who probably has the coolest job title (and probably coolest Twitter handle) ever: Wine Archivist (@winearchivist). Ms. Woody works with local Oregon wine pioneers to document their stories and wine achievements, while also enlisting the help of Linfield students with these projects. Her portion of the panel focused on the process of building good relationships, which is a cycle that begins with partnership and moves along the wheel to expectations, process, outcomes, and sustainability. I have to admit, her presentation made me thirsty for a good pinot noirs, as apparently Oregon is pinot country!

Last up was Kathleen Spring, who discussed the Dory Project -- a project that combined a regional cultural phenomenon with a local community member. Dories are fishing boats that have been historically used for fishing in Pacific City, Oregon, and as such, carry significance of the town's past. This project is interesting because the data collection phase of it, which was originally slated to end nearly two years ago, is still going! It seems the project has become more about the social process rather than the final archival product, and has generated digital collections, a live theater drama at the community playhouse, a poster exhibition, an art exhibit, and student and faculty scholarship. Ms. Spring also reiterated the themes of sustainability, project momentum, bottlenecks, and researcher needs. It seems that scope and scope creep was a huge theme for this presentation.

The crux of strategic collaboration: purposeful connections that advance institutional mission #acrlcommunities #acrl2015
— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@kelci_kelse) March 26, 2015

I didn't have much formal knowledge about archives work when heading into these talks, and they proved to show a variety of aspects of the work while being united under the theme of community engagement and collaboration. In a nutshell, I learned:

• Archives projects often are fueled by grants, and as such are running on a limited budget and a limited time window, in addition to being impacted by the fundability of what they archive
• Archivists work with everyone! In Universities/with Universities, with community organizations and historical societies, with industries, etc...
• Archival projects now, nearly by default, include digitization. Archives are no longer limited to organizing, accessioning, preservation, and/or finding aids... they also include metadata skills and standards, often combining technical services expertise with special collections expertise.

The presenters have made their Powerpoint slides available online, so feel free to check them out yourself!