Sessions & Meetings
| Description | |
| Thursday, May 8 |
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Workshop One |
Accessioning and Ingest of Electronic Records #14A1 (SAA Digital Archives Specialist Curriculum and Certificate Program) |
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Workshop Two |
Media Rising Workshop: Bringing Audiovisual Collections Back to Life |
| 9:00 am - 12:30 pm |
SCA Board meeting (Board members only). |
| 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm | SCA Leadership Meeting All SCA members are invited and encouraged to attend this meeting of the SCA Board with Committee chairs and others. Come meet SCA's leaders and learn how SCA operates. Also investigate becoming a member of a SCA Committee. |
| Friday, May 9 |
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| 8:15 am - 8:45 am |
Please join the Membership Committee at this informal gathering to meet your new colleagues. All new members are welcome, as are returning or veteran members who'd like to welcome those new to SCA. |
| Plenary address 9:00 am - 10:00 am |
Words of Welcome: James Eason, President, Society of California Archivists Plenary Address: Alan Hess Form Follows Pleasure: Modern Architecture and the Palm Springs School One of the hallmarks of Palm Springs is its "Modern Architecture," based on clean lines, extensive use of glass, and a combination of outdoor and indoor spaces. Architectural critic and author Alan Hess will discuss how a small but talented group of architects were drawn to Palm Springs in the mid-twentieth century and created this home-grown Modernism. The architects included, among others, Richard Neutra, William F. Cody, and William "Bill" Krisel. Eschewing the austere aesthetics of European Modernism, they used new technology and materials to respond to the climate, the spectacular landscape, and especially the pleasures of life in this vacation oasis. Their work resulted in Palm Springs becoming recognized as a true national architectural treasure. |
| Session 1 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
The Access Tightrope: Balancing Access with Privacy
What is privacy for our donors and institutions? Are redacting and restrictions enough or too great a burden? Archivists processing 20th and 21st century materials are in the precarious position of balancing legal and ethical concerns with current access trends that allow for a greater ease of online record distribution than ever before. Increased access benefits researchers but heightens privacy concerns. These concerns include the need to protect the privacy of third party contributors, celebrities’ right to privacy and their right to publicity, and other possible abuses of information. This session will examine these issues and how three archivists and their institutions are managing the tension between access and privacy. From the personal records of the donor and their correspondents to the records of organizations and businesses, what is privacy in the 21st century? |
| Session 2 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
Unleashing the Waters: Diversifying Access to Digital Resources on the Los Angeles Aqueduct
In late 2012, the panelists of this session were provided an opportunity to conduct digitization and digital projects related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which celebrates its centenary in November 2013. In a series of lightning talks, each speaker will discuss the digitization efforts undertaken at their institutions to make records related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct visible to a broader audience. These discussions will include the planning and implementation of digitization processes; building sustainable workflows; using student workers to maximize efficiency; training students in digital project management; and sharing with humanities students the uses for archives. Speakers will also share about forging multi-departmental collaborations; the challenges of conducting digitization projects due to limits on institutional resources: the difficulties posed by integrating new archival description with old ones; and developing landing pages for re-contextualized records. Also to be discussed is the creation of a digital platform, aimed at providing access to Aqueduct-related resources through a centralized portal, thereby facilitating the discovery of these materials and, ultimately, their use in education and research. |
| Session 3 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
Rex Brandt’s California Watercolors: Stories from the Archives
"Rex Brandt's California Watercolors: Stories From the Archives" will examine three different archival institutions and their experiences as custodians of the works of California watercolorist Rex Brandt (1914-2000). These institutions, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Automobile Club of Southern California, and Laguna College of Art + Design, are quite different in their missions and in the scope of their collections. However, they all have fascinating and significant works by Rex Brandt in their archives. This presentation describes how the artist’s output found its way into these disparate collections and how they collaboratively document the artist and his work as we commemorate the centennial of Brandt’s birth in 2014. |
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LUNCH
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
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Lunch on Your Own |
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FORUM
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
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Online Archive of California (OAC) Contributor MeetingModerators:
Are you a current contributor to the Online Archive of California (OAC)? Are you thinking about becoming a new member? Join us to meet fellow contributors, ask questions of OAC staff, and learn more about new tools and developments. Coffee/tea and light snacks will be provided. |
| Session 4 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm |
Technology and Archives: Exchange Forum - Programmer & Archivist Collaboration
We live in the era when digital collections became the norm in all archives and libraries. They may contain digitized materials or be born-digital. Regardless of their nature archivists are charged with processing, preserving, and providing access to them. Many archives have been undergoing a shift from working with a stand-alone IT department or consultants to a new organizational structure. Increasingly, archival teams include programmers and developers who are now embedded in archives and libraries. Two teams from UCSF and UCSD, each consisting of an archivist and a programmer, will discuss their collaboration, how they found a “common language,” and share their experience of bridging different working cultures and styles. Successful collaboration between these two groups ensures better understanding of user needs and efficient service to the public. This forum will include presentations by four featured speakers, along with a facilitated discussion between the panel and the audience. *Session handout available here* |
| Session 5 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm |
"Tear Down These Walls": Introducing the Public to Our Collections
Should the public and donors expect something more dynamic than standard arrangement and description from archival repositories? Does every processed collection provide an avenue for public programming and outreach? Urged on by its non-profit board and a donor to look beyond past practice and figuratively "tear down the archival walls," the staff at the Center for Sacramento History developed a new model for moving high profile collections into the public's eye. The Nathaniel and Jerlean Colley Papers document the career of a pioneering family in California's civil rights struggles. The yearlong project to bring the collection to the public involved the donor's family, staff, volunteers, a filmmaker, sponsors, and the local public television station. In addition to a processed collection, the project entailed multiple public programming and outreach efforts, including the creation of an Omeka website, a Speakers Series event, and the production of a 30-minute documentary which aired on KVIE. This session will discuss how one repository overcame its small staff and tight budget to successfully complete a large-scale project to bring a spotlight on a worthy collection.
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| Session 6 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm |
The Sacredness of Alameda Street: Reflections on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education Project
The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education Records (1875-2012) were donated to the UCLA Library in 2011, and Special Collections staff began processing the collection in a warehouse near downtown early in 2012. Director Tom Hyry, Processing Projects Librarian Megan Hahn Fraser and Project Archivist Kelly Besser will present highlights of the collection and discuss the challenges of an experimental project to process more than 1,300 linear feet of institutional records in one year. Researcher Max Felker-Kantor will comment on access to the collection prior to the completion of its processing, the usability of the finding aid and the historical value of the records. Now completed, this project makes available a wealth of research material documenting board decisions on matters such as building projects, curriculum, enrollment, personnel, desegregation, student unrest, and un-American activities. The collection offers scholars in many disciplines insight into educational, cultural, and social issues central to the history of Los Angeles. The title comes from an August 1963 statement by board member Mary Tinglof in which she describes school boundaries, especially the one along Alameda Street, becoming “as rigid as Berlin walls” and the struggles to bring equal education to all students. |
| 4:15 pm - 5:45 pm | SCA Members Meeting & Committee Meetings All SCA members are invited to this introduction to SCA and its activities, which also includes the SCA election results. Everyone at the meeting has a chance to win two free drawings for a one-year membership in SCA. Committee meetings will follow, which also makes this a great opportunity to check out possible committees to join. |
| 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm |
New Member Happy Hour All new members are invited to join the Membership Committee for happy hour at the Rocks Lounge. A great way to meet new people, discuss the AGM, and talk shop with other archivists. |
| Saturday, May 10 |
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| Session 7 8:30 am - 10:00 am |
Lightning Talks
In six minutes, and with twenty slides, nine speakers will discuss issues ranging from archiving e-mail to classroom instruction using archival materials.
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| Session 8 8:30am - 10:00 am |
What the Hell Is It and What Do I Do With It?: Cataloging Challenging Collections
"What the hell is it and what do I do with it?" is a question all catalogers have asked themselves at one point or another. This session will present three case studies of challenging collections where this question was asked: the Papers of Octavia E. Butler, a science fiction author; the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, circa 1975-1995, a large collection of pristine computer software; and the papers of Huell Howser, host and creator of the popular television show California’s Gold, and the related California’s Gold Archive. Through these case studies we will cover a wide range of extreme and unusual processing issues including unusual realia and ephemera, the content of computer and audio-visual media, physical housing problems, and concerns about original order or the lack thereof, as well as complicating factors such as privacy, copyright, and availability of resources. The archivists will comment on the challenges and the final or ongoing solutions. |
| Session 9 8:30am - 10:00am |
Tech, Teens, and Archival Outreach
The workshop leaders will demonstrate examples of community archives using technology to promote their collections to youth volunteers completing cultural heritage projects. These demonstrations will include a working pair of Project Gado digitization robots with instructions given by the inventor highlighting concepts of 3-D printing, open-source Arduino circuits, and automated scanning software to engage youth through partnerships with local museums. Santa Ana History Room staff will demonstrate ways to use Historypin mobile applications in conjunction with health initiative walks in downtown Santa Ana. The third demonstration will provide audience members with the basic instructional materials needed to conduct a low cost photo survey project to encourage volunteers to "think archivally."
These projects emphasize finding new ways to engage youth audiences in archival endeavors and are meant to be easily replicated for other small institutions. Workshop organizers will go over their projects and answer audience questions regarding their implementation.
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| Session 10 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
Reinforcing Popular Belief: How Archivists in the Film and Television Industry Define the Cultural Significance of Collections
Because of the public’s deep fascination with popular culture, archivists managing collections in the film and television industry confront the pressure of preserving materials with powerful cultural significance for our society. Archivists often make key decisions on acquisitions, and develop creative publicity and outreach for their use, based on this public interest. At the same time, archivists must ensure that these collections serve their own organizations. By successfully engaging both these audiences, archivists in the film and television industry strengthen the relevance, legacy, and public memory of the entertainment productions and icons in their holdings. This panel will examine how archivists grapple with managing the challenges of these collections, as well as with the strong influence of the film and television industry on society. |
| Session 11 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
LA as Subject Considered
This panel will examine how, as the leading research alliance dedicated to preserving and improving access to archival material pertaining to Los Angeles, L.A. as Subject has evolved. The discussions will also focus on an example of the consortium's current initiatives, its institutional relationships, its expanding popularity, and its plans for future growth. Moderator Jim Beardsley will provide an historical overview. Claude Zachary will discuss L.A. as Subject's local synergies with the U.S.C. Libraries, as well as its regional recognition, and national modeling. Ellen Jarosz will cover the group's IMLS services grant, internship program, and related topics. Kenneth Bicknell will reflect on L.A. as Subject's endless possibilities, as well as its diversity, technology, and accessibility. |
| Session 12 10:30 am - 12:00 pm |
Rediscovering Alta California: Increasing Access to 18th and 19th Century Religious and Secular Collections
The panel will address the challenges and opportunities in making unique, rare and historically significant records from 18th and 19th century religious and secular collections known and accessible to scholars and researchers worldwide. Two of the panelists will focus on the records of the Mission Santa Clara Collection Processing and Cataloging Project, which consists of approximately fifty-eight manuscripts, mostly in Spanish, created by the first Franciscan friars at Mission Santa Clara de Asis. The third and fourth panelists will comment on the access and discovery of the San Jose Pueblo Papers, which are shared by two institutions, History San Jose and the San Jose Public Library. |
| Luncheon 12:oo pm - 2:15 pm |
Awards Luncheon with Speaker Sarah SeekatzArabian Nights in the American Desert: The Cultivation of Middle Eastern Fantasies in California's Coachella ValleyCoachella Valley native Sarah Seekatz (UC Riverside) will bring to light the surprising--and intriguing--Middle Eastern flavor of her home region, so clearly visible in the desert around Palm Springs. Here, visitors will see stately date palms sway near a high school with an “Arab” mascot. Residents drive on streets named Cairo, Bagdad, and Medina and even through the city of Mecca. Every year in February visitors to the National Date Festival cheer on racing camels, hobnob with the beauty pageant winners dressed in harem pants, and walk around a fairgrounds decorated with “Arabian” architecture. These now fading references to the Middle East offer just a glimpse of the Arabian fantasies once promoted by the region beginning at the turn of the 20th century. Linking their warm climate, desert landscape, and burgeoning date industry to the romance of Arabia, local boosters harnessed a national love affair with the “Orient.” As oil embargos, a hostage crisis, international conflict, and changing pop cultural views shifted the way America viewed the Middle East, the Coachella Valley remained steadfast in its adherence to fantastic ideas of Arabia.
The SCA Awards Ceremony will follow our luncheon speaker. |
| Session 13 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm |
Minimizing is Maximizing: Integrating the UC Guidelines with Accessioning and Processing Workflows
The Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing in the University of California Libraries (UC Guidelines) provide archivists with a suite of recommendations for effectively managing archival collections using an MPLP approach. While the guidelines are institution-specific, they offer strategies that are of use both within UC and beyond. The speakers will illustrate how they can be implemented by UC and non-UC schools, and public and private repositories to augment accessioning and processing workflows in ways that maximize minimal procedures. This session is an informal follow-up to the 2013 AGM session on the UC Guidelines. While last year's session concentrated on the development and content of the guidelines, this session's presenters will focus exclusively on their implementation by different repositories. Seltzer will discuss how the guidelines' value score model has been incorporated with accessioning practices at UC Irvine, and why their use is essential to more efficient processing. Darlington will describe how the guidelines have been applied to processing procedures at the Getty Research Institute, an independent research library. Dundon will discuss how the guidelines have informed the collaborative process of designing procedures for accessioning and processing at UC Santa Cruz. Cuellar will offer additional commentary on the practical use of the guidelines through experience at UCLA's Center for Primary Research and Training. |
| Session 14 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm |
National History Day and the Archives: a Natural Fit
Join archivists from the National Archives and educators from the Riverside Unified School District to discuss the significant role that archives and archivists in California can play with NHD researchers. An overview of the NHD competition will be provided. The value that teachers and students gain from archival research will be discussed as will strategies for approaching and working with NHD students and teachers. |
| Session 15 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm |
Extending Archives: Social Media Outreach to New Demographics
Visual archival material is in wide demand by a new generation of users as shown by the popularity of vintage photography blogs like Retronaut (http://www.retronaut.com/), Shorpy (http://www.shorpy.com/); historical image pages on Facebook (eg, Lost San Francisco, Tragic Hollywood, and Vintage Los Angeles); and of historical photographic memes on the web. Unfortunately, many of these new users are unfamiliar with the sources of their materials, let alone understanding how they are traditionally accessed and used in archives. How can archivists continue to foster and support an interest in archival images among this new generation of users while explaining to them their origins and curatorship by archivists?
This panel will explore such social media and digital media platforms for the access and dissemination of photographic materials as Pinterest, HistoryPin, and Facebook. It will also examine the potential of archives-run blogs. These tools allow a behind the scenes look into the processing of materials and subsequent presentation on the web, as well as increase copyright awareness in casual users. |
| 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm | SCA Board meeting and AGM wrap-up (Board members only). |