New Trends in Computing and Informatics Research Conference 2012

Hello all,

I hope your winter break is starting off well. Mike recently mentioned the New Trends in Computing and Informatics Research (NCTIR) Conference coming up in 2012, and thought it might be worth a mention on the blog. This conference will be taking place on April 27th, 2012, at the College of Computing and Information Assembly Hall at the Campus Center. The conference is largely an opportunity for Masters and PhD students to present the progress and products of their research, with a focus on research in Informatics and Computer Science. The deadline for signing up for presentations, papers, and talks is February 15th, 2012 - more information can be found on their website, here.

Rockefeller Archives Trip

On Friday the 29th of October, somewhere around 11 of us drove down for our planned Rockefeller Archives / other stuff in Sleepy Hollow trip. The drive took around 2-2.5 hours, and our first stop on the trip was the Headless Horsemen diner (no archivists heads were lost, thankfully)!

After we all ate, we took what should have been an extremely short and straightforward drive to the Rockefeller Archives center. However, some navigational mistakes might have been made in the course of the next 15 minutes. Adventures were had, and we made it to the facility. At the facility, we first took a tour of the museum portion of the facility and then we were taken to the underground archival vaults. We were able to see a workspace where non-traditional archival materials were maintained (films, random art projects, etc.), a large amount of unprocessed materials, and then more traditional stuff (boxes, boxes everywhere!).

After the archives center, we elected to take a trip to the Old Dutch Church cemetery (the massive Sleepy Hollow cemetery), which was a short drive from the Rockefeller facility. Though we didn't have too much time to linger at the cemetery, we had a lot of fun poking around at various graves (famous people and otherwise). Washington Irving was one of the many in residence. From the cemetery, we took a short (actually quite long due to traffic) drive over to Washington Irving's house.

At Sunnyside, we were taken on a special guided tour by the director herself! As we were taken through the house, we were educated on the history of Irving, the development of Sunnyside, and the stories of those who often lived there with him. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures of the inside of the house, but there were many of the outside of the house.


Finally, we headed to a quick dinner and then took our various vehicles back towards Albany.

For those interested in looking at some pictures, I've posted a link to my flickr for the photos taken here.

If anyone has any other pictures they would like to contribute, let me know and I can add a link.

Hello!

My name is Kevin Robbitts, and I've recently been added as the assistant webmaster for this student chapter of the SAA - and this is my brief introduction post. This is my first semester at UAlbany, and I am in the LIS track of the M.S. Information Studies program, though I am also completing the archives track coursework. I received my undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire with a B.S. in Environmental Conservation Studies, a minor in Forestry, and I also studied the Japanese language for three years. While there, I worked at the UNH Main library and storage branch for four years, which eventually led me to seek this degree.

I don't have too much else exciting to say, other than that I would like to develop my skills of web design (thus my seeking of this position). Hopefully I can become an asset to this blogging project. Like Mike did before me, I intend to find a general posting schedule (current plan is to post weekly, though I have not yet decided on a day) and to hopefully post some enlightening and hopefully pertinent material. I look forward to working with and/or entertaining you.

Slater trip recap

For those of you who were not able to make the Slater trip, here is a recap.   About 10 people attended.   We started off with a tour of the ship.   After that we were treated to a tour of the Slater's museum.  Their collection includes military uniforms, photographs, and various other artifacts.   This is not something that the public is normally allowed to see so it was a real treat.   The curator of their collections was on hand to answer questions as well.    Even if you were able to attend the Slater is always undergoing restoration so it is worthwhile making a return visit. 

Two More Announcements

I have two announcements to make.   The first is that the trip to the USS Slater has been booked.   As of right now it will take place on Sunday, September 25th at 1 PM.   The Slater has a sizable parking lot (with overflow space if that is needed) so carpooling is not strictly necessary, but could be arranged if desired.   There is no fee to park.   Unfortunately I will not be able to make the next few meetings so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at mpaulmeno@albany.edu.  

The second announcement is that our poster from this year's SAA Conference is now online.   You can view it by going to our website.  For those of you who do not know, SCSAA got the opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour of the Yale University Manuscripts and Archives as well as the Cushing Center, which is a combination museum/archive/rare book collection that displays a number of artifacts including the brains of some of Dr. Harvey Cushing's patients.   We decided to make a poster out of it and it was well received. 

Announcement

On behalf of all the SCSAA Officers it is my pleasure to announce that we have a new assistant web master, Kevin Robbits.    In the future he will be posting in this blog and eventually taking over as webmaster after I graduate next year. 

Two pieces of business

There are two announcements from SCSAA. The first is that I have posted a few pictures taken from our trip to Chicago. Most are of the city itself, particularly Millennium Park. However there is one picture of an Emmy that I was able to take while at DePaul University. Click on the link to view them.

Also, I mentioned that I learned of a conference put on by the SAA Student Chapter at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. They have a website where you can find more information about the group and their previous two conferences. There is also a blog, which was recently created. The next conference is planned for March 2012, with a call for papers being in October. While Indiana is a bit of a hike from Albany, this conference sounds like a great way to network with other students and recent graduates.

Conference Summary

The 2011 Annual Meeting is now officially over. For us, it ended Friday night when we left Chicago. Our last day was a but different than the other two. I chose to skip the panels in the morning and get some sleep before checking out. In the afternoon, we had a bit of a treat. Amber was able to arrange a behind the scenes tour of the Archives and Rare Books department of DePaul University. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, DePaul University is a small Catholic University in Chicago. Their Archives and Rare Books collection contains a wide variety of material from University records to the papers of a number of prominent Catholic priests and nuns, to a theater collection. They even have an Emmy Award, a picture of which I will post online soon.

Overall I found the conference an enjoyable experience. Simply being surrounded by people with similar interests made the trip worth it. Admittedly it was a but awkward being a student since most of the professionals tended to ignore us. So this year was a trial run of sorts to help prepare for future meetings. It has been my experience that one must go to a conference several times to really get comfortable with, and take advantage of, the experience. I have also noticed at other conferences that there is usually a group of "regulars" that attend every year and SAA is probably no different. So I look forward to being able to attend next year's annual meeting in San Diego.

On a different note, the officers spent some time discussing the upcoming semester. Due to scheduling conflicts, the meetings for this fall have been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday. They will still be held at 3:30 PM in the Draper Student Lounge. Our first meeting will be on September 7th, which is in the second week of classes. We are also planning on having roughly one event a month. For the upcoming semester we have planned a trip to the USS Slater, a trip to the Rockefeller Archives Center and Sleepy Hollow, and a panel session with some local archivists.

Conference Day 2

The second day of the conference is over. It was a lot more exciting than day 1, primarily because this was the first day of actual programming. The day started out with a panel session. I went to one about participatory archives. There were three presentations that focused on ways to involve users and the general public involved in archives for the purpose of adding knowledge or content. One example that came up several times is What's on the Menu, which is a project at the New York Public Library. Its goal is to transcribe the library's menu collection to make it searchable by dish. Click on the link to check out its website.

In the afternoon I attended a second panel session. This one was about copyright. It was a fascinating look at ways to deal with copyright and privacy issues in digitizing collections. There were three presentations, the best of which was one by Cornell University Senior Policy Adviser Peter Hirtle. The gist of it was that we should be respectful of copyright laws and not afraid of them. A close second was a presentation by Barbara Aiken who works for the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. The focus here was on issues concerning privacy and appropriateness of materials for digitization. For the AAA, this can be an issue since they have a lot of material that contains nudity and even some personal information.

However the day did not end there. The evening began with the graduate student poster session. We had an entry, which focused on our trip to Yale University last year. Look for this poster to be on the website, hopefully by next week. While there I found out about a conference put on by the University of Indiana at Bloomington for graduate students and recent graduates. I will post more about this at a later date. An alumni reception followed. Turn out was good. It was fascinating to see how widely spread UAlbany alumni are. The event was also a great opportunity to network with those already in the field. The night ended with a trip to a local bar. Tomorrow I should be able to make a final post about the conference summarizing the entire experience.

Conference Day 1

The first day of the 2011 Meeting of the Society of American Archivists is officially over. Technically speaking the conference itself has been going on since Monday, however the SCSAA officers did not arrive in Chicago until this morning. Monday and Tuesday consisted of various council and committee meetings. There was also the 2011 SAA Research Forum which consisted of presentations of current and ongoing research. This was yesterday and included presentations by UAlbany Professor Donghee Sinn and past webmaster Eugenia Kim.

The program for today was mostly roundtable meetings. Unfortunately we were not able to attend many of these since our train did not arrive until 11 AM Central Standard Time. The one that I went to was for the Visual Materials Cataloging and Access roundtable. There were two presentations. The first was on visual literacy, which is the ability to understand and interpret visual images. The presentation focused in where it has been, what the current state of visual literacy is, and speculations about future developments. The second was about the upcoming Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics) standard for describing visual materials such as photographs. Tomorrow there will be a number of panels and a UAlbany Alumni mixer.

Progress Update 4

Since last post a great deal of work has been done on the wiki. The Officer Duties and Chapter Activities sections are mostly filled out and there is now a bit about our chapter's history up as well. The Chapter Activities section is new. Much thanks needs to be given to past webmaster Eugenia Kim and past President Kerry Lynch, both of whom contributed heavily to the wiki since the last progress update.

Next week's post will focus on the 2011 Annual Meeting. I may post during the conference itself if time permits. After that focus will turn towards fall semester activities, though updates on the progress of the wiki will be given when needed. We have a number of events planned for this fall so stay tuned for more information.

Progress Update 3 and some news

Work on the wiki has begun in earnest! We now have content in four sections: club history, officer duties, chapter activities, and web presence/social media. There is no set goal for completion. However we have achieved my personal goal of creating something before the conference. Content creation and edits will likely continue into the fall semester. However with the wiki itself created, I can safely say that the hard part is over.

There is also an update available on the hotel labor dispute in Chicago. According to SAA, there has been no agreement as of July 29th. While they do not expect a strike to happen during the conference, there is the possibility that the Union might picket the Hyatt. Click on the link for more information.

Progress Update 2

There is not as much to report this week as last. I have created the basic outline of what will eventually become the SCSAA Wiki. Some decisions have yet to be made concerning the content. We have also decided that at least part of the site will probably be publicly accessible. However the consensus was that this is a decision for later on in the process. Stay tuned for future updates!

Progress Update 1

Work on the wiki has commenced! Everyone who is participating is now doing so. As of right now only the most basic outline of what will eventually be the SCSAA Wiki has been created. However we have decided that we will have the following pages: contacts, places visited, officer duties, officer vacancy information, web presence/social media, speakers, fundraising, and club history. If anyone has any suggestions about other information that they think should be included, feel free to leave a comment. While we have not made any decisions about whether the wiki will be publicly viewable or simply an officers' resource, everyone's input is greatly valued.

Happy 4th of July

We here at SCSAA would like to wish all of you a very happy 4th of July. Hopefully everyone had a fun weekend. There is only one update to make and that is for the wiki. An account has been set up with PB Works and we are in the process of determining what we will include in the wiki. The team consists of all the current officers as well as past webmaster Eugenia Kim and Past Presidents Ashley Tuerffs, Kerry Lynch, Kristine Boniello, and Mandi Moning.

Projects in the Works

This week's post is a little different. After careful consideration, I have decided to change the format slightly. From this point forward this blog will chronicle projects and activities that SCSAA is undertaking. This decision was made due to an estimated low readership of this blog.

There are two projects that are in the works one of which concerns our website. There will be a further update coming, this time to the Information Resources section. Our goal is to provide academic and professional resources that are current and informative. The coming update will reflect that goal. If there is anything you would like to see in this section, feel free to leave a comment saying so.

The second project is a bit more ambitious. After careful consideration with SCSAA officers past and present, the decision has been made to create a wiki. It will serve as a continuously update-able resource for future officers as well as a way to pass on the knowledge and experience gained to those who follow after us. This project is still in the planning phase. A decision has been reached to use a system known as PB Works. Stay tuned for further developments and feel free to leave comments or thoughts on these projects.

Rare Prints Return to New York

For those of you who went to Yale, recall that we passed by a copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America that was on display at the Beinecke Rare Books Library. According to the Times Union, several prints from a copy of that book are being returned to the State Museum. These prints were thought to have been destroyed in the Capitol fire in 1911, but were rescued from a trash heap. This is an interesting example of how documents often have long and complex custodial histories. It is particularly noteworthy because this book was not produced in large numbers and many of the copies were cut up so that each page could be sold individually. Click on the link to read the full article.

200 Year Old Report Declassified

Everyone knows about government secrecy so it should come as no surprise that reports on such topics as cryptography are classified. Sometimes they remain that way for centuries. A recent article reported that the NSA is declassifying a report on the subject from 1809. The act was done to comply with Obama's memorandum about Open Government. However it begs the question, if something such as this is classified what else does the government hold behind closed doors?

National Archives Appoints Liason to Wikipedia

According to the Huffington Post, the National Archives has appointed a student at Simmons College as liason to Wikipedia. The article is tad vague about what exactly this means. However the quotes from David Ferriero seems to indicate that the new appointee will edit article having to do with American History and the National Archives with the goal of increasing the visibility of the Archives' holdings. This is an interesting example of the use of Web 2.0 technology to enhance archives. It seems that NARA intends to use Wikipedia as a form of free publicity. How exactly this plays out will be interesting. Click on the link for the full article.

New website changes

A new design and layout for the SCSAA website is now up! The navigation bar has moved from the side to the top and some of the background colors have changed. The biggest changes, however, are that some of the pages have been consolidated and some information has been moved around. News as well as information about upcoming trips is now available directly on our home page. Contact information and a list of current officers is now on the about page. There is also a new archives page which contains links to past meeting minutes as well as trip recaps. Finally the academic and professional resources pages have been consolidated into one section.

The changes are designed to combine pages with similar functions as well as to make information easier to find. For example, if you want to find out when the date for an upcoming trip is, you do not need to navigate away from the home page. These changes will also pave the way for the addition of further information at some point in the future. In general, I envision the site as a repository of information pertaining to SCSAA and the new layout reflects that. Be on the look out for additional changes throughout the summer. Comments are encouraged! I very much appreciate feedback on the new design.

The Environmental Impact of Electronc Records

There was an interesting article in the New York Times examining the potential environmental impact of using electronic medical records. Basically they could be either positive or negative depending on how they are implemented. The article does not address archives, but it raises the question of what the impact of digital records will be on them. Will they reduce trips to the archives and therefore reduce gas consumption? It is difficult to tell for certain since making records available digitally allows for access by users who might not have set foot in the archives in the first place. Clearly more research is needed.

Have a Great Summer

We here at SCSAA would like to wish you a great summer. For those of you who are taking summer classes or have internships, good luck. Likewise we wish the best of luck to anybody graduating this semester. We hope to see everyone else in the fall.

Trip Summary

As many of you probably know on Thursday SCSAA and SLA took a trip to Boston to visit the JFK Archives and the Massachucetts Historical Society. We took a behind the scenes tour of archives and were able to get a close up look at their processing and digitization areas plus they let us into the museum for free! The MHS gave us a tour of their collections and work areas. Both talked about their digitization projects. We ended the trip with dinner at a local Pizza place called Woody's. Stay tuned for pictures and a full summary on this website. I will see you all at the last meeting of the semester.

Update on Labor Dispute

On Tuesday, an update was posted on the SAA website concerning the Chicago hotel labor dispute. An agreement was reached on March 4th and a final settlement is expected soon. SAA also reiterated its desire avoid such a problem in the future as well as their reasons for continuing to hold the annual meeting as planned. Interestingly they noted that a certain number of members must actually stay at the Hyatt Regency in order for the meeting space to be provided free of charge.

Public Workers Will Have Public E-mails

This week's post is a little different from the usual topic. Instead of news, I have an article concerning the e-mails of public workers that was posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv. It is stating that all public workers may someday find that their e-mails are subject to review by the public. Since some of us work for the State Library and many of us may eventually work in government this is an issue that will someday affect us. The article underscores the value of self censorship. Click on the link to view the article.

On a lighter note, SCSAA is having its bake sale on Tuesday from 11 AM to 4 PM. Everyone is encouraged to check it out.

New Exhibit at Nixon Library

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library unveiled the Watergate Gallery this week. It seeks to portray the scandal that led to Nixon's downfall in honest and clear terms. An article describing it was recently posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv. Click on the link to view it.

The Cutting Edge of Archival Development

An article was recently posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv that offers a glimpse into the latest technology being developed to handle large amounts of digital records. The gist is that the National Archives turned to the Texas Advanced Computing Center to create a way to analyze the huge amount of files they received from the previous Presidency. The result was a system that uses treemap visualization to represent metadata, file formats, and preservation levels. Click on the link for the full article.

Also, I posted a new discussion on the Facebook page. With summer coming up, my attention has turned to the projects that I would like to accomplish between semesters. Your feedback is greatly appreciated in evaluating my progress and in suggesting changes that you feel need to be made.

Government Secrecy Goes Too Far

This week's article is a bit longer than usual. An article from the Columbia Journalism review was recently posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv. It discusses the unnecessary overuse of classifying government documents and how WikiLeaks is undermining that. Click on the link for the full article.

In other news, the officers at SCSAA can officially announce that the Special Libraries Association and us will be able to visit the JFK Library on April 21st. There are plan in the works is or us to get a behind the scenes tour and even visit the museum for free! More information will be given when the details are finalized.

Government Does Not Comply with FOIA Memo

For those of you unable to make the question and answer session on Friday, we will recap what was said at the meeting tomorrow. Also, a more detailed summary will be posted on the website as soon as possible.

In other news I am proud to announce that the Society of American Archivists has accepted our student chapter's proposal. As mentioned we will be presenting it at their annual meeting in August. If anyone would like to help in creating it, feel free to send an e-mail to scsaa@albany.edu.

Finally, there is some news related to the Federal's Government's compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. An article posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv found that only half of all federal government agencies have complied with President Obama's standards. Click on the link to view the full article.

Some Updates

There are two things to be reported today. First of all, the Society of American Archivists announced recently that the annual meeting will continue to take place at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. Click on the link for the full announcement. Also, click here for a website operated by UNITE HERE (the union representing hotel workers in Chicago that is involved with the dispute) detailing disputes with other Hyatt locations.

The second update concerns the Capital Area Archivists Q&A session. We here at SCSAA are pleased to announce that it will take place next Friday, March 11th at 6 PM in the Levitt Room on the downtown campus. We hope to see you all there.

The Importance of Information

Recently, an interesting article was posted to the Archives and Archivists listerv. It discusses the importance of information and the difficulties for libraries and archives in the age of web 2.0. Click on the link to access the full text of it.

On a different note, some of you may have heard of an ongoing labor dispute between the service employees union UNITE HERE and several hotels in Chicago including the one in which SAA is holding its annual meeting. The union is calling for a boycott of these hotels. As of last week SAA had not decided on the issue, but had heard from both sides. For information about UNITE HERE, click on this link. The main SAA website has a page devoted to the issue. More updates will be provided as we here at SCSAA learn of them.

Federal Employees' Civil Liberties at Risk

Most readers of this blog probably remember Wikileaks' release of classified diplomatic cables. As part of the response, the Federal Times reported in a recent article that Federal Agencies are being encouraged to monitor their employees' activities including those that happen after they leave. Click on the link for the full article.

Rare Manuscripts on Display in Dallas

A set of rare Vatican manuscripts is now on display in Dallas. An article posted to RAINbyte tells of how the manuscripts were saved from Napolean's armies, but later forgotten. Click on the above link for the full article.

SCSAA on Facebook

We here at SCSAA are proud to announce that there is now a Facebook page devoted to this group. Feel free to look us up or click here.

Announcements

There are two announcements today. The first is that orientation for the spring semester will be this Thursday, January 20th from 12-1:30. I will be representing SCSAA at this event. The second is that the first meeting of the semester will be on February 1st from 3:30 to 4:15.

JFK Library Going Digital

As some of you may have heard, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is undertaking a project to digitize its holdings. According to an article posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv, 200,000 pages, 1200 recordings, and 300 museum artifacts is now online at www.jfklibrary.org. This action is not without some controversey as there has been accusations that the Kennedy family has restricted access to these documents in the past. Visit the listserv for more information on this.

On a different note, everyone here at SCSAA wishes everyone good luck in the upcoming spring semester.

Happy New Year

Everyone here at the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists would like to wish everyone a happy new year. January 1st was also Public Domain Day, which is a celebration of all the works that enter the public domain every year due to copyrights expiring. To that end an interesting article on the subject was posted to the archives and archivists listserv. Titled "Public Domain Day 2011: Will the tide be turned?" it is an exploration of the progress that is being made towards less restrictive copyright laws. Click on the link in the previous sentence for the article, as well as the one above that for more information on Public Domain Day.