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.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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.
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.
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