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.