Meeting Minutes for 2/21

Hello all,

At this meeting we discussed a few things, chiefly:

We debriefed the Rensselaer Historical Society visit for those who were unable to come along.  We visited the Hart-Cluett House and the Research library in downtown Troy, and we learned that the Historical Society loves (and wants) interns.  If anyone is looking for a place to do their archival internship(s), Rensselaer Historical Society would be a great place to do it.

We discussed plans for the Book and Bake sale at the downtown campus, which will happen sometime during the month of March.  If anyone has books to donate, please let us know here on the blog or through email at albanyscsaa@gmail.com.  More firm details on the bake sale will be available shortly, and it seems that we may do another bake sale at the uptown campus during the ASIS&T Open Source Festival - so check your email / this blog for more updates soon. 

We discussed the upcoming New York City trip for April - we had been aiming for March, but it seems more likely that we will be heading down in April.  More details to come.

That's all for now, the next meeting will be on Tuesday the 6th at 3:30 in the Draper lounge, as per usual.

Rensselaer Historical Society Visit

Hello all,

We've finalized our plans for our visit to the Rensselaer Historical Society - we'll be going on this Saturday (2/18) at 11 AM, where we will get tours of the Cluett House, the Research Library, and the Joseph Carr House.  For those who are going and those who are looking for carpool plans, watch your email inboxes (if you are interested in going and have not yet said so, email the group account at albanyscsaa@gmail.com).  

Hope to see you all there.

New UAlbany SCSAA Email and First Meeting Reminder

Hello all,

I hope your Spring Semester is off to a good start!  Just a short update today, we have a change in the UAlbany SCSAA email address, and a reminder of the first meeting for this semester.  The new email address for the SCSAA account is albanyscsaa@gmail.com. 

Also, a reminder that our first meeting for this semester will be on Tuesday, February 7th, at 3:30 PM in the Draper Lounge. 

More updates to come!

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.