Board Meeting for December 2009

The MAA Board Meeting on December 11 has been postponed until January due to unforeseen scheduling conflict. When details about the next meeting are confirmed it will be posted here.

2010 Membership Forms Available

The 2010 membership forms are now available at the membership section of the blog. Please remember to renew!

Adopt an Archive!

In the past, MAA has committed resources and funding to support the cause of continuing education for our members and those interested in archives. This year the MAA board has decided to formalize this support. We are launching a new program designed to help our members who are in very small shops with minimal resources and staff. The project hopes to partner our members who have experience and resources to share, with those members who could use some help with collection management. However, the program is not just designed to offer assistance, it is also designed to benefit Michigan’s archivists and historical researchers.

The project has two goals; the first, as stated, is to help our fellow archivists, but secondly, volunteer consultants will expand their knowledge of Michigan’s resources and enhance their own professional development. Ultimately, everyone will benefit from improved identification and access to local historical resources throughout the state that will result from this project.

In order for the project to get off the ground we need people who, either on their own time or as an institution supported –professional development function, can volunteer to visit one of our members in a small archive, local history room, or historical society to share their expertise. We also need members who would like someone to “adopt” them to consult about processing, conservation, and electronic access and description issues. Members who would not be able consult could also participate by donating extra supplies that are no longer applicable to their projects. The MAA Board also hopes to create a fund to assist members from small shops with supply costs. The formal process for selecting sites, coordinating volunteers and allocating resources is in development, but if you would be interested in participating please contact Sarah Roberts, MAA Board Member & Chair of the Adopt-an-Archive Committee at rober472@msu.edu or 517-884-6440.

Closing of the MAASN.ORG Website

At the September 2009 MAA Board meeting it was decided to discontinue the Michigan Archival Association website. All information previously available on the website has been relocated to our blog at:

http://miarchivists.wordpress.com/

This move provides a cost savings for the organization and allows the organization to more easily get input from members about organizational activities

Introduction to Web 2.0 seminar at Michigan State University

There will be a SAA web seminar offered at Michigan State University, Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 2:00-3:30 pm. The seminar “Introduction to Web 2.0 in Archives… or What you Need to Know in a Nutshell,” will introduce tools like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube and how you can use them at your organization to supplement your outreach program. The seminar will be held at the MSU Main Library, 4th floor, South Conference Room.

Michigan State University Archives is underwriting the registration cost associated with the seminar, so attendees will only need to pay their own transportation cost and parking. However, please call the MSU Archives to let us know you wish to attend.

To see further details about the program visit the SAA website at:

http://saa.archivists.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/events/ConferenceList.html?Action=GetEvents

To get directions to the seminar site go the www.msu.edu or call the MSU Archives at 517-355-2330.

Submit to Open Entry this week

Any submissions for OPEN ENTRY, the MAA newsletter, should be by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, September 11th. The actual publication date will be sometime around Friday, October 16th, so you can plan your
submissions accordingly.

Submissions can be e-mailed to Bob Garrett, Open Entry editor, at garrettr1@michigan.gov. They should be in Microsoft Word format and be anywhere from 200-1,200 words. The preferred font is Garamond, 11 pt., but that’s not required (We’ll be happy to change the font ourselves.).

Accompanying images are always welcome. In fact, they’re encouraged. These should be in jpg format, 300 ppi (For the less tech. savy among you: ppi and dpi are the same thing.). The size should be a minimum of 1200 x 900 pixels and a maximum of 1500 x 2100 pixels. If you have questions about scanning or sizing images, then please let the editor know.

Content: We’re interested in any news items or articles relating to Michigan archives, Michigan archivists and the archival profession. These can include literature reviews, reference hints and news from
archival repositories. The latter can include staff changes, collection updates, special projects and promotional events, among other things. If you have any questions on accepted subject matter, then please contact Bob Garrett.

NARA Great Lakes Region 2009 E-Records Forum

The Latest Information about Electronic Records Preservation and Management.

Keynote speaker: Kenneth Thibodeau, Director of the ERA, NARA

ERA (Electronic Records Archives) is NARA’s strategic initiative to preserve and provide long-term access to uniquely valuable electronic records of the U.S. government, and to transition government-wide management of the lifecycle of all records into the realm of e-government. Dr. Thibodeau will discuss challenges, lessons learned, opportunities and next steps for the ERA Program. He will also discuss the nature and role of records and records management in relation to the contemporary cyber-landscape, and how the principles of records management inform the retention of electronic records and what changes in perspective and method are needed given the digital domain.

When: Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 9:00 a.m.— noon Where: Michigan Library and Historical Center, Forum (1st floor) 702 W. Kalamazoo, Lansing, Michigan

This event is FREE, but pre-registration is required to ensure we have adequate space for attendees. Register online:

http://www.surveymonkey.coms.aspx?sm=OJbF0aYqBr8AfRSgq_2bIzkg_3d_3d

Archival Job Opening in Minnesota

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts wishes to announce that they have NHPRC-funded, three year position opening for an experienced archivist who wishes to establish an archives/records management program for the museum. If you are interested in learning more about the position or how to apply please visit the following site:

http://www.artsmia.org/index.php?section_id=48&JobID=286

Plans to Eliminate HAL (Department of History, Arts and Libraries)

As many of you know, Governor Granholm issued an executive order to eliminate the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries on July 13, 2009. Under the order, the different functions within HAL would be distributed to other state government areas. The State Archives program would be transferred to the Department of Natural Resources. This order unless rejected by the Michigan House and Senate, would go into effect October 1, 2009.

The full text of the Governor’s order can be found at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/EO36_285881_7.pdf

Anyone who has concerns about this will impact archives and archival researchers in the State of Michigan should contact their state representatives and senators.

Find your legislators’ contact information here:

http://house.michigan.gov/representatives.asp

http://www.senate.michigan.gov/

Annual 2009 Conference Presentations

In an effort to get information out to our members who were unable to attend the conference, we will be posting presentations/paper links here at the blog.  If you have presentations on your own personal webspace, or your institution, please post them here.

If you are not able to post materials on your webspace, and would like to make them available, please email them to Melinda Isler (islerm@ferris.edu) and I will make sure that they get posted.

Session Title

DSpace: The Final Frontier

(Stacy Nowicki, Katherine Lightcap, and Heidi Butler)  http://dspace.nitle.org/handle/10090/9213

Tool Time:

The Archivists Toolkit presented by Melinda Isler

http://www.ferris.edu/library/SpecCollections/MAAPresentation2009.ppt