Guest Blogger: Questions Not Answers

Guest blogger Susan McElrath answered the call (well, an email message) and agreed to share her thoughts on the discussion of RAO's mission in advance of the section's annual meeting. Susan is the Team Leader, Special Collections and University Archivist at American University and a past-chair of RAO.

The Reference, Access, and Outreach Section encourages you to attend the upcoming section meeting at the 2010 annual meeting. We will be breaking into discussion groups to discuss our mission. How do we define reference, access, and outreach? How do they interconnect? What do we want to do?

I have been asked to share some initial thoughts to get the dialog started. As I am not a member of RAO’s Steering Committee, my comments and questions should not be taken as the “official” opinion of our leadership. In thinking through what to write, I realized that questions not answers would be most beneficial. Some of these questions might be worth discussing during the section meeting.

Of the three, reference seems the most straight forward. But is the concept of reference changing? What is the role of the reading room and archivist? Is it possible for Archives to do reference via chat? Is there a role for text messaging? What web 2.0 tools should we be adopting? How many of you are already blogging, tweeting, and creating wikis? There have been numerous sessions at SAA on this topic. Are there recommendations/standards that RAO can share with its members? Should we be evaluating these tools – are they worth the time spent?

In Jan Blodgett’s February 19 posting to the RAO blog, she asked the question “A is for???” Are we talking about physical and/or intellectual access? Is our emphasis on addressing barriers to access (legal, ethical, descriptive)? Are we more interested in access policies – how we make collections available? How does this overlap with the work of the Description section? What about digitization? Are we more interested in the search interface, the selection criteria, the determination of what metadata to share, or all of the above?

Outreach potentially covers a broad territory including exhibits, education, and public relations. SAA is now an active partner on this front with the Archives Week PR kit, its elevator speech contest, and its support of NHD. Should we be doing more? Do we need to redefine RAO’s role in light of this positive change? SAA’s focus is on external audiences but what about internal audiences? Does this form of outreach require a different approach? Is this something we want to explore? Do we consider advocacy a part of outreach? Would we want to work with the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable?

In recent memory, RAO has emphasized outreach with projects relating to Archives Week and National History Day. Do we want to continue this trend? Are there new issues that we should address?

Would it be worthwhile to look at SAA’s publications and workshops to see what additional topics might be of interest? Several years ago RAO proposed a workshop on exhibits which was accepted and continues to be extremely popular.

My apologies for the somewhat disjointed posting. I hope that this provides some food for thought. I look forward to talking through these issues with many of you in DC in August.

Friends of Archives Groups: A Preliminary Report

RAO is happy to share here "Friends of Archives Groups: A Preliminary Report" prepared by RAO member George Bain at his request.

The research was conducted during Winter and early Spring 2010. The data were gathered mostly through a Google search using the term “friends of the archives” but a few of the entries in the list below were passed along by colleagues who responded to a posting on the SAA Reference, Access & Outreach section’s discussion group that requested assistance. Although there are friends groups in other countries, the scope of the survey was limited to groups within the boundaries of the USA.

The attempt of the study has been to find and feature groups organized for the purpose of supporting archival repositories. There are, as may be expected, many repositories that may be a beneficiary of “friends of the library” groups, but these were generally excluded because the focus is on the larger entity. As will be seen, however, in instances where a group combines “library” and “archives” in its respective title, the list includes such entries. But the larger number of groups listed have been established to be “friends of the archives”. And in all instances but one, the URL link for the groups listed is included.

As the data being gathered was largely from the Internet, there were two other eliminations as well. First, it was necessary to separate out entries related to the religious group the Society of Friends. Secondly, it was necessary to filter out archival holdings for other “friends” groups, e.g., the holdings of Friends of Georgia Midwives.

In this preliminary report, there are a total of 35 groups on the list. The groups included are separated into three general categories: (1) state archives/historical records agencies groups, (2) college and university groups, and (3) other groups.

There are 13 groups in the first category. These are groups which provide support for the state archives itself or provide assistance for the larger role of the State Historical Records Advisory Boards (SHRABs). The groups stretch from Delaware through Missouri into California but are very much a phenomenon of the states in the southeastern region of the country.

The second category includes groups established to provide support for focused academic centers at both the college and the university level. The category includes the Friends of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan and the Friends of the University Archives at the University of South Alabama along with the Friends of the United Methodist Archives of the Detroit Conference centered at Adrian College in Michigan, the Friends of the Vietnam Center and Archives at Texas Tech University and two interesting groups at the University of California, Berkley, the Friends of the Environmental Design Archives and the Friends of the Water Resources Center Archives.

The third category is for other groups. It is possible some of these could be placed elsewhere, such as the first category (e.g., friends groups for NARA regional centers) and someday, if the numbers of “friends of the archives” groups grow, entries in this category may separate into more categories. Of particular note here, however, are the groups, especially in southeastern states, organized to provide support for city and county-level archival operations. It will be interesting to see if this type of friends organization grows over time.

This preliminary report is very limited in scope. There is no analysis, for example, of the structure of the organizations, mission statements, or a table created for the years they were established. Suffice it to say that, though small in number, friends of the archives groups have a place in the archival realm. It is to be hoped this cursory exploration will serve as a starting point for archivists, especially those in the organizations, who may be interested in sharing information and perspectives on their respective groups. Perhaps this exploration can also lead to sessions at regional meetings. If this proves at all to be helpful, it will have accomplished its objective.

List of Friends of the Archives Groups:

State Archives/Historical Records Agencies groups:
Friends of the Alabama Archives - http://www.archives.state.al.us/friends/main.html
Friends of Arizona Archives - http://faza.org/
Friends of California Archives – [no web site]
Friends of the Delaware Public Archives - http://archives.delaware.gov/foda/index.shtml
Friends of the State Library and Archives of Florida - http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/friends/
Friends of Georgia Archives and History - http://foga.pbworks.com/
Friends of the Indiana State Archives, Inc. – http://www.in.gov/icpr/2777.htm also http://www.fisa-in.org/
Friends of Kentucky Public Archives, Inc. - http://www.kdla.ky.gov/organizations/friends/friends.htm
Friends of the Maryland State Archives - http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/123/friends/html/friends.html
Friends of the Missouri State Archives - http://www.friendsofmsa.org/
Friends of the Archives, Inc., North Carolina State Archives - http://www.history.ncdcr.gov/Affiliates/Foa/FOA.htm
South Carolina Archives & History Foundation - http://www.palmettohistory.org/foundbenefits.htm
Friends of the Libraries & Archives of Texas - http://www.texaslibraryfriends.org/

College and University groups:
Adrian College, MI – Friends of the United Methodist Archives of the Detroit Conference - http://www.adrian.edu/library/about/methodist.php
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI – The Friends of the Bentley Historical Library / http://bentley.umich.edu/general/friends/
Bethel University, MN – Friends (of the Archives) of the Baptist General Conference History Center - http://www.bethel.edu/bgc-archives/friends-of-archives
University of Akron, OH – Friends of the Archives of the History of American Psychology - http://www3.uakron.edu/ahap/donations/friends/friends.phtml
University of California, Berkeley, CA – Friends of the Environmental Design Archives – http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/friends.htm
University of California, Berkeley, CA – Friends of the Water Resources Center Archives - http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/friends.html
University of South Alabama – Friends of the University Archives - http://www.southalabama.edu/archives/html/friends.htm
Texas Tech University – Friends of the Vietnam Center and Archive - http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/friends/

Other groups:
Limestone County, Athens, AL - http://www.limestonefoa.org/
Morrow, GA – Friends of the National Archives-Southeast Region - http://friendsnas.org/
Pittsfield, MA – Friends of the National Archives-Pittsfield, Silvio O. Conte National Records Center - http://www.narafriends-pittsfield.org/
Detroit, MI – Friends of the Library & Archives, Henry Ford Hospital - http://www.henryford.com/body_nologin.cfm?id=39846
Butte, MT – Friends of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives - http://www.buttearchives.org/friends.php
New York, NY – Friends of the Harlem Cultural Archives - http://harlemculturalarchives.ning.com/
Bethlehem, PA – Friends of the Moravian Church Archives - http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/friends.php
Philadelphia, PA – Friends of the Archives, Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center - http://library.temple.edu/collections/pjac/
City Archives of Kingsport, TN – Friends of the Archives - http://www.kingsportlibrary.org/archives/friends.php
Madisonville, TN – Friends of the Archives Historical & Preservation Society - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnfahps/
Nashville, TN - Friends of Metropolitan Archives of Nashville and Davidson County - http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nashvillearchives/index.html
Oklahoma City, OK - Friends of the Oklahoma Historical Society Archives - http://www.okhistory.org/research/friends.html
Winston-Salem, NC – Friends of the Moravian Archives - http://www.moravianarchives.org/friends.html
Camden, SC – Friends of the Camden Archives & Museum – http://www.camdenarchives.org/friends.php

George Bain may be contacted at bain_at_ohio.edu.

Life As We Know It

Last winter the RAO Steering Committee discussed goals and planning for the section beginning at a draft document. While the conversation included goals that seem to show up in the planning documents for so many organizations - improving and varying communication, increasing member involvement, etc. - one issue that was a sticking point for many of us was the question of the section's mission. We came to a consensus that there is a need to define and relate RAO's three component interests to each other as well as other sections.

At the same time, Steering Committee members had received positive responses from members that the break-out small group discussions during the 2009 annual meeting were worthwhile and an attractive alternative to the usual conference session of presenters talking at the audience and planned a similar opportunity for the 2010 annual meeting. The Steering Committee agreed that at this year's annual meeting a part of the afternoon's agenda will be small group discussions about the R, A, and O. Keynote remarks from Jessica Lacher-Feldman from the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at The University of Alabama will precede the discussion and we look forward to what she has to say about what reference, access, and outreach mean to archives today to begin our in-person conversation. Update 7/8/10: Unfortunately, Jessica Lacher-Feldman will not be able to give a keynote talk at the RAO annual meeting.

We hope these discussions will give members the opportunity to interact with folks they wouldn't otherwise as well as get us thinking and talking about how the R, A, and O do or should function together within the section's mission and priorities. Frankly, I think a case could be made that the RAO Section might be better as - or simply acknowledge the fact that it has become - the OR Section.

Does an RAO still make sense? Did the archivists who organized the Reference, Access and Photo-Duplication Policies Committee (which makes me think RAO members with a sense of the section's roots may be passionate about RLG's "Capture & Release": Digital Cameras in the Reading Room report) have it right? Can a single section really lay claim to these distinct, yet related functions? Why is it that SAA has an RAO? Is it time to consider the OR (Outreach & Reference) Section? (If a DA (Description & Access) Section came to SAA, would another group step up and form a MA section or roundtable?)

Leading up to the annual meeting on Friday, August 13th at 1pm we hope to share a few posts with thoughts from other archivists on the R, A, and O. These may take the form of what reference, access, and outreach mean to archivists today, the relationships and intersections of the three, the section's mission, and probably more. RAO's webmaster Jan Blodgett shared some of her thoughts back in February and whether you will be in DC in August or not, I encourage you to share your thoughts there or elsewhere on this blog in the weeks ahead.