Teaching with Primary Sources Survey

RAO's Teaching with Primary Sources group has a survey they would like you to complete by Friday, January 25, 2013.

The goals for this survey are:
1) to obtain data on current instructional trends among archivists;
2) to identify successful methodologies and resources for instruction; and
3) to identify needs for tools and professional support for archives instruction.

By completing the survey, you will be eligible to WIN one of five copies of the recent publication Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, containing nearly 50 widely ranging case studies on engagement with special collections. These books are very generously donated by ACRL!


Deadline to complete the survey: Friday, January 25, 2013
Estimated time to complete the survey: 15-20 minutes

Note that multiple people from a single repository can take the survey.

Seeking Nominations for Archival Advocacy Award

The J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award Subcommittee of the Society of American Archivists seeks nominations for the 2013 award.

http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-jameson

 

Established in 1989, this award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.  The individual's or institution's contributions may take the form of advocacy, publicity, legislation, financial support, or a similar action that fosters archival work or raises public consciousness of the importance of archival work.  Contributions should have broad, long-term impact at the regional level or beyond. Up to three awards may be given each year.

Recent Winners:

• 2012:  Eve Kahn, Bebe Miller, Phillip Stewart
• 2011:  "Who Do You Think You Are?" (NBC)
• 2010:  The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
• 2009:  Ross King (Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board)
• 2008:  Data-Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE)

Eligibility: Nominees must be from outside the archives profession.  Individuals directly involved in archival work, either as paid or volunteer staff, or institutions or organizations directly responsible for an archival program are not eligible for this award.

Mailed materials must be postmarked by February 28, 2013 and should be sent to:

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award Committee Society of American Archivists

17 North State Street, Suite 1425

Chicago, IL 60602-4061 

Nominations may be submitted electronically; please see the nomination form for details.  For more information on SAA awards and the nominations process, please go to: http://www.archivists.org/recognition/index.asp>

Call for Case Studies: innovative best practices in archives

Dear colleagues, 

I have signed on to edit a series of books for Scarecrow Press highlighting innovative best practices in archives. I’m excited about this opportunity to learn about and share the best examples of how professionals working in archives and special collections are adapting to changes and creatively solving problems.

I’ll be doing a total of four books in this first round, one each on outreach, reference, management, and description. For now, I’m collecting proposals for case studies for the volume on reference and the volume on outreach. If you want to propose a case study, just send me a short (1-2 paragraph) description of the problem you set out to solve, how you solved it, and what the results have been. Please also include the name of the repository, and your job title. Proposals are due by *Thursday, January 31*.

The final case studies should be about 6-7,000 words.

Don’t be intimidated by that word “innovative.” Sometimes we have a tendency to think what we do isn’t that special or unique. Rather than fixate on whether or not what you did was “innovative,” if you’ve implemented something in your archives or special collections library that you think is effective and other people would be interested in, please send me a proposal.

In addition to this open call, I will also be soliciting case study proposals, so if you know of a person or project that you think would be good to include in these volumes on reference and outreach, please let me know about it so that I can follow up. Case study institutions are not have to limited to any specific type of archives or special collections, and are not limited to the U.S. only.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them here on this post or via email. Please send any questions, proposals or suggestions for me  to follow up on to me at kate.theimer@gmail.com.

I’ll be putting out separate calls for proposals for the books on management and description, so if you want to participate in those books, stay tuned in the next few months.

Best regards,

Kate Theimer

Calling all Special Collections Librarians, Archivists and Museum Professionals Who Teach!

We seek submissions of innovative, hands-on classroom exercises utilizing primary sources for an upcoming Libraries Unlimited publication. The forthcoming book will provide cultural heritage professionals with adaptable, template-based class exercises—think of these as recipes that can be reused as is, or customized for multiple situations. We solicit your easy-to-adapt, creative exercises that includes a title, 2-5 learning objectives, intended audience, collections/materials/preparation required, description of the exercise mechanics or activity, and any assessment you've done.  We seek your submission by MARCH 30, 2013.

The exercises we want to include will teach lessons in "artifactual literacy" and/or "archival intelligence." Artifactual literacy refers to skills needed to interpret and analyze primary sources, including concepts such as: evaluating authenticity, understanding historical contextualization, identifying bias, understanding the physical object, and deducing original audience and purpose. Archival intelligence refers to skills needed to use archives and special collections, such as: finding aid usage, understanding what kinds of materials are held in archives and special collections, physical use and handling of collections, and searching for primary sources.

Exercises making use of any source types are welcome, including rare books, maps, manuscripts, ephemera, born digital, and even the unusual types we know you are working with (video games, natural history specimens, models, blueprints, comic books, graphic novels, LPs, floppy disks and hard drives).  The exercises may focus on teaching undergraduates or graduate students, or may be geared toward public outreach events, educating donors, our peers, and/or administrators. We want your creative and inventive exercises for K-12 class visits as well.

Co-editors Anne Bahde (Oregon State University), Heather Smedberg (UC San Diego), and Mattie Taormina (Stanford University) look forward to receiving your submissions. Please submit your exercise via our webform by MARCH 30, 2013:

http://tinyurl.com/8h6dr6o

We know you're doing wonderful things with students, and this is a great opportunity to share what you're been doing with colleagues around the country.

Sincerely,

Anne Bahde (anne.bahde AT oregonstate.edu)

Heather Smedberg (hsmedberg AT ucsd.edu)
Mattie Taormina (taormina AT stanford.edu)
Co-Editors, Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises, Libraries Unlimited, to be published 2014

 

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award Subcommittee of the Socity of American Archivists seeks nominations for the 2013 award.

 

This award recognizes an archivist, editor, group of individuals, or institution that has increased public awareness of a specific body of documents through compilation, transcription, exhibition, or public presentation of archives or manuscript materials for educational, instructional, or other public purpose. Archives may include photographs, films, and visual archives. Publication may be in hard copy, microfilm, digital, or other circulating medium.

 

Recent winners include:

• 2012: Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota
• 2011: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project Team
• 2010: The Giza Archives Project at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• 2009: Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections of the University of Toledo’s “From Institution to Independence”
• 2008: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the CBC Digital Archives (Les Archives de Radio-Canada)

Eligibility:

Individual archivists and editors, groups of individuals, organizations.

 

Application Deadline:

All nominations shall be submitted to the Awards Committee by February 28, 2013.

For more information on SAA awards and the nominations process, please go to http://www.archivists.org/recognition/index.asp .

Archives Leadership Institute: Call for Applicants

 

The Archives Leadership Institute at Luther College requests applicants for its 2013 institute. The Institute provides advanced training for a cohort of 25 emerging and innovative leaders, giving them the knowledge and tools to transform the archival profession in practice, theory and attitude. The 2013 ALI@Luther Leadership Intensive will be held June 16-22, 2013. Applications for 2013 are due by December 10, 2012.

 

The program includes five elements:

• A week-long residential Leadership Intensive held on Luther College's campus;
• A focused practicum project that will connect leadership skills with action;
• A practices workshop held during the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists;
• Global group projects that will encourage all ALI alumni to generate solutions to challenges within the profession; and
• A moderated online network experience that will serve as a virtual space for the ALI community to share and grow.

The core approach will intertwine strategic and advanced leadership thinking with a clear and purposeful archival curriculum that includes project management, strategic visioning and human resource development, strategies for born digital resources, and advocacy and outreach. This curriculum will be taught by Kathleen Roe, New York State Archives; Sharon Leon, The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University; Daniel Noonan, The Ohio State University; and Christopher Barth, The United States Military Academy at West Point.

ALI@Luther will be influenced by a steering committee of experienced leaders in the archival profession who will also serve as mentors to ALI participants. The steering committee includes Terry Baxter, Multnomah County Records Program, Portland, Ore.; Brenda Gunn, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas-Austin; Geof Huth, New York State Archives; Beth Myers, Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University; Daniel Noonan, The Ohio State University; and Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Iowa State University.

 

The entire program will be facilitated by Luther Snow, consultant, author and facilitator. Rachel Vagts, Luther College Archivist and a 2010 Archives Leadership Institute alumna, will serve as ALI@Luther program director. Sasha Griffin, Luther College Digital Archivist, will serve as program coordinator.

 

Tuition for the Institute is $500 and covers the cost of the program, lodging and most meals. Transportation will be provided from the Rochester, MN, airport as necessary. The institute provides a number of awards for tuition and/or travel assistance.

 

The Archives Leadership Institute is supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the granting agency of the National Archives and Records Administration. The NHPRC supports projects that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage and the continuing development of professional skills for archivists, records managers and historical editors. First funded in 2008, the Archives Leadership Institute seeks to bring to tomorrow's leaders the insights and understanding necessary for increasing public use and appreciation of archives.

 

For further information about ALI@Luther, contact us at ALI@luther.edu or visit the Institutes's website at http://www.luther.edu/archivesleadershipinstitute/.

ABC-CLIO Online History Award

The deadline is fast approaching (December 15) for nominations for the ABC-CLIO Online History Award. It consists of $2,500 donated by ABC-CLIO, a publisher of reference materials in the field of history, and a citation. The award recognizes the accomplishments of a person or a group of people producing (1) a freely available online historical collection, or (2) an online tool tailored for the purpose of finding historical materials, or (3) an online teaching aid stimulating creative historical scholarship. 

The award seeks to encourage the development of freely available, sustainable online history resources by singling out innovative projects and the individuals who created them. Projects shall have been completed (or, in the case of a regularly updated database, well established) in the two years prior to nomination and serve as a model for broader emulation. Examples can include:

•    Primary sources digitized from the collections of more than one repository

•    Guides to research on an historical subject that span multiple formats and repositories

•    Databases incorporating citations, annotations, text, multimedia, and/or hyperlinks

•    Presentations of an historical theme stimulating new approaches to its teaching

Some past recipients are:

• 2011. Stephen Robertson, Shane White, Stephen Garton and Graham White, University of Sydney, Australia for Digital Harlem: Everyday Life, 1915-1930.
• 2009. Ken Middleton, Middle Tennessee State University, for Discovering American Women's History Online.
• 2007. Faith Jones, head of Literature and Language Collection, Mid-Manhattan Library, the New York Public Library, for The Yizkor Books Project
• 2005. Oregon Historical Society for the Oregon History Project

 

For more information, please visit the Reference and User Services (RUSA) webpage for the award. <http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/abcclio>.  The short nomination form is at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sites/ala.org.rusa/files/content/awards/abcclio/abcclio.pdf>.