ARCHE member archivists met on Zoom on July 8, 2022. Discussed advocacy in archives and Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement. Future projects and best areas for concentration of group efforts highlighted meeting discussion.

MINUTES

Welcome & Introductions:

• Please add your name, and institution in the chat for the minutes!

ARCHE Member Updates:

• Clarissa Myrick-Harris (Civil Rights site needs to be updated) and is PI for Atlanta and Student Initiative Morehouse College (website and archival component)
• Roland: Morehouse College School of Medicine Library
• Tamara Livingston: Kennesaw State (Archives Brochure)
• Eli Arnold, Oglethorpe Univ
• Angela Stanley, Georgia Public Library Service
• Gaby Hale, Mercer University
• Blynne Olivieri Parker, University of West Georgia
• Derek Mosley, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Fulton County Library System

ARCHE Business:

• Offices:
  • Immediate Past Chair: Paul Crater
  • Chair: Jennifer King
  • Vice-Chair:
  • Secretary:
• Meeting Schedule
  • Friday July 8 9-10:30 a.m. is our best meeting date. 
  • Friday Jan. 20 10-11:30 Hybrid. Emory’s Rose Library will host and ARCHE will provide lunch.
  • Friday May 12 10-11:30 Hybrid. If we are 10 or fewer, we can meet at  ARCHE Office Conference Room, near Agnes Scott. Free parking. If larger, meet at either University West Georgia and KSU. 
• Jennifer is planning to join the ARCHE Spring Library Council Meeting on Monday July 11 at Oglethorpeto report from Archivists and get insights to inform our work this year.
• Shared workspace?
  • Google Workspace for non-profits. Angela helped set it up for SGA. Present to “big arche”
  • What is ARCHE using presently if anything?
  • ARCHE workspace with drives for component groups
  • Regularizing infrastructure for ARCHE
  • State library is in google workspace at an enterprise level
  • Check in with ARCHE Library Council to see if they would be interested in a non-profit google drive, and if not, Jennifer and Tracey can get this set up.
• Blog – is anyone keeping it up? https://archearchivescouncil.com/home/blog/
  • Tamara handled it years ago, Tracey should have log in and password, and will send it along
  • 2 blog sites: information literacy and archive site
  • Ely: suggests each of us taking a turn to promote repositories. Jennifer suggests considering that alongside any group plans.
• Archives Council List – may need to be updated since 2019
  
  

Review ARCHE Initiatives from Last 10 years to help guide our opportunity to work together this year

• ARCHE established in 2015 https://archearchivescouncil.com/about/
• ARCHE Archives Survey and Accomplishments https://archearchivescouncil.com/home/blog/

Civil Rights Site & Atlanta Student Movement Sites – Clarissa is excited to gather partners to create a new vision and secure funding to bring these projects into the 21^st C. and make them multimedia and “alive”

• created in 2004
• http://www.atlantahighered.biz/civilrights/index.asp
• technology fails and isn’t supported
• web postings through manage.com
• Consider a publication that is a static format for the Civil Rights – analog book plus a digital humanities site. Clarissa recommends putting together a proposal for a grant. Specific particular interest in social justice. Funds to support revamping the site, updating it and support someone to oversee that process. A physical book is something to work towards.
• DLG has a civil rights digital library https://crdl.usg.edu/?Welcome and follows the format;
• DPLA https://dp.la/browse-by-topic/civil-rights-movement
• Brochure
• It seems worth noting that DLG has a brand-new beta version of the Civil Rights Digital Library site: https://crdl-beta.galileo.usg.edu/
• Atlanta Student Movement – a site with oral history interviews http://crdl.usg.edu/collections/col-11360-2384/
• Georgia State has oral history as well
• Kennesaw https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/2384
• Caitlin wants to volunteer to help on a grant proposal
• Sarah and AUC – exhibit on civil rights https://digitalexhibits.auctr.edu/exhibits/show/seekingtotell/overview
• AUC Digital Humanities Projects
• AUC is where the civil rights movement originated from
• ARCHE Repositories should be part of the project (Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott)
• DPLA will be seeking applications for subgrants for this type of work. They just received $850K from Mellon. https://dp.la/news/dpla-receives-850000-in-new-funding-from-the-mellon-foundation-to-support-the-advancement-of-racial-equity-in-american-archives

There’s an info session on the 19th @ 1pm

Email Clarissa if you are interested! Clarissa.Myrick-Harris@morehouse.edu

Brochure Redux

• Amanda P, Tamara and Angela worked on a brochure for ARCHE Archives
• Goals: Internal and External Advocacy
• Tap into richness of the ATL archival collections (civil rights, +)
  • Convey that value to tourists
  • Communicating in a unified fashion about the collections and exhibits and facilities that are open for outsiders and researchers
  • Tap into the tourist market
• Advocate for the value of archives within their library structures & help convey what we offer that is different. Booklets for library directors to pass out when people are visiting.
• Modeled on Georgia Treasures https://georgialibraries.org/archival-services/genealogy/
  • 10 had full-page spreads plus a listing of public libraries in the back.
  • Downloadable
  • Available for libraries to request copies and have at reference desks
  • With COVID physical tourism has declined. We would want to make sure this is the best way to expend our energy.

Questions:  Is Print or an Online moment be more useful?

Other related resources:

Ganch list https://ganch.auctr.edu/state

Preserve ATL Pheonix Flies Sites and Program https://issuu.com/preserveatl

Other topics and work ARCHE archives has undertaken:

• Instruction Subgroup: Blynn and Holly Smith co-chaired this and put together a Teaching with Archives workshop. Thinking about how to best leverage primary source resources into our own institutions. What are our institutions focused on right now? Student Success and connection of primary source materials.
• Workshop on ArchivesSpace by Chad Davison
• Education/Technology: Lighting the Way by Mark Matienzo, Blynn is part of that

Fascinating how much disparity there is for getting digitized and born-digital materials out into the public. Even large well-resourced institutions struggle with that.

What consortial leveraging can help solve these types of problems? Should ARCHE Archives Council be sussing out infrastructure gaps?

• Invite Sheila McAlister join the call to hash out bigger questions more thoroughly Sees a strong need for support in the realm of digital preservation architecture even at the ground-floor level
• DLG is doing great work as an aggregator: DLG, SGA, GLA, Georgia Ass Museums and Galleries
• Maybe we are looking at a joint-conference and collaborative initiatives. ARCHE could strongly support assessment of needs and gaps in the Atlanta metro area or broader state-wide

• Should DLG be part of ARCHE?

• ARCHE mission is to support our member institutions, and
• ARCHE member institutions and our affiliated libraries

Updates:

• Columbia Theological Seminary has a new President, has a new partnership with Ancestry.com who is on-site to compile census data (birth dates, death dates of enslaved individuals) for genealogy purposes
• Gaby at Mercer has been contacted by Ancestry.com as well
• Jennifer: Valeda Dent Vice Provost of Libraries and Museum started one week ago
• Angela: GPLS ARPA funds spent on city directories and newspaper projects, on track at end of December to release 2000 pages of digitized city directories from across the state. Funded about 400,000 newspaper pages with ARPA funds. Along with a couple of smaller projects across the state. Relief dollars and importance of at-home access is being put to work.

Meeting Wrap Up/Action Items

• Jennifer will email minutes and inquire about volunteers for vice chair and secretary. Pull together smaller group ahead of next meeting to plan the January agenda.
• Determine whether we will have a google non-profit site on our own or as part of ARCHE parent group, and everyone will upload our shared documentation
• Email Clarissa regarding interest in civil rights project
• Tracey will get log in password for blog
• Tracey will send out ARCHE list and make sure that everyone is invited to this meeting and gets the minutes

Adjourn

Future Meeting Topics

How does ARCHE intersect and connect with allied and related initiatives? What allied initiatives are missing?

• Atlanta Black Archives Alliance https://atlantabaa.wordpress.com/about/
• Georgia Public Library Service, Coronavirus Chronicles https://georgialibraries.org/coronavirus-chronicles/

GPLS contracted with CVIOG to put out an economic impact study for public libraries, released in 2020 and based on 2018 data: https://georgialibraries.org/impactreports/statewide-gpls-final-report.pdf

1. What would ARCHE like to accomplish in the next 3-5 years?
   1. Guests?
   1. Presentations?