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?

Greetings ARCHE Archives Council Members from the ARCHE Archives Advocacy Committee!

 

As we move from this incredibly long cool spring into full summer, how many of us can honestly say that we remember what we did last October? Think back, and if you can fight the fog of pollen and the haze of allergy medications, you may dimly recall a survey accompanied by repeated pleas from the Advocacy Committee to please stop whatever you were doing RIGHT NOW and complete it. After inwardly groaning about yet another survey and the fact that you had a million other things to do that did not involve answering a long list of questions, you set to work and opened the survey link. And you may even recall that feeling of satisfaction having answered the last question and clicking on “submit,” knowing that this would FINALLY satisfy the Advocacy Committee and stop the “gentle reminders.” Ah yes, good times. So, whatever happened with the survey anyway and what has the Advocacy Committee been doing since the ARCHE Archives Council last met? We’re glad you asked!

 

Just to refresh your memory, the Archives Advocacy Committee is interested in asking a big question; that is, how can archivists demonstrate the collective impact of archival work measurements that are understood by stakeholders outside of the profession? We believe that archives have a demonstrable economic, social, and political value that can be articulated via quantitative and qualitative data collection. To show a wide impact, archival data collection works best when gathered collectively across a commonality like geographies, subjects, or communities. This is a large undertaking, and the data needed for collective impact statements means we need to ask ourselves a new and different set of questions. The questions in the survey point to new ways of thinking about our value and how we might articulate it to stakeholders for the purpose of developing strong ties to our community and our external stakeholders. This collective advocacy effort is not meant to replace internal advocacy but to energize it and provide additional frameworks supporting our archival institutions.

 

So what did we discover? Here is a brief snapshot of some of the most interesting results:

1. Who Are We?

• 19 members completed the survey.
• 14 archival facilities are part of a college or university, and all but two of these are embedded within the library of that institution (e.g. The Georgia Archives stands alone and is part of the University System of Georgia; the Department of Museums, Archives, and Rare Books at Kennesaw State University reports to Academic Affairs)
• 2 repositories are part of non-academic museum/libraries (Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum; Atlanta History Center)
• 1 is affiliated with a seminary
• 1 is a subject-specific research library (Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture)
• 1 is a program serving public libraries across the state (Georgia Public Library Service).
• 15 members have director or archive manager positions. Of the remaining members, the positions represented are processing archivist, access archivist and public services coordinator.

 

2. Our Collections

Many of us have common collecting areas including women, LGBTQ community, religious/non-profit followed by persons of color, businesses and prominent personalities. In addition, our repositories collect in the areas of African-American community development and history, civil rights, and audiovisual materials related to Atlanta history. Collectively, these collections could be said to represent a major font of Atlanta’s history and could be used to make connections to external stakeholders.

3. Patrons

We asked a number of questions about patrons with the goal of assessing collective impact in a number of areas. We learned that ARCHE archive institutions engage in 33,857 reference transactions and 17, 804 patron visits per year (whew! No wonder it seems like there’s never enough time in the day!)

 

The results from the questions asking about patron demographics (i.e. how many are NOT from the metro-Atlanta area) were mixed. Some track this information, others do not. What we do know, however, is that most of our patrons do not tend to stay for more than a day. This does not mean however that we should discount their spending activity and engagement with local businesses; indeed, we suggest this might be an area in which ARCHE Archives members could more actively engage.

 

4. Products

So what happens with all the research requests and requests for scans and copies of our materials? Where do they go and what do they become? The survey asked about scholarly research products like books, articles, and documentaries and commercial or creative products including commercial films or television, marketing campaigns, exhibits produced by external entities, photos for interior decoration. Not surprisingly, we collectively support the production of books, articles, documentaries and exhibits.

 

But we also contribute to products that may be more commercial in nature, such as interior decoration for restaurants or exhibits for businesses or corporations. Besides a check for our troubles and possibly a mention on a plaque, our contribution to the success of the business is largely invisible.

 

5. Community Connections:

 

One of the ways ARCHE archive institutions contribute to their communities is by supporting allied institutions and programs. Over half (57%) reported supporting historic preservation projects; 33% support community development projects and 10% support public policy initiatives. In addition, a little more than half of the respondents indicated they work with their institution’s development officer; this is an area worth investigating to see if these numbers could be revised upwards. In addition, even though the majority of respondents do not currently have endowed collections, most indicated that their institution has named buildings, rooms and/or programs. These may present opportunities to begin to build the archives “brand” with internal and external stakeholders. Collectively, the group submitted a list of 66 names that appear prominently within their institution as the name of colleges, schools, buildings, programs, exhibit halls and centers. Clearly each of these individuals or families have connections to the institution that may provide as yet untapped advocacy opportunities.

 

6. Business Impact:

ARCHE archive institutions also leave a footprint by their expenditures. Besides providing employment for staff and administrators, these institutions expend budgets on preservation supplies, digitization and reprographics, storage (digital hosting and physical storage), software licenses, consulting work (project archivists; IT consulting). Collectively, we spend approximately $72,500 per year in the daily course of business. This is another area in which we can make connections between what we do and our economic impact.

 

Where do we go from here? Amanda and I will be following up with some members to clarify responses or to ask about blanks in the survey. We then will focus on one or two of these areas of inquiry during our ARCHE Archives Council meetings or perhaps with smaller focus groups outside of the meetings.

 

We hope you are as excited by some of these results as we were. Stand by for more to come!

 

Tamara Livingston

Amanda Pellerin

May 22, 2018

 

Greetings,

Our next ARCHE Archives Council meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 21 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library from 10:30 – 12:30.

Agenda:

com-archearchivescouncil-agenda-20170421

We are looking forward to a tour of the library by our host and council member, Derek Mosley.  Learn more about the Auburn Avenue Research Library here:  Auburn Avenue Research Library

The ARCHE Archives Council met at University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library for a “Teaching with Archives” workshop presented by Emory archivist Gabrielle Dudley, followed by lunch and our regular meeting.

This professional development workshop provided an overview of best practices for teaching primary source literacy to college & university students (teaching them how to identify, interpret, evaluate, use, and access primary sources and follow ethical principles during the course of their research) and discusses current guidelines & standards.

Gabrielle M. Dudley is the Instruction Archivist and QEP Librarian at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. She earned her M.A. in Public History and MLIS with a concentration in Archival Studies and Preservation Management from the University of South Carolina. She also holds a B.A. in History from the University of Montevallo. She holds active membership in the Society of American Archivists, Society of Georgia Archivists, and ACRL’s Rare Book and Manuscript Section. In her free time, Gabrielle co-leads a mentoring program for teenage girls in College Park and East Point, Georgia.

The ARCHE Archives Council is now two years old so it seems a good time to look back at the survey results of what our members hoped to accomplish. At that time we asked members to indicate their top three accomplishments for the ARCHE Archives Council. Here is the list you provided: