May/June 2017 Published by the Society of American Archivists

www.archivists.org 3 Building 8 Using Apps 12 SAA 2017

Community to Tell Election
Archives Your Stories Results

4 6
Opening the Locks
Navigating shattered glass negatives,
handwritten logs, and tight security con-
cerns, archivists at the Clarke Historical
Library undertake a monumental task in
digitizing the history of the Soo Locks.
Bryan Whitledge
Features
3 Building a Community
Archives
Archivo Cultural de Caar, Ecuador
Judy Blankenship and Natalie Baur
7 Teaching with Primary
Sources
Unconference Emphasizes Collaboration
and Local Connections
Gabrielle M. Dudley and Heather Oswald
8 APPtly Told
Using an App to Tell the Stories in Your Archives
Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz
12 SAA Election Results 2017
14 Turning the Page to Portland
An ARCHIVES 2017 Reading List
Laura Buchholz
May/June 2017
10
Taking It on Founding WARriors
the Road In the Women Archivists Sections latest
project, volunteers write, edit, and promote
For a small archives, taking on a project the histories of women who have shaped
like an exhibit can seem daunting. But the archival record.
a traveling exhibit can be efficient and
Leslie Van Veen McRoberts and
effective, as long as you keep in mind
Bethany Anderson
these DOs and DONTs!
Robbie Terman and Kathryn Dowgiewicz
Columns
2 Presidents Message
What Might a Collaborative Dream Team
Look Like?
15 From the Archivist of the
United States
NARAs Role in Preserving Presidential
and Federal Records
20 From the Executive Director
Pulling It All Together in Portland
Departments
15 Kudos
COVER PHOTO
On Ceremony. A ritual dancer of Caar Province, Ecuador, circa
1940s, wearing a wig with long thin braids and headdress, part
of a costume still used today by the few remaining dancers in
the region of Zhud/Suscal. The ikat handwoven shawl on his
shoulder is likely from the neighboring province of Azuay, and
would be used only on ritual occasions. A traditional everyday
garment for a Caari man is a red ikat poncho. Photo from a
glass plate negative of Rigoberto Navas (19112001), whose
extensive photographic collection was the impetus to create
a digital community archives of Caar. Read more on page 3.
Photo courtesy of the Archivo Cultural de Caar.
A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 1
 presiDents message
Nance McGovern
president@archivists.org
What Might a Collaborative
Dream Team Look Like?
In the last few months, there have been
several stories about data rescue efforts
to capture, preserve, and make available
at-risk federal data. The urgency of these
efforts surprised me because archivists
have been accessioning, preserving, and
making available federal data for many
decades.
One explanation for differing perceptions
of what data are at risk is that the discovery
systems of libraries, archives, data, and
museums communities tend to be siloed. If
the measure of preservation is immediate
access, it is not surprising that an inability
to easily find content, including data, that
is managed in an active archival program
would lead to the perception that content
is at risk. The archival community is not
alone in the concern that not all data
being rescued are at risk and believes that
collaboration across disciplines is essential.
(For example, see Stronger Together:
The Case for Cross-Sector Collaboration
in Identifying and Preserving At-Risk
Data https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare
.4816474.v1.)
ARChIvAL OutlOOk
The Society of American Archivists serves the education and information
needs of its members and provides leadership to help ensure the identification,
preservation, and use of the nations historical record.
ExECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nancy P. Beaumont
nbeaumont@archivists.org
DI R E C TOR OF E D U C AT IOn
Kara Adams
kadams@archivists.org
W E B A n D I n F OR M AT IOn S y S T E M S
A DM I n I S T R ATOR
Matt Black
mblack@archivists.org
2 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK
One lesson from examples like data rescue
is that archival practices may not be visible
to other information professionals, however
transparent we intend our practices to be.
It is true that some data may be at risk and
that ongoing, easy access to federal data
is an important objective to achieve
together. Current technologies are making
this objective more and more possible, and
collaborative approaches that leverage the
cumulative strengths of archives, libraries,
domain sciences, IT professionals, and
others on our dream team will help
us go further.
So, how can we identify opportunities to
collaborate with other professions on these
shared areas of interest and responsibility?
We can reach out to members of the archival
community who are working in these
specific areas to understand the issues
and challenges and be better prepared to
advocate for archival expertise. We can
join, initiate, track, or share discussions on
topics like data rescue in which archivists
have had and should have a continuing role.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLISHIng EDI TORIAL AnD PRODUCT IOn
Teresa M. Brinati C O O R D I n AT O R
tbrinati@archivists.org Abigail Christian
achristian@archivists.org
E D U C AT IOn CO OR DI n ATOR
Mia Capodilupo E D U C AT IOn CO OR DI n ATOR
Brianne Downing
mcapodilupo@archivists.org
bdowning@archivists.org
DIRECTOR OF FInAnCE AnD
A DM I n I S T R AT IOn S E R V I C E C E n T E R R E PR E S E n TAT I V E
Peter Carlson Lee Gonzalez
pcarlson@archivists.org lgonzalez@archivists.org
We can work with interested communities
to develop criteria and best practices for
identifying and protecting at-risk content
and ensuring designated repositories
without duplicating existing programs.
We can make use of resources that inform
discussions with librarians, data scientists,
and others. For example, Archives in
Libraries: What Librarians and Archivists
Need to Know to Work Together (SAA, 2015)
is an invaluable book with thoughtful
examples of commonalities and differences
in perspectives and practices in these
disciplines.
As part of SAAs effort to reach out to
affiliated communities to raise awareness
about archives and identify collaborative
opportunities, watch http://www2.archivists
.org/am2017 for a list of representatives of
professional associations who have been
invited to attend our Town hall at the
2017 Annual Meeting. Please come
to Portland July 2329 and join the
discussion!
Archival Outlook (ISSN 1520-3379) is published six
times a year and distributed as a membership benefit
by the Society of American Archivists. Contents of
the newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part
provided that credit is given. Direct all advertising
inquiries and general correspondence to: Abigail
Christian, Society of American Archivists, 17 North
State Street, Suite 1425, Chicago, IL 60602; 312-
606-0722; toll-free 866-SAA-7858; fax 312-606-0728;
achristian@archivists.org; www.archivists.org.
g OV E R n A n C E PR O g R A M CO OR DI n ATOR
Felicia Owens
fowens@archivists.org
SERVICE CEnTER MAnAgER
Carlos R. Salgado
csalgado@archivists.org
M E M B E R S E R V I C E R E PR E S E n TAT I V E
Michael Santiago
msantiago@archivists.org
May/June 2017
Building a
Archivo Cultural
Community de Caar, Ecuador
Archives
Judy Blankenship, Archivo Cultural de Caar,
and Natalie Baur, Project Consultant

T
he Archivo Cultural de Caar grew out of nearly two decades of documentary work
with indigenous communities in a highland region of southern Ecuador. I first
ventured to Caar in the early 1990s as a volunteer on a research project, with the
task of teaching two young Caari men skills in photography and oral history. Twenty years
later, after many return trips for teaching and exhibits, two books, three Fulbrights, and the
construction of a house in the clouds, my husband and I now live six months every year in
Caar and six months in Portland, Oregon.

a record of Caari Culture

My original intention to document the indigenous Caari culture broadened five years
ago when the family of a local photographer, the late Rigoberto Navas, invited me to his
studio to look at a collection of glass plate and early celluloid negatives. Back in my Caar
darkroom, I printed one set of negatives and realized that I had come upon a beautiful
visual record of mid-twentieth-century town and country life. From this came the idea
of creating a digital archives of Caar, a small town in the southern Andes of Ecuador.

Since then, I have continued to develop and scan the Navas photo collection while also
searching out other sources of historic photos,
documents, and recordingsparticularly those
from the end of the regions hacienda period and
Traditional archival
the beginning of agrarian reform in Ecuador
(19641974). Ex-Peace Corps volunteers who standards and the ethics
had worked in Caar in the late 1960s found surrounding them were
me on the Internet and donated more than 150
color slides, along with documents, field notes,
either irrelevant or just
and oral histories to the collection. These young not adequate.
people had come to southern Ecuador to help
create agricultural cooperatives around the time
the agrarian reform law ground into motion, and their materials highlight a lost piece
of cultural and social history from a particularly conflictive time.

Next, I contacted two Danish anthropologists who had done

extensive research in the Caari village of Juncal in the
early 1970s, and they agreed to scan and send nearly 1,000
images, along with articles and books about Caari culture.
These images from outside sources are of tremendous value
because, while townsfolk used professional photographers
to record their private and public lives, the indigenous
communities have virtually no visual record of their life
ways and culture.
Continued on page 18>>

Photos, left. From wedding portraits to harvest seasons to

hacienda life, local photographer Rigoberto Navas (19112001)
captured a compelling visual record of indigenous culture in Caar.

A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 3

Opening the
LOcks
Bryan Whitledge, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University
I
t took four years of consultation between a
university archivist and a federal agency to
get things started, but eventually a new and
important collaborative project was born: the
digital preservation of more than 1,700 glass
plate negative images on the construction and
history of the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie in
Michigans Upper Peninsula.
4 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK
Preserving
50 Years of
engineering,
Maritime, and
Industrial history
These images are not only preserved for the future, but freely
available to the public, thanks to the staff at the Clarke historical
Library at Central Michigan University and the US Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE).
making shipping easy
The Soo Locks were built on the St. Marys River, an important
shipping route along the Great Lakes. Before the Locks, however,
shipping between Lake Superior and Lake huron was near
impossible because of an abrupt twenty-one foot drop in the river
at Sault Ste. Marie. Goods could be portaged around the rapids,
May/June 2017
but this was slow and expensivein 1845, that
one-mile portage accounted for twelve percent of
the shipping costs for the 750-mile journey from
Marquette, Michigan, to Buffalo, New York.

In 1855 engineers opened the first modern lock

at the Soo, and in 1881 the USACE took over
operation. Since then, bigger and bigger ships
have navigated easily through the St. Marys River.
Today the complex consists of four locks, two of
which operate regularly. The Locks are both a US
Department of homeland Security site as well
as a National historic Landmark.

The economic impact of this engineering feat cannot

be understated. Each year, more than 7,000 ships
carrying 70 million tons of freight (mostly iron
down from Minnesota and coal up to the northern
Great Lakes and Canada) pass through the Locks.
According to homeland Security, a six-month
closure of the Locks would result in losses of
11 million jobs and $1 trillion to the US economy.

the photographic record Above: The James A. Farrell awaits ceremonial first down lockage in the Davis Lock on October 21, 1914.
Left: Workers remove ice from the bottom of First Poe Lock on April 11, 1907. Photos courtesy of the
Engineers at the Soo have meticulously maintained Clarke Historical Library and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Soo Area Office.

records. This includes more than 1,700 photographs

taken circa 1885 to 1941 documenting the construction and
operation of three of the locks as well as other USACE endeavors
to enable safe navigation ofand even the occasional accident
onthe St. Marys River.
For years, the glass and nitrate photographic negatives were stored
in a filing cabinet in the Soo Locks Administration Building. Each
negative was stored in a manila mailing envelope marked with a
unique image ID. Though originally a handwritten log documented
each photographs ID number, date, and description, staff later
produced a typed copy.
As with any large set of fragile historical records with a history of
limited preservation efforts, 2.75 percent of negatives were lost while
another 2.25 percent sustained damage beyond a chipped corner.
Remarkably, 95 percent of the images survived in good condition.
For more than four years, Frank Boles, director of the Clarke
historical Library, consulted with Soo Locks staff about the
organization and preservation of their historical documents. As a
result, USACE hired a dedicated archivist to assist with preserving
its vast amount of records. Among the most pressing concerns
cited by Boles, both in terms of preservation and potential use,
were the 1,700+ glass plate negatives. In the fall of 2015, USACE
contracted the Clarke to digitize the negatives and rehouse them
in archival storage.
a monumental undertaking
Security concerns required all scanning to take place within the Soo
Locks Administration Building. USACE supplied space and power
while the Clarke staff brought the necessary scanning equipment.
The USACE contract required scans to be digitized at an unusually
high 1200 dpi resolution, so we tested our Epson XL 11000
scanners at that standard. The average time to scan an 8" x 10"
negative took four to five minutes. We concluded that wed need
200 hours to complete this portion of the project.
To finish the work in a single visit, we used three scanners, each set
up with an assigned letter (A, B, and C), which became the prefix
of an arbitrary identifier for each file. We could then rename the
files with the USACE image ID at a later date. Although this process
required a great deal of organization and careful attention, it was
far less resource-intensive than assigning all metadata onsite,
thus shortening the time needed at the Locks.
With three scanners, we scanned at a rate of 250 to 300 per day,
which included several oversized plates scanned in two parts and
digitally stitched together later as well as several shattered negatives
that required jigsaw puzzle skills to piece together on the scanner
bed. Back at the Clarke, we renamed the files, produced preservation
copies, and touched-up 300 dpi derivatives. The negatives are
now housed in the Still Picture Unit of the National Archives
and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
reaching the public
Security concerns prohibit USACE from making a publicly-
accessible website for displaying the images. When the Clarke
expressed an intention to create such a site, we learned that
obligations embedded in standard military contracts did not
allow contractors to retain scans until we submitted a Freedom
of Information Act request.
Continued on page 17>>

May/June 2017 A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 5
TAKING A
IT Small
Archives
on the Creates a

ROAD Traveling
Exhibit

Robbie Terman, Director, Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives,

and Kathryn Dowgiewicz, Exhibit Designer

O hills, Michigan. The boxes are then

ne of the most successful ways to bring
attention and interest to an archival
housed (on long-term loan) at the
collection is through exhibits. But for small
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor
archives with limited budgets and zero and Urban Affairs at Wayne State
display space, a traveling exhibit might be
University in Detroit. The initial
difficulties of dual sites actually
the most efficient, economical, and effective
option to reach a provided an outreach
broad audience. opportunity in both
How can a small the city and suburbs.
The Leonard N. Two LNSJCA exhibits
Simons Jewish archives plan and took place in 2016: one
Community Archives execute a traveling was an installation in
(LNSJCA)
was founded in 1991
exhibit while still the gallery space at the

to collect, preserve, running day-to-day Reuther Library and

and make available operations?
the records and
papers of Jewish
Detroit. It is staffed by one archivist and
a group of dedicated volunteers. The year
2016 marked its 25th anniversary
an ideal time to launch an exhibit. Except
that, for a small archives, taking on a project
like an exhibit can seem like a daunting and
impossible task. how to plan and execute
such an endeavor while still running day-
to-day operations?
make it mobile
LNSJCA has a unique situation, as it is
housed in two different locations. The
acquisition and processing of collections
take place in an office building in Bloomfield
the other consisted of
monthly traveling panels.
The idea of a traveling
exhibit stemmed from the desire to reach
people where they work, live, socialize, and
for the Jewish communityworship. The
goal of the exhibit was first to bring aware-
ness to the archives and its vast collection
and, second, to show how history can be
told through primary source documents.
With input from an oversight committee,
we decided that the traveling exhibit would
consist of five free-standing panels. We
used pull-up banners that were mobile and
easy to install at each location. Within the
exhibits overarching theme of Creating a
Jewish Community, each panel highlighted
a different topic: Jewish immigration to
Detroit, Jewish neighborhoods, service
organizations, Israel, and a timeline of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
(of which LNSJCA is a department). The
topics stood alone, but together they created
a larger story of community.
Planning for the traveling exhibit began
in the summer of 2015. The themes were
decided for each panel, as well as the type
of information that needed to be covered
and the material selected for inclusion.
Text was composed, photographs and
ephemera selected and scanned, and the
overall design determined.
Continued on page 17>>

6 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK May/June 2017

 Teaching with PRIMARY SOURCES
Unconference Emphasizes Collaboration and Local Connections
Gabrielle M. Dudley and Heather Oswald, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives,
and Rare Book Library at Emory University, and Co-chairs, 2016 TPS Unconference
h ow to plan for and create participation
in an intentionally unstructured
environment is a challenge for the
organizers of the next Teaching with
Primary Sources Unconference and
Workshops on July 25 at the Portland Art
Museum. Run by the Teaching with Primary
Sources Committee of SAAs Reference,
Access, and Outreach Section, this will be
the third year that this free event will run
alongside the SAA Annual Meeting.
Unconferences are designed to be
unstructured meetings where participants
guide the conversation and flow of ideas.
heres how the 2016 unconference unfolded
in Atlanta last August and why you should
be excited for this years event! Building
on the success and lessons from the first
unconference, we expanded the reach and
encouraged participation from the wider
community of professionals who use
primary sources in teaching. A framework
May/June 2017
was provided around which attendees could
form talking points and session topics. The
day was divided into two sections: a block of
facilitated workshops followed by informal,
peer-driven group discussions.
listening to the locals
The 2016 committee developed workshops
based on feedback from the 2015 attendees.
We began soliciting proposals from archi-
vists, but quickly realized this effort excluded
the perspectives of our colleagues in allied
professions. Given the inherently inter-
disciplinary nature of teaching with primary
sources, we felt we were missing an opportu-
nity to place our efforts into the broader con-
text of cultural and educational institutions.
We used the morning sessions to hear from
the teachers, librarians, public historians,
artists, and museum educators whose work
intersects and aligns with our own.
The shift in focus necessitated an updated
approach to organizing the workshops.
The SAA Annual Meeting provided a pool
of potential archivist workshop leaders
who would already be in town. however,
we did not expect colleagues in other
fields to travel for the unconference, so we
concentrated on local contacts in museums,
universities, and learning centers to find
speakers. Presentations by Frankie Abbott
and Samantha Gibson from the Digital
Public Library of America filled out the
schedule and provided essential support
for the event. The final program included
discussions on performing arts in the
archives and the use of trigger warnings
when working with difficult topics as well
as several sessions on how to develop and
implement innovative teaching resources
outside the traditional humanities
classroom. For more information on these
sessions, visit www.teachwithstuff.org.
Continued on page 16>>
A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 7
T heres an app for that
also applies to archives.
Now you can share your
primary source documents with
a growing digital public through
a fresh form of storytelling
by combining entertainment
and information in an app.
An app can easily incorporate
primary documents, music,
photographs, film, and other
media from a wide range of
resources.
Archives are filled with
intriguing stories. Consider
the case of Sister Lucy, a
musical prodigy and nurse in
Kentucky early in the Civil
War who was beloved by her
patients. She was a Sister of
Charity of Nazareth (SCN),
a Roman Catholic religious
congregation. her story, which
immediately captured our
attention, became the topic
of an award-winning app
called Civil War TruceThe Using An App to Tell the Stories in Your Archives
Remarkable Story of Sister Lucy.
Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz, Davis Studio Publishing
When we began to research
Sister Lucy, primary source documents were
scarce. Floods, fire, and time had destroyed
many resources. Kathy hertle-Baker,
director of the SCN archives, uncovered
some documentation and photographs, but
it contained only two documented sentences
spoken by Sister Lucy.
Was There
there More?
more?
The search took us to the archives at the
University of Notre Dame in South Bend,
Indiana. The Sisters of the holy Cross,
another religious congregation, had also
served in the same area as Sister Lucy
during the Civil War. A phone call to the
congregrations archives put us in touch
with Sister Madeline Therese Wilhoit, CSC,
who invited us to conduct research.
Not only did we find references to Sister
Lucy, but we also found amazing stories
about other Sister-nurses of the holy
Crossin their own words! The stories of
these brave women religious in military
hospitals and a naval hospital steamboat
would become the subject of another app,
Willing HeartsSisters of the Holy Cross
Civil War Nurses (www.willingheartsapp.com).
8 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK
APPtly
Told
in Their
In their Own
own Words
Within days of volunteering to serve as
nurses, the Sisters of the holy Cross found
themselves in Paducah, Kentucky, with scant
supplies, the times ahead nearly impossible
to envision. Sister M. Paula Casey wrote
about her arrival:
Of course we never knew what war was
until that 7 [sic] day of Dec 1861. Then we
tasted it to the fullest extent.
Their service is an amazing story of faith,
courage, and joy amid a divisive time in our
country. In her memoirs, Sister M. Anthony
Mannix recalled:
Sisters had little time for idleness or
recreation; and yet we were able sometimes
to snatch a few moments from our duties
to recount some of the happenings of the
day; some of the most comical experiences
in spite of the sadness of our surroundings.
tell the stories that deserve to be told.
During a hospital tour by medical
dignitaries, the Sisters employed their
formidable humor:
As we had ventured to make some severe
comments ourselves upon the rather
inadequate cooking
implements [sic], the Lady
Superior [Mother Angela]
exclaimed laughingly, If you
find fault with our cooking
stove Doctor what will you
say to our washing machines,
and held up her little fists
with their ten digits raw from
work in the hospital. This
was too much for civilized
humanity. We could only beat
a hasty retreat with a tearful
assurance to the laughing
Sisters that we would never
rest until we knew they were
provided with everything
necessary for carrying
forward their sublime work
of charity and self-denial.
Mother M. Augusta Anderson
remembered her first day
in a military hospital:
We were not prepared as
nurses, but our hearts made
our hands willing and our
sympathy ready, and so with
Gods help, we did much
towards alleviating the
dreadful suffering.
The Sisters faced difficulties head on, saving
countless lives. They helped establish
procedures that became the roots of the
modern nursing profession. Serving on the
naval ship USS Red Rover, they are now
considered the foremothers of the Navy
Nurse Corp.
One of the most touching documents found
is a letter from Sister Mary Anne Dorsey
from the Mound City, Illinois, hospital.
In this letter, Sister Mary Anne tenderly
informs a family of their sons death. The
letter demonstrates the high level of aid
the Sisters gave to those in their care, and
is included in the Willing Hearts app.
the Work of Many
The many
As lay historians, we rely on archivists
to guide us through their holdings to
When developing the Willing Hearts app,
we worked with Sister Jeanette Fettig,
CSC, who pulled materials of interest,
Continued on page 18>>
May/June 2017
the academy of certified archivists

Why Becoming
Certified Matters > It provides a competitive edge.
It strengthens the profession.
It recognizes professional
achievement and commitment.

The next Certified Archivist examination will be held July 26, 2017, in

Albuquerque, NM Portland, OR
Annapolis, MD (at ARCHIVES 2017)

Chattanooga, TN Salt Lake City, UT

Fairfax, VA San Jose, CA

Houston, TX Tulsa, OK
Des Moines, IA Washington, DC
as well as wherever five regular applicants wish to take it.

The 2017 application is available at

https://certifiedarchivists.wufoo.com/forms/aca-2017-exam-application/.

For the 2017 application and more information about

the Certified Archivist examination, go to the ACA website
(www.certifiedarchivists.org/get-certified) or contact the
ACA office (518-694-8471 or aca@caphill.com).
 I n her oral history interview and memoir, Margaret Cross Nortonthe first state archivist
of Illinois and the fourth president of SAAnoted that in 1939 I was the only woman
archivist in the country for many years.1 In reality, Norton was not the only woman
archivist at that time, but her remembrance of the solitude of her gender speaks to the few
numbers of women archivists in the profession shortly after the

Founding
founding of SAA in 1936.

Since the World War II-era, however, the number of women

archivists in the US has significantly increased. In 1936, women
were 28 percent of SAAs initial 226 members; in 1956, women
comprised 33 percent of the profession, 54 percent in 1982,
and in the 2004 A*CENSUS survey, this number increased to

WARriors
nearly 65 percent.2 Assuming this trend has continued, women
are now more than half of the archival profession.

The Women Archivists Section

As the number of women archivists has grown, so too did

the need to monitor the status of women in the profession,
promote their involvement in SAA leadership and activities, and provide a forum for
discussion of issues that specifically impact women as professional archivists. In 1972, SAA
created the ad hoc Committee on the Status of Women in the Archival Profession. Over the
years, the committee underwent several name changesfrom the Womens Professional
Women Archival Issues Roundtable (WPAIR) in 1998 to the Women Archivists Roundtable (WAR)
in 2000, to its current name, the Women Archivists Section (WArS) in 2017.

Archivists Like its earlier incarnations, WArS continues to actively monitor the status of women and
advocate for their involvement in the archival profession, looking toward the future while
Sections highlighting the past accomplishments of women who have shaped the profession and
the historical record. An important reason we kept the r in our name was precisely
Wikipedia so we could cement the link to our past as we continue to build upon the work of the
WARriors who came before us (well, and so that we can continue calling WArS members
Edit-a-thon WARriors!).3

Wikipedia and Gender

WArS has worked to engage members in a number of issues that affect women archivists
family leave, salary negotiation, and flexible working hours, to name a few. The steering
committee has also sought to highlight women leaders past and present to remember those
voices which have shaped archival praxis and the profession. WArS conducts interviews
with women leaders as part of its Three Questions blog series, but the section has long
sought to promote the history of women archivists. Who were these women? How could we
find out more about them? We gleaned some information from SAA and other sources such
as NARAs Womens History Month blog series on Prologue. We then turned to Wikipedia.

Leslie Van Veen McRoberts,
Salisbury University, and
Bethany Anderson,
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Although one of the most referenced resources on the web, Wikipedia has a serious gender
problem. Not only are most contributors men (at most only 16 percent of editors are
women4), but many articles represent women differently than men, tending to use more
gender-specific words despite Wikipedias efforts to dissuade the use of language that
perpetuates gendered stereotypes in its articles.5 In addition, most biographical articles in
Wikipedia are about men; in January 2015, only 15.5 percent of Wikipedias biographical
articles represented women.6
Despite being more than half of the archival professional, women archivists are
overwhelmingly underrepresented in Wikipedia. From a preliminary count in early
2016, approximately 50 articles about women archivists are in Wikipedia, compared

10 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK May/June 2017
to approximately 260 articles about men archivists. For specifically 96); virginia C. Purdy, an archivist and historian at NARA, SAA
American archivists, those numbers dwindle to 15 for women and Fellow, and editor of The American Archivist (197880); and Joan
93 for men. Representation also included only a small percentage Warnow-Blewett, associate director of the Center for the history of
of women archivists currently active in the field and women of Physics at the American Institute of Physics, SAA Council member
color. The then-Women Archivists Roundtable steering committee (198689), and known for her studies on scientific collaboration
wondered how we could remedy this. This was where a few good and recordkeeping practices. view the full list of articles created at
WARriors could come in! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup_Women_Archivists
_Roundtable_Edit-a-thon#Articles_Created.
the making of an edit-a-thon
promoting Histories of Women archivists
WArS decided to host a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the 2016 SAA
Annual Meeting in Atlanta. We found a wealth of resources on The Women Archivists Section is grateful to all the WARriors at
how to host and organize an edit-a-thon on WikiWomen events, the SAA Annual Meeting who contributed their time and expertise
including Art + Feminisma day-long, international edit-a-thon
to create and improve new articles about women archivists, and
event to create more articles in Wikipedia on women and the arts
we hope members will continue writing, editing, and promoting
and to encourage more women to edit. We
the histories of the women archivistsin
also gleaned a great deal of guidance from
the GLAM-Wiki initiative, which promotes Although one of the most Wikipedia and other spaceswho have shaped
the archival record.
the sharing of resources from cultural
heritage institutions (galleries, libraries,
referenced resources on
archives, and museums) through Wikipedia the web, Wikipedia has a We can now readily access the biographies
of Margaret Cross Nortons contemporaries,
editing and article creation. serious gender problem. including Margaret M. h. Finch, who managed
We created a Wikipedia meetup page the pension records at the Department of
where we aggregated editing resources the Interior and later worked at NARA before
and tutorials (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup_ retiring in 1949, and Elizabeth hamer Kegan, Assistant Librarian
Women_Archivists_Roundtable_Edit-a-thon). In addition, we created of Congress (196378) and president of SAA (197576).
a list of articles about women archivists already in Wikipedia so
In the early days of the American archival profession, women
participants could suggest candidates for enhancement. Wikipedia
archivists may have been few and far between, but as the Women
provides guidelines for writing biographies of living people
Archivists Section looks toward the future, it will continue to
outlining policies on using neutral points of view, verifiability, and
promote and amplify the voices of those who have worked to build
no original researchwhich we also included.
the foundations of the profession, so that no woman feels she is
The steering committee sent out a Google form to members to an island.
crowdsource suggestions of names for article creation as well
as existing articles that could be improved. We received nearly notes
30 suggestions; in addition, we encouraged participants to add 1
Norton, Margaret Cross - Interview and Memoir, The Oral history Collection
suggestions directly to the meetup page and to bring more ideas of the University of Illinois at Springfield, accessed January 7, 2017, http://
to the edit-a-thon. www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/uis/id/3368; cited on the Women
Archivists Section blog, https://womenarchivistsroundtable.wordpress.com
Thirty participants attended the meeting in Atlanta, in addition /about/.
to at least five remote participants. We were grateful for several 2
Michele Pacifico, Founding Mothers: Women in the Society of American
experienced Wikipedians (Greta Suiter, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt, Archivists, 1936-1972, The American Archivist (Summer 1987), 370; victoria
and Michael Barera) who volunteered their time and shared their Irons Walch, et al. A*CENSUS (Archival Census and Education Needs Survey
expertise at the edit-a-thon to help register new Wikipedia editors in the United States), The American Archivist (Fall/Winter, vol. 69): 348.
and field questions. To ensure that remote participants could 3
WARriors is term coined by former steering committee member Christine
contribute, the steering committee prepared guidelines specifically Anne George, which we adopted and use to greet members of the section.
for remote contributors ahead of time, while steering committee 4
Benjamin Mako hill and Aaron Shaw, The Wikipedia Gender Gap Revisited:
member helen Kim provided online assistance via Twitter. Characterizing Survey Response Bias with Propensity Score Estimation, PLoS
One 8 (2013), accessed January 5, 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal
Some participants worked to improve existing articles, adding .pone.0065782.
the categories Fellows of the Society of American Archivists 5
Rick Paulas, Closing Wikipedias Gender Gap, Pacific Standard (2016),
and female archivists. Other participants worked on creating accessed January 5, 2017, https://psmag.com/closing-wikipedias-gender-gap
new articles, resulting in 18 new articles for women archivists -1f02b247beba#.z0b94i3vn.
such as Brenda Banks, consultant, known for her work at the 6
Wikipedia:Writing about women, Wikipedia, accessed January 7, 2017,
Georgia Archives, and an SAA Fellow and past president (1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_about_women.

May/June 2017 A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 11
 s a a E l E c t i o N R E s u lt s 2 0 1 7

H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
Meredith Evans Elected Steven Booth

Vice President Id like to work with group leaders

Meredith Evans, director of the Jimmy
Carter Presidential Library and Museum,
has been elected SAA vice president/
president-elect for 20172018. She
begins her one-year term as vice
president this July following the Annual
Meeting, and then will serve as the
seventy-fourth president in 20182019.
She will succeed Tanya Zanish Belcher.
and steering committees to develop
and implement opportunities for
members to contribute their skill sets
and expertise. Id also like to identify
new ways to recognize the community
service and passion projects of non-
archivists and archivists who contribute to the advancement of the
profession and raise public awareness about archives. Through these
efforts, I hope to not only support and encourage membership
participation, but to also serve as a sounding board and provide
resources for achieving the strategic goals at the grassroots level.

In this role, Evans will bring her experience in leadership and
management to focus on recruitment and retention of archivists,
diversifying the record, and community engagement.
I would like to create a space for meaningful discussions on
ethics in archival practice, specificallyissuesrelated to privacy,
surveillance, and rights, in web archives, social media data
collections and other digital/digitized records, and especially those
documenting the lives of traditionally marginalized people, wrote
Evans in her candidate statement.
A supported archives workforce is essential to promoting public
good and social responsibility. SAA should advocate for and cham-
pion archival education that centers inclusion, critical thinking, and
ethical practices. These values are critical for the young archivists
who will lead the profession into the future, added Evans.
Brenda Gunn
I believe it is important as a Council
member to facilitate trans-group
communication regularly and have
groups reinforce each other on issues
of mutual concern as well as support
each other even when the issues arent
germane to all. Given SAAs size and
continued growth, now might be an
opportune time to establish a specific liaison position that would
focus on the general membership. In the way that a newspaper
has a public editor, that a hospital has a patient advocate, or that a
university campus has an ombudsman, SAA could have a Council
member whose duty would be specific to the membershipto
encourage and to receive ideas from the community at large.

Steven Booth, Brenda gunn, Audra Audra Eagle Yun

Eagle yun to Join the SAA Council I believe we are our own best advocates
and, as a member of Council, I will seek
Steven Booth (Barack Obama Presidential Library), Brenda
out ways to encourage members and
gunn (The University of Texas at Austin), and Audra Eagle yun
emerging leaders to present their ideas.
(University of California, Irvine) have been elected to the Council
I will engage with SAA groups and the
for three-year terms (20172020). In their candidate statements,
general membership first through SAA
the newly elected explained how they would leverage their role on
communication channels and ongoing
the Council as a liaison to SAA groups to support their initiatives
liaison work with SAA groups. Finally, I will work within the
and encourage members to present new ideas to and engage with
Council to create member stories to help SAA leadership consider
SAA leadership.
the perspectives and needs of different types of professionals. I
will leverage my role through active listening, tracking email, and
vot ER paRt icipat ioN tRENds following social media to tap into what matters most to archivists
and our users.
Eligible Percentage
Year Voters Ballots Cast of Voters

2017 5,792 1,093 18.9%

Who Would You suGGEst ?
The newly elected Nominating Committee members are already on
2016 5,837 1,298 22.2%
the lookout for prospective candidates for the 2018 SAA election.
2015 6,056 1,467 24.2% Suggestions are anonymous and confidential. Submit the prospective
candidates name, institutional affiliation, brief bio, and why you think
2014 5,971 1,202 20%
this person should be considered using the form at http://www2
2013 5,900 1,008 17.1% .archivists.org/nominations-needed-for-2018-election.

12 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK May/June 2017

 s a a E l E c t i o N R E s u lt s 2 0 1 7
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
SAA nominating Committee
Welcomes Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez,
Aaisha Haykal, and Stacie Williams
The 2018 Nominating Committee will include Elvia Arroyo-
Ramirez (Princeton University), Aaisha Haykal (College of
Charleston), Stacie Williams (Case Western Reserve University),
along with two third-year Council members selected by the Council
at its May 2017 meeting. Williams will serve as chair of the
Nominating Committee, which will begin its service immediately
and work through the fall in preparing a slate of candidates for the
2018 election. The new members of the Nominating Committee
defined their criteria for choosing a slate of nominees in their
candidate statements.
Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez
As a member of the Nominating
Committee, I will work with my col-
leagues to ensure that the roster of SAA
leaders not only embodies the diversity
of the archives profession through their
advocacy for issues of access, intellectual
property, digital preservation, and more
inclusive representation of historically marginalized communities in
archival collections, but uphold it through loud compassion for all
members of our profession and members of vulnerable communi-
ties who may be directly impacted by potential new government
policies that restrict access to information.
May/June 2017
Aaisha Haykal
It is vital to have voices from a diverse
set of people and experiences. I will seek
recommendations from SAA leaders,
schools, regional associations, and allied
organizations to locate people who
are already in leadership positions and
those who show leadership potential.
Consequently, we will have a slate that demonstrates SAA to be an
engaged, valuable, and visionary association.
Stacie Williams
The responsibility of the Nominating
Committee is to identify individuals
who reflect the institutions highest
values, and I feel strongly that finding
those individuals means searching
outside of established frameworks and
groups. SAA leaders and members would
benefit from continued engagement with user communities who
can help us find creative solutions to diversifying this profession,
this organization, and our collections. As a Nominating Committee
member, I will seek to identify diverse leadership by looking to
individuals who are strong advocates for their communities and
users. Amplifying members or projects involved in or related
to community-based archiving is likely to engage leaders who
understand how our work is applied in real-world scenarios across
a wide spectrum of stakeholders and who can continue to make our
work relevant and sustainable for years to come.
A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 13
 Turning the Page to Portland

An Archives 2017 reading List

Laura Buchholz, Digital Project Librarian at Reed College and SAA Host Committee Member

Okay. Youve registered for ARCHIVES 2017 on July 2329 in Portland at the Oregon Convention
Center, marked the sessions you dont want to miss, and sorted out lodging and travel. Now all
you have to do is decide which artisanal donut shop to visit and whether to go to the Cheese Bar
(http://www.cheese-bar.com) or the Whiskey Library (https://mwlpdx.com), right?
Hold your custom, fixed-gear bike! Whats the only thing more Portland than food and drink?
Books!!! Before you even arrive, get to know your host city through the words of these Oregon
authors and characters.

nonfiction Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the

People | Carl Abbott
Oregons Promise: An Interpretive History A quick and easy read, Portland in Three Centuries
David Peterson del Mar focuses on the business and technological forces that
This book is perfect if your knowledge of Oregon shaped Portland, from an author who clearly loves the
is based on Portlandia and the Oregon Trail game. city. however, Abbotts attempts to discuss Portlands
Peterson del Mar covers enormous ground, deliberately minority communities seem somewhat forced, so read
taking on founding myths in an effort to describe the this book alongside The Portland Black Panthers for a
lives of Oregonians of all classes, races, and ethnici- fuller picture of the city.
ties. Covering the history of an entire state is too big a
task for less than 300 pages, but the work is absolutely Fugitives and Refugees:
worth reading. A Walk in Portland,
Oregon
The Portland Black Chuck Palahniuk
Panthers: Empowering When people say, Keep
Albina and Remaking a Portland Weird, this is the
City | Lucas N. N. Burke sort of weird they usually
and Judson L. Jeffries mean. This unofficial
In the nineteenth century,
guidebook tells you where
Oregon repeatedly passed
to see the knife from Alfred
laws excluding African
hitchcocks Psycho and
Americans from the state,
which hotels house which
and Portland is one of the
ghosts. It even explains
whitest cities in the country.
the history of the Church of Elvis. The book could be
This well-researched book
summarized with a quote from that guy who glues
examines the Black Panther
things all over his car: Portland makes up for its small
party of Portland and the Albina neighborhood, where
many black Portlanders lived, often due to housing size with its loud and obnoxious behavior.
discrimination. This book gives voice to an important
but little known part of the citys history. Continued on page 19 >>

14 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK May/June 2017

 From tHe arCHivist oF tHe uniteD states
david s. Ferriero
National Archives and Records Administration
david.ferriero@nara.gov
nARAs Role in Preserving
Presidential and Federal Records
The peaceful transfer of executive power
from one president to the next is a hallmark
of our government. At the beginning of any
new administration, however, questions
often arise about recordkeeping. As we are
now a few months into a new presidency,
its a good time to go over NARAs authority
concerning presidential and federal records.
NARA was founded to ensure that the
permanent records of the federal govern-
ment are preserved and made accessible to
the public now and in the future. To fulfill
this mission, we work with records creators
before records even come into our custody.
The scope and authority NARA has in car-
rying out this role in each of the three
branches of government is influenced by
the separation of powers defined in the US
Constitution. For 200 years, the heads of
each branch considered their documents as
their personal papers and disposed of them
as they wished. Today, two laws govern
records created by the US government: The
Federal Records Act (FRA) (https://www
.archives.gov/about/laws) and the Presidential
Records Act (PRA) (https://www.archives.gov
/about/laws#presrec).
The FRA was enacted in 1950 and amended
most recently in November 2014. The FRA
gave the National Archives (then under
the General Services Administration)
responsibility to oversee recordkeeping in
federal agencies in the executive branch. The
FRA also gives NARA oversight authority
over federal agencies in the judicial and
legislative branches of government, although
it does not apply to the Supreme Court, the
Senate, the house of Representatives, and
the Architect of the Capitol.
The FRA gives NARA a direct, formal role in
agencies records management: We advise
agencies on appropriate recordkeeping prac-
tices, appraise their records, approve records
disposition schedules, have inspection and
May/June 2017
oversight authority, and can resolve whether
a document is a federal record. NARA helps
agencies determine how long they must
keep temporary records before they can be
destroyed and which they must eventually
turn over to NARA
for permanent
preservationless Today, two laws govern on appropriate records
than five percent
of the mountain of
records created by the US management.
documents created government: The Federal Both the Federal Records
by agencies every Records Act and the
year comes to the
archives. Presidential Records Act. management of records
The FRA does not
cover records created by US presidents,
which, until 1978, were still considered
their personal property. President Franklin
Roosevelt started the tradition of donating
presidential papers to the National Archives
when he founded the first presidential
library in 1940, and his successors (as
well as his predecessor, herbert hoover)
followed suit.
The Watergate scandal of 197274 changed
all that. After resigning from office,
President Richard Nixon wanted to destroy
the White house tapes. Congress, backed by
the Supreme Court, passed the Presidential
Recordings and Materials Preservation Act
(PRMPA) in 1974 to acquire and place the
Nixon tapes and papers in the National
Archives.
Four years later, Congress passed the
Presidential Records Act of 1978 (also
amended in 2014), which established
government ownership of presidential
records, starting with the next president
to take office, Ronald Reagan.
Unlike with federal agency records, NARA
does not have direct oversight authority
over the White house records program.
Instead, because the archivist reports to the
president, NARA only provides advice and
assistance to the White house on records
management practices upon request. While
only a small percentage of agency records
are permanent, all presidential records are
considered permanent, unless the president
obtains the written views of the archivist to
dispose of particular recordse.g., public
mail and routine administrative files.
Immediately after the president leaves
office, the National Archives takes legal
and physical custody of the outgoing
administrations records and begins to work
with incoming White
house staff to advise
Act and the Presidential
Records Act govern the
created by the executive
branch, but the FRA gives
NARA greater oversight authority than it
has for presidential records. That difference
in the level of authority is dictated by the
constitutional structure governing the three
branches of our government.
NARA is privileged to work with presidents
and agencies to ensure that the permanent
records of our government are properly man-
aged, preserved, and ultimately made avail-
able for research by the American people.
KUDOS
Richard Turley
Jr., managing
director of the
public affairs
department of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, received the 2017
Life-Time Achievement Award from
the Conference of InterMountain
Archivists (CIMA). Turley has served
for decades in various roles of direc-
tor, historian, and archivist for the
church, and under his guidance in
1999, the genealogical website https://
FamilySearch.org was launched.
A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 15
teaching with primary sources
continued from page 7
participant-led themes
There are many reasons why participants
likeand sometimes preferthe
unconference model, but it can also be
chaotic. Since the unconference was only
one day, we devised a plan to ensure that
topics with the most interest would be
offered in several formats throughout the
program. In essence, adding structure
without jeopardizing the spontaneous
nature of the event.
When participants registered online, they
were invited to submit topics of interest.
It didnt take long for six Big Ideas to
emerge as overarching themes: assessment,
K12 education, creative and adaptive uses
of archival materials, teaching archival
advocacy and research skills, engaging
undergraduates, and outreach.
Within these categories, participants could
propose specific areas of discussion. For
instance, the proposed topics of National
history Day and Common Core Standards
fell under K12 education. Once at the
unconference, attendees were given sticky
notes to add a conversation track under the
relevant Big Ideas.
The flow of the unconference was
excellent, commented Derek T. Mosley,
archives division manager at Auburn
Avenue Research Library, which hosted the
unconference. The use of flipcharts and
post-it notes helped to easily guide the topic
selection process which produced great
dialogue among attendees.
We felt we were
missing an opportunity
to place our efforts
into the broader
context of cultural
and educational
institutions.
Using the Big Ideas format to merge similar
suggestions and unpack larger conversa-
tions, the committee selected the sessions
which had generated the most interest and
proposed an unconference schedule by the
time the formal presentations ended. In
order to ensure that the unconference would
be collaborative even for those unable to
attend, each session was assigned a volun-
teer facilitator, who kept the conversation
on topic, and notetaker, who captured the
essence of the conversation via a live Google
Doc. The day concluded with a wrap-up for
attendees to share their immediate feedback
and impressions about the unconference.
Finding Connections
The local and collaborative approach to
planning along with the addition of allied
professionals as workshop facilitators
strengthened the unconference and added
variety to discussions. The issues and
challenges archivists face are not unique to
our profession, and the open nature of the
unconference provided an excellent forum
for highlighting connections and examining
differences among our professions.
If you are interested in using primary
source material for teaching, then find your
way to the Teaching with Primary Sources
Unconference and Workshops on July 25
at the Portland Art Museum for a free-
flowingand free!event. For more info:
http://teachwithstuff.org/tps-unconference
-2017july-portland/.

Aeon is not another front

end system. Really.
Offsite
Other systems are about description and discovery. Storage
But Aeon is about fulfillment.
Some systems help you catalog and make objects discoverable within ILS
your institution or on the Web. Others manage the creation of the Digital Assets
Management
repositories in which objects can be digitally stored, searched, and found.
Aeon unites these systems to help meet the challenges of delivering
better service to researchers, improving collection security, and Linked Data
gathering meaningful statistics to support the assessment needs of
todays institutions.

To see how Aeon fits the pieces together, sign up for

a free web demo at www.atlas-sys.com/demo/.

Or, email us at aeon@atlas-sys.com.
ArchivesSpace Registered Atlas Web Visibility Services
We play nice with others. www.atlas-sys.com
Service Provider
Aspace@atlas-sys.com
Zepheira Distribution Partner
aeon@atlas-sys.com

16 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK May/June 2017

taking it on the road launched this project before we had raised didnt need the distant locations, but they
continued from page 6 even a dollar. Every penny was sought as it were already booked. That meant long drives
was needed, which is a stressful way to work. twiceonce to drop off and once to pick up.

a roadmap to success
The exhibit lasted for one full year, starting
January 2016. Every month, each individual
panel moved to a different location. This
resulted in the exhibit being housed in more
than thirty locations throughout the year,
with several hosts taking multiple panels.
Early in the process, the oversight commit-
tee made a list of possible locales and con-
tacted the organizations with our proposal.
The exhibit was free to host; we simply
asked that the organization help us market
it via their newsletters and social media. By
December 2015, the entire year was booked.
hosts included synagogues, businesses,
schools, and public libraries. In order to
maximize who would see it, a quarter of the
locales were not Jewish organizations.
here is our DOs and DONTs list of what
worked and what we would have changed.
DO know how much money you want
to raise. This may seem like a no-brainer,
but really think what you are trying to
accomplish. And then add to that. Expenses
are going to come up that you never
expected (we had to reprint a panel that
had a typo). Plus, events like this are a great
opportunity to enlarge your organizations
finances. The traveling exhibit cost about
$10,000, but we raised more as a fundraiser
for the archives.
DO fundraise far in advance. Again,
no-brainer, right? however, when you are
researching, curating, contacting organiza-
tions to host the exhibitoh, and running
your archives as usual asking people
for money can fall through the cracks. We
DO know your goals. If you know what
you want to achieve (in our case, awareness
of LNSJCA), you can work toward that
with every step. And it helps to have a
metric for measuring success. While we
didnt have a way to determine the number
of people who stopped to look at the
exhibit, we did leave pamphlets (created in-
house) in a stand next to the exhibit. Over
600 pamphlets were taken during the year,
which gives us at least a baseline to start
with in terms of viewership.
DOnT make your exhibit double-
sided. Seriously, dont. This was one of
our biggest mistakes. To utilize the least
amount of space with the most amount of
information, we made the exhibit double-
sided and it proved to be a problem in nearly
every location. Think about where you are
displaying the panels. Then think about how
traffic gets through that area. Double-sided
panels cant be put against the wall, making
them impediments to crowds. Furthermore,
be selective regarding information and
material. A few lengthy expositions and a
couple of great photographs could have been
excluded without compromising the panel,
leading to less congestion and the absence
of the second side.
DOnT go out of your comfort zone.
That is, when contacting places to host your
panels, dont reach out to places farther
than you want to drive. At the beginning
of the project, being fearful about finding
enough hosts, we reached out to locations in
Ann Arbor (45 minutes away) and Lansing
(over an hour away). It turned out, the
positive response was overwhelming and we
DO plan to work alone. When you are a
lone arranger, assume that a majority of the
project will fall on your shoulders. Especially
when the bulk of your volunteer force is
older and unable to help move panels each
month. Be sure to take on only as much
as you can handle by yourself. And dont
forget, you wont have as much energy by
month twelve as you had in month one,
so prepare to overcome an end-of-the-year
slump in enthusiasm.
DO hire where you can afford to. While
curating was done in-house, we used a free-
lance designer and fabrication company.
When seeking these services, dont be afraid
to ask for recommendations. Although we
met with several different fabricating com-
panies, the one we ultimately chose came
highly recommended by a local museum.
DO know your audience. Our strongest
supporters are over the age of 60, so we
tried to attract more diverse age groups.
Efforts included quizzes about the exhibit
available on our website and a selfie
contestif you posted a selfie with one of
the panels on our Facebook page, you could
win a prize. Only one person entered in the
entire year. Our efforts would have been
better spent planning programming for our
known participants.
The past year was filled with both
excitement and anxiety, but the outcome
made it worth the hard work. We not
only achieved our goals, but also have a
roadmap for the next time we attempt such
a project. If you are starting a similar
project, hopefully you can avoid some of
our mistakes!

opening the locks Through the partnership

continued from page 5 of an academic special
collections library and
a federal agency, the
While waiting for the request to be
processed, Clarke staff developed an best visual record of
interface to display low-resolution copies of one of the nations most
the photos on our website. Once we received important engineering
images back from USACE, we quickly endeavors has been
processed them for web display and added made digitally accessible Men measure the discharge
of the compensating works,
a watermark. The final product, revealed for researchers,
which controls the flow of
in October 2016, is a publicly-accessible educators, hobbyists, water from Lake Superior into
keyword and date searchable database and anyone with an the St. Marys River. July 21,
of the Soo Locks history, found at interest in the history 1930. Courtesy of the Clarke
http://clarke.cmich.edu/SooLocks. Historical Library and the
of the Soo Locks.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
May/June 2017 Soo Area Office.
Building a Community archives
continued from page 3
Creating access
Working with the indigenous community
to become partners in the archives has been
the most challenging and exciting part of
this project. While the elders are thrilled to
see images from their pastparticularly the
mountainous landscapes and planting and
harvest fiestas that are so important to their
subsistence agricultural worldgrasping
that these photographs might be shared
with the wider world is another matter.
Among the elders, almost no one has a
home computer or Internet access (although
nearly all now have cell phones).
So I turned to local Caari educators in
the bilingual (Kichwa/Spanish) Instituto
Quilloac, where we created an editorial
committee and convenio, or contract, to
work together on the archives. This has been
a slow process, and it will be another year
or so before elders and other stakeholders
may view collections with aneye to giving
permission for public access. Meanwhile, to
gather information on the images, I share
them in slideshows and exhibits, on CDs,
and in print.
Last year I realized I had to stop collecting
materials and think about processing and
preservation, beginning with a description
system. Using a simple form based on
Dublin Core, I created collection binders
with a page for each image. I carried
these binders with me on home visits and
sometimes displayed them at public events
so people could peruse and add information:
names, dates, times, and comments.
At the same time, I began to explore open-
source CMS software. I was impressed with
Mukurtus work with native tribes in the
Northwest region of the United States. As
apptly told
continued from page 8
recounted their stories, so that we could
winnow the many documents into a
narrative. Drafts of the Willing Hearts
story were shared with Sister Timothea
Kingston and Sister Catherine Osimo,
18 A R C HIVA L OU TL O OK
a cutting-edge platform supporting ethical
stewardship of cultural heritage materials,
Mukurtu seemed right for the Archivo
Cultural de Caar. An interactive function
allows community members to have access
as administrators or members. however,
one issue is language: while the back-end
of the platform is in English, the public view standards without adapting and modifying
has to be in Spanish. Still, I began uploading them so that materials are preserved and
content and inputting metadata, with assur- accessible while also serving the needs and
ance from Mukurtu that at a future date we concerns of the community. With Baur we
can migrate data to a platform appropriate
for Spanish-language users.
Developing sustainability
In 2015, Natalie Baur began working with
me as a consultant for creating long-term
and sustainable digital preservation of the
collections and building local capacity to
maintain and access collections. It quickly
became clear that this unique, post-
custodial, community archives project
with little access to reliable national
or international fundingwould face
significant challenges in establishing digital
asset management, providing ethical and
equitable access to digital collections, and
training local professionals to undertake
this work. To help with these issues,
Itinerant Archivists organized its first study The Archivo Cultural de Caar is an
tour to Ecuador in September 2015 to work exercise in learning to set aside the idea
with Ecuadorian archivists and librarians
and local Caar community stakeholders.
When Baur visited Caar in June 2016,
she realized that traditional archival and
digital preservation standards and, to a
large extent, the ethics surrounding those
standards, were either irrelevant or just
not adequate for the task at hand. While
the project is community-based and takes
a post-custodial approach, because no one
formal institution (i.e., university special
collections, government agency, or non-
profit) is making stewardship decisions,
complications surrounding rights, privacy,
who gave thoughtful ideas and feedback
for revision.
An app allows for a multimedia approach.
Other Sisters generously contributed their
voices to Willing Hearts. The Loretto Choir
recorded a beautiful version of a period
song, Tenting Tonight. Sister Catherine
access, and technical management are
significantly amplified.
We are only beginning to work through
the issue of how to make the project
sustainable technically and ethically.
We cannot apply formalized archival
translated the National Digital Stewardship
Alliance (NDSA) Levels of Preservation: An
Explanation and Uses chart into Spanish.
We chose the NDSA model because it is
straightforward, adaptable, and iterative.
Then we worked on creating appraisal
and accession documentation for each of
the collections, taking note of where the
materials came from, the historical and
community context in which they were
created, and implications the materials
may have on access and ownership. Finally,
we shared the translated NDSA standards
and adaptations of digital preservation
practices in a workshop for local community,
museum, and archives workers.
redefining standards
that standards and best practicesas
constructed through professionalization
and institution-based effortsare the
be all and end all. We hold standards
and professional training and literature in
one hand, while in the other we carefully
consider how they do or do not fit into the
work that is happening in the community.
This approach, being critically applied and
adopted now by many archivists working
on community archives and documentation
projects, is creating a whole new vision
and set of tools for both community
documentarians and archivists.
organized voiceover readings by holy Cross
Sisters of their Sister-nurses letters. Their
story was apptly told.
Davis Studio Publishing focuses on Kentuckys
multicultural history and womens history. Willing
HeartsSisters of the Holy CrossCivil War Nurses
recently won a gold medal for Exemplary Christian
Literature.
May/June 2017
turning the page to portland The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight
continued from page 14 in Heaven and The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Fiction If you havent already read these two
The Lathe of Heaven | Ursula K. Le Guin books, then its time! Although set
This classic science fiction story mostly on the Spokane Indian
features a man whose dreams change Reservation in Washington, Alexies
the worldjust never quite as intended. books are required reading for
Portland provides an important but understanding the Pacific Northwest.
unobtrusive backdrop to the story.
And Mt. hood erupts!
not enough? Theres plenty more! check out these lists
The Jump-Off Creek | Molly Gloss for more great books about portland and oregon.
A beautiful and sparsely written novel.
At its center is Lydia Sanderson, a woman 150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial:
starting a homestead alone in the Blue Mountains in northeast http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/docs/booklist.pdf
Oregon in 1895. The few characters
reveal themselves slowly, with ample Goodreads List of Books Set in Portland, Oregon: https://
silences and short dialogue set in a harsh www.goodreads.com/places/1614-portland-oregon?page=1
environment and economy.
Required Reading: 40 Books Set in the Pacific Northwest:
Sometimes a Great Notion | Ken Kesey http://www.powells.com/post/required-reading/required-reading
Keseys 1964 novel may not be for -40-books-set-in-the-pacific-northwest
everyone. In fact, it can take a couple Oregon Poetic voices: http://oregonpoeticvoices.org/poets/
reads before the plot becomes clear, let
alone for true appreciation to develop. 10 Portland Powerhouses Bringing the (Good) hurt to
Nonetheless, this piece remains an impor- Publishing: https://litreactor.com/columns/14-portland
tant Northwest work, worth reading even -powerhouses-bringing-the-hurt-to-independent-publishin
for the descriptions of rain.

May/June 2017 A RC H I VA L OU TL O OK 19
 FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nancy P. Beaumont
nbeaumont@archivists.org
Pulling It All Together in Portland
S ometimes Im just plain dazzled by how
things come together.
SAA member Judy Blankenship describes
in this issue of Archival Outlook (page 3)
how, The Archivo Cultural de Caar grew
out of nearly two decades of documentary
work with indigenous communities in a
highland region of southern Ecuador. I
first ventured to Caar in the early 1990s
as a volunteer on a research project, with
the task of teaching two young Caari
men skills in photography and oral history.
Twenty years later, after many return
trips for teaching and exhibits, two books,
three Fulbrights, and the construction of
a house in the clouds, my husband and I
now live six months every year in Caar
and six months in Portland, Oregon.
[Shes from Portlandsite of SAAs 2017
Annual Meeting!]
Judy hired SAA member Natalie Baur in
2015 to work with her as a consultant for
creating long-term and sustainable digital
preservation of the collections and building
local capacity to maintain and access
collections. It quickly became clear that this
unique, post-custodial, community archives
projectwould face significant challenges
in establishing digital asset management,
providing ethical and equitable access
to digital collections, and training local
professionals to undertake this work.
Natalie is a member of the Program
Committee for ARCHIVES 2017: alike/
different in Portland, July 2329. The
conference includes a grand experiment
that were calling The Liberated Archive: A
Forum for Envisioning and Implementing a
Community-Based Approach to Archives. This
brainchild of Program Committee Chair
Terry Baxter and a small steering committee
(including Natalie) is intended to provide
20 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
both community members and archivists
with tools, techniques, and human
connections that they can use to transform
the way in which the human record is
documented.
The conference includes a
grand experiment that were
calling The Liberated Archive:
A Forum for Envisioning and
Implementing a Community-
Based Approach to Archives.
The full-day forum on Saturday, July 29,
will feature keynote presentations by
writer/activist/educator/poet Walidah
Imarisha and musician/storyteller Joaquin
Lopez; ten concurrent panel discussions
selected from among 42 proposals; and
an afternoon unconference that attendees
will help to plan. The forum will explore a
different kind of outreach that depends on
collaboration and communication to build
trusted relationships and make friends
and advocates. Very much the type of work
called for in SAAs ambitious goal to provide
leadership in ensuring the completeness,
diversity, and accessibility of the historical
record. Very much about developing
cultural competence.
Judys article concludes: We hold standards
and professional training and literature in
one hand, while in the other we carefully
consider how they do or do not fit into the
work that is happening in the community.
This approach, being critically applied and
adopted now by many archivists working
on community archives and documentation
projects, is creating a whole new vision
and set of tools for both community
documentarians and archivists.
* * *
Also in this issue (page 14), Host Committee
member Laura Buchholz shares an
ARCHIVES 2017 reading list, compiled
to help you get to know your host city
through the words of these Oregon authors
and characters. If youd rather browse
these selections while actually in Portland,
Powells City of Books (1005 West Burnside
Street) is just nine walkable blocks from the
Hilton Portland. Ranked #1 in the world by
The Guardian readers (ahead of City Lights
in San Francisco, Shakespeare and Company
in Paris, and The Strand in New York City),
Powells is open from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm
every day. (Check the website for hours
for the Rare Book Room and Sell Us Your
Booksand leave room in your suitcase
for new treasures!)
* * *
I just signed a contract with Brett
Burmeister of Moveable Feast in Portland
to manage the food cart pod that will
be the centerpiece of our All-Attendee
Reception on Wednesday evening, July
26. So imagine my delight to see posted
on our staff bulletin board an article from
the March 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune
(Portlands robust food cart scene a treat
for the taste buds) in which hes quoted:
Its a destination spot. And food brings
people together. So every day at these food
cart lots, we bring community together.
Sometimes youll run into a friend;
sometimes youll make a new friend there.
Another opportunity for community. We
hope youll run into your friendsand
make some new onesin Portland!
May/June 2017
 17 North State Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60602-3315 USA
Come for the learning + connections
Stay for the many delights of Portland!
July 2329 | Oregon Convention Center
join saa
for four extraordinary
days of learning that will :
Connect you with colleagues who
share your challenges
Give you the knowledge and skills
you need to succeed
Broaden your perspectives
and return to work refreshed, renewed,
and ready to take your institution to the
next level!
For more information and to register,
go to www2.archivists.org/am2017