Dear members:

The ART board of directors is working hard, from our respective homes, on ways to best support you during this difficult time. We realize that individuals are affected differently during this crisis, and as part of our commitment to promoting and advocating for your needs, we will soon provide a broad list of resources to help you navigate the current landscape.

Please give us a little longer to aggregate these resources. We invite you to continue visiting us on social media for the latest information, updates, and ongoing efforts from affiliated organizations.

Thank you for your cooperation and patience. We send our best wishes for your continued health and safety as we all collectively navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

A special election has been called by the ART Board of Directors, in order to vote for a vacancy for the position of Treasurer, Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York Inc. (ART). Voting will take place via electronic ballot between January 30 - February 10, 2020.

  

Read the candidates' bios and statements.

All active members are eligible to vote in this election and ballots have been distributed via email. Results of the election will be announced on Tuesday, February 11th once the tally has been completed. If you have not received your ballot, or have other questions, please contact ART Vice President Amye McCarther at veep@nycarchivists.org.

Please join Archivists Round Table for an exhibition tour and reception at NYC’s new museum, Poster House, on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM.

After several years in development, Poster House opened its doors this summer as the first museum in the United States devoted exclusively to poster design. They aim to educate and engage audiences through a curatorial exploration of large format graphic design and its public impact. 

A.R.T. members will join Melissa Walker, Poster House Collection Manager, for a walk through of current exhibitions, including “Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana,” and “20/20 Insight: Posters from the 2017 Women's March,” - which Melissa also curated. Go behind the scenes with a sneak peek into storage and conservation; followed by a social hour with snacks and drinks in the Poster House café.

Please register in advance, space is limited.

The Archivist Round Table of Metropolitan New York Inc. is compiling a list of archives for a member directory and database. Assembling such a database will increase visibility of obscured collections, increase access to primary resources for academic and professional study, and broadly encourage collaboration among the community. 

This directory will include academic, business, museums, religious, private, and other archives within the New York city area. 

We would like to add as many institutions to our database as possible. If you would like to be included in this directory please fill out this brief Google form:  https://forms.gle/J9zs75xThKQAN375A

When completed, access to this database will be available to ART members and institutions via the ART website.

Please contact president@nycarchivists.org with any questions and recommendations of collections you think should be included.

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. supports the request of our Membership to advocate for increased diversity and equity for our professional community of archivists, librarians and records managers. We support and promote salary transparency for our membership of qualified emerging and established professionals, and aim to ensure that our job board offers positions that balance compensation with job responsibilities, desired education, and experience while providing the New York Metropolitan area with top candidates from our membership base for all levels of employment.

The ART Board voted to discontinue accepting job position submissions to our job board that do not include a salary or salary range; are in violation of US Labor laws; fall below a living wage according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, or otherwise do not meet current professional best practices.

Effective 6 December 2019, all jobs submitted via the ART job board will be reviewed for compensation transparency; parity between job requirements and compensation; and parity between job description and job title.

• All paid full time/part time listings must include salary information.
  
  
• All paid/unpaid student, intern, and volunteer listings must adhere to the following:
• • US Department of Labor's Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
    

  • Society of American Archivists' Best Practices for Internships:
    https://www2.archivists.org/standards/best-practices-for-internships-as-a-component-of-graduate-archival-education
    

  • Society of American Archivists' Best Practices for Volunteers in Archives: https://www2.archivists.org/standards/best-practices-for-volunteers-in-archives
    

ART has created new job submission forms to help guide those submitting jobs online, and will return for adjustments to postings that do not meet our current standards for paid employment and our current standards for student positions, internships, and volunteer opportunities as stated above. Posts that discriminate based on race, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, and aim to widen the wage gap between men and women in our profession will also be returned.

The ART Board of Directors invites questions and comments on this newly adopted policy at board@nycarchivists.org.

The Archivists Round Table invites you to celebrate the holidays and the 40th anniversary of our beloved organization with a gathering at the Brooklyn Collection. Housed within the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn Collection documents the history of Brooklyn from pre-colonial times to the present. Founded as a small book collection attached to the Library’s History Division, it has become the world’s largest public archive for the study of Brooklyn’s social and cultural history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Please join your ART colleagues and friends on Wednesday, December 11, 7 pm - 9 pm at the Brooklyn Collection, where we'll enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks. On view will be special highlights from Brooklyn Collection archives and the exhibit, "Food fit for Kings County: The Culinary History of Brooklyn."

Learn more and register here: Archivists Round Table Celebrates the Holiday and 40 Years

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Midnight, November 1st

2020 New York Archives Conference Call for Session Proposals

The 2020 NYAC call for session proposals is now open! The 2020 annual meeting will be held June 10-12, 2020 in Poughkeepsie.

The New York Archives Conference Program Committee seeks session proposals relating to archival issues and efforts undertaken in any number of combinations by archivists in a variety of settings. We are hoping to create a diverse program that involves traditional presentations as well as lightning talks, debates, and roundtable/facilitated discussions with session attendees on topics of shared interest. We encourage members and non-members to submit proposals on a wealth of archival topics including (but not limited to) selection, arrangement and description, reference and access, preservation and security, outreach and advocacy, archives management, digital asset management, ethical and legal responsibilities, and emerging technology, processes, and services.

The submission form can be found here:  https://forms.gle/DPtLcim7dnYBjKNa9 

For more information about NYAC and past conferences, please see our website at http://www.nyarchivists.org/nyac/

Archives Week 2019 is here! We couldn't be more excited about our line up of events, exhibitions, and programs. See the full print calendar here (pdf), read the descriptions on our events page, or consult the calendar. From the Bronx (Lehman College) to the Battery (DORIS), Queens (Public Library) to XFR Collective (at the Ear Inn), this year's lineup has something for everyone. All events are free and open to the public--don't forget to RSVP!

Share your experience using #nyaw2019

Please join us in congratulating this year’s Awards Ceremony recipients:

“MoMA Through Time” for ARCHIVAL ACHIEVEMENT, which recognizes an individual or archival program that has made an outstanding contribution to the archival profession, or a notable achievement of value to the archives community, its patrons or constituents. MoMA Through Time is a select history of MoMA and MoMA PS1 told through photographs, letters, videos, and ephemera from the Archives. This cross-departmental project – developed over the course of a year through the combined efforts of archivists, curators, educators, editorial staff, and web developers – has resulted in an interactive microsite where archival objects bring to life both canonical moments in the Museum’s history, as well as less familiar, sometimes surprising stories.

Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy for EDUCATIONAL USE OF ARCHIVES, which recognizes and celebrates an individual or organization who utilizes primary source materials to create engaging and informative learning experiences for diverse audiences. Students in the Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy are engaged in researching and writing books that tell the lost stories of servicemen listed on hometown war memorials, including the Jamaica Estates World War II Memorial, the My Buddy Monument in Richmond Hill, and a World War II Memorial discovered in Kew Gardens. Funded by supporters of their work, they research the servicemen using local archives.

Lost Rolls America for INNOVATIVE USE OF ARCHIVES, which recognizes an individual or organization for use of archival material in a meaningful and creative way, making a significant contribution to a community or body of people, and demonstrating the relevance of archival materials to its subject. Ron Haviv, Founder of Lost Rolls America, is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker and Founder of The VII Foundation. Lauren Walsh, Director of Lost Rolls America, is a professor and writer, and the Director of the NYU Gallatin Photojournalism Lab. Lost Rolls America, while headed up by a photographer and a photo historian, in fact is a publicly-driven archive that returns to the power of representation to each person who is reflected in this dynamic national repository of photos and memories.

Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) for OUTSTANDING SUPPORT OF ARCHIVES, which recognizes an individual or organization for notable contributions to archival records or archives programs through political, financial or moral support. The Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film & Television, founded in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art, has been working closely with archives, filmmakers, and preservation specialists since 1995 to preserve nearly 150 American made films by and about women.   These important films, many made by independent pioneers and under-represented voices, span silent era to contemporary works of all genres that would have been lost from cinema history without preservation.

Pamela Cruz for A.R.T. VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR, which recognizes an individual who has made a remarkable contribution to the Archivists Round Table. Pamela Cruz is an archive executive and strategist with extensive global experience in assessment, organization, preservation, and management of asset collections. Her career includes being chief strategist for the National Historic Preservation Center, Girl Scouts of the USA and vice president of archival services, Miramax Films. Pamela served on the Board of Directors of Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (A.R.T.) as vice president responsible for monthly programming and later as president. She also served as A.R.T. representative to the Regional Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC) for Society of American Archivists (SAA). In 2017 Ms. Cruz was appointed to the 15-member NYC Archives, Research and Reference Advisory Board by Mayor de Blasio; she is honored to serve the City of New York in this capacity and to support Pauline Toole, Commissioner, NYC Department of Records and Information Services.

The 2019 New York Archives Week Awards Ceremony will be held on Monday, October 21^st, at the Brooklyn Historical Society. 6-7 PM will be a social hour with refreshments. The Awards Ceremony will begin at 7 PM. Please register for the event here.

This fall, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (A.R.T.) will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with the 31st Annual New York Archives Week from October 16th-23rd, 2019.

Archives Week events are designed to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of preserving and making accessible our documentary heritage. Activities include a wide range of programming, including lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and tours of repositories, all free and open to the public.  We urge you and your repositories to plan an Archives Week event and help celebrate our 40th anniversary!

Suggested Archives Week activities:

*         Hold an open house, highlighting unique materials held by your repository.

*         Mount an exhibition using materials from your repository.

*         Demonstrate or report on activities/projects supported by grants.

*         Ask a researcher to speak on the value of your collections to their research.

*         Present a film festival using films or videos held by your repository.

*         Sponsor lunchtime talks by archivists, historians, and other researchers.

*         Organize a walking tour of your repository's neighborhood.

Please submit your Archives Week event through the linked form below for inclusion in the Archives Week event calendar:

https://nycarchivists.wufoo.com/forms/art-new-york-archives-week-2019/

The deadline for submission of the form is Wednesday, October 9, 2019.  Questions regarding submissions should be sent to president@nycarchivists.org.

In addition, as part of an effort to draw public attention to Archives Week and highlight the importance of our repositories and collections, A.R.T. will sponsor three exciting events:

-- On Thursday, October 17th, we will hold a full-day symposium focusing on, “Rebellion in the Archives;”

-- On Saturday, October 19th, the annual K-12 Archives Education Institute will take place; and

-- On Monday, October 21st, we will honor our colleagues at our Annual Awards Ceremony.