Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York

Advocacy Alert: NJ State Division of Archives and Records Management

Thursday, April 05, 2012 10:51 AM | Deleted user

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ACTION ALERT

The Issue: The proposed FY2013 state budget released by NJ Governor Chris Christie calls for splitting the State Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM), transferring its records management program to the Department of the Treasury and leaving the State Archives behind in the Department of State. This proposal would sever a function of government that was integrated nearly a century ago, at the urging of New Jersey’s history community, to ensure public records preservation and improved government accountability. Separating these integrated and interdependent functions will seriously hamper the effective management of records and archives for State and local government, and put New Jersey’s documentary heritage at risk.

Contact: Call, write, fax, or e-mail the following individuals and your district legislators urging them to transfer the State’s Archives and Records Management programs to the Department of the Treasury as one agency. At least send a short email to the NJ Governor or call:

Governor: Hon. Chris Christie, Office of the Governor, P.O. Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625-0001	Tel. (609) 292-6000
	Fax (609) 292-3454
	E-mail Chris.Christie@gov.state.nj.us

New York History Blog Post: "A New Face for the Associated Press" by Nick Pavlik

Monday, April 02, 2012 11:59 AM | Deleted user

Nick Pavlik has written a post for the New York History blog on the Associated Press Archives and about the recent ART monthly program at AP:

http://www.newyorkhistoryblog.com/2012/03/nick-pavlik-new-face-for-associated.html

DORIS Sign-On Letter Update

Sunday, March 11, 2012 6:30 PM | Deleted user

We are nearing 1,500 signatures for the sign-on letter in support of NYC's
Dept. of Records and Information Services. Thank you to all who have helped with this advocacy effort! The sign-on letter deadline is soon, so please sign-on today- http://bit.ly/yeO7q8.

"For The Record" March 2012 Edition Now Available!

Friday, March 09, 2012 4:18 PM | Anonymous member

The ART Board invites you to check out the March 2012 edition of For The Record: News From The Archivists Round Table.

You can access For The Record within your browser here.

For The Record provides members with the latest news between meetings and will keep members informed in-between issues of Metropolitan Archivist, our semi-annual publication.

For future editions, we encourage you to subscribe if you have not done so already.

Here is a direct link to sign up: http://bit.ly/wnO7T1

You will have the option of receiving For The Record as HTML, text, or in mobile format.

Emma Curtis serves as Editor, and all content is compiled by the ART Communications and Outreach Committee.

Please contact Ryan Donaldson, Coordinator, Communications and Outreach Committee at outreach@nycarchivists.org with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

ART Member Nick Pavlik Joins the New York History Blog

Wednesday, March 07, 2012 11:23 AM | Deleted user

We are pleased to announce that ART member Nick Pavik has joined as ART’s Editor for member contributions to the New York History blog. Providing “historical news and views from the Empire State,” New York History reaches nearly 2,000 people each day via Email, RSS, Twitter, and Facebook updates.

Nick is a recent graduate from the MLS program at Queens College, CUNY, and is now the archivist for the 92nd Street Y. Founded in 1874, 92Y is one of New York's preeminent cultural institutions, conducting a wide range of community programs and presenting performances, readings, discussions, and lectures from world-renowned political leaders, scholars, literary figures, and performing artists. Prior to joining 92Y, Nick was a member of the project team for "Uncovering the Secrets of Brooklyn's Nineteenth-Century Past: Creation to Consolidation," an archival survey project at the Brooklyn Historical Society that resulted in the creation of hundreds of online descriptive records for BHS's unique and invaluable collections. Nick has also worked as an intern at the archives of the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Transit Museum.

On the New York History blog, Nick will be posting content related to ART’s activities and events, as well as general NYC archival news and updates. Nick’s posts so far include articles about NYC’s Department of Records and Information Services as well as a Q+A with Tessa Fallon of the Human Rights Web Archive at Columbia University Library. He welcomes your ideas for future content, and can be reached at nickpavlik@gmail.com.

Please Help the NYC Department of Records and Information Services

Sunday, February 26, 2012 6:04 PM | Deleted user

At the behest of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the New York City Council has proposed legislation (Int. 486-2011) that would eliminate the autonomy of New York City’s Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS), the agency that is responsible for the records and archival documents produced by past and present City governments.

Please add your name to the sign-on letter to oppose the proposed legislation, and advocate for the preservation of DORIS as an autonomous records agency, with the financial support and professional respect it deserves. The sign-on letter is located at http://www.nycarchivists.org/doris_petition. Every signature matters. Help New York City, as an international cultural and financial leader, and the place with the greatest variety and highest density of archives in the world, set the standard for how a democratic government preserves and makes accessible its documentary heritage.

Our full position statement on the proposed Legislation (Int. 486-2011) is available through this link.

Are You Interested in Running for the ART Board?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 3:07 PM | Anonymous member

At this time, The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York would like to bring to membership's attention our upcoming annual election for open Board positions. Elections will open at the end of May and the winners will be announced at our business meeting in June, however, we invite members to inquire about open positions now.

Board positions are a two-year commitment. Being on the ART Board is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the profession, volunteer within the local community and to network with fellow archivists. If you are interested in running for open positions, or know of anyone who would make a good candidate, please email the Membership and Nominating Committee at membership@nycarchivists.org to begin a conversation, and learn more about the opportunities on the ART Board.

Thank you, and we look forward to your participation!

Best,

Heather F. Ball
Membership and Nominating Committee Coordinator, ART

Announcing an SAA Workshop in New York City: Visual Literacy for Photograph Collections

Sunday, February 19, 2012 11:38 PM | Deleted user

Society of American Archivists Workshop: Visual Literacy for Photograph Collections

Details:
Monday, May 21, 2012
9 am- 5pm
The National Archives at New York City
New York, NY

Workshop Description

This workshop provides methods to gain information from photographs and to understand how this information can be applied in a practical manner to help manage, arrange, and describe collections more effectively and for researchers to extract information. If you’ve attended SAA’s “Understanding Photographs” workshop, this is your next step! This workshop adds more concepts that are important for understanding the intellectual and physical nature of photographs. Incorporating these concepts into daily practice can have practical and economical benefit for the archivist and provide better service to the researcher. Learn to understand the photograph as artifact,visual literacy, and their application to photograph collection management and research uses.

Upon completing this workshop, you’ll:

Have examined visual literacy in-depth and learned to apply this information in practice always to arrange and describe photograph collections;
Know about the importance of the concept of object and image in collection management and the difference between physical order and intellectual order;
Comprehend the intellectual and social nature of photographs;
Understand the photographic messages, the complex collective life of photographs, and how the photographic information can be obscured or changed over time; and
Be able to apply this knowledge to managing photo collections to save time and money.
Who should attend? Archivists or others who work with photograph collections and researchers wishing to understand more about finding information contained in photographs. Archivists or others who want to build on the knowledge gained from the introductory SAA “Understanding Photographs” workshop.

Attendance limited to 30.

More information and a link to registration is available at the following link:

http://saa.archivists.org/4DCGI/events/329.html?Action=Conference_Detail&ConfID_W=329

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York is proud to serve as a co-sponsor of this event. ART members receive a discount of $25 off the early bird registration price by entering code VLPC25NY during online registration.

Thanks to the National Archives at New York City for graciously hosting this event. Please direct all questions regarding the workshop to the Society of American Archivists.

Call for Donations! Help Occupy Wall Street Archives

Thursday, February 09, 2012 10:04 AM | Deleted user

Call for Donations!
Help Occupy Wall Street Archives

Your fellow archivists need your help!

Since the early days of Occupy Wall Street, members of the OWS Archives Working Group have been engaged in collecting materials significant to documenting the movement. Without financial support, however, the collections languish in a general office space, uncataloged and exposed to the surrounding environment.
As part of its mission, the Archivists Round Table Advocacy Committee is working to support the efforts of the OWS archivists. To that end, the ART Advocacy Committee is holding a donation drive to collect materials desperately needed by the OWS Archives to process the collections. Please consider donating any unneeded materials or materials ready to be discarded by your institutions.

Your donations will help the OWS archivists fulfill their mission to develop a grass roots collection documenting the actions and legacy of the movement, in the overall spirit of openness and transparency advocated by the OWS movement. In addition, support from the professional archival community will lend a legitimacy to the OWS Archives and boost their visibility within the OWS movement.

We are collecting donations of:
•   Acid-free boxes (any size)
•   Acid-free folders (any size)
•   Pencils
•   Archival-quality pens
•   Acid-free tissue paper
•   Archival-quality labels
•   Digital storage media (i.e. flash drives, hard drives)
•   Any office supplies (notepads, paper, pens, etc.)

If you are able to donate, please contact the ART Advocacy Committee at advocacy@nycarchivists.org with a list of materials. We will determine on a case-by-case basis how best to collect materials.

For more information on the OWS archives, see the following websites:

OWS Archives Working Group:
http://www.nycga.net/groups/the-occupy-wallstreet-archives/

OWS Archives Mission Statement:
http://www.nycga.net/groups/the-occupy-wallstreet-archives/docs/occupy-wall-street-mission-statement

NYC General Assembly:
http://www.nycga.net/

Submitted by ART Advocacy Committee

ART Member Rachel L. Conrad Joins the Metropolitan Archivist as Managing Editor

Monday, January 30, 2012 12:35 PM | Deleted user

We are pleased to announce that ART member Rachel L. Conrad has joined the staff of Metropolitan Archivist, as a managing editor. Rachel brings a unique set of skills and experiences to her role: she currently serves as publications editor at the New York Philharmonic, where she was originally employed as an editorial assistant from 2003 to 2006 while she pursued a master's degree in library science at Pratt's School of Library and Information Science, which she obtained in 2006.

She added that degree to an already impressive academic portfolio, which includes a bachelor's degree in flute performance and music history from Temple University and an M.A. in musicology from NYU. After earning her library degree, Rachel spent three years in Washington D.C. as an online publishing specialist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

She returned to New York in 2010, when the Philharmonic offered her her current position as publications editor. As a managing editor at the Metropolitan Archivist, Rachel joins a team that already includes Mary Ann Quinn and Madeline Rogers, both of whom are delighted to welcome her.

Rachel's extracurricular passion, apart from her cat Mimi, is hiking and long-distance walking. Between hiking trips abroad (most recently to Tenerife) she stays in shape by walking at least one way to work each day, weather permitting, from her home in Brooklyn (about eight miles).

Submitted by Madeline Rogers