Langsdale Link
Spring 2006

Contents:

Archivists are Coming to Baltimore
by Robert Shindle

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference will be meeting in Baltimore this spring. Langsdale Special Collections head Tom Hollowak serves as the chair of the Program Committee for this event, which also includes Langsdale project archivists John Mealey and Robert Shindle. The Baltimore MARAC presents a great opportunity for students or others interested in archives to find out more about the field.

What is MARAC? One of seven Regional Archives Conferences across the continental U.S., MARAC includes a thousand archivists from the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. In addition to the annual fall and spring conferences, the conference publishes the Mid-Atlantic Archivist quarterly and other occasional publications to assist professional archivists. Caucuses in the District and each state organize tours and other events for members in their area throughout the year.

When is this MARAC? Thursday, April 20 through Saturday, April 22. Activities include workshops, sessions, tours and social gatherings.

Where is this MARAC? This spring, MARAC will be held inside one of Baltimore’s most recent successes in historic preservation, the Tremont Grand. At the Friday luncheon, Bill Fay of the Wm. C. Smith Co., the Washington firm that owns Baltimore’s Tremont, will speak about the restoration of the former Masonic Grand Lodge of Maryland and its conversion to a hotel and conference center. At a reception that evening, attendees will experience the structure’s crown jewel, the fourth-floor Oriental Room.

How much is this MARAC? The basic registration for non-members (due before March 22) is $100, which includes the spring conference and a year’s membership. However, the workshops, some tours and meals have additional fees. For more information or to register, visit the MARAC Web site at www.lib.umd.edu/MARAC/.

What does one do at a MARAC? The Thursday workshops are geared toward those with some experience in archives or related fields; anyone who wants to attend a specific workshop should register early, since seating is limited. On Friday, all conference attendees are welcome to the Plenary Session. The first set of breakout sessions take place afterward and two sets each are held Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Attendees are welcome to select from the sessions scheduled in each set, but here are some suggestions for three tracks an attendee might follow:

Archives: Electronic, Eclectic

Perhaps the greatest issue facing archivists today is the preservation of electronic records. A grounding in issues common to digital records in all offices, but particularly academic institutions, is available in a Thursday morning workshop. Presenters will share findings of the Managing the University Digital Desktop Project and how they relate to electronic records management in a university setting.

The above is one of many projects funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission, part of the National Archives & Records Administration. Allen Weinstein, U.S. archivist is this MARAC’s Plenary speaker and, as NARA’s current leader, Weinstein will discuss the future direction of NARA and the ripple effects this may have on archives across the country in his Friday morning address.

It is not only NARA that is concerned with digitization of course. A Friday afternoon session, "Spinning Gold from Dross", will look at the digitization of public documents with representatives from Lexis/Nexis and Newsbank/Readex.

NARA is responsible for developing the Electronic Records Archives, a comprehensive, systematic and dynamic means for preserving virtually any kind of electronic record, free from dependence on any specific hardware or software. ERA’s technology promises to be useful to many kinds of archives, libraries, agencies, and businesses, regardless of size. A session late Saturday morning will provide a progress report on the development of ERA, featuring speakers from both NARA and the Lockheed Martin team building the system.

In between the electronically focused sessions, there is a more eclectic selection. Submitted for consideration on Friday will be "Excavating the Archives: the Papers of Jacques Derrida", "Developing a High-School University Archival Partnership" and, on Saturday, "Documenting Underground Culture."

Enduring Images

Beyond text records, it is often the responsibility of archivists to ensure that enduring images do indeed endure. Another track might begin with an all-day Thursday workshop on Visual and Sound Materials presented by archivists from the Library of American Broadcasting and National Public Broadcasting Archives in Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland, College Park. A wide range of recorded sound and moving image formats will be examined and a systematic analysis of audiovisual materials in terms of physical and mechanical features, acquisition and appraisal issues, and preservation and access considerations will be offered.

On Friday, the methods and procedures of archivists and museum curators will be compared and contrasted in a session on "Museum Archives and Registrarial Description". After lunch, a problem common to curators and archivists will be examined in " Image Licensing," and image reproduction is then pursued further in a "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction" session.

On Saturday, the use of archival texts and images in historic site preservation will be considered in "From Dead Letters to Living Communities". The restoration and reinterpretation of Hampton National Historical Site will serve as an example of this process.

Another session,"Forging New Alliances", examines the evolving relationship between archives and genealogists. Genealogists are relying more and more heavily on public or commercial databases to find basic vital statistics on ancestors. Such databases are not always accurate, so archives and libraries should be used for verification. Archives are also often able to flesh out a family tree with related documents and images. (In Langsdale, for example, the Steamship Historical Society of America Collections can often provide images and information on immigrant ships for genealogists who have discovered the particular vessel which brought an ancestor to America.)

Disasters and Documentation

Events of the past year have focused all professions on the issues of disaster preparedness and security, and archivists are no exception. Thursday will offer sessions on,"Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery" and "Collection Protection." In a shorter session later Friday, "Disasters Do Happen", archivists from NARA and the Maryland State Archives will share experiences in dealing with disasters and rescuing records from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and a sewer pipe break in Annapolis.

Documenting the history of specific communities beyond official records is an increasing concern of archivists. A Friday morning session, "Creating an Online Research Collection on New York’s Latino/Hispanic History," will look at efforts of the New York State Archives and others to create such a resource. Friday afternoon, "Oral History From the Ground Up," is a session designed for those new to the archival profession and/or new to the complexities of oral history. (Here at UB oral histories have been of particular interest since the Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project in the 1970s.)

Community documentation sessions continue Saturday morning with "Issues in Organizing and Sustaining LGBT Community-based Archival/Historical Groups" and "African-American Documents: Enslaved, Free and In Between." The former looks the relatively recent development of archives in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, while the latter considers state documents concerning the antebellum African-American community. “Were markedly different records gathered by the free state of Pennsylvania than the slave state of Virginia or the border state of Maryland?” Archivists from each state will consider this question in the second Saturday session.

Details on the Baltimore MARAC can be found on the MARAC Web site.

 

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