8th Annual Minnesota Archives Symposium
Challenges in the Archives
Monday, November 4th at the Spring Lake Park/Blaine/Mounds View Fire Station #3
We’ve covered the basics and worked on balance but that doesn’t stop challenges from cropping up in the archives. They might be small, repetitive tasks that crop up again and again, or a monumental undertaking. Maybe you are facing a new enterprise, midway through your labor, or recently completed a tough project. Sometimes our strategies for handling the job are not technically correct, or don’t match the “ideal,” but do fit the needs of our archives. We want to know your secrets!
Registration is REQUIRED by October 28, 2019, this year but the event is FREE.
Schedule of Events:
- 9:30am – 10:00am: Registration and coffee, mingle with vendors
- 10:00am – 10:10am: Welcome to Symposium
- 10:10am – 11:00am: TCART Business meeting
- 11:00am – 12:00pm: Session One
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch, mingle with vendors and poster presenters.
- 1:00pm – 1:15pm: TCART member announcements
- 1:15pm – 2:00pm: Session Two
- 2:00pm – 2:15pm: Break
- 2:15pm – 3:00pm: Session Three
- 3:00pm – 3:05pm: Break
- 3:05pm – 4:00pm: Discussion circles
- 4:15pm – 5:00pm: Optional Tours of the Anoka County Historical Society (separate location) (max. 15 people per tour)
The symposium will take place on Monday, November 4th at Spring Lake Park/Blaine/Mounds View Fire Station #3. Directions and information on where to park can be found after Vendor Information.
Registration Information:
Registration is FREE, but we ask that participants complete the registration form by Monday, October 28th. Lunch this year will be boxed lunch options from Panera. If you would prefer to bring your own lunch please do. However, Lunch options will not be available for alterations. Onsite registrations will be accepted but lunches will not be available for registration after Monday, October 28th. Registration is now CLOSED.
Tours:
Tours will be held off site this year. Participants who wish to have a tour will be responsible for finding a ride to the tour site/There will be a day of sign up sheet at the event but drivers will be given first priority for tour times. A maximum of 15 people will be included in each tour.
Address for tours:
- Anoka County Historical Society
- 2135 N 3rd Ave,
- Anoka, MN 55303
Questions?
Please contact TCART at tcartmn@gmail.com.
Minnesota Archives Symposium Full Schedule
- 9:30am – 10:00am: Registration and coffee, mingle with vendors
- 10:00am – 10:10am: Welcome to Symposium
- 10:10am – 11:00am: TCART Business meeting
- 11:00am – 12:00pm: Session One: How I Work: Tips & Tricks for Addressing Challenges in the Archives
- We each have our own ways of getting things done, through innovations we have designed or methods we have adapted from others. This panel discussion will present a variety of tips and tricks from speakers drawing on their work experiences in any field to demonstrate inventive ways to address the challenges we meet working in archives. Examples might include using spreadsheet, project management, or team collaboration software; taking and marking up photos of one’s work; creating or refining workflows; and interviewing and managing employees and interns. Panelists will be solicited through posts to the TCART listserv and Facebook group, and speakers from all career levels and backgrounds will be encouraged to participate. The opportunity to speak on this panel will appeal to those who have information to share but are not sure they could fill even a 30-minute presentation, or who do not want to present alone. Time will also be allotted for symposium attendees not speaking on the panel to share their tips from the audience (the panel moderator will walk through the audience with a microphone).
- Panel: Monica Howell (chair),
- We each have our own ways of getting things done, through innovations we have designed or methods we have adapted from others. This panel discussion will present a variety of tips and tricks from speakers drawing on their work experiences in any field to demonstrate inventive ways to address the challenges we meet working in archives. Examples might include using spreadsheet, project management, or team collaboration software; taking and marking up photos of one’s work; creating or refining workflows; and interviewing and managing employees and interns. Panelists will be solicited through posts to the TCART listserv and Facebook group, and speakers from all career levels and backgrounds will be encouraged to participate. The opportunity to speak on this panel will appeal to those who have information to share but are not sure they could fill even a 30-minute presentation, or who do not want to present alone. Time will also be allotted for symposium attendees not speaking on the panel to share their tips from the audience (the panel moderator will walk through the audience with a microphone).
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch, mingle with vendors and poster presenters.
- Poster presentation: Cydnee Peterson, Business Archives Education (Poster)
- 1:00pm – 1:15pm: TCART member announcements
- 1:15pm – 2:00pm: Session Two: Send in the A Team
- In 2016, Archives and Special Collections at the University of Minnesota began the immense task of migrating our finding aids from DLXS, a no longer supported platform from the early 2000s, to ArchivesSpace. Over the course of a year, a team of staff migrated 5,000+ finding aids, tackled batch edits for successful ingest, created new best practices, and trained staff on new workflows and functionalities within ArchivesSpace. Hear from the group, dubbed the ATeam, on our successes and challenges along the way.
- Presentors: Kate Dietrick, Caitlin Marineau, Amanda Wick
- In 2016, Archives and Special Collections at the University of Minnesota began the immense task of migrating our finding aids from DLXS, a no longer supported platform from the early 2000s, to ArchivesSpace. Over the course of a year, a team of staff migrated 5,000+ finding aids, tackled batch edits for successful ingest, created new best practices, and trained staff on new workflows and functionalities within ArchivesSpace. Hear from the group, dubbed the ATeam, on our successes and challenges along the way.
- 2:00pm – 2:15pm: Break
- 2:15pm – 3:00pm: Session Three: There’s a Space for Us: Zoning Research Spaces to Facilitate a Variety of Users
- While many archival researchers settle in for lengthy, individualized research projects, many others benefit from the ability to collaborate with others as they view collections. Heather Stecklein will discuss how her campus reconfigured the public research area at the University of Wisconsin-Stout into quiet and collaborative zones. The quiet zone includes microform machines, a secondary reference collection, and a small table for viewing collections. The collaborative zone includes an instruction station and six collaboration pods that seat seven researchers and feature a workstation with a large flatscreen monitor. These pods allow groups of students or staff members to view and discuss digital, print, and audiovisual collections as they plan class or administrative projects. The collaboration space was outfitted using existing library furniture and technology. It is possible for many archivists to create similar zones by conscientiously relocating furniture and equipment. The presentation will include a period for questions and discussion that will help attendees formulate how this practice may work for them at their locations.
- Presentor: Heather Stecklein
- While many archival researchers settle in for lengthy, individualized research projects, many others benefit from the ability to collaborate with others as they view collections. Heather Stecklein will discuss how her campus reconfigured the public research area at the University of Wisconsin-Stout into quiet and collaborative zones. The quiet zone includes microform machines, a secondary reference collection, and a small table for viewing collections. The collaborative zone includes an instruction station and six collaboration pods that seat seven researchers and feature a workstation with a large flatscreen monitor. These pods allow groups of students or staff members to view and discuss digital, print, and audiovisual collections as they plan class or administrative projects. The collaboration space was outfitted using existing library furniture and technology. It is possible for many archivists to create similar zones by conscientiously relocating furniture and equipment. The presentation will include a period for questions and discussion that will help attendees formulate how this practice may work for them at their locations.
- 3:00pm – 3:05pm: Break
- 3:05pm – 4:00pm: Discussion circles
- Breaking out into groups, this will be a somewhat structured opportunity to discuss with colleagues about various topics of interest related to our work
- 4:15pm – 5:00pm: Optional Tours of the Anoka County Historical Society (separate location) (max. 15 people per tour)
Vendor Information:
Vendors will be joining us during the Symposium: ArcaSearch, Northern Micrographics Inc., Saving Tape Media Conversion. Thank you as well to our sponsors Archive It and University Products Inc.
Parking at Spring Lake Park/Blaine/Mounds View Fire Station #3
Twin Cities Archives Round Table 