Twin Cities Archives Round Table

The Twin Cities Archives Round Table is pleased to announce the sixth annual Minnesota Archives Symposium (MAS). MAS is a local educational and networking opportunity for archivists, librarians, records managers, curators and other information professionals. We seek to broaden opportunities to share knowledge and insights among peers at a local level. The Symposium will be held on Monday, November 6th at the Minneapolis Central Library.

This year’s topic will be: Back to Basics

As the role of the archivist and the nature of our work has evolved steadily over time, the foundation of our profession will always remain the same. The ways in which we process collections has evolved, but we still process. Our backlogs expand and contract, but we still have backlogs. This year we’re going back to the basics — discussing those universal issues that we all have year in and year out. Ideas for presentation topics include:

• Processing — are you still steadfast to MPLP? Has your approach to processing changed due to staffing, or content management systems, or space issues?
• Backlogs — how have you tackled the everlasting beast?
• Managing students/volunteers/interns — have you worked with volunteers in such a way that you both garner value from a project?
• Professional development — is certification necessary? How do you stretch your professional development budget?
• Donor relations — how do you create meaningful relationships with donors?
• Internal buy-in — how do you prove your worth to the powers-that-be?

This is not an exhaustive list, but will hopefully spur on ideas. We welcome presentations from archivists and information professionals at all levels of their career.

Call for Participants:

If you have a great idea but don’t think you can speak for an entire half hour or hour, please still submit your idea! We will attempt to pair you with other presenters with similar topics for a panel presentation.

If you are interested in presenting at the symposium, please provide us with a brief abstract and working title for your presentation, along with how long you wish to present (15 minutes/30 minutes/60 minutes). Include full contact information with submissions, including your name(s) and institution or school if applicable.
Submissions should be sent to tcartmn@gmail.com.

Deadline for submission is August 28th.

Registration:

Save the Date!!! The Minnesota Archives Symposium will be held at the Minneapolis Central Library on Monday, November 6th. Registration is FREE, but we will ask that participants register their intent to attend. Look for more details on registering for this event on the TCART listserv and website.

Questions?

Questions should be sent to the TCART Communications Officer Kate Dietrick at diet0134 @umn.edu.

Jackie Beckey gives her presentation “Words Matter: Reframing American Indian Genealogical Research at the Gale Family Library”

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2017 TCART Spring meeting — it was wonderful to see so many people who were able to make it down to St. Peter. Thank you to Jeff Jenson and Adrianna Darden at Gustavus Adolphus for hosting us and providing tours of the archives.

We had two fantastic presentations at our meeting — the first by Ellen Engseth and Abdi Roble on “Archives as Community: Where the Somali Documentary Project Meets the Immigration History Research Center Archives”, and the second by Jackie Beckey on “Words Matter: Reframing American Indian Genealogical Research at the Gale Family Library.” If you are interested in the content of their presentations, let us know and we can get slides or contact information to you. Thank you to all three for not only sharing their knowledge but for fostering some great discussion.

There are links to the treasurer’s report as well as the meeting minutes available for those who were unable to make the meeting.

And finally, we thank our outgoing Secretary Deb Kloiber for her four years as TCART Secretary and we welcome Caitlin Marineau as our new secretary. Kate Dietrick, our Communications Officer, was also approved for her second two-year term as Communications Officer.

This year’s spring meeting calls for our out-of-the-Twin-Cities meeting, and so the 2017 Spring Meeting will be held at Gustavus Adolphus College. Come join us to tour the archives at Gustavus with College Archivist Jeff Jenson, hear presentations from TCART members Ellen Engseth and Jackie Beckey, and vote for TCART officer positions.

When: Wednesday, May 17th

Where: Gustavus Adolphus College
800 West College Avenue St. Peter, MN
Meeting will be held in the Jackson Campus Center (see map here for information on Campus Center, Library, and visitor parking locations)

Schedule:

• 9:30am -9:50am  – Welcome and Reception – Coffee/tea and light breakfast snacks
• 9:50am -10:30am -First tour of local archives
• 10:30am -11am – Business meeting, including TCART Elections for Communications Officer and Secretary positions
• 11am – 12pm – Presentations by fellow TCART members:
  • Ellen Engseth and Abdi Roble: “Archives as a Community: Where the Somali Documentary Project Meets the Immigration History Research Center Archives”
  • Jackie Beckey: “Words Matter: Reframing American Indian Genealogical Research at the Gale Family Library”
• 12pm – 12:40pm – Second tour of local archives
• Followed by an option lunch at a local restaurant (El Agave)

If you are interested in attending the TCART 2017 Spring Meeting, please RSVP here by May 10th.

The TCART Spring meeting is open to all who are interested in attending. Membership information will be available at the meeting for those who wish to join. See https://tcartmn.org/membership/ for more membership information or to join today!