Consortium of Iowa Archivists
Annual meeting minutes
Monday, July 11, 2011
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum (HHPL)
Present:
Pat Dawson (Hubble Center, Des Moines); Claudia Frazer (Drake University); Michael Gibson (Loras College); Sasha Griffin (Luther College); Spencer Howard (HHPL); Mary Iber (Cornell College); Chris Jones (Grinnell College); Kären Mason (Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa); David McCartney (University Archives, University of Iowa); Jill Miller (Kirkwood Community College); Dave Muhlena (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library); Sheri Muller (Grand View University); Becki Plunkett (State Historical Society of Iowa); Catherine Rod (Grinnell College); Matt Schaefer (HHPL); Thomas F. Schwartz (Director, HHPL); Lynn Smith (HHPL); Laura Sullivan (Special Collections, Iowa State University); John Szymanek (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library intern); Rachel Vagts (Luther College); Steve Vincent; Janet Weaver (Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa); Craig Wright (HHPL); Tanya Zanish-Belcher (Special Collections, Iowa State University); Julie Zimmerman (HHPL intern)
Attendees introduced themselves and were welcomed by the new Director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, Thomas F. Schwartz.
Repository Reports:
Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium (ICPC), per Nancy Kraft (Preservation Dept., University of Iowa): Entering 4th year of flood recovery conservation lab assistance to the Johnson County Historical Society, African American Museum of Iowa, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. Connecting to Collections grant is continuing.
Special Collections, Iowa State University: is in the process of constructing a new classroom and renovating the 4th floor of Parks Library. Everything should be completed by mid-September.
Cornell College: using OMEKA for digitizing yearbooks
Kirkwood Community College: digitizing collections, and using Contentdm
Grinnell College: collections are being entered into Archon; also taking photos of artifacts and moving originals to off-site storage; frustrated by their digital platform that doesn’t allow them to share with other institutions.
Grand View: digitizing yearbooks and class photographs
Czech & Slovak Museum: still recovering from the 2008 flood. The UI Preservation Dept. is still working on phonograph records, album covers, and beginning to work on paper-based materials. The building is in the process of being moved, and they hope to move back in next spring, 2012.
Special Collections, University of Iowa: Greg Prickman is the new Department Head. Using Archon for finding aids, also digitizing the Daily Iowan, 1868-2005. With Iowa Women’s Archives, recently completed an online exhibit on “LGBTQ Life in Iowa City, 1967-2010” and received an honorable mention from OutHistory.org, which sponsored the competition.
David also announced the MAC symposium on the preservation of magnetic media will be held in Sioux City, Oct. 19-21:
http://www.midwestarchives.org/index.php?option=com_mc&view=mc&Itemid=110
Archives of Iowa Broadcasting, currently held at Wartburg College, is currently forming as a 501 (c) 3 with a Board of Directors.
HHPL: now has a YouTube channel, and has received over 10,000 hits.
Luther College: finishing up its sesquicentennial celebration. Sponsored Norwegian American Historical Association conference (and hosted the King and Queen of Norway and created a History Walk. The Postville Project continues. Luther is also working on a Norwegian newspaper digitizing project (using ArcaSearch). The NHPRC-funded Archon project continues: all Luther finding aids are being added to Archon, and then they’ll move on to Vesterheim Museum finding aids. They’re also experimenting with adding images in Archon.
Loras College: submitted HRDP grant proposal for digitizing glass plate negatives depicting Dubuque’s entire workforce in 1911.
ISU: also exploring Archon for finding aids, and Laura also reported on her blog:
http://isuspecialcollections.wordpress.com/
Hubbell Center (Des Moines): consists of a library and museum documenting the Hubbell family.
Drake University: digitizing yearbooks and the student newspaper. Also inventorying collections and sheet music collection.
Iowa Women’s Archives: preparing to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2012/2013. Janet described the impact of the Mujeres Latina oral history project on the community and noted IWA has 800 finding aids in Archon, with work continuing on thorny contents lists. In addition, IWA has worked with the State Historical Society of Iowa to provide digital access to suffrage collections (and ISU’s Carrie Chapman Catt artifact collection). Also noted the Special Collections Department digitizing of Civil War diaries and experimenting with crowdsourcing.
State Historical Society of Iowa: budget cuts. Collaborating with groups (such as UI, described above) to provide online access to collection. Placing images on Flickr. Also digitizing (and possibly transcribing) Lincoln documents and the Lacy collection.
Coe College: Jill Jack is now the library director. Exploring Archivist’s Toolkit.
Lunch: Agave Mexican Restaurant
Reports:
Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board: recently reviewed HRDP grant; reported on problems with Heritage Microfilm. SHSI has ended its contract with Heritage as a result of the problems.
Midwest Archives Conference:
Deadline for session proposals for Grand Rapids 2012 annual meeting is September 15.
Lynn is looking for a volunteer to assist with the MAC newsletter. Tanya also reminded the group that MAC’s Journal, Archival Issues, is always looking for articles. The new editor is Barbara Floyd, University of Toledo.
Society of American Archivists:
will be meeting in Chicago in August. If you are interested in attending, there are lists of available hotels (as the Hyatt is having labor issues). Rachel, as incoming chair of the Membership Committee, encouraged folks to attend. Sign up for a Navigator at the meeting.
Council of State Archivists (CoSA):
Director Vicki Walch is out of town. Rachel reminded all to contact their Congressman and stress support for NHPRC. Also, speak to your state legislator about the importance of Iowa having a state archivist.
The meeting adjourned at 1:55. Some attendees took a tour of the National Park’s Hoover Birthplace Historical Site while others had a tour of the Hoover Library.
Next meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 22, 2012, hosted by Nodaway Valley Historical Society in Clarinda, Iowa.
Consortium of Iowa Archivists 