CFP - Society of California Archivists

The Society of California Archivists Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held April 11-13 in Berkeley, California. Now is the time to submit session proposals! The deadline is Friday, October 19, 2012. (That’s two weeks after the SAA proposal deadline: feel free of consider SCA a “premier performance” of content you are also proposing to SAA!) A proposal form is available on the SCA website: http://www.calarchivists.org/AGM_2013 The Program Committee hopes to build a theme around archival practice, research, and teaching in an online world. While proposals are welcome on any archival topic, please consider addressing this theme. Some starting points for consideration are appended below. If you have any questions, or ideas to discuss, please don't hesitate to contact Program Chair James Eason (jeason@library.berkeley.edu). Help us make this an interesting and stimulating conference! ******************************************************************* Inspiration: • With mass digitization, online primary sources have moved beyond curated online exhibits. Internet users can now access census data, complete series of personal papers, entire photograph collections, historical publications, city directories, etc. • 2012 is the first year at UC Berkeley that the large undergraduate course "History 7B", traditionally a source of many primary source users in special collections, generated *no* in-library use. Online resources were preferred. • Sites like ancestry.com are making voluminous records available online to members -- and achieving broad popular appeal evident in TV shows such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" • As speaker John Voss observed at SAA 2012, new technology and the interactive nature of the web allows users to "build community around history" in ways we have not envisioned. • Increasing resources are being directed to online "cultural heritage" efforts, such as the Digital Public Library of America. Sessions proposals might address: • Current trends in research and the influence of online resources. • Teaching with primary sources: learning objectives and the pros and cons of students’ use of online resources instead of original materials. Collaborations between archivists and faculty. • Popular (or scholarly) perception of the "historical record": is it skewed by an impression that it is all online? • Reference services: Has the reference archivist's focus evolved from inward-looking expertise in local collections to more comprehensive global information-seeking? Is archives reference moving closer to library reference? Is online access increasing or decreasing public service demand? • Digitization partnerships with private online content providers such as ancestry.com, Corbis, Internet Archive, Google, or others. • "Bang for buck" in selecting resources to digitize: what records are most sought-after by online researchers? By vendors? • Who are online users, and how might their identity and interests affect our archival mission? • Representation & diversity: what historical narratives are we exposing or obscuring by selecting material to digitize? How might this relate to past archival collecting and documentation practices? • Processing for digitization: how does an end goal of online access change practice when arranging and describing? • "Value added" through community engagement with online resources: interactive archives, crowdsourcing, user feedback, linked data, etc. • Outreach & development opportunities: leveraging broad popular engagement with archival resources. • New priorities and traditional mission: is the push for online access endangering our ability to fulfill our core responsibilities? • The future of access to born-digital archival materials, and the role of the archivist in appraisal, arrangement, preservation, ensuring authenticity, and (mediating?) access.