Women in the Archives: Organizing Knowledge
April 15-16, 2011
Brown University
Papers are now being invited for Women in the Archives, a two-day conference co-sponsored by the Women Writers Project and the Sarah Doyle Women's Center at Brown University.
Women in the Archives explores the use of archival materials in the study of women's writing, and the construction of disciplinary practices in archival research and pedagogy. This year our theme is "Organizing Knowledge", focusing on systems of knowledge representation in relation to different kinds of archival practice. Papers might address themes such as the following:
* how do knowledge representation/management systems operate in the archive, and how do they instantiate or intervene in the legibility of archival materials?
* how can we read the gender politics of knowledge organization systems in the archive?
* how do pedagogical practices shape our interaction with such systems?
* what would it mean to read against the grain of archival systems of organization?
* how does discipline shape our understanding and use of the archive?
The larger concerns of the Women in the Archives series as a whole include:
* pedagogy and interdisciplinary pedagogies
* issues of gender in the construction of archival spaces
* material modes of textuality across disciplines
* technologies of research and teaching, and the impact of digital media on the archive
* new directions in archival research
* editing archival materials
This year, in addition to regular paper sessions, we are experimenting with
two new kinds of presentations:
1. A pecha-kucha-style session of short, fast-paced presentations that will
let participants present work in progress in a vivid and memorable form. The
session promises to be both entertaining and provocative.
2. Poster presentations, which will be mounted in the conference space for
attention during breaks
For more information about these formats please see
http://www.wwp.brown.edu/
To submit a pecha-kucha proposal, please send a one-page statement which
includes:
--one question your research is trying to answer
--two people whose work stimulated your current project
--three people whose work you hope your project will influence
--four questions you think your project raises that you'd like to pose to the audience
--the five most interesting sources you're consulting (archival or critical) with a brief quote from each
--a brief paragraph in which you supply any other detail you think will be helpful to us
To submit a paper or poster proposal, please send an abstract of not more
than 300 words.
Please send all proposals to WWP@brown.edu by January 15, 2011.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Call for Student Paper and Poster Presentations
The 2011 Student Program Subcommittee is accepting proposals for two special sessions dedicated to student scholarship during the Midwest Archives Conference's (MAC) Annual Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota from April 28 – 30, 2011. Work from both master's and doctoral students will be considered. Students must be currently enrolled or have graduated no earlier than December 2010. Proposals must be received no later than February 11, 2011.
Graduate Student Paper Session
The work of three archives students will be selected for presentation during a traditional session format. Each speaker will be allotted 15 minutes to present a paper. Thirty minutes will be reserved for audience questions and discussion. Proposals may relate to the student's research interests as well as research pertinent to the profession. Participant selection will be based on the quality of proposals submitted.
Graduate Student Poster Session
The Graduate Student Poster Session will showcase the work of both individual students and student chapters.
Individual posters may describe applied or theoretical research that is completed or underway; discuss interesting collections with which students have worked; or report on archives and records projects in which students have participated (e.g., development of finding aids, public outreach, database construction, etc.). Submissions should focus on research or activities conducted recently.
Student Chapter posters may describe chapter activities, events, and/or other involvement with the archives and records professions. One person should coordinate the submission of each student chapter proposal.
Submission Form and Deadlines
Proposals must be received no later than February 11, 2011. The form will ask for the following information:
- Name
- School/Degree Program (MA, MILS, PhD, etc.)
- Address
- Phone Number
- Type of proposal (Paper/Individual Poster/Chapter Poster)
- Poster or Paper Abstract (200 words or less)
- Affirmation of Attendance (a sentence indicating your commitment to attend MAC 2011 and present your paper/poster in person if selected)\
Monday, November 15, 2010
Call for Presentations!
Tradition and Innovation: New Ideas for Old Stuff
Northwest Archivists Conference
Helena, Montana
April 20-23, 2011
The Northwest Archivists are pleased to announce their 2011 Conference in Helena, Montana.
This year’s theme highlights our professional paradox of caring for archival collections representing our collective memory and actions, while navigating and interacting with contemporary audiences, expectations and technology. In order to fulfill our mission, we cannot embrace one without the other. So how do we walk the line between tradition and innovation? How do we interact with an ever changing present when we are representing the past? Not only does this dichotomy effect our interactions with researchers, it also directs our dealings with the media, policy makers, donors and the general population.
In keeping with this year’s theme, the conference will consist of two tracks: a traditional panel session track and a track devoted to non-traditional sessions. We’re all familiar with the usual chaired sessions with two or more presenters, but what makes a non-traditional session? The Program Committee is open to any session format idea that you may come up with, and here are some examples to spark your imagination:
• Open themed sessions: these are sessions focused on a theme but the audience drives the discussion. Facilitators will guide and encourage the audience, but this is an opportunity for us to talk to each other about specific topics.
• “Lightning Talks” or Pecha Kucha: Last year’s Pecha Kucha session was well-attended and involved a selection of diverse topics presented in short time frames.
• Other formats that encourage participation or look at innovative ways to convey information and engage the membership.
If you’ve ever sat in a session and thought that you’d like to share information in another way, this is your chance!
The Program Committee for the 2011 meeting in Helena, Montana, invites you to submit proposals for sessions and individual presentations that explore our grounding in the traditions of our profession and collections and the necessity of bridging the gap to a contemporary world. If you have a great idea for a topic but can’t find co-presenters, please submit a proposal anyway; there may be opportunities to match presenters or to work topics together in some of the non-traditional sessions. Sessions that engage the membership in non-traditional ways are particularly encouraged.
Submission Guidelines: Submissions can involve an entire session or an individual presentation. All proposals must include: title, description (no more than 250 words), A/V requirements (laptop, projector, screen, etc), presenter name, professional affiliation, address, email, phone number and a brief resume.
Session proposals must include all of the above for each presenter, plus: session title, session description (250 words maximum), contact information for the panel organizer, including email address and phone number. Submissions should also include a description of the type of session proposed (panel discussion, paper, non-traditional). We assume that everyone listed in a session proposal has agreed to participate. Electronic submissions only, please. Attach proposals as a Word or PDF file.
All submissions must be received no later than December 31, 2010.
Click Here for the submission form
Submit proposals to:
Diana Banning, Program Committee Chair, 2011 NWA Conference
City of Portland Archives and Records Center
Diana.Banning@portlandoregon.gov
503-865-4110
Monday, November 15, 2010
The new digital archive, “Women and Social Movements International-- 1840 to Present,” will be available for library subscription from Alexander Street Press in December or January. The first 25,000 pages of the archive will appear at that time and the entire archive of 150,000 pages will be online in late 2011. Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin are co-editing the resource with support from an international editorial advisory board.
At the AHA (American Historical Association) the archive will be considered as a research tool in a session, “New Research in the History of Women’s Transnational and International Social Movements.” That session will take place on Friday, Jan. 7, 9:30-11:30 in the Arlington Room of the Boston Marriot Copley Place and will have screen shots of the Beta version of the archive. Participants will include Francisca de Haan of Central European University, Tiffany Ruby Patterson of Vanderbilt University, Megan Threlkeld of Denison University, Barbara Reeves Ellington of Siena College and Kitty Sklar.
There will also be a luncheon on Friday, Jan. 7 at 12:15 in the Vineyard Room of the Boston Marriot Copley Place to unveil WASM International. There we will describe the archive in a slide presentation. Please contact tdublin[at]binghamton[dot]edu to reserve a place. The luncheon is free, but seats are limited.
We hope to see you at the AHA.
Kitty Sklar & Tom Dublin
Thomas Dublin
Distinguished Professor of History
State University of New York at Binghamton
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
607-777-2854
FAX: 717-214-4415
Friday, October 22, 2010
The deadline for submitting proposals to the SAA Program Committee for next year's conference was Oct. 1. Now that we have had time to review the submissions, we are pleased to announce the WCRT endorsements! We are backing 2 proposals this year:
1. Activists, Nuns, and Heiresses: Breaking Stereotypes of Women's Historical Collections, chaired by Beth Myers of the Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University.
2. 75 Years of International Women's Collecting: Legacies, Successes, Obstacles, and New Directions, chaired by Danelle Moon of the Special Collections and Archives, San Jose State University.
We will update the membership on the status of these proposals as soon as we hear ourselves. Thank you to everyone for organizing such strong entries for SAA 2011.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Hello all --
Consider submitting to this call for papers for the next ALMS (Archives, Libraries, Museums, Special Collections) Conference in 2011.
Please also pass along this email to anyone you know who may be interested.
Thank you!
Heidi Marshall & Franklin Robinson
LAGAR co-chairs
________________________________
I am the Associate University Librarian for Collection Management and Scholarly Communication at the UCLA Library and I wanted to share with you the Call for Proposals and Announcement for the 2011 ALMS Conference which will be hosted by the June L Mazer Lesbian Archive in Los Angeles. The UCLA Library, Center for the Study of Women and are co-hosting. The conference will be held on May 13-15, 2011 in Los Angeles. The afternoon of May 13 will be held at UCLA.
We would appreciate any help you can provide to forward the Call for Papers and announcement of the conference to your members and anyone else you think might be interested. You may have heard that UCLA as a relationship with the Mazer Archive and we are thrilled to support this conference and collecting initiative. For information on the Mazer collections at UCLA see http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/mazer/ and http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/mazer-partnership-112038.aspx.
Thanks in advance for your help getting the word out. Any questions please let me know.
Best regards,
Friday, October 08, 2010
The new cycle of Mary Lily Travel Grants for women's history research at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture has now been posted. The Sallie Bingham Center provides travel grants of up to $1000 for researchers whose work would benefit from access to the women's history collections held at Duke's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. Any faculty member, graduate or undergraduate student, or independent scholar with a research project requiring the use of materials held by the Sallie Bingham Center is eligible to apply. All applicants must reside outside of a 100-mile radius of Durham, NC.
http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/grants/index.html
Monday, September 20, 2010
After a nearly twenty year period of considering this momentous decision, Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and renowned activist in the LGBTQ community, has selected the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, to be the repository for her papers. Bingham Center and literary curatorial staff collaborated on the initial acquisition of nearly 60 boxes of Allison's papers, including drafts of her writings, extensive correspondence and research files, personal journals documenting her life and creative process, and more. Read the whole story on the Special Collections blog: http://dukelibrariesrbmscl.blogspot.com/2010/09/dorothy-allison-papers-arrive-at-duke.html
Another blog post about Allison: http://dukelibrariesrbmscl.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-rbmscl-reading-dorothy-allison.html
Finding aid: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/allisondorothy/inv/
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Below are the minutes from our Roundtable Meeting at SAA in Washington, DC.
Women’s Collections Roundtable Annual Meeting
August 11, 2010, Washington, DC
Meeting Minutes
Co-chairs: Danelle Moon and Kelly Wooten
Wonderful presentations by:
- Allida Black, Research Professor of History and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, will speak about her work as the project director of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
- Stephen Rhind-Tutt, president, Alexander Street Press, will highlight the press's women's history databases
WCRT website/Blog:
Our updated website is moving over to the drupal format
Discussion of blog found at:
We encourage anyone with updates, announcements, new digital collections, anything related to women's collections to send us their information to share on the blog.
WCRT Membership:
Discussion of increased participation was on the agenda. Due to the number of members (377) and high participation at this mtg it was decided we didn't need to discuss this at this time.
Reminder that members need to opt in to the roundtable listserve
News from the Archives for Women and Social Movements database/journal
Please send any updates/announcements to Tanya Belcher-Zanish at tzanish [at] iastate [dot] edu
Women’s archives reader
draft articles coming in now, moving forward
Panels/speaker ideas for Chicago 2011 mtg:
MPLP primarily with regard to women’s collections
· Membership lists in women’s organizations
Outreach using social media to nontraditional women’s groups/activists as researchers
· Actively communicating with other groups
Uncovering hidden collection
Combining outreach with budget constraints
Continuing to serve women’s collections and user populations
Blasting stereotypes of women through women’s collections
· how you go about doing this and promoting the materials
· Promoting women’s influence on pop culture
· Girls band from 80s
· Zines as archival collections
Catholic women, nuns, getting materials out to the public
Designing programming.
- Designed for younger groups
Jane Addams, Chicago Hull House as potential ideas for Roundtable program
- Outreach, organization for children
- Social services, health issues
- Pursue this for either a topic or our roundtable mtg
- Or arts/crafts period from mid-western schools
Elections:
Next year we will move to online elections as other sections/roundtables did this year.
Meghan Lyon and Cassie Schmitt, co-vice chairs are the next years co-chairs.
Elections for vice chair, nominations from the floor, voting, both approved
Welcome Kathy Hertel-Baker and Virginia Corvid as the new co-vice chairs!
Program Committee report:
Everything fits the theme!
See announcement: here
Council Report:
Donna McCrea reports on council's mtg included proposed dues increase and financial status of SAA.
Diversity Committee:
Kelly Wooten is the representative for "women" including the memberships of both the Women's Collections Roundtable and the Women's Archivists Roundtable. Kelly reports as posted on blog: SAA's Diversity Committee Report
Attendance
| Jonathan Ponder, JSTOR | Alison Gaim, NARA |
| Erin Townsend, NARA | Virginia Corvid, WHS/UW-Madison |
| Susan Woodland, Hadassah Archives | Lora Davis, University of Delaware |
| Rebecca Johsnon Melvin, University of Delaware | Taronda Spencer, Spelman College |
| Andrea Sheehan, QVC, Inc. | Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Iowa State University |
| Kathy Hertel-Baker, Sisters of Charity of Nazareth | Colleen Mahoney, Simmons |
| Lori Satter, Simmons | Janice E. Ruth, Library of Congress Manuscript Division |
| Lisa Mangiatico, Soroptimist International of the Americas | Brenda Correia, |
| Lucinda Manminz | Mary Samouelian, Duke University |
| Kim Sims, Duke University | Sherrie Bowser, Virginia Tech |
| Jessica Sedgwick, Harvard Medical School | Cat Holbrook, Schlesinger Library |
| Johanna Carll, Schlesinger Library | Elizabeth Norarra, University of Maryland |
| Doris Malkmus, Penn State | Fernanda Peucne, Rutgers |
| Meghan Lyon, Duke University | Cassie Schmitt, University of Oregon |
| Kelly Wooten, Duke University | |
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Happy Day After Labor Day All!
This is a reminder that proposals for SAA are due October 1. A few great ideas have already been thrown out. See the blog post: Session Ideas for Archives 360: Chicago 2011
We would love to help you get your proposals together and submitted. If you are working on a proposal and need another panelist, a moderator, or have general questions, please let us know and we will do our best to find other members to fill in your panel.
You can view the call for proposals here. The program committee reminds all that every idea should fit the theme, so don't be shy!Also, the SAA Program Committee allows 2 panel endorsements for each roundtable, which are taken into account when deciding which panels get selected for the conference. Therefore, if you would like to submit your proposal to WCRT Leadership for an endorsement, please do so by Oct. 1 so that we can forward our endorsements to the Program Committee.
Monday, August 23, 2010
At the Women's Collections Roundtable meeting, I reported that I am now the Diversity Committee representative from WCRT as well as the Women Archivists Roundtable. My role is to report out from the Diversity Committee to the women's roundtables and facilitate communication between the groups.
At the Diversity Committee meeting, we discussed many issues, but these are the highlights most relevant to this audience:
- SAA is planning to implement demographic tracking in their membership database to assess the makeup of SAA for diversity factors, including gender, race/ethnicity, and age. This will help to evaluate the diversity of membership, leadership, participation in committees and other groups, as well as of speakers at annual meetings.
- Debra Kimok reported on the background of the AMRT/RMRT Joint Working on Diversity. The group conducted a survey and developed a best practices document, “Best Practices for Working with Researchers/Archives Employees with Disabilities,” which were just endorsed by the Council at its meeting on Aug 9, 2010.
- The Diversity Committee may develop a survey jointly with the Membership Committee to assess what SAA members believe to be the most important issues that the Diversity Committee should address.
- Participation in SAA for members who can't attend annual meetings: The DC would like to address ways to enable people to contribute to discussions without being physically present at meetings via technology such as live streaming of sessions or setting up phone conferences for committee meetings.
- SAA Council charged the DC to develop a proposal for Council on what the Mosaic Scholarship could be, and develop a plan for implementing the proposal for recruitment and retention of minority students.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Here are 3 session ideas that have been floated on the listserv. If you have a paper you could present that fits into these topics, a speaker to suggest, or another idea entirely, please let us know in the comments or by email. Call for Program Proposals and submission forms are posted on the SAA website.
Breaking Stereotypes
At the Women’s Collections Roundtable meeting in Washington, DC, Professor Allida Black spoke to us about the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, dedicated to bringing Eleanor Roosevelt's writings (and radio and television appearances) on democracy and human rights before an audience as diverse as the ones she addressed. Despite her great influence on American politics, the United Nations, and the struggle for human rights, many people don’t know much about Eleanor’s life and work beyond her role as First Lady. Archives have the power to let people tell their own stories through the historical record of their own writings and documentation without any filter, and reveal the depth and nuances of their characters beyond the surface. Famous women, ordinary housewives, and even nuns have this in common: the historical record reveals a much richer portrait than the history books can tell. Have you worked with a women’s history collection that unveiled a hidden story that breaks stereotypes? Contact Kathy Hertel-Baker (khertelbaker at scnky.org).
History of Archives and/or International Archives
Rachel Miller at the Center for Jewish History is interested in presenting a comparative analysis of the World Center for Women's Archives project and the International Archives of the Women's Movement in 1935 and 1936. This topic relates to both the historical context of the “SAA at 75” theme and to the international theme they are looking for in this coming year's proposals. Do you have a topic that might relate? Contact Rachel Miller (rcmiller at cjh.org).
MPLP and Privacy Concerns for Women’s History Collections
Danelle Moon just finished a two-year project implementing MPLP across collections, and would glad to work on a proposal. The proposal could be a combo presentation on challenges implementing MPLP, degree of less process on women's collections, and privacy issues. There has been considerable work to uncover women's history, what impact does MPLP have on making women's collection accessible, are they more hidden, or more accessible as result of having basic records. The other aspect on privacy or confidential information, is problematic using the MPLP approach. Contact Danelle Moon (Danelle.Moon at sjsu.edu).
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
We haven't quite packed our bags yet, but we are already getting ready for the 2010 SAA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. We're excited about our program for the Women's Collections Roundtable, as well as the panel we are sponsoring: Beyond the Ivory Tower: Archival Collaboration, Community Partnerships, and Access Issues in Building Women's Collections. We hope you will attend our roundtable meeting and bring your ideas about programming related to women's collections for the 2011 conference and energy to get involved with WCRT through our leadership or by contributing to our blog.
*Please note updated order of events- presentations from speakers will be first, followed by the business meeting.
3:15-5:15pm, August 11, 2010
Washington, DC
Meeting Room: Virginia AB
3:15: Welcome and introductions
Co-Chairs: Danelle Moon and Kelly Wooten; Vice-Chairs: Cassie Schmitt and Meghan Lyon
3:30: Presentations
- Allida Black, Research Professor of History and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, will speak about her work as the project director of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
- Stephen Rhind-Tutt, president, Alexander Street Press, will highlight the press's women's history databases
4:30: Business Meeting
- Report on WCRT Blog- call for submissions
- Discuss building WCRT membership- recruitment strategies
- Chicago 2011- Ideas for panels for WCRT endorsement or speakers for our meeting (Proposals due October 1!)- Hidden women’s collections (Newberry Library)?
- Election of new leadership and discussion of online elections for 2011 (Want to nominate someone, including yourself? Email wcrt.saa at gmail dot com!)
- Report from SAA 2011 Program Committee Representative
- Report from SAA Council Liaison
Thursday, June 24, 2010
San Jose State University has completed a two-year grant project, funded by the NHPRC, to catalog and process our backlog of university records and manuscript collections. We have posted 73 new collection inventories on the Online Archives of California. Many of the collections document the diverse history of women in the region, including the women who attended the early Normal School from 1862 to early 20th century. Other collections that tie to women's experience include the Glenna Matthews Oral History Collection and the South Bay Second Wave Feminist Oral History Collection.
SJSU also received a detailed processing grant from the NHPRC, which will result in detailed collection inventories for the John C. Gordon Photographic Collection and the Ted Sahl Photographic Collection. Both document local history from the early 20th century to the present. The Sahl collection includes rich photographic essays of the Farm Workers Strikes in California, Anti-Nuclear Protest at Livermore Lab, and the LGBTQ community in San Jose.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Hello All,
Women's History Sources is a collaborative blog that serves as a current awareness tool for anyone who is interested in primary sources at archives, historic sites and museums, and libraries.
The blog will be international in scope. See the "About this Blog" link for more information.
The group of contributors will include a good mix of archivists, historians (faculty and graduate students), curators and librarians.
If you are interested in being a contributor, Contact Ken Middleton, Middle Tennessee State University.
Monday, June 07, 2010
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS:
Hasia Diner, the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University, is in the process of editing a multi-volume encyclopedia in American women’s history. Going well beyond Notable American Women, this reference work, which will be published by Facts on File, will include not just biographical entries, but will cover organizations, concepts, and ideas central to understanding the history of women in America.
Several hundred entries remain unassigned and we are currently looking for writers for these articles. Unfortunately only a modest honorarium is available. Unassigned entries can be viewed here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvSpEjsjS6hZdG9xT1FtcS1jeko5UFZROWxRYzQ3aEE&hl=en#gid=0
The deadline for this work will be August 10, 2010. If you're
interested in responding, please reply to:
Editors
Friday, June 04, 2010
Thomas Doblin and Kathryn Sklar are looking for resources that they can add to their new Women and Social Movements-International Database. Please contact Tom or Kitty, if you have any sources you can contribute:
For a large digital archive project, “Women and Social Movements, International, 1840-2010,” we seek copies of the following proceedings of meetings of international women’s organizations. The archive will be co-published by the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender and Alexander Street Press beginning in fall 2010.
The database will eventually include 150,000 pages of primary material related to women and social movements internationally. About 50-60,000 of these pages will consist of lengthy runs of proceedings published by various women’s organizations. We have identified about 600
proceedings of women’s international organizations. Of these we have found copies of about 400 for scanning and inclusion in the database.
These remaining 95 continue to elude us. Can you help us find these rare items in your library or repository? We would be very grateful for any leads you can offer. Thank you in advance.
Tom Dublin & Kitty Sklar, Co-Editors
Women and Social Movements, International, 1840-2010
State Univ. of New York at Binghamton
Please email your response to: tdublin@binghamton.edu
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Partnership Between Labor Studies, University Library, and National Experts Creates Archive of Women in the Building Trades
Last fall, Vivian Price, assistant professor and coordinator of labor studies, and Greg Williams, director of University Archives and Special Collections, received a $25,000 digital start-up grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for their project, "New Approaches: Tradeswomen Archive Project" (TAP). Their vision is to create a virtual museum administered through California State University, Dominguez Hills of photographs, documents, and other historical artifacts from women in the building trades.
Last month, a group of national archivists, scholars, and historians met in a symposium at CSU Dominguez Hills to discuss a second level proposal for another NEH grant to expand TAP, which is currently comprised of a Website, a Facebook presence, and a physical collection that is housed in the university archives. The collection of photographs, video, oral histories, original documents, and various three dimensional materials such as union pins and patches has been growing through online contacts and contributions gathered through TAP’s Facebook page.
Price says that the tradeswomen who made their groundbreaking entrance into blue-collar professions in the mid-1970s are now of retirement age and are ready to donate their memorabilia to an institution for posterity – and to overcome their isolation as pioneers in male-dominated fields.
“Women are also concerned that the next generation of women and men working in the trades will not know how institutions have changed, and how the culture of the male-dominated workplace has shifted because of women organizing,” she says. “[Also], women are concerned about the continued resistance to women working in skilled blue-collar jobs, and want to share their experiences and knowledge.”
Price has donated her personal collection of artifacts that span her professional life from the 1970s to the present as a former union electrician, political scientist, documentarian, and advocator. Of local historical interest are materials related to the Southern California Tradeswomen Network and women who constructed the Century Freeway (the 105 Freeway) in Los Angeles.
“CSU Dominguez Hills is in the heart of Los Angeles, where cutting-edge innovation in the labor movement is taking place,” says Price. “This is the only four-year university in Southern California to offer a bachelor's degree in labor studies, so research in [this area] is natural for our University Archives to initiate.”
TAP has already begun to benefit the CSU Dominguez Hills community and beyond, according to Price, who says that “having a growing collection in our library will provide a niche area for students to research.”
Veronica Ciocia-D'Aquino, an intern in the University Archives who recently earned her degree in library science from San Jose State, did the lion’s share of categorizing and sorting the original collection and developing a searching tool.
The project also enhanced the Long Beach lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community through a collaboration with the nonprofit Mentoring Youth Through Empowerment (MYTE). Youth in the program interviewed tradeswomen during the course of a year, created collages from quotations and photos from the interviews, and then worked with local artists to create the final posters. These final results have recently been on display at Los Angeles City Hall to celebrate April’s Labor History Month and were also shown at the CSU Dominguez Hills Labor and Social Justice Fair that took place yesterday at the university.
Price and Williams have recently submitted a proposal for a Level II NEH Digital Start Up-Grant for $50,000. Price has also applied for an NEH faculty grant to bring international organizations into TAP. She says that in the spirit of the original tradeswomen, the project so far has benefited from a collaborative effort of archivists, scholars, tradeswomen, and activists.
“Some [participants have encouraged tradeswomen] to attend the tradeswomen conferences and initiate oral history projects and diary campaigns to produce materials that tradeswomen can upload electronically to our Website, send in physically to our library, or to a local collection that could be linked to our archives,” says Price. “What was also interesting was our discussion regarding our archives as a participatory curatorial project, in which the tradeswomen are involved in shaping the campaign to document themselves rather than being the objects of scholars' directions.”
- Joanie Harmon
Monday, March 08, 2010
The University of South Alabama Archives' collection focus is on the photographic history, and social, cultural, legal, political, and architectural heritage of Mobile, Alabama, the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, and the University of South Alabama. With 1,000,000 negatives in its possession, it has grown to have one of the largest photographic collections in the region. It is also strong in its coverage of the civil rights', political', environmental', and women's history of the area.
Carol Ellis
Archivist
University of South Alabama Archives
USA Springhill Avenue
Room 0722
Mobile AL 36688
ph: 251-434-3800
fx: 251-434-3622
cellis@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
visit our online digital image collection at http://www.alabamamosaic.org/collections.php
Monday, March 08, 2010
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Woman Suffrage in Washington State (and of course, the history of Jello salad) with this delightful and historically researched print from Anagram Press.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
The most recent issue (Fall 2009) of Microform & Imaging Review includes 8 articles and 4 reviews on the theme of "women's history digital collections."
De Gruyter's Reference Global site (http://www.reference-global.
The digitization projects that are showcased in this theme issue are improving access to primary sources that document women’s lives in places as diverse as Italy, Iran, and Muncie (“Middletown”), Indiana. Other collections focus on African American women at the University of Iowa, an underappreciated French American author, and the pioneering efforts of women in government and law.
Here's a list of the articles with brief annotations, along with links to the collections that are highlighted. The list also includes links to the full text of articles 2 and 7 (for this week only).
1. Women's History Collections: Digitization, Access, and the Future of Collaboration by Ken Middleton- Provides a brief introduction to the key themes of the issue.
2. The Middletown Women's History Collection. A Case Study in Building a Digital Collection of Women's History Resources by Amanda A. Hurford and Maren L. Read- An excellent case study from the perspective of an archivist and a digital projects librarian.
Link to Middletown Women's History Collection
http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm4/
Link to full text of the article:
http://www.reference-global.
3. Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran. A Digital Archive and Website Project of the History Department and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University; and the Harvard College Library by Afsaneh Najmabadi- This project is bringing together widely dispersed primary sources, many of which remain in private family collections.
Link to grant announcement:
http://history.fas.harvard.
4. The Italian Digital Women's Library in the Context of Europe by Annamaria Tagliavini
The author describes how the focus on women's movements influenced the types of sources collected at the Italian Women's Library, as well as the Fragen Project, a collaborative project involving European women's libraries.
Link to the Italian Digital Women's Library and Fragen:
http://www.women.it/
5. Unveiling Women's History Online. Digitizing the Washington College of Law Historical Collection by Allison B. Zhang and Susan McElrath- The authors provide a wealth of information about the technical aspects of digitization: metadata; working with digitization vendors; developing a file naming convention. They also describe the custom viewer for scrapbooks.
Link to digital collection:
http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/
6. Digitization of the French Language Sidonie de la Houssaye Papers by Gina Costello
Costello covers microfilming the collection for preservation, and subsequent digitization of the microfilm to improve access.
Link to digital collection:
http://louisdl.louislibraries.
7. Chronicling African American Women Students at the University of Iowa by Shawn Averkamp
In addition to covering selection, digitization, and metadata issues, Averkamp outlines the timeline approach for providing a key entry point to the collection. Such an approach provides contextual information for small groups of items, rather than just for the collection as a whole.
Link to digital collection: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/
Link to full text of the article:
http://www.reference-global.
8. A Few Good Women, 1969–1974. An Oral History Collection Experienced through an Online Curriculum for Grades 6–12 by Karla M. Schmit
Link to digital collection: http://www.afgw.libraries.psu.
This collection highlights the experiences of women in government positions during Richard Nixon's presidency. Schmit explores multiple options for making the collection relevant for students: WebQuests to compare "A Few Good Women" with women in government in other countries; compare interviews in the collection with their own interviews with women; and even play the roles of journalist Vera Glaser and President Nixon in Readers Theatre.
Review of Microfilm Collection
* Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance Archives, ca. 1972–1994 (reviewed by Phyllis Holman Weisbard)
Reviews of Commercial Digital Collections
* Manuscript Women’s Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society, 1750–1950 (reviewed by Jessica Moran)
* Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500–1700 (reviewed by Robert Detmering)
* Women, War and Society, 1914–1918: From the Imperial War Museum, London (reviewed by Nina Clements)
Ken Middleton
Editor, Microform & Imaging Review
Box 013, Walker Library
Middle Tennessee State Univ.
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
(615) 904-8524
kmiddlet@mtsu.edu
Posts
