SAA - Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

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Written by Webmaster

Published: 15 January 2015

The application period for the 2015 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award is now open!

The Pinkett Award was established in 1993 and recognizes and acknowledges minority graduate students, such as those of African, Asian, Latino or Native American descent, who, through scholastic and personal achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of the Society of American Archivists.
The recipients of the award will receive full complimentary registration to the SAA Annual Meeting and related expenses for hotel and travel for attending the Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists on August 16-22, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, each recipient receives a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

SC Archives Month - October

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Written by Webmaster

Published: 16 September 2014

The work of archivists in South Carolina is integral to maintaining the fabric of our rich documentary heritage. We demonstrate the importance of primary source materials to elementary school students, collect oral histories to immortalize people’s voices and life experiences, and teach people how to search for and find the information they seek. We preserve evidence of the past to enrich people’s present and future experiences. As the state’s primary professional organization for archivists, SCAA is committed to advocating for the profession and the records repositories where we carry out our work to assess, collect, organize, preserve, and provide access to information that has lasting value.

To commemorate the South Carolina Archival Association’s fifteenth birthday, we are renewing our commitment to advocacy for archives and archivists in the state of South Carolina. To start the momentum, SCAA is reinvigorating the celebration of South Carolina Archives Month in October.

 

Celebrate South Carolina Archives Month with us!

From the mountains to the sea, the foothills and the Pee Dee, Every region of South Carolina is home to natural beauty and environmental wonders.

The goal of South Carolina Archives Month is to inform the general public about the diverse array of archival materials held in repositories across the Palmetto State. All archival and documentary heritage repositories are invited to participate. The natural environment will serve as our theme and inspiration. Archivists and librarians are encouraged to participate by curating exhibits, lectures, open houses and other events that highlight the landscape, conservation, flora, fauna, agriculture, management of natural resources, and outdoor recreation in South Carolina.

The events are a celebration of the work that we and our organizations do, but South Carolina Archives Month is also a time to raise public awareness. By holding exhibit openings, workshops, lectures, open houses, and other related events during October, South Carolina’s archives community can make a concerted effort to underscore the importance of our profession to our state’s citizenry and public leaders.

 Some ideas for themed events/installations:

• South Carolina flora and fauna
• Prominent South Carolinians involved in the natural sciences, such as biologists, botanists, and naturalists 
• Gardening and landscaping
• Agriculture and land use
• Forestry and wildlife management
• Hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation
• Natural energy sources and consumption
• Geology, geography, hydrology, and other earth sciences
• Natural disasters

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to showcase a part of your archival collection! Please share information about your Archives Month event(s) with us by filling out our event submission form and we will post it on our website and publicize via facebook, twitter, and other networks! Also, don’t forget to join us for our annual meeting at Newberry College on October 10th!

 

SC Archives Month Events

 

Event Dates	Time	Institution	Event Title	Event Description
9/5/2014- 1/9/2015	n/a	South Carolina Political Collections Gallery, Hollings Library	"The Force of Character and Courage”: South Carolina and Hugo	The arrival of Hurricane Hugo on September 21, 1989, marked the first major hurricane to hit South Carolina in thirty years. On the 25th anniversary of the event, a new exhibit in the South Carolina Political Collections gallery depicts the state's preparation for the storm, the destruction it caused, and the efforts towards rescue and recovery. The exhibit, "The Force of Character and Courage": South Carolina and Hugo, draws its name from a statement made by then-Governor Carroll Campbell about the bravery and cooperative spirit shown by the people of the state in the face of tragedy. The exhibit is free and open to the public 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday, through January 9, in the South Carolina Political Collections Gallery in the Hollings Library. The Hollings LIbrary is accessed through Thomas Cooper Library. For more information, call the Hollings Library at (803) 777-3847.
9/3/2014- 10/14/2014	n/a	Anderson University	WW I Abroad and at Home	This exhibit explores how Anderson College students supported the war effort and showcases two flags from World War I.
10/2/2014	5:30 PM	Charleston Museum	Special Archives Tours: Nature in the Archives	October is American Archives Month!  Archivist Jennifer McCormick will be once again opening the locked flat files to bring you the Natural Environment in the Archives. Join McCormick in viewing Volumes 3 & 4 of John James Audubon's The Birds of America as well as the never before seen sketch book of Maria Martin's butterflies and insects. McCormick will also showcase two sketch books of Charles Fraser's landscape watercolors he created while travelling throughout the countryside. Afterwards, we will take a trip to the Museum's storeroom to see the stunning butterfly and insect collection of Anna Heyward Taylor. Registration Required.  There are only 10 spots available. $40 for Members, $55 for Non-members. Call 843.722.2996 ext. 235 or visit http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/proddetail.asp?prod=SpecialArchivesTour8.26.1
10/11/2014	1:00 - 2:30 PM	Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library	Behind-the-Scenes Tour	Our annual Archives Month behind-the-scenes tour highlights items about plant and animal life, naturalists, conservation, agriculture, recreation, and land use this year. Allot 1.5 hours for presentation and tour. Limit of 15. Registration required: cseabrook@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468. Please: No walk-ins.
10/20/2014	2:00 PM	The Charleston Archive at Charleston County Public Library	Preserving your Documentary Heritage: Archiving Basics	Join CCPL’s Archivist, Katie Gray, for an instructional session on protecting your personal documents for posterity. Ms. Gray will offer guidelines for the physical preservation of documents and photographs, as well as advice on exerting intellectual control over your materials
10/23/2014	Luncheon at 12:30PM-1:30PM; Reception at 6:00 PM	Charleston Library Society	The Art of the ACE Basin	For the last 30 years Vincent J. Musi has travelled the world photographing everything from volcanoes to mummies, capturing enduring images of vanishing cultures, history, and archaeology. He currently specializes in animal portraiture for National Geographic Magazine, and his work is an often quirky look at the world of exotic pets, domestication, and cognition. In between assignments, Musi, who lives on Sullivan’s Island, has focused on the Lowcountry, producing a portfolio celebrating the ACE Basin for the November 2014 edition of National Geographic. Musi’s photographs of the Ace Basin tell a story, in pictures, of an unprecedented 25 years of public private partnership that has protected more than 217,000 beautiful and biodiverse acres just 30-some miles from downtown Charleston.Musi will speak at the Library's Wide Angle Lunch Series. For tickets, call 843-723-9912. A reception and exhibition of Musi's photographs will be held the same evening as the lunchtime lecture.

 

 

2014 Annual Conference Registration open now!

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Written by Webmaster

Published: 02 September 2014

Registration is now open for SCAA's 2014 Annual Conference:Archives and the Natural Environment, to be held at Newberry College in Newberry, SC, on Friday, October 10, 2014.

Click here to register!

The theme of this year's annual meeting is Archives and the Natural Environment. Informative sessions will include presentations on herbaria as archives, updating archival workflows in established institutions, examining the impact of natural disasters on repositories, and documenting architectural collections in South Carolina archives. Our plenary address will be given by Dr. Patrick McMillan, professor at Clemson University and Director of the South Carolina Botanical Garden.

Tentative Schedule

  9:00 AM - 10:00 AM          Registration
  9:00 AM                          Optional Newberry Archives Tour
10:15 AM - 11:00 AM          Sessions IA, IB & II
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM           Sessions III & IV
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM             Lunch
12:30 PM                           Business Meeting
  1:00 PM                           Plenary Speaker
  2:00 PM - 3:00 PM             Session V                   

      Session IA
Archives and Natural Disasters – Preserving MUSC’s Hurricane Hugo Experiences
Brooke Fox, MUSC University Archives 

The September 21, 1989 landfall of Hurricane Hugo greatly impacted the campus of the Medical University of South Carolina. This presentation will discuss the University Archives’ efforts to document the bravery of hospital, faculty and maintenance staff as they protected people and facilities before, during, and after the storm. Ms. Fox will highlight efforts in soliciting records and photographs as well as conducting oral history interviews for inclusion in the University Archives. In addition she will discuss the development of exhibits about the storm.

Session IB
Connecting the Dots: The Role of the Historic Properties Information Coordinator
Morgan Jones, South Carolina Department of Archives and History

In the past year, South Carolina’s Department of Archives and History created an entirely new position for the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO): The Historic Properties Information Coordinator. This position was created and filled in order to bridge the gap between users and historic property information. While the tasks of that position were distributed among other staff members, the division of labor only allowed the office to keep up with the existing workload. This Historic Properties Information Coordinator will be responsible for designing an online searchable database of historic property information, managing the digitization and online presentation of associated records, and enabling the electronic submission of materials from surveyors. This presentation will discuss how archival skills, strategies, and standards contribute to a project that involves so many different types of professionals including archaeologists, architectural historians, planners, preservationists, public historians and surveyors. Ms. Jones will also discuss how her experiences with these intersecting professions have informed her experience as an archivist. 

Session II
The Digital Divide: Users, Archival Traditions and a Digital Future
Bobbi Bischoff, Hillary Hudson, Travis Wagner and Nicole Oderisi, USC SLIS 

As archives move forward into the next century, students here at University of South Carolina have concerns about archive traditions and the future of digital archiving. Concerns include the digital impact on copyright, film preservation, and the divide between what students know and what employers want. 

Session III
It’s Never Too Late to Mend: Updating Archival Workflows in Established Institutions
Joshua Minor, College of Charleston Special Collections & Aaron Spelbring, Avery Research Center 

In this panel, Joshua Minor, Manager of Archival Processing at the College of Charleston and Aaron Spelbring, Manager of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center will discuss their experiences updating processing strategies in established institutions where standardized, consistent archival workflows, policies, and priorities have only been partially implemented due to limited resources and staff. Minor and Spelbring will examine the strategies used and the techniques implemented in both institutions as well as some of the challenges associated with this type of operational change.

Session IV
Documenting the “Mother Art” in South Carolina: Architectural Collections at Clemson University and the University of South Carolina.”
Beth Bilderback, University of South Carolina and Jim Cross, Clemson University 

Frank Lloyd Wright once said “the mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.” The built environment is such an integral part of our lives that we do not give it a second thought. Unless, as archivists, we have architectural records in our collections. The records, however, are not the glamour collections that provide great PR or that fit neatly into fancy archival boxes to show a donor. They are difficult to preserve and take up too much precious storage space. Yet, these records are an important part of our history and are used by a variety of researchers: architects, gardeners, building managers, home owners, historians, students, etc. In this session, Jim Cross will talk about the new architectural archives at Clemson that grew out of an initiative with the SC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Clemson and USC. Beth Bilderback will talk about the South Caroliniana Library’s collection of landscape architect Robert Marvin among others.

Plenary Speaker
Rediscovering Catesby’s Carolina
Dr. Patrick McMillan, Clemson University

Mark Catesby, an intrepid explorer and naturalist arrived in South Carolina in 1722 and spent over two years traveling far beyond the English settlements documenting and describing the marvels of the wild interior of Carolina. His Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Island is well-known for its dazzling illustrations and tales, but this is only part of the story. The collections sent back to England that now reside at Oxford and in the Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum, London complete the description of what South Carolina was like during the first decades of European settlement. Join Patrick as he takes us back in time to examine a Carolina that most of us would find quite foreign today and learn just how powerful our choices are in transforming the world around us.

Session V
Herbaria as Archives: Structure, Function, and Transformation of Botanical Research Collection
Dr. Charles Horn, Newberry College – Herrick Brown, A.C. Moore Herbarium, USC – Kate Foster Boyd, University of South Carolina

Herbarium collections throughout South Carolina capture and preserve the history and current dynamics of plant populations throughout the state. This session will highlight the composition and value of these collections. Processing, identifying and organizing botanical specimens, developing databases for storage and retrieval of information on the physical collections for researchers and staff, climate control and preservation all present unique challenges for herbarium curators.

 

 

 

Join us for the SCAA Annual Meeting in October!

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Written by Mary Jo Fairchild

Published: 24 July 2014

SCAA Annual Meeting: Archives and the Natural Environment

The SCAA Outreach and Advocacy Committee invites you to attend the annual meeting to be held at Newberry College in Newberry, SC on Friday, October 10, 2014. The natural environment will serve as the theme and inspiration for conference proceedings.

We welcome presentation and/or session proposals relating to the intersection of archives and records repositories with the natural environment as well as issues relevant to our profession in the 21st Century.

These include:

• The intersection of archives and preservation with landscape, conservation, flora, fauna, agriculture, management of natural resources, and outdoor recreation in South Carolina.

• Biographical, historical, and research information concerning collections that document the South Carolina landscape. These can include naturalists, biologists, and botanists.

• Sustainability in the archives. Anything from selecting sustainable formats for electronic records to “green” archival facilities.
• Challenges facing archivists involved in caring for natural history collections.

• Collaboration of archivists with other professionals in the fields of natural history, science, archaeology, land management, engineering, surveying, landscape architecture, and farming.

• New research and innovative projects and programs being implemented in archives repositories.

To download a session proposal form, click here!

Registration will open soon and additional details about the meeting will be available soon.

We have a new look!

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Written by Webmaster

Published: 11 July 2014

The SCAA website has updated its look! The content should be the same, but please email the webmaster if you see broken links, etc. Enjoy!