Category: General (Page 3 of 22)

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York (A.R.T.) is pleased to announce its: 

~Fall 2014 Student Social~

Are you an archives student, or considering a career in archives, located in the greater New York metropolitan area?

Are you seeking educational advice, career guidance, or mentoring options with experienced professionals?

The A.R.T. Membership Committee and the Mentoring Program co-chairs invite you to participate in an event geared towards providing targeted opportunities for discussion, networking, and developing enriching connections for A.R.T. student members and new professionals. Participants can also learn more about A.R.T.’s Mentoring Program and will be able to sign up for this exciting resource.

We look forward to welcoming you!!

Date:   Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Time:  6:30 – 7:15 Social

            7:15 – 7:45: Discussion of A.R.T. opportunities

            7:45 – 8:30: Panel Discussion with Mentors

Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16^th Street, New York, NY 10011

Directions:  N, Q, R, L, 4, 5, or 6 trains to 14th Street-Union Square; F or M trains to 14^th Street;  1, 2, or 3 trains  to 14^th Street; or A, C, or E trains to 14^th Street

ADMISSION
Non-A.R.T. Members: $10.00
A.R.T Members: $5.00
Student Members: Free! (registration code required)

Online Registration Required.  Please register no later than midnight on *Tuesday, November 12.*  Please note that you MUST pay in advance online in order to attend this program.  (You DO NOT need to have or create a PayPal account to pay online).  If you have any questions or concerns regarding payment, please email membership@nycarchivists.org. 

How to Guide: Presenting a Professional Poster at the Society of American Archivists Conference

By Elizabeth Alleva

This past August I attended the Society of American Archivists Conference in Washington, DC. I had an amazing experience at my first ever professional conference. It was great to be among so many archivists and to have the opportunity to hear about their experiences in the field. As an archivist in training, the SAA conference was a great way to get my foot in the door! I also had the privilege of being a graduate student poster presenter! I therefore decided to put together a little how to guide describing both the preparation and the actual presentation.

Step 1: Select a topic

SAA sends out the call for posters at the start of the new year. All that is required is a tentative title and a 250 word description of your project. The best poster topic is one on a project that you have spent countless hours working on. The poster gives you an opportunity to report your findings to a wider audience. I selected a digitization project that I had been working on at the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs. The title of my poster became Providing Access to Non-Traditional Users: The Digitization of the World War I Photo Collection at the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs.

Step 2: Determine the most important aspects of the project

It is highly unlikely that a person at the exhibit hall will read every single word on your poster. Therefore it is important to create your poster in a way that is comprehensive and easy to read. I  decided to divide my poster into four sections: information on the collection, information on the organization, the digitization process, and how access was provided. I also decided to try and include as  many photographs as possible, since my project was about digitizing photographs. I wanted to make sure that viewers of the poster understood the project as well as have the ability to see the materials I worked with.

Step 3: Designing and printing the poster

As I mentioned earlier, the goal for designing a poster is to create something that is attractive and can provide as much information as needed to understand your project. You want to draw the conferences participants in with your poster so you can engage them in conversation. I decided to place my four sections into boxes. I used concise language and bullet points making it easier for the viewer to read. I used colors that were bold, but easy to look at. I created my poster in Photoshop which I was able to use through NYU. The best part about photoshop is that you can size your work to the exact scale you want to print it. Printing the poster is an easy step in the process. FedEx Kinko’s prints posters for one set price. I ended up printing my poster in a size that was much larger than the others (oops), so I would recommend a size smaller than 36” x 48”.

Step 4: Presenting the poster

The final step in the process is the actual presentation. SAA designates two days for the exhibition hall in which poster presenters stand with their posters. I created a small pamphlet that provided additional information on my project, as well as my contact information for anyone who had further questions. As I had predicted, the photographs on my poster attracted many attendees attention! I had prepared ahead of time a quick elevator pitch about my project and the institution that I worked for. It is hard to prepare for every possible question, however you are the expert on this project and therefore should be able to answer most of the questions that are asked!

Presenting at this year’s SAA conference was a fantastic experience! It truly allowed me to converse with my colleagues while sharing all of my hard work! I look forward to future conferences and to hopefully presenting again.

Me with my poster

Close up of my poster

This August, as I prepared for my last year as a student in the Archives and Public History program here are New York University, I had the privilege to attend the Society of American Archivists Annual conference in Washington D.C.  I went to the conference with the goal of learning what professional archivists are currently doing with archival education and outreach. The theme of the conference was accessibility, which is truly at the core of education and outreach. While I dabbled in different areas of archival discussions on the first day attending a session on “Lone Arrangers” and gender dynamics in the field to get a well-rounded experience, I spent the rest of my time in sessions focusing on education.

I attended lightning rounds that specialized in strategies for teaching archives to students and new researchers, as well as sessions that set out with a call to action for a more formalized archival education which the field currently requires. The seminars I attended gave excellent examples of how archival professionals currently host educational sessions on an ad-hoc basis to classes and new users. What I learned is that we as archivists need to work on creating universal tools to engage our. As archivists, we have to get creative in how we engage users especially since we have official archival terminology and descriptive standards yet lack standardized educational strategies. This is especially important as instruction in the archives has increasingly become a core function of today’s archivists. Having a more formalized practice in archival education would allow us to better engage with new publics and give better accessibility to collections.

The sessions I attended were not only informative, they were inspiring. It was great to see how archivists from all different types of institutions such as corporate, educational, and cultural, engage with their user bases that varies so greatly. As a graduate student of the archives, I am still actively involved in learning what is going on in the professional field as I continue to take in archival literature through my coursework. However, as this academic year comes to a close I will be a part of the professional community and will not always have a professor to hand out the latest in archival literature. Instead, I will have to seek out new trends in the field, and if possible contribute accordingly. It was promising to see professionals so engaged with their community and excited about enhancing their field. The conference showed me that my interests and contributions in the field do not have to be confined to my solitarily work, but can become part of a larger initiative within the archival community. I left the conference feeling ready to tackle the challenge of archival education and outreach, which I will focus on for my capstone project this upcoming year. This was my first time at the SAA conference, but it certainly will not be my last. I hope to attend again next year as a way to continue enriching my experience within the field beyond my formal education.

SAA Badge and Program