Category Archives: Announcements

Membership dues reminder

A reminder for all who haven’t yet paid your membership dues this year. Dues are $10.00. You can send a check (made out to Archivists of the Houston Area or AHA!) to:

Sandra Yates
Texas Medical Center Library
1133 John Freeman Blvd.
Houston, TX 77030

If you’re not sure if you’ve paid this year, send Sandra an an email (syates@library.tmc.edu), and she’ll let you know.

If any one needs to change their contact information, please complete a new application form and email/mail it to above contact.

 

AHA! Newsletter: A Proposal

Now that the AHA! Yahoo Listserv has been officially retired due to significant usage drop-off, AHA! is testing a new potential medium for member communication.

The Web Committee has started a newsletter using the distribution service TinyLetter. The overall goal for the newsletter is to allow AHA! members to get help, share information, and have a chance to share accomplishments, big and small.

Things you could share include:

  • a question or request for assistance
  • share an interesting news article or archives-related post
  • brag about an accomplishment at your institution, big or small
  • advertise a new position, internship, or other professional opportunity

You can sign-up for the AHA! TinyLetter newsletter and see the test back issues here: http://tinyletter.com/houstonarchivists.

This newsletter is not self-service like the Yahoo group where you directly post a question or comment, nor is it a listserv like the SAA lists, which allow you to send an email and have it get automatically distributed to members.

To get something on the TinyLetter newsletter, you would communicate with the administrator (currently the Web Committee) and they would post your content to the newsletter.

The newsletter could go out at whatever frequency works best for members. Some options include:

  • Biweekly
  • Monthly
  • Monthly with other editions as-needed by AHA! members

Submit content for the Archiving Houston newsletter by emailing Sarah Gesell or using this form: http://goo.gl/forms/7BG0MGuJKP.

Please use this form to share your thoughts and general feedback concerning the newsletter: http://goo.gl/forms/f6M8498FlQ.

SSA Newsletter Needs More Submissions!

Hello Southwest Archivists,

Your newsletter needs more submissions! We have not received many articles for the upcoming Southwestern Archivist, so are extending the deadline until Wednesday, April 20. Have a fascinating newly processed collection? A grant project that’s underway? A new outreach program to share? Committee service that affects southwestern archivists? We want to hear from you! Submission guidelines are below. If you have questions about a submission, please contact Amanda Norman, Dara Flinn, or your regional liaison (contacts below). Help us make our next issue a success!


General submission guidelines:

All submissions should be written in a style consistent with inclusion in a professional publication. Submissions should include author contact information immediately following the submitted text: Preferred name, institution, mailing address, phone/fax (optional), and preferred e-mail (optional). Please note that articles may be edited to conform to style conventions and space limitations.

Accompanying photographs are welcome and encouraged. Ideally, at least one (and up to 3) photographs should be submitted with each article contributed (although they are subject to space limitations). Please include appropriate captions and citations as text in the accompanying e-mail.

Requirements for submitting photographs

  • Resolution: 300dpi or greater
  • Size: at least 2″x 2″ – no upper limit on size
  • Format: most any native image format is acceptable, including: tiff, jpg, psd
  • Note: Images sent embedded in Word documents cannot be published in the newsletter, because Word compresses the images and converts them to a proprietary format. Please submit all images in the native image format.

Because some authors have requested word counts for articles, approximate word counts follow:

  • 175 words / 150 words w/photo = 1/2 column (or 1/4 page vertical)
  • 350 words / 275 words w/photo = 1 column (or 1/2 page vertical)
  • 725 words / 600 words w/photo = 2 columns (or full page vertical)

Editorial preference is given to original articles that focus on repository news, that meet the above guidelines, and that arrive prior to the stated deadline. Articles are also evaluated by size; they may be edited to fit within the space available. The editors reserve the right to omit submissions or hold them over for a future issue.


Send all article submissions to your regional liaison:

Arizona: Lindsey Stegemoller at lstegemoller@icloud.com

Arkansas: Stephanie Bayless at sbayless@cals.org

Louisiana: Jennifer “Jenny” Mitchell at jmitc84@lsu.edu

New Mexico: Lynn Gates at legates@nmhu.edu

Oklahoma: Misty D. Smith at misty.d.smith@okstate.edu

Texas–North: Patrizia Nava at patrizia.nava@utdallas.edu
(West Texas, Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, El Paso, Dallas, and all points north)

Texas–South: Phyllis Kinnison at pkinnison@mosthistory.org
(San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and all points south.)

Out-of State Regions: Shelly Croteau at shelly.croteau@sos.mo.gov

Leadership Log: Krishna Shenoy at krishnas@jfk.org


Leadership Log

We know that you have been busy—so tell us what you’ve done! Send a short paragraph to Leadership Log and let your colleagues know about your accomplishments.

Send Krishna Shenoy (krishnas@jfk.org) an email if you have: • Won an award • Published a book or article • Given a talk or presentation • Been promoted • Retired • Started a new job • Elected or appointed to a leadership position in an archival organization • Any other major changes or events that your archival colleagues would find of interest.

~

Amanda Norman
Editor, Southwestern Archivist
email: amanda_norman@baylor.edu

Dara Flinn
Assistant Editor, Southwestern Archivist
email: dflinn@rice.edu

http://southwestarchivists.org/newsletter/

Gulf Coast: “The Archive Issue” and more

Spring Issue Release!

Thursday, April 14th, 7pm at the Jung CenterGulf Coast releases 28.2, its newest issue—a real beauty—and the latest volume of Unsung Masters focusing on the work of Beatrice Hastings!

Past spring launch events have included an ekphrastic poetry slam, an artists and authors roundtable on the future of the book, and this year’s launch features a reading with local heroes Lupe Mendez and Nishta Mehra, two of our 28.2 contributors, who will read work inspired by treasures found in the University of Houston Special Collections and archives. Ben Johnson and Erika Jo Brown, co-editors of this year’s Unsung Masters volume, will read from Hastings’s work.

Hastings is a fascinating early modernist who used multiple pen names and personas to write about her life and time, including taking Ezra Pound to task. It won’t quite be a séance, but will be fresh and inspiring. Beer, wine, cupcakes, and kiki-ing to follow.

Here’s the Facebook invite and event information from our website.

Please feel free to share widely!

*These collaborations with Unsung Masters, the UH Libraries, and Special Collections are made possible by a generous Innovations Grant through the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, which is funded in part by the Houston Endowment, Inc.

2016 CounterCurrent Festival!

Gulf Coast has created a reading room as part of this year’s CounterCurrent Festival. From April 12th-17th, visitors to the MATCH galleries can browse issues and cover art from our 30-year history, books by artists in the festival, and writers in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Attendees at the “Current Conversations” lecture series will also receive a broadside/letterpress cover created by Workhorse Printmakers and Spindletop Design. The lectures begin on Wednesday the 13th.

See you on Thursday and at the festival!

Olivewood Cemetary Clean-up and Updates

Good Evening Friends Of Olivewood just an update on events happening at the cemetery:

A Big Thank You to all of the groups and individuals who came out for the Big Clean Up in February, the Oddfellows provided us with a wonderful lunch, the Omega’s from the Rho Beta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Faternity and Mr.Andrew McGee were this year recipients of the Bernice McBeth award; and Mr.Paul Jennings is the winner of our raffle of two one way e- passes from South West Airline.

First Saturday Clean Up-this Saturday from 9-12 with weather permitting, The Oddfellows will be out working on mowing, cleaning grave sites, and pulling out brush. Please bring lawn tools, bug spray,wear long sleeves, long pants, and closed toe shoes.

Third Saturday Clean Up– April 16th, The National Museum of Funeral History will sponsor a Day of Service at Olivewood from 8-12 with weather permitting. The museum located at 415 Barren Springs Dr. is presenting the “Honoring Olivewood” Exhibit until May 29, 2016. This beautiful collection of photographs were taken by Ms.Kasey French who at the age of 16 was volunteering with her church group and asked how could she honor those interred in the cemetery, she decided to bring Olivewood to the public through photography. For more information on the exhibit please visit the museum’s website at nmfh.org

Feel free to share this e-mail with your family, friends, church, schools, and organizations looking for a volunteer or community service opportunity

Kindest Regards

Margott Williams-Volunteer Coordinator

www.descendantsofolivewood.org

 

MFAH Film Series: Upcoming Events

Saturday, February 8, 2016, 7 pm – “Don’t Blink” by Robert Frank

Friday, February 9, 2016, 6 pm – “Life-Raft Earth” by Robert Frank
This screening is free! Use the “Get Tickets” button to reserve your spot.

Presented by filmmaker Laura Israel

Poster_DontBlinkRobertFrank.jpg

 

The MFAH has served as the repository and distributor of films by legendary photographer Robert Frank (born 1924) for more than three decades. This relationship has led to the preservation of essential works in the artist’s filmography, as well as hundreds of screenings and retrospectives around the world.

About the Presenter
Laura Israel started editing award-winning commercials and music videos while a film student at New York University. She formed the editorial company Assemblage and worked on projects involving David Byrne, Ziggy Marley, New Order, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Patti Smith, and Sonic Youth, among others. Windfall, her directorial debut, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won top prize at Doc NYC. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, the paper called it “urgent, informative, and artfully assembled,” and Israel was named in Filmmaker Magazine’s 2011 “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Don’t Blink – Robert Frank premiered in the main slate of the 2015 New York Film Festival. Included as one of Artforum’s top 10 films of 2015 as well as one of Film Comment’s top 10 unreleased films, Don’t Blink also screened at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.


 

Don’t Blink – Robert Frank

The Museum hosts one of the first public screenings of the new feature-length documentary Robert Frank – Don’t Blink prior to its national release. Several years ago, Robert Frank consented to a request from Laura Israel, his trusted longtime editor and collaborator, to serve as the subject of a new film. Culling from many years of conversations while working and watching his films together, Israel brilliantly creates a portrait described by the New York Film Festival as “a lively rummage sale of images, sounds, and recollected passages, unfathomable losses, and friendships that leaves audiences a fast and fleeting imprint of the life of the Swiss-born man who reinvented himself the American way, and is still standing on ground of his own making at the age of 90.”


 

Life-Raft Earth

This screening is free! Use the “Get Tickets” button to reserve your spot.

Whole Earth Catalog editor Stewart Brand and his friend Hugh Romney (aka Wavy Gravy) asked photographer Robert Frank to document “The Hunger Show,” a weeklong fast staged by the Portola Institute in California. This “happening” was designed to make the problem of world hunger and malnutrition a personal matter for participants and observers. Life-Raft Earth records the October 1969 event, which took place in a parking lot in Hayward, California. A fascinating time capsule, this short film is shown in a newly restored 16mm print created with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Laura Israel, Frank’s longtime editor, introduces the screening.

HHA Community Partners Summit, April 2, 2016

Rather than highlighting one of our many fantastic community partners, this month the HHA would like to take this opportunity to invite all of our Partners to our HHA Community Partners Summit to be held Saturday April 2,1016 from 10:00-1:00 at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Houston Hobby Airport.

Representatives from our Community Partners are invited to collaborate on networking, marketing, and educational opportunities and to share success stories and concerns for the Houston history community.

There is no charge to attend and light refreshments will be provided.

Organizations are encouraged to bring advertising materials to share with other community partners as well as a calendar of events that can be included in HHA resources.

Please contact info@houstonhistoryalliance.org for more information.  We encourage you to REGISTER HERE!

Houston History Alliance Symposium Theme Announced

The sixth annual HHA Symposium will be held Saturday October 1, 2016 at MATCH, 3400 Main St., Houston.  The conference will celebrate the long and diverse musical history of Houston ranging from Zydeco to Blues to Country and Tejano.

HHA is proud to partner with The Jung Center, The Houston Blues Museum, Houston Arts Alliance, and The Continental Club for the 2016 Symposium and our program lineup is sure to appeal to a variety of interests.  Our program will include musical historians Joe Nick Patoski, Rick Mitchell, Dr. Robert Morgan, and Lizette Cobb as well as panels on Sugarhill Studios, onsite musical performances, and post-conference performances at the Continental Club.

For more information on the conference, please visit: Houston History Alliance.

SAA Spotlight Award 2016 Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

The SAA Spotlight Award Subcommittee invites nominations for the 2016 Spotlight Award.  This award “recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the archives profession and of archival collections, and whose work would not typically receive public recognition.”  Nominees do not have to be members of SAA.  Please share this message as you think appropriate.  I hope you will consider recognizing a colleague (or yourself!) in this way.  Additional information about the criteria and process is found below.

Purpose and Criteria for Selection: Established in 2005, the Spotlight Award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the archives profession and of archival collections, and whose work would not typically receive public recognition. The nominee(s) should have achieved distinction in one or more of the following ways:

*   Participating in special projects.
*   Exhibiting tireless committee or advocacy work.
*   Responding effectively to an unforeseen or pressing need or emergency.
*   Contributing innovative or creative ideas to the profession.
*   Performing extraordinary volunteerism.
*   Quietly but effectively promoting the profession.

Eligibility:  Awarded to an individual archivist or a group of up to five archivists who have collaborated on a project. Preference is given to archivists working in smaller repositories, especially those without institutional support for professional activities.

Nomination Requirements:  A completed nomination form, downloadable at http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-spotlight.

Sponsor and Funding:  The Society of American Archivists Foundation.

Prize:  A certificate and complimentary registration for the individual recipient or group (of up to five individuals) to the SAA Annual Meeting occurring in the year in which the award is presented.

Submission Deadline and Nomination Form:  Deadline: February 28, 2015.  Please complete the nomination form (http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/Spotlight-Award-Form-093015.docx) and email it along with any applicable supporting documentation to awards[at]archivists.org with the subject line “Spotlight Award.”  Attachments should not exceed 5MB.

Alternatively, nominations may be mailed.  Materials must be postmarked by February 28, 2015, and should be sent to:

Spotlight Award Committee
Society of American Archivists
17 North State Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60602-3315

Please visit http://www2.archivists.org/recognition for a list and explanation of all of the awards offered by SAA.  The above information and a list of past recipients is available at http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-spotlight.