Category Archives: Announcements

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award Nominations

The application period for the 2016 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 July 31, 2016 – August 6, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, each recipient receives a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

Eligibility: The Pinkett is awarded to minority students, with preference given to full-time students possessing a minimum scholastic grade point average of 3.5 while enrolled in a graduate program focusing on archival management during the academic year proceeding the date on which the award is given.

For more details or to download the application form please visit:

http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-pinkett

The deadline to apply is February 28, 2016.

We wish you the best of luck!

Sincerely,

The Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award Committee

Part-Time Archivist Position

Jim Windham is seek an archivist assist part-time with two projects.

The position requires two major elements:

  1. The cataloging and organizing of Mr. Windham’s personal archives involving extensive professional, civic, and political affairs dating from the mid-1960s, with the objective of preparing them for storage and/or possible transmittal to a museum or library.
  2. The cataloging and organizing of digital archives encompassing the online publication of The Texas Pilgrim, a monthly letter of commentary on public affairs, policy, books, and American culture, now in its 16th year.

Compensation to be determined by scope and time on task.

Contact Jim Windham at txpilgrim@comcast.net or by phone at 281-589-7055.

SSA 2016 Annual Meeting Call for Submissions

The Society of Southwest Archivist is seeking proposals for sessions or papers for the 2016 annual conference in Oklahoma City, OK. The theme for this conference is Native Routes and we are especially encouraging submissions related to archives of indigenous people, transportation, and communications.

In addition, SSA would also love to hear about all the cool things you are doing at your institution – archival promotion and outreach, A/V and electronic records access and preservation, accessioning, processing, and more.

Please consider participating in this year’s conference by sharing with everyone all of the wonderful things you are doing.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to December 18th. Please see the Submission Guidelines for more details.

 

AHA! Holiday Party & Elections – December 10th

Just a reminder that our Holiday Party is upon us. I look forward to seeing many of you there tomorrow. As a quick recap:  Time: 6:00pm. Location:  The Little Art Gallery on the University of St. Thomas campus (corner of Yoakum and Branard).  Parking should be in back of the house or street parking in surrounding neighborhood.

From my announcement yesterday, I also need to issue a retraction. I had initially mentioned that we would be voting on a by-laws amendment proposal. It has been brought to my attention that although we had discussed this at the Spring meeting and it was captured in the minutes, we still needed to announce the proposal to membership at least 3 weeks prior to the December meeting. Per Article VI of our existing By-laws.  As your President that is my fault and responsibility and I apologize about this. As a result we will not be voting on the proposed document at this time. It will have to wait until next year.

Attached you will find the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting in addition to the slate for the 2016 candidates. Please note that for the position of Vice-President, we have Emily Vinson who has agreed to run, but she is currently running unopposed as we have not received an additional candidate nomination. There is the provision of Article V Section 2B that prior to election, nominations can be made and seconded from the floor prior to the election of each officer, so if we really have a late entry for VP that is a possibility.

Finally, I wanted  to share with you news about the SSA Proposed deadline extension from our SSA President Mary Manning. The good news is that they are still seeking proposals for a session or paper for the 2016 SSA Conference. Deadline has been extended to December 18th for submissions.  I’m sure you all have something to contribute to this year’s theme of Native Routes. Please see attachment for additional details and submission.

Yours,

Vince Lee

AHA Holiday Meeting 2015 Agenda

2016 Election Candidates

SSA Call of Papers December 2016

Olivewood Cemetary Clean-up

Although we were unable to find a sunny day to tour Olivewood Cemetery in Houston, this weekend will be beautiful weather for their cleanup.  If you are interested in working outdoors for a few hours and getting involved with this organization, please consider attending this cleanup!

Also you might remember that the Olivewood folks are in need of some help and advice on organizing and processing the archive of information they have accrued while doing research on those buried in the cemetery.  We will hopefully plan a tour of the cemetery for the spring sometime!

Clean Up will be from 9-12. Don’t forget to bring your lawn tools and wear long sleeves, long pants, closed toe shoes. The cemetery is located at 1300 Court Street in Houston.

Also for those that have asked how can they give a donation, please visit their website at www.descendantsofolivewood.org and click on the donate button. You can make a one time or monthly donation.

For those who would like to send your donation by mail, the mailing address is:

P.O. Box 70644
Houston,TX 77270

News from the Academy of Certified Archivists

News from the Academy of Certified Archivists

The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) is making the certification exam more affordable by offering a reduced application fee as part of an early bird special!

Register for the exam before February 15 and receive half-off regular registration. The rate increases to the standard fee of $50 after February 15.

The early bird deadline also lowers the threshold for selecting pick-your-site locations! Instead of requiring 5 test takers per site, the ACA will only require 3 during the early bird period.  This change makes it easier for many candidates to have an exam site in a more convenient and affordable location.  But, like the test application fee, the required number of test participants will increase to the standard number of 5 after the early bird period ends.

This year’s Certified Archivist exam will be held August 3rd.  The predetermined locations are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Questions? Contact the ACA Secretariat: secretariat@certifiedarchivists.org

Thanks to Emily Vinson for passing along the news.

AHA! Holiday party and Elections, December 10

The Holiday Party this year will be held at 6:00pm on Thursday, December 10th, 2015 at the Little Art Gallery on the University of St. Thomas campus.

That gallery is housed in the Hughes House on the corner of Yoakum Blvd. and Branard St. and that location does include some parking at the rear of the house.

Feel free to bring your favorite holiday goodies to share.

Mark your calendars and we will see you all then!

Personal Archivist Position

The following request has made its way to AHA! Please contact Stacie at staciemckay@gmail.com if you can provide any kind of assistance.

I inherited all of my aunt’s art [40 years worth] after her passing and have been looking for an archivist to assist me in evaluating what to keep and how to keep what I have in good condition.  I have not been able to find anyone.

I recently began my search again for an archivist and came across the SSA website and thought you might be able to assist me.

I guess the first question is whether or not there are Archivists who do personal/family consultations. Then whether or not they assist in the archiving process.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my questions.

Stacie McKay

Past-President

Greater Houston Chapter, US Lacrosse

www.houstonlacrosse.org

www.uslacrosse.org

Memories of the Nuclear Age: An International Conference and Archives Meetup

Memories of the Nuclear Age: An International Conference
November 18-20, 2015
Rice Campus and the Texas Medical Center Library
See website for more details

Archives Roundtable Meetup (KAKEN and AHA members only)
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Texas Medical Center Library’s Historical Research Center (HRC)
8272 El Rio, Suite 190
6:00-8:00 pm

The Conference
The Texas Medical Center Library’s McGovern Historical Center, along with Rice University’s Humanities Research Center and School of Humanities and the KAKEN group of Japan, is presenting a conference titled “Archiving Nuclear Memories.”

Archivists and historians from Japan will join with colleagues, faculty and staff from Rice, the TMC, and the general public to learn about the challenges of preserving and sharing information related to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Japan.

The Meetup
AHA members have an opportunity to eat and visit and talk about future collaborations or learn about best practices on both sides of the Pacific. During this informal meeting, KAKEN members can talk about their history and archive projects and learn about Houston archives. (Some food will be provided).

Currently, two archivists are scheduled to attend:
Akiko Kubota: a Gakushuin University graduate student, who can talk briefly on the topic of Atomic Bomb archives from the viewpoint of Science History

Maki Hirose: a Gakushuin University doctoroal student, who can talk about conservation and preservation of archives relating ot the War in Japan.

Please join us in welcoming our Japanese colleagues to Houston!

Olivewood Tour CANCELLED

I am disappointed to announce that we have had to cancel our tour of Olivewood Cemetery again… The weather will just not cooperate with us!  Because we are heading into the holiday season, we are not going to try to reschedule at this time, but look forward to an opportunity to tour the cemetery in the spring sometime.

If you would like to support the Descendants of Olivewood organization that maintains the cemetery, you can send your donations to PO Box #70644, Houston, TX 77270.

If you have some free time and feel like volunteering, the group is also looking for some direction with their archival material.

You can reach the Descendants’ voicemail box at (713) 396-0640.  They have been so gracious in trying to work with our organization and were very excited to connect with us.