Category Archives: Professional development

Slide graphic announcing AHA! 2024 Program Schedule. We are busy filling out the year with events, professional development opportunities, repository tours, and get-togethers. # View the schedule on houstonarchivists.org. Leave a comment in the spreadsheet if you have any questions or suggestions.

2024 AHA! Program Schedule

The 2024 programming schedule is available.

We are busy filling out the year with events, professional development opportunities, repository tours, and get-togethers all over the Houston and Southeast TX area. We’ve already had 2 events this year and planning many more. Hope to see y’all soon!

Leave a comment in the spreadsheet if you have any questions or suggestions.

PowerPoint Party! 2/24 @ 2pm. In-person: 2375 Bolsover, Houston, TX 77005 (see note about parking) Virtual Meeting ID: 880 0818 7968 Passcode: 874871 Short 1-3 slide presentations on any archive-related topic. Practice your in-person and/or virtual presentation skills or support your local archivists as an observer. In-person and virtual presentations will be viewable to all participants. (Cody is grilling a little bit!)

PowerPoint Party! 2/24 @ 2pm (hybrid event)

Please join us for a PowerPoint Party on Saturday 2/24 at 2 PM! This will be a hybrid event hosted in person and online via Zoom.

Yes, you read that right, a PowerPoint Party! Come learn about local repositories, projects, and other interesting archives-related concepts from our AHA! members. We encourage people to participate by presenting a short 1-3 slide presentation on any archive-related topic. Tell us about the repository you work at, an interesting collection you recently browsed, any projects you may have worked on, some interesting news or tea you may have heard, or anything else that you’d like to share. Presenting a PowerPoint is not required, and you are more than welcome to come and just observe 🙂

Presenting is such an important professional skill, but also something that many people prefer to avoid. Whether it’s anxiety or frustrations with technology, we hope that this event will provide a low-stakes and friendly environment for AHA! members to practice this skill in a fun way. As more conferences are hosted in a hybrid format, this is an opportunity to practice either/both skill sets.

Online participants can join us on Zoom.

In-person participants can join us at 2375 Bolsover, Houston, TX 77005
Be mindful of parking signage, especially in front of the house. Free parking on Dunstan, East of Greenbrier; Paid Parking in garage near Morningside and Rice Blvd near Coppa Osteria

Map showing Free parking on Dunstan, East of Greenbrier; Paid Parking in garage near Morningside and Rice Blvd near Coppa Osteria

Map showing Free parking on Dunstan, East of Greenbrier; Paid Parking in garage near Morningside and Rice Blvd near Coppa Osteria

in-person: 2375 Bolsover, Houston, TX, 77005. Virtual: zoom ID: 880 0818 7968 passcode: 874871. | Short 1-3 slide presentations on any archive-related topic. | Practice your in-person and/or virtual presentation skills or support your local archivists as an observer. | In-person and virtual presentations will be viewable to all participants. (Cody is grilling a little bit!)

in-person: 2375 Bolsover, Houston, TX, 77005. Virtual: zoom ID: 880 0818 7968
passcode: 874871. | Short 1-3 slide presentations on any archive-related topic. | Practice your in-person and/or virtual presentation skills or support your local archivists as an observer. | In-person and virtual presentations will be viewable to all participants.
(Cody is grilling a little bit!)

AHA! Hosts Archival Certification Panel

By Joe Lueck, AHA! Secretary

On September 22, 2020, the members of AHA! convened virtually for the second general meeting of the year. The AHA! board overviewed ongoing and future initiatives, including a slate of exciting Archives Month programming for October. Watch your inbox for more information in the coming weeks! If you’re not on the AHA! listserv and are interested in becoming a member, contact the board at houstonarchivists@gmail.com.  

Following the business meeting, archivists and AHA! members John Rovell, Sandra Yates, and Amanda Focke shared their experiences and thoughts on the Certified Archivist (CA) and Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) certification programs. The panelists discussed skills and lessons learned, the costs and benefits of each certification program, and answered questions from the group, offering advice to prospective certificate seekers. 

The Certified Archivist certification is offered by the Academy of Certified Archivists, an independent organization made up of professional archivists. Obtaining this certification involves coursework, professional service, and passage of an exam covering all aspects of archival enterprise.

The Digital Archives Specialist certification is offered by the Society of American Archivists. This certification pertains specifically to working with born-digital records, involving a customizable curriculum of coursework and a cumulative final exam. 

Thank you again to our panelists! If you are interested in viewing a recording of the meeting and panel, contact the AHA! board at houstonarchivists@gmail.com.

 

TLA Call for Program Proposals for 2021 Annual Conference

TLA is currently accepting program proposals for their 2021 annual conference being held in San Antonio, April 20-23.   

The Texas Library Association (TLA) is the largest state library association in the U.S. It’s 6,000+ members represent all library types: academic, public, school and special. The TLA Annual Conference features hundreds of sessions and events each year. We welcome and encourage program proposals from individuals, both TLA members and non-members, and from other organizations. The 2021 conference theme is Celebrate Differences, Empower Voices, and TLA invites you to submit your program proposals. 

TLA accepts program proposals from May 1 to July 15, 2020 to be considered for the 2021 conference. 

2021 TLA Program Proposals Form

 

October is American Archives Month!

Sep 30, 2019 12:32 PM
SAA Headquarters
Need ideas for making your archives program and your profession more visible during American Archives Month? We’ve got four easy ways to get involved this October: 

Participate in #AskAnArchivist Day on Wednesday, October 2, when archivists around the country will answer questions about archives. Find ideas for promoting the day among your users and developing a plan with your colleagues to respond to tweets. Follow other #AskAnArchivist Day participants, and email Abigail Christian with your institution’s Twitter handle to join the list.

Advocate for Archives! Find out when your Representative and Senators will be at “home” during American Archives Month. It’s the perfect time to begin building a relationship! For tips on making a district visit, see our Advocacy Guide.

Plan an event or issue a press release to attract media coverage. SAA has evergreen resources to assist you in enhancing public awareness of your repository-and your profession. Download the new American Archives Month graphic for use in promoting your events. (Shout out to Eve Neiger, archivist at Yale University, who designed the new graphics!) 

Take part in the Council of State Archivists’ Electronic Records Day on Wednesday, October 10, to highlight the importance of electronic records and digital preservation issues in government and in our lives.

SAA Update: Advocating for Archivist Pay

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Meredith Evans | Leave a comment

The Society of American Archivists is committed to advocacy on behalf of our members. In our Strategic Plan, the goal of “Enhancing Professional Growth” is focused on archivists having access to the professional community and resources they need to be successful and effective in their careers. Fair wages and equitable salaries are part of this work and we want to share the results of our ongoing discussions and future activities of SAA in support of this issue.

  • Professional support at the Annual Meeting
    • Salary Forum: hear a panel of experts participate in an open discussion about salaries in the archival profession and explore potential solutions, including those that place responsibility on institutions and administrations.
    • Onsite Career Center: from mock interviews to tips on salary negotiation, seek out mentors who can help you navigate the job market and your professional growth.
  • Mentoring Program
    • Meet and connect with a mentor who will listen and provide guidance on negotiating and advocating for better pay.
  • Job Postings in the SAA Online Career Center
    • We strongly recommend salary information be included in all job ad postings.
    • “Research Salaries” button on all job ads can help with regional salary range information, even if a job does not include a salary range.
  • A*CENSUS II
    • An updated data set will illustrate salary ranges per state and by region, helping archivists stay abreast of current salaries across the U.S.

For those attending the 2019 Annual Meeting, join the SAA Council on Sunday, August 4, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm, in Austin for an Open Forum on Archivist Salaries. This forum will serve as a space for members to discuss the initiatives listed above as well as brainstorm additional ways that SAA can continue to advocate for archivist salaries. Mark your online schedule!

SSA Education Coming Near You!

Do you steward digital archives and electronic manuscripts through the digital curation life cycle?

SAA is offering the following DAS course at Rice University in the Fondren Library:

Tool Integration: From Pre-SIP to DIP #1962
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Friday, May 3, 2019
Collaboration Space, Fondren Library
Rice University

Instructor: Max Eckard

REGISTER NOW!
Early-Bird Deadline: April 3, 2019

Description:
The digital curation “ecosystem” is large and complex. Made up of tools that perform small, discrete tasks, to those that cover particular format groups or functional areas of models (such as OAIS), and even those that claim to be more or less comprehensive, this ecosystem is in a constant state of flux. In this course, you’ll explore options for suites of tools that can work together to steward digital archives and electronic manuscripts through the digital curation life cycle. 

Who should attend? Archivists, records managers, special collections curators ,and other practitioners or managers responsible for stewarding digital archives and electronic manuscripts through the digital curation life cycle

Additional information on the course can be found here.

Information on visiting Rice, including campus maps, can be found here.

SAA Education coming to San Antonio, TX!

A&D Bootcamp 
San Antonio, TX | March 11-15, 2019

Join us at the University of Texas at San Antonio for our four day A&D Bootcamp! Complete two of your required foundational courses in the A&D program and get a jump start on your certificate path today! 
Encoded Archival Description 

March 11-12, 2019 | REGISTER NOW!
Instructors: Michael Rush & Dr. Kathy Wisser
Early-Bird Deadline: February 12, 2019

Here’s your chance to receive the instruction and hands-on practice you need to bridge the digital divide. Get acquainted with the language of XML and practice with XML authoring software. This two-day course covers the most up-to-date EAD version.

In this course, you will:

  • Discuss an overview of Extensible Markup Language (XML)
  • Examine the structure of EAD (the SAA-endorsed standard for archival finding aids)
  • Mark up a finding aid
  • Explore style sheets and implementation strategies
  • Practice encoding a finding aid using EAD

Who should attend? Archivists and others who are charged with exploring and/or implementing EAD at their institution or who want to enhance their résumé

What Should You Know? Participants should have arrangement and description practice and familiarity with finding aids
Arrangement and Description: Fundamentals

March 14-15, 2019 | REGISTER NOW!
Instructors: Pam Hackbart-Dean & Anne Ostendarp
Early-Bird Deadline: February 15, 2019
 This two-day course introduces the basic principles, concepts, and tools that archivists use to establish both physical and intellectual control over archival records. These include: developing accession records and processing work plans; identifying common arrangement schemes for collections with varying formats; and how to physically organize materials during processing. You will learn the essential elements of a finding aid and the major descriptive standards that support these elements, as well as the day-to-day decisions made in arranging and describing archival materials. You’ll also participate in a set of exercises designed to emphasize the principles and concepts of arrangement and description.

Who Should Attend? New archives professionals and graduate students in archival programs who have little or no experience in the arrangement and description of archival records;

What Should You Know? Participants are expected to have basic archival training and education.

Click the blue Register links above to register for these courses!

Archives Month 2018

For Archives Month 2018, AHA! members came together for two events:

On October 15th members gathered at the Julia Ideson Building to view the Society of American Archivists (SAA) webinar, Introduction to Processing Digital Records and Manuscripts. This class is one of the core classes for both the DAS and Arrangement and Description (A&D) Certificate programs.

On October 26th , archivists got a behind the scenes tour of the Menil Library and Archives.

Thanks to all who came out, and to our host institutions!

Texas Historical Records Advisory Board Summer Workshops

The Texas Historical Records Advisory Board is sponsoring two free workshops this summer. “Grant Proposal Writing” will be offered at SFA on July 24 and at UTEP on August 21.  Each workshop will cap at 25 participants and THRAB requests only one seat per institution. For more details and to register, please visit: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/workshops

Description:

This course surveys the types of state, federal, and private foundation grants available and provides information about researching and writing grant proposals. Topics include types of grants, types of funders, elements of a grant proposal, the grant review process, managing your grant project, reporting requirements, and funding resources.

Who Should Attend?

Archivists, librarians, and staff members at Texas archival repositories who have a responsibility to explore and an interest in funding resources for preservation, processing, digitization and similar projects. An emphasis on NHPRC and other federal grants is stressed.