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SFA 2020 Archives Month Webinars

Moving Team-Based Special Collections Instruction Online

Monday, October 19th, 2020 from 2 pm - 3 pm

Watch here: https://youtu.be/b52rK1enGqM

Presentation (PDF)

Abstract: In Fall 2017, the departure of a faculty member forced FSU Special Collections & Archives (SCA) to re-evaluate workflows associated with the planning and execution of instruction sessions. This led to the development and implementation of a team-based model for collaboratively fielding, scheduling, planning, and executing class visits to SCA. Since its introduction, this team approach has both allowed and demanded new kinds of guidelines, documentation, and collaboration.

In March 2020, in response to growing concerns about COVID-19, FSU announced a mandatory online instruction period of indefinite duration. This prompted the SCA team to consider new ways to execute 17 class visits that had already been scheduled for late Spring 2020. By taking novel approaches to existing session objectives, SCA was able to adapt 12 of these session plans to online and/or asynchronous instruction methods. As COVID-19 protocols have persisted into Summer and Fall 2020, the SCA team continues to adapt typical in-person sessions to online learners.

Rachel Duke and Rory Grennan, co-chairs of the FSU Special Collections & Archives Instruction Group, will discuss challenges, opportunities, and solutions discovered while instituting this team approach and adapting it to online instruction. The session will be of interest to any special collections professional seeking to guide their instruction program or public services through a staff shortage, scale services to meet increasing interest, or adapt class visits to online environments.

  • Rachel Duke, Rare Books Librarian, Florida State University, rachel.duke at fsu.edu
  • Rory Grennan, Manuscripts Archivist, Florida State University, rgrennan at fsu.edu

ArchivesSpace: A Year Later

Tuesday, October 20th, 2020 from 2 pm - 3 pm

Watch here: https://youtu.be/n2Wv0eN2opQ

Presentation (PDF)

Abstract: In late 2018-19, FALSC member institutions were notified that FALSC would be migrating from Archon to ArchivesSpace in Spring 2019. The truncated timeline left little room to prepare for the migration, and training for using the new system was minimal. With little control over the migration, member institutions had to be flexible and creative with preparing their finding aids for implementation. It has now been a year since the implementation, and we have only just begun to learn the ins-and-outs of ArchivesSpace. This session will be a 45 minute moderated panel featuring representatives from institutions part of the migration, discussing the ongoing projects to remediate finding aids, create local documentation and training, and learning the full breadth of ArchivesSpace. The session will be beneficial for any institutions that are contemplating a move to the platform, or ArchivesSpace members that want to learn more about how to manage their new database.

  • Hannah Davis, Preservation Librarian, Florida State University, hdavis at fsu.edu
  • Krystal Thomas, Digital Archivist, Florida State University, kmthomas at fsu.edu
  • Mary Rubin, Archivist, University of Central Florida, mary.rubin at ucf.edu

Ecology Takes Flight: The Audubon Florida collections at University of South Florida Libraries

Monday, October 26th, 2020 from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Watch here: https://youtu.be/mEorsq8vGAA

Presentation (PDF)

Abstract: Since their inception in 1900, Audubon Florida and its affiliates have led the way in environmental conservation and restoration in the state. The organization formed during an acute environmental crisis when plume hunters all but wiped out the state’s population of wading birds, signaling how Audubon Florida continues to harness the energy of ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.

For the last decade, the USF Libraries has pursued acquiring collections related to Audubon Florida and the research of its members. The Tampa Library is now the repository of the majority of the organization’s records, which include such gems as daily game warden reports dating back to the 1920s, research notes of Robert Porter Allen concerning the whooping crane in the 1940s, as well as research materials, correspondence, bird counts, and published reports.

Join Special Collections Librarian / Archivist Andy Huse in a rescue of rare materials through sweltering attics, abandoned offices, and rusty trailers into the glorious heart of Audubon Florida. Along the way, he will tell some of the success stories hidden in the collection—roseate spoonbills, whooping cranes, and flamingos—ranging from the tundra of northern Canada to the sparkling beaches of the Caribbean. Huse will also discuss USF’s plans for the materials, which include digitization, data aggregation, oral history and more.

The acquisition of these materials represents a new direction for USF Libraries Special Collections, and the USF Libraries, which is actively collecting materials for environmental studies and natural history. Huse is also interested in hearing from peers about similar collections, the problematic appraisal of such materials, and how they are best utilized.

  • Andy Huse, Associate Librarian, University of South Florida, ahuse at usf.edu
  • Amanda Boczar, Operations Manager, University of South Florida, amandaboczar at usf.edu

Reverse Engineering the Engineering Archive: Project Management Concepts at Work

Wednesday, October 28th, 2020 from 11:30 am - 12:00 pm

Watch here: https://youtu.be/fUmq9zY4RlA

Poster  (please use computer to view Poster instead of a mobile device)
Excel | PDF

Abstract: Radiation, Inc. Archives, hosted by Florida Tech’s Harry P. Weber University Archive and Special Collections, is home to a “living archive” and expecting future accessions. Documentation will help provide a baseline and ensure consistency throughout future collections. The reverse engineered Gantt chart is used to illustrate the process of a small, well-defined archive’s evolution. It visually illustrates the processing portion of the archival lifecycle, approaching archives and backlogs from an engineering perspective—e.g., project planning and management using Agile principles such as “Scrumming.” Used in conjunction with the Stuart Rose MARBL Guide, it provides a baseline of expectations for processing labor.

In the corresponding presentation, Carady DeSimone will cover how to use principles of IT & Engineering Project Management [Agile, Scrum, Sprints] to help ensure smooth and efficient projects. These open source principles can be applied in a variety of ways, using simple tools such as documents and spreadsheets to focus on documentation and communication – that’s the key to success. These practices support the best usage of time, help avoid some preventable hiccups and/or delays, and are a great way to tackle backlog and increase access.

  • Carady Desimone, Independent Contractor, karatejones at gmail.com

Patron and Instruction Driven Digitization at Florida State

Friday, October 30th, 2020 from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Watch here: https://youtu.be/3T3fxMHcbP0

Presentation

Abstract: Florida State University’s Digital Library Center (DLC) has undergone tremendous growth over the last eight years. Our patron-driven digitization workflow is one of the results of that growth. Recognizing that many digital reproduction requests received in our reading room and online would benefit other users, the DLC and its staff created a workflow that both delivers to our patrons and feeds new materials into DigiNole: FSU’s Digital Repository on a regular basis. We wanted to maximize all our digitization efforts to continue to build our digital collections. In 2020, when COVID-19 closed FSU’s campus, Special Collections & Archives pivoted its instruction online with the rest of the campus. As such, a new stream of instruction-driven digitization was born. Although unable to digitize new materials for a month, the DLC quickly digitized materials prior to closure. Since re-opening, the DLC has prioritized digitization for instruction, both for current classes and looking ahead to the needs of the Fall 2020 semester.

In this session, Krystal Thomas, digital archivist and Stuart Rochford, DLC studio manager, will outline the state of the DLC eight years ago, discuss the challenges and opportunities we saw in a patron-driven digitization workflow and the tools we’ve used to make it a regular workstream that complements our regular digital projects workflows. We’ll also discuss how we used the lessons learned in patron-driven digitization to create the new instruction-driven digitization stream.

The intended audience for the presentation is anyone who works on digitization for patrons and has struggled to fit those workflows into their usual digitization needs or does digitization for patrons but hasn’t thought about how to make that work and its results useful beyond delivery to the patron. It will also appeal to those who have moved primary source instruction online since the COVID-19 closures at cultural heritage institutions.

  • Krystal Thomas, Digital Archivist, Florida State University, kmthomas at fsu.edu
  • Stuart Rochford, Digital Library Center Studio Manager, Florida State University, srochford at fsu.edu


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