News

CAA is pleased like to announce the return of the membership referral incentive for 2019! When you refer a friend or colleague to join CAA, you will be entered into a drawing with a chance to win a $15 gift card to Starbucks.

Any member who refers a friend or colleague to join CAA between January 1 and March 12 of this year will be added to the pool. We will pick 3 winners at random at the members meeting in March. Can't make it to the Members Meeting? Don't worry, we will work with you to make sure you get your reward!

When new members sign up, they can simply add your name to the Referring Member field. This field is completely private and so it will not show up on the new member's public profile. Please note, at this time this initiative only applies to new members who join online, not those who send in the new member registration in the mail.  

Not sure who to refer? CAA is not strictly for archivists! Consider colleagues who may work with archives in some way but do not consider themselves archivists: students, records managers, rights and images staff, librarians, historians, or others who simply have an interest in archives and want to learn more. CAA's workshops and behind the scenes tours offer insight into the Chicago archives world which may be of interest to a broader audience. Just don't forget to ask them to put you down as their referring member!

New to CAA? Longtime member? Consider running for Steering Committee election!

During CAA’s Steering Committee election, we will share comments from current Steering Committee members about their work with CAA. Kara Jefts was elected for a 2017-2019 term and currently serves on the Steering Committee as the Chair.

I remember the enthusiasm I felt from CAA members at the first event I attended in the fall of 2016. I was excited find a group of archivists to learn from, as my training comes from an adjacent field. A short time later I found myself serving on the Steering Committee. At first uncertain about the value of my contributions, the experience of serving on Steering has shown me that CAA is truly built to support member growth, and I’ve benefited so much through participation. I encourage anyone who joined our membership with a an eagerness to learn to seek a leadership role. Diversity of experience is one of the things that makes Chicago Area Archivists strong as an organization, so don’t hesitate, volunteer!

To volunteer, submit a brief (1-2 paragraphs) Statement of Interest outlining your background and motivation for serving on the Steering Committee to info@chicagoarchivists.org. Please include your full name, title, place of work (if applicable), and preferred contact phone and email address.

The deadline to submit your Statement is Friday, March 1 at 5:00 pm.

CAA’s new Curating & Exhibitions Interest Group is looking for members! The group is open to anyone who is interested in sharing and learning about best practices, emerging trends, and resources in curating and exhibiting archives and special collections in libraries.

Topics for future discussion include, but are not limited to: Teaching and learning exhibition development for archivists (and librarians), curating exhibitions in academic libraries, exhibition policies, digital exhibitions, diversity and inclusion in exhibition design, interpretive planning, and community-curated projects.

If you are interested in joining the group and staying connected with the updates, please email Carol Ng-He at carolnghe@gmail.com and indicate your interest.

The Archives and Archivists of Color Travel Fund Award seeks to increase the networks and professional opportunities of minority graduate students and early career professionals by sponsoring attendance at the Midwest Archives Conference, to be held this year on April 3-6 in Detroit, MI.

Last year, thanks to the kind generosity of the CAA community and friends, the AAC Travel Fund Award sent three people to MAC 2018 in Chicago. Here is a testimonial from one of the winners, Maira Herrera. She was a graduate student at the time that she received the travel fund award and has since taken the position of Archivist with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, IL.

What I loved about going to MAC was seeing different archivists interact and hearing their perspectives. I spoke to a seasoned archivist who encouraged me to branch out of Chicago and see how different archives function. She spoke of her experiences and how that has changed her moving forward. It made me understand just how big this community is, and how it will continue to grow.

This experience has taught me the importance of diversity in archives and how we can improve to make this field more accessible to minorities. One panel that I attended, "De-Centering Whiteness in the Archive", discussed this exactly. It was a great way to address the lack of inclusion in archives and understand that there can be room for improvement.

Attending MAC taught me that there is a community out there for novice archivists. It really helped me understand why I wanted to become an archivist and how I can contribute in the future. --Maira Herrera

Fundraising for the AAC Travel Fund Award continues through January, and the deadline for applications for the award is January 31, 2019. All who qualify are encouraged to apply.

As 2018 winds down, we'd like to share some news about our members and remind you that CAA's membership year ends with the calendar year, so now is a great time to renew! Just login, click "View Profile" in the upper right hand corner of the page, and click the "Renew" button to the right of your profile.

Audra V. Adomenas, President, Lithuanian Archives Project, Chicago, IL has been nominated as Central United States Ambassador for the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA). IASA was established in 1969 in Amsterdam to function as a medium for international co-operation between archives that preserve recorded sound and audiovisual documents. IASA is a growing and dynamic organization, which aims to create an international network of cooperation among like-minded professionals. For questions regarding IASA membership, or how you can get involved, please contact Audra by phone at: 312-940-3940 or by email at: LithuanianArchivesProject@gmail.com. There are many exciting opportunities for us in the Midwest to participate in this important work internationally. In October, Audra attended the IASA Conference, which was held in Accra, Ghana. See below for a photograph of Audra with IASA colleagues at the Department of African Studies, University of Ghana. 

IASA has members from 70 countries representing a broad palette of audiovisual archives and personal interests which are distinguished by their focus on particular subjects and areas, e.g. archives for all sorts of musical recordings, historic, literary, folkloric and ethnological sound documents, theater productions and oral history interviews, bio-acoustics, environmental and medical sounds, linguistic and dialect recordings, as well as recordings for forensic purposes. 

Rebekah McFarland, archivist for the Sisters of the Living Word, and Nancy Freeman, director at the Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University Chicago, received honorable mentions in SAA's 2018 Archives Short Fiction Contest! Take a reading break and check out Rebekah's "Ester Jones Diaz", and Nancy's "Risk Versus Benefit"!

We're always looking to highlight the work our members are doing. Let us know your or your colleagues' news at info@chicagoarchivists.org or by emailing the co-chairs of the Outreach and Member Engagement Subcommittee: Brittan Nannenga (brittan.nannenga@northwestern.edu) and Jill Waycie (j-waycie@northwestern.edu). 

Image description: Audra V. Adomenas, in bright green sweater, with IASA colleagues at University of Ghana, Department of African studies. To the right of Audra is Lindsay Kistler Mattock, University of Iowa. 

CAA now has a way to easily share photos taken by members at our many great events: tours, presentations, workshops, COA, Day of Service, meetings, parties, happy hours, etc.

Images can be uploaded to the new shared photo folder, where they will help document and promote these CAA events.

We encourage you all to start the photo sharing with your images from the annual holiday party this Wednesday!

Please be sure to check out the ReadMe in the folder, for information about CAA’s photo policy, adding images, and photo use/takedown requests.

Questions or comments? Let us know! info@chicagoarchivists.org

Chicago Open Archives 2018 is winding down, but there's still time to visit the remaining events and listen to more podcasts! 

The final roundup of podcasts includes: Greer Martin talking about making connections through COA, Michelle McCoy discussing surprise learning experiences at Chicago Public Library, Andy Bullen discussing archives as a labor of love through his work with Pullman State Historic Site, Jeanne Long talking about Chicago Collections' involvement with COA, and a conversation with Michelle Rinard of the International Museum of Surgical Science.

Check the interviews out on Soundcloud here, and find the list of current and past COA events on our Events page. 

CAA thanks all who attended the tour of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on September 21. 14 people attended and experienced a guided tour of the recently re-designed galleries that showcase the lives and inspiring social justice work of Jane Addams and her colleagues.

If you missed this event, don’t worry – there will be more events throughout the year at a variety of dates, times, and locations.

Have an idea for a CAA event? Contact the CAA Programming Subcommittee at info@chicagoarchivists.org with your suggestions.

Charla Wilson, Archivist for the Black Experience at Northwestern University Libraries, has an “Up-and-Comers” feature in the October issue of the MAC Newsletter.

In her article, Charla discusses the origins and uniqueness of her position at Northwestern and how she has helped document and preserve the history and presence of black students, faculty, staff, and alumni at NU.

You can read the article here:MAC Newsletter.pdf

MAC members can access the full issue here.

Hathaway Hester, archivist at the National Association of Realtors, did an interview earlier this month for Real Estate Today, a nationally-syndicated radio show and podcast about the real estate industry.

She talks about Chicago Open Archives, NAR’s Archives, and American Archives Month in the interview.

The whole show can be found here.

Hathaway’s segment is also on Soundcloud here.

Cathy Popovitch of the Illinois State Archives was recently awarded a Victoria Irons Walch Emerging Leader Award. Popovitch received the award at this year’s CoSA/SAA/NAGARA joint meeting in Washington D.C.

The purpose of the award is to “encourage the development of an emerging leader in state and territorial archives.” As part of the award, recipients receive a travel stipend to attend the annual CoSA meeting. Eligible nominees are individuals who have worked in a state or territorial archives less than five (5) years and have never attended a CoSA Annual Meeting.

Congratulations to Charla, Hathaway, and Cathy!

Are you publishing, presenting, organizing, or otherwise working on something professionally awesome? Let us know about it! Email info@chicagoarchivists.org or the co-chairs of the Outreach and Member Engagement Subcommittee: Brittan Nannenga (brittan.nannenga@northwestern.edu) and Jill Waycie (j-waycie@northwestern.edu). 

Chicago Open Archives 2018 is fast approaching! Just one more week until #askanarchivist day (10/3) and 10 days until the first Chicago Open Archives event (10/6)! 

To get you in the COA frame of mind, four more interviews are up in the COA podcast series: Catherine Grandgeorge talks about the Newberry Library's work with COA, Julie Wroblewski discusses her experience with COA at the Chicago History Museum and Benedictine University, Ashley Gosselar with the University of Chicago talks about open archives, and Sara Chapman talks about Media Burn and its COA events.

Check the interviews out on Soundcloud here, and find the list of over 20 COA events on our Events  page. 

(Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages too for more COA promotion!)