News

CAA thanks all who attended the CAA@SAA meetup on August 4, 2016. 17 people joined their fellow Chicago-area archivists, librarians, and records managers at the Trader Vic's in Atlanta to socialize over Mai Tais. It was wonderful to meet new people and catch up with old friends!

If you missed this event, don't worry - there will be more events throughout the year at a variety of dates, times, and locations. Coming soon:

• CAA Tour of Rush University Medical Center Archives, September 8

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

• CAA @ SAA, Thursday August 4th, 6:00pm
• Video Digitization Workshop, Friday August 12

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

There are 2 new pieces of exciting news from our friends at the Lithuanian Archives Project: 

As of 2016, Lithuanian Archives Project (LAP), a Chicago-based not for profit 501(c)3 organization, has moved in to its new office inside the First Bulgarian Cultural Center at 3756 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, Illinois, 60618. Interested in volunteering? Please contact: LithuanianArchivesProject@gmail.com. LAP also has a new website: http://www.LithuanianArchivesProject.org 

In addition, Audra V. Adomenas, Founder and President at Lithuanian Archives Project won a travel grant for first time attendees in the amount of $750.00 to attend the Association for Recorded Sound Conference in Bloomington, Indiana in May 2016. Last July (2015), Audra left her position as Director of Film and Audio Archives at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture to continue preserving unique Lithuanian-American archival materials at LAP. 

CAA thanks everyone who attended our recent tour of the WFMT Audio Archives, hosted by CAA member Allison Schein, on June 1. Fifteen people attended the event, and with several people on the waiting list, we may have to reschedule another tour here in the near future!

Allison first took the group on a tour of the television (WTTW) side, which included a visit to the Chicago Tonight studio. The video librarian took the group through the video tape library, which included 15,000 programs stored in a variety of formats. WTTW is currently in the first year of a three-year program to digitize around 8,000 episodes of Chicago Tonight. 

Next came the tour of WFMT, which included stops at production studios and the station’s massive music library. Allison discussed the station’s efforts to digitize and make available to the public the station’s extensive tape archive, including some of the tools and strategies to help move the project forward. 

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

 Coming soon:

Grant Park Music Festival, Millennium Park, June 22, 5 p.m.

http://chicagoarchivists.org/event-2261042

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

CAA thanks all who attended the CAA @ MAC Meet-Up on Friday, April 29, 2016 during the Midwest Archives Conference Spring 2016 meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Though we had some competition for space in the pub where we originally planned to meet, 32 people successfully relocated to the lounge upstairs to catch up with old friends and colleagues and meet some new ones. Check out the photos below, kindly taken by Laura Alagna (and check out our new sign!).

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

Creating Successful Conference Proposals, May 26, 2016

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

For those of you were unable to make it to Milwaukee this year for the annual Midwest Archives Conference, CAA has got you covered via our Twitter feed @ChicagoArchvsts.

Big thanks to Kat Antonelli, CAA's Social Media Content Producer!

The most popular Tweet of the week by far was on the Plenary speech by Dennis Meissner: 

Dennis Meissner at #mac16 plenary: diversity is a fact, inclusion is a choice. Must shift our focus from diversity to inclusion. #CAAatMAC16

And of course we had to give a shout outs to the number of CAA'ers who presented this year. Just to name a few:

End #mac16 with a bang! Hear CAA's Heidi Marshall on #s601 establishing an archives//Anne Thomason on #s602 unusual collections #CAAatMAC16

Good morning #mac16! It's double trouble w/ CAA's Megan Keller on #s501 processing & Alison Hinderliter on #s503 record mgmnt #CAAatMAC16

Also, a plug for CAA wouldn't be complete without a plug for Chicago Open Archives!:

Thanks Sarah Cain for the Chicago Open Archives shout out! Learn more here: http://bit.ly/COA_2016   #CAAatMAC16 #mac16

Live Tweeting at MAC drew a lot of attention to CAA and its fairly new social media presence, and we gained many new followers over the course of the week. Check out our Twitter feed for some quick takeaways on the poster presentations, sessions, tours, award recipients, and other highlights from MAC in Milwaukee.

The MAC 2016 Annual Meeting officially starts tomorrow! Keep an eye on our twitter handle, @chicagoarchvsts, and our hashtag, #CAAatMAC16. We'll be live tweeting the meeting so you can follow along at home. Or, if you're attending this year, join us by using our hashtag when you tweet. Thanks, and see you in Milwaukee!

CAA is seeking host sites for our second annual Chicago Open Archives. This three-day event in October is a great opportunity for archives, museums, and historical societies to engage with a broader audience than is usually possible. Our inspiration comes from similar events in Portland, Sacramento, and Cambridge, as well as CAA’s successful inaugural event in Chicago in 2015.

This year’s event will take place 6-8 October. Our theme, Yours to Explore, invites Chicagoans interested in history and cultural heritage to explore the stories that your collections tell, the role of your institution in your community, and the many different types of materials that archives hold. Your institution can participate by offering an activity that highlights your collections and programs in the way that best suits your situation.

Last year, 26 Chicago-area institutions offered a wide range of activities, from behind the scenes tours to gallery talks to workshops. The Newberry Library took visitors to the manuscripts and archives processing space where they viewed materials and discussed the Library’s collaboration with the Chicago Dance History Group. At Media Burn Independent Video Archive, which is normally not open to the public, visitors learned how the organization is making historic footage available online and enjoyed a short screening. At the Benedictine University Archives in Lisle, more than 45 visitors stopped by for an open house that offered an opportunity to see historic photos and view highlights from the rare book collection.

Please join us as host site for Chicago Open Archives: Yours to Explore. Sign-up begins in mid-April and runs through June. Learn more at www.chicagoarchivsts.org/chicago-open-archives.

“I think this event is a great idea, it encourages researchers to investigate these hidden gems in Chicago.”

“I really enjoyed seeing the National Archives for the first time. [Staff] provided a fantastic tour of the facilities and highlighted many interesting archival materials.”

Photo: Chicago Open Archives tour at the Newberry Library, 2015. Courtesy of Kelly Kress/Alison Hinderliter/Catherine Grandgeorge.

• The Steering Committee shared our annual report for 2015
• The Events, Outreach, and Professional Development subcommittees shared all of the great projects they worked on this year. All committees, but particularly Events and Professional Development, put out a call for new volunteers
• • Aaisha Haykal and Hathaway Hester will continue as co-chairs for Professional Development
  • Erin Matson will be the new chair of Outreach
  • Kristin MacDonough and Laura Alagna will be the new co-chairs of Events
• Morgen MacIntosh Hodgetts shared a report from last year's very successful Chicago Open Archives!
  
• Sarah Yarrito and Amy Belotti shared this year's COA theme (Yours to Explore), dates (Oct. 6-8) and noted that we will start soliciting participating sites very soon
• We shared the results of our member survey, including a summary
  
• Four members are running for the four open spots on the Steering Committee - we'll vote next week for Drew Davis (incumbent), George Kutsunis (incumbent), Greer Martin, and Martin Firestein
• The bid to host MAC in Chicago in 2018 is well underway

Thanks to everyone again and here's to a great 2016 with CAA!

Don't forget the deadline for Steering Committee submissions is tomorrow, March 16!  

In an ongoing series during CAA Steering Committee Election time, we hear from longtime Steering Committee member, Andy Steadham, about the time and commitment needed for Steering.

While serving on the governing board of an organization like CAA might sound like an enormous time commitment, the reality is less daunting. And the time invested pays back dividends in experience.

Because we are all volunteers with other jobs, steering members strive to be respectful of one another’s time. We typically meet once a month, usually on a weekday evening at different locations in the city. Meetings typically last about two hours and consists of reviewing reports summarizing changes in membership, our financial outlook, and the activities of our three subcommittees. The reports are then followed by discussion of ongoing projects, most of which have to do with administration and governance. In between meetings, Steering conducts some business by email.

Over the last five years, the primary task of Steering has been supporting our subcommittees by providing guidance and direction as they plan and implement CAA activities. Between steering and the subcommittees, responsibilities are distributed broadly, so that no one person bears too much of the burden of keeping the organization running smoothly.

It takes a team of members with initiative and motivation to have a real impact on what CAA does and how successfully it operates. Please consider joining the Steering Committee. Deadline for submissions is tomorrow, March 16.

Feel free to contact Andy or other Steering Committee Members with questions.