News

Are you interested in becoming more involved in the Chicago archives community? Consider volunteering to serve on the Chicago Area Archivists Steering Committee. Not only will you get to work closely with some of your colleagues in the profession, but CAA service is a great way to gain valuable experience in preparation for service in regional and national archival organizations.

Wonder what the Steering Committee does? The Steering Committee is tasked with:

• Establishing programmatic goals for the organization
  
• Responding to the needs of CAA members
  
• Representing CAA within the larger profession and to the general public
  
• Setting standards to ensure the sustainability of CAA

Think you aren’t experienced enough to serve on the Steering Committee? Think again: any organization needs fresh viewpoints to remain vibrant. And CAA is meant to serve the needs of all of its members, including those who are new to the profession.

Worried about over-committing yourself? Steering Committee members are elected to two year terms that begin and end at the Members Meeting in March. The time commitment is relatively minimal, consisting of monthly in-person meetings with occasional business conducted by email.

Candidates for the four open seats for the 2017-19 term will be elected by a vote of CAA members cast electronically after the Members Meeting on Thursday, March 30 2016.

Service on the Steering Committee is open to all CAA members in good standing. 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.

Statements of interest will be distributed to CAA members prior to the Members Meeting. Candidates will also have an opportunity to introduce themselves at the meeting on March 30.

The deadline to submit your Statement is Thursday, March 16 at 5:00pm.

Want more information? Contact information for current Steering Committee Members is available on the CAA Website. Please reach out to one of them and ask about his or her service on Steering.

Please send general questions or comments to info@chicagoarchivists.org.

Ever have a reference question that you think might have been discussed on CAA's listserv before? Saw a job posting, but can't remember the details? If you are subscribed to CAA's listserv, you are also able to search through its archives!

To search the listserv archives, go to https://listserv.it.northwestern.edu and follow the instructions to set up a non-Northwestern password for the email address you used to subscribe to the CAA listserv. Confirm the new password, then log in on the main Northwestern Listserv page. Click on "Subscriber's Corner" at the top left and you'll see "CHI-AREA-ARCHIVISTS," where you can access the archives.

You can see more information about the CAA Listserv in the Resources -> CAA Listserv tab.

CAA is pleased to announce a new initiative which aims to increase recognition of the excellent work of our members. As such, we are now taking nominations for CAA Member of the Year!

All CAA members in good standing may submit their nominations by sending an email to info@chicagoarchivists.org with the name of the nominee and a brief paragraph explaining why they should be nominated. 

A couple of rules/considerations: 

1. This award is meant to recognize excellence within CAA; it is meant for CAA members who have gone above and beyond to serve the organization. In particular, its meant to award those working behind the scenes, so current chairs of Steering or of Subcommittees are not eligible. 

2. Though this is really meant for individual members, there may also be nominations for projects or groups consisting of a 2-3 CAA members. 

3. Winners will be announced at the CAA members meeting in March, given recognition on the website, and will win some sort of CAA Swag . 

4. This is different than the Janet Olson Award, which is not intended to be an annual award, but one given out for significant contributions to the organization over many years of service. Think of the Janet Olson Award more as a lifetime achievement award.  We are also accepting nominations for the Janet Olson Award! Submission instructions are the same. The criteria for consideration are available on our website: http://www.chicagoarchivists.org/Janet-Olson-Award 

5. Please send nominations by February 15. CAA's Outreach Subcommittee will select the winner(s), who will be notified about a week before the members meeting in March. If for any reason the Outreach Committee decides that they have not received enough nominations which meet the qualifications, they may choose not to present an award for this year. 

The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution just announced a new resource for those interested art historical research: Chicago's Art-Related Archival Materials: A Terra Foundation Resource.

This project is the product of an extensive survey of the holdings of area institutions undertaken between February 2014 and April 2015. It offers records of nearly 900 individual collections of archival materials relating to American art and design, inviting primary research on the wide-ranging history of art and design in Chicago. The project has been generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago, and it was made possible by the cooperation and expertise of archivists, librarians, curators, and other staff members at each of more than 75 area institutions. 

Explore the Chicago's art related archival collections here: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/resources/surveys/chicago 

CAA thanks all who attended the Holiday Party on December 8, 2016! 68 people attended and enjoyed catching up with friends and new acquaintances over pizza and drinks. See some great photos of everyone enjoying Andy's last performance as the party emcee!

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: 

• Archives Salon, February (details announced soon) 
  
• CAA Annual Members Meeting, March (details announced soon)

CAA thanks all who attended the tour of the Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy at the Adler Planetarium on November 2. 19 people attended and Sara Gonzales, Archivist and Librarian, discussed the history and development of the collection, shared ongoing projects including the Celestial Cartography Digitization Project, and displayed a selection of rare objects and books from the collections. We'd also like to thank Sara Gonzales and curator, Pedro M. P. Rapaso, for staying a little late answer all of our questions.

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: 

• Chicago Area Archivists Holiday Party: Thursday, December 8th, 6:00pm

CAA thanks all who attended the COA Happy Hour on Thursday October 20th at Haymarket Pub and Brewery. 13 people attended and we had a great time celebrating and discussing Chicago Open Archives 2016.

CAA members Kristin MacDonough and Laura Alagna

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:

• Tour of Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy at the Adler Planetarium: Wednesday November 2, 4:00pm
• Chicago Area Archivists Holiday Party: Thursday, December 8th, 6:00pm (registration link coming soon!)

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

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB) is offering scholarships to Illinois archivists and archival volunteers to attend a professional archival workshop, seminar, or conference held in Illinois (or an online professional archival development course) to enhance skills for appraising, capturing, preserving and providing access to electronic records.

Awards will be made in an amount up to $200 per applicant per year to reimburse costs for registration, housing, and/or travel to the event. ISHRAB and its representatives will award scholarships on a first-come, first-served basis until the funding is exhausted. These funds are provided by a State Board Programming Grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. For more information and contact information please visit: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/ISHRAB/devlopscholar.html.

Wondering when your next opportunity is to attend an archives conference, workshop, or course? Do you have extra professional development money just burning a hole in your pocket? Then check out CAA’s new professional development calendar section of the website where you will find professional development events, complete with event descriptions, links to event websites, and the ability to copy the event into your own Google calendar.

Many of these events are local but national and international conferences will be included as well. Topics range from traditional archives courses and workshops on subjects such as digital archives and copyright, to related fields such as records management and history conferences. Next up we have 3 SAA courses or workshops beginning Friday, September 23, 2016 on the topics of copyright law for archives, the accessioning and ingest of electronic records and the fundamentals of acquisition and appraisal. Followed by the ARMA conference starting Sunday, September 25, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas.

The calendar is available here: http://chicagoarchivists.org/professionaldevelopment. Please send suggestions for events or edits to info@chicagoarchivists.org.  

CAA thanks all who attended Rush University Medical Center Archives on September 8. CAA member and Rush University Medical Center Archivist Nathalie Wheaton led twelve attendees on a tour of the fascinating collections at Rush. With her extensive knowledge of Rush collections, Nathalie used photographs and artifacts from the Archives to describe Rush's history from its founding in 1837 to today. Highlights of the tour included a close look at photographs and paintings as well as a recently-unearthed time capsule and several generations of nurses' uniforms.

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:

Chicago Open Archives 2016, October 6-8

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