Important COVID-19 Information on Materials Quarantine Length

The REALM Project has released the results of the first round of Battelle's laboratory testing for COVID-19 on commonly circulated library materials. The five materials tested in this round included a hardback book cover (buckram cloth), paperback book cover, plain paper pages inside a book, plastic protective book covering, and a DVD case.  The results can be found at https://www.oclc.org/en/news/releases/2020/20200622-coronavirus-undetectable-after-3-days.html. 

The Project has also released "Systematic Literature Review of SARS-CoV-2: Spread, Environmental Attenuation, Prevention, and Decontamination," prepared by Battelle. It can be found at https://www.webjunction.org/content/dam/WebJunction/Documents/webJunction/realm/systematic-lit-review.pdf

Call for Proposals for SCAA Annual Conference!

This year's conference has been moved online due to ongoing concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no overarching theme for the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting. The SCAA Board of Directors, serving as this year’s Program Committee, welcomes proposals for presentations or sessions combining two or three presentations that will translate well to a virtual format.

Presentations or sessions can focus on a wide range of topics of interest to archivists at all levels and in all institutions, including (but not limited to):

• Advocacy, diversity, and inclusion in archival education and training

• Advocacy, diversity, and inclusion in collections

• Case studies highlighting collections or resources within collections

• Cataloguing 

• Challenges in funding, physical resources, and staffing

• Collection development during COVID-19

• Conservation

• Creating finding aids and similar resources for patrons

• Innovative strategies for outreach and community partnerships

• Making our collections accessible to a wider range of patrons and constituencies

• Methodology(ies) for creating and sustaining records management policies that work

• Opportunities and obstacles in digitizing traditional resources

• Opportunities and obstacles in managing born-digital resources

• Raising awareness of and promoting collections through events, exhibits, and publications

Presentations may also take several formats, including:

• Individual presentation (45 minute session)

• Lightning rounds (45 or 60 minute session; shorter, individual presentations grouped together) 

• Group presentation (45 minute session; one presentation with multiple speakers)

• Discussion (45 or 60 minute session; one or more panelists lead a discussion)

• Poster presentation

The Board of Directors will review proposals and select those best suited to a virtual meeting that will be of interest and value to our wide range of members. 

NOTE: Please limit your proposal to 250 words maximum.

The number and format of sessions will be determined in part by the proposals but also by the platform(s) and technological requirements available to the SCAA for hosting a virtual meeting.

The Board invites SCAA members and others interested in archives who wish to submit proposals to do so by August 15, 2020. Please use the form that can be found here: https://forms.gle/k6w4v9pzUXKHRAh7A.

SCAA Statement on Racism and Recent Events

Today the SCAA Board unanimously approved the following statement:

SCAA Statement on Racism and Recent Events

First and foremost, the South Carolina Archival Association affirms that Black Lives Matter. 

We condemn the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the countless other Black lives lost at the hands of white supremacy and police brutality. We condemn systemic racism that permeates through our society, police violence and abuse of power against protestors and historically against Black lives, and we stand with those demanding an end to systemic racism in South Carolina, the United States, and the world. 

With the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1671, white supremacy and violence against people of color became foundations of our state’s history. South Carolina’s secession, the lynching of Willie Earle, the Orangeburg Massacre, the murder of Walter Scott, and the present-day mass incarceration of people of color, among countless other injustices, demonstrate South Carolina’s role in systemic racism.

We, the South Carolina Archival Association, will actively work against white supremacy in the archives, the archival profession, and our communities. Archives and archivists have not ever been neutral. For too long, archivists have been complicit in silencing Black voices in both the historical record and the archival profession. We urge white archivists to acknowledge their privilege, to commit themselves to anti-racist practice, and to create systemic change within the profession as a whole. We must amplify Black voices, in the historical record, in the profession, and in our communities. 

If we are to dismantle white supremacy in the archives, we must work towards anti-racism in all aspects of our work, including collecting, appraisal, description, access, education, and outreach. The SCAA commits to making this work a permanent, central focus of our organization moving forward. In early July, the Executive Board will meet to discuss short-term and long-term actions the organization can take to dismantle white supremacy through a commitment to anti-racist work. We welcome and encourage member input as we take these important steps. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact SCAA President Jim Cross at jcross@clemson.edu.

For further resources please consult the following:

• Academy of Certified Archivists Statement and Resources for Archivists: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R7LyR0tY5SqTkNuQpGMFfhgDvG0jDirrnm2ImiedbMw/edit

• Texas Digital Library Anti-Racism Resources: https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COLLAB/pages/1390575620/Texas+Digital+Library+Anti-Racism+Resources

• Archivists Against History Repeating Itself: https://www.archivistsagainst.org/

• Jarrett M. Drake, “I’m Leaving the Archivist Profession, It’s Better This Way,” On Archivy, 2017: https://medium.com/on-archivy/im-leaving-the-archival-profession-it-s-better-this-way-ed631c6d72fe

• Ashley Farmer, Archiving While Black, Black Perspectives, 2018: https://www.aaihs.org/archiving-while-black/

• The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook published by the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History: https://inclusivehistorian.com/

• Michelle Caswell, “Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives,” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 87, no. 3, July 2017: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/692299?journalCode=lq 

• Documenting the Now: https://www.docnow.io/

• The Blackivists’ Five Tips for Organizers, Protestors, and Anyone Documenting Movements, June 2, 2020: https://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/the-blackivists-five-tips-for-organizers-protestors-and-anyone-documenting-movements/?fbclid=IwAR1BBafLnFpmxCekQ1qKU8DBfTF727j3ad_C6-9cnWXAFhCoqLCQhhlH-IY

• Ellen Engseth, “Cultural Competency: A Framework for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Archival Profession in the United States,” American Archivist, 2018: https://americanarchivist.org/doi/pdf/10.17723/0360-9081-81.2.460

• Anti-racism Resources: bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES

Archival Workers Emergency Fund - Get Involved!

On March 13, 2020, a group of concerned archivists organized in response to the COVID-19 global crisis and recommended that the Society of American Archivists Foundation establish the Archival Workers Emergency Fund. The AWE Fund was officially launched on April 15, 2020. The fund is providing mutual aid support to financially vulnerable and at-risk archives workers, including part-time, hourly, contract, temporary, term-limited, and otherwise contingent archives workers who now face acute employment and financial challenges.

Please consider helping us share the word about the AWE Fund and encourage potential applicants and donors alike! Our official organizer’s Twitter account is @awefund2020 and our hashtag is #AWEfund.

If you’d like to collaborate with us in any way, thank you! You can learn more about the AWE Fund at our website. If interested members of your organization have specific skill sets they’d like to contribute in this effort, we encourage them to contact us.

The Archival Workers Emergency Fund organizers have created an anonymous survey to continue to keep a pulse on the scope and extent of the impact of COVID-19 on precariously employed archival workers.

Please take the survey by July 31!

Another upcoming activity is the #Auction4AWEfund. If you are a crafter and want to raise funds for the AWE Fund, please submit your item for auction by June 15! 

Alison Clemens (alison.clemens@gmail.com) can direct any questions you may have about the AWE Fund's current fundraising efforts

Preserving South Carolina's Constitutions

The Charleston Post and Courier recently ran an article on the preservation of South Carolina's 1776, 1778, 1790, 1861, 1868, and 1895 constitutions by the NEDCC. The article can be read at the following link:  https://bit.ly/2yXS1PD