SC Archives Month - October
1st South Carolina Infantry, ca. 1916 at Camp Owen Bierne, El Paso, Texas, courtesy of SC Dept. of Archives and History
South Carolina Archives Month 2017
South Carolina at War
Every October, archivists around the country commemorate American Archives Month. This month-long celebration is a time for archival and cultural heritage professionals to bring awareness to their collections and spotlight the important work they do for their communities. In 2014, the South Carolina Archival Association revived our statewide celebration with South Carolina Archives Month, and we have continued the tradition since then. Themes in years past have included: Archives and the Natural Environment, Bridge Builders: Connecting Archives with Your Community, and Sights and Sounds of South Carolina.
For South Carolina Archives Month 2017, our theme is “South Carolina at War.” 2017 marks the centennials of the United States’ entry into World War I, the end of United States’ involvement in the Mexican Expedition (1916-1917), and the creation of Fort Jackson here in South Carolina. Additionally, we can look to 2018 as the fast approaching 50th anniversary of Vietnam. This year is a unique time to highlight the preservation of military records and memorabilia both in institutional and private hands. With this theme in mind, we’re looking forward to events featuring everything from military service to conscientious objection to civilian contribution! We plan to celebrate exhibits, collections, acquisitions, and newly available materials across the state that are in keeping with this theme both through social media and through our blog.
Camp Sevier nurses at base hospital (1917), courtesy of Greenville County Library System
Archives Month also presents us with an excellent opportunity to examine our outreach efforts and identify new opportunities for interacting with our patrons, encouraging the use of new digital access platforms, and reaching out to completely new audiences. When planning this year, keep in mind these potential opportunities:
· Create new social media accounts ( on platforms like Pinterest) to curate virtual or retired physical exhibits
· Work with National History Day organizers in SC and creating a list of topics for the 2018 theme: Conflict and Compromise in History. Collections related to wartime activities are ripe for use with this theme!
· Host Lunch and Learns on topics of interest to specific communities such as assisted living facilities or retirement clubs
· Use social media to showcase what archivists do, including brief conservation show-and-tell videos, #transformationtuesday posts featuring a newly processed collection, participate in #WWIWednesday posts, etc.
· Participate in Ask an Archivist Day (10/4) and Electronic Records Day (10/10)
Let’s work together to make certain all of South Carolina’s citizens understand their own vital place in the historical tapestry of our state!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to showcase a part of your archival collection! Please share information about your Archives Month event(s) with us by emailing president@scarchivists.org, and we will post it on our website and publicize via Facebook, twitter, and other networks! Also, don’t forget to join us for our annual meeting at the Citadel in Charleston on October 20th!
2014 Annual Conference Registration open now!
Registration is now open for SCAA's 2014 Annual Conference:Archives and the Natural Environment, to be held at Newberry College in Newberry, SC, on Friday, October 10, 2014.
Click here to register!
The theme of this year's annual meeting is Archives and the Natural Environment. Informative sessions will include presentations on herbaria as archives, updating archival workflows in established institutions, examining the impact of natural disasters on repositories, and documenting architectural collections in South Carolina archives. Our plenary address will be given by Dr. Patrick McMillan, professor at Clemson University and Director of the South Carolina Botanical Garden.
Tentative Schedule
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Registration
9:00 AM Optional Newberry Archives Tour
10:15 AM - 11:00 AM Sessions IA, IB & II
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM Sessions III & IV
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch
12:30 PM Business Meeting
1:00 PM Plenary Speaker
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Session V
Session IA
Archives and Natural Disasters – Preserving MUSC’s Hurricane Hugo Experiences
Brooke Fox, MUSC University Archives
The September 21, 1989 landfall of Hurricane Hugo greatly impacted the campus of the Medical University of South Carolina. This presentation will discuss the University Archives’ efforts to document the bravery of hospital, faculty and maintenance staff as they protected people and facilities before, during, and after the storm. Ms. Fox will highlight efforts in soliciting records and photographs as well as conducting oral history interviews for inclusion in the University Archives. In addition she will discuss the development of exhibits about the storm.
Session IB
Connecting the Dots: The Role of the Historic Properties Information Coordinator
Morgan Jones, South Carolina Department of Archives and History
In the past year, South Carolina’s Department of Archives and History created an entirely new position for the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO): The Historic Properties Information Coordinator. This position was created and filled in order to bridge the gap between users and historic property information. While the tasks of that position were distributed among other staff members, the division of labor only allowed the office to keep up with the existing workload. This Historic Properties Information Coordinator will be responsible for designing an online searchable database of historic property information, managing the digitization and online presentation of associated records, and enabling the electronic submission of materials from surveyors. This presentation will discuss how archival skills, strategies, and standards contribute to a project that involves so many different types of professionals including archaeologists, architectural historians, planners, preservationists, public historians and surveyors. Ms. Jones will also discuss how her experiences with these intersecting professions have informed her experience as an archivist.
Session II
The Digital Divide: Users, Archival Traditions and a Digital Future
Bobbi Bischoff, Hillary Hudson, Travis Wagner and Nicole Oderisi, USC SLIS
As archives move forward into the next century, students here at University of South Carolina have concerns about archive traditions and the future of digital archiving. Concerns include the digital impact on copyright, film preservation, and the divide between what students know and what employers want.
Session III
It’s Never Too Late to Mend: Updating Archival Workflows in Established Institutions
Joshua Minor, College of Charleston Special Collections & Aaron Spelbring, Avery Research Center
In this panel, Joshua Minor, Manager of Archival Processing at the College of Charleston and Aaron Spelbring, Manager of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center will discuss their experiences updating processing strategies in established institutions where standardized, consistent archival workflows, policies, and priorities have only been partially implemented due to limited resources and staff. Minor and Spelbring will examine the strategies used and the techniques implemented in both institutions as well as some of the challenges associated with this type of operational change.
Session IV
Documenting the “Mother Art” in South Carolina: Architectural Collections at Clemson University and the University of South Carolina.”
Beth Bilderback, University of South Carolina and Jim Cross, Clemson University
Frank Lloyd Wright once said “the mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.” The built environment is such an integral part of our lives that we do not give it a second thought. Unless, as archivists, we have architectural records in our collections. The records, however, are not the glamour collections that provide great PR or that fit neatly into fancy archival boxes to show a donor. They are difficult to preserve and take up too much precious storage space. Yet, these records are an important part of our history and are used by a variety of researchers: architects, gardeners, building managers, home owners, historians, students, etc. In this session, Jim Cross will talk about the new architectural archives at Clemson that grew out of an initiative with the SC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Clemson and USC. Beth Bilderback will talk about the South Caroliniana Library’s collection of landscape architect Robert Marvin among others.
Plenary Speaker
Rediscovering Catesby’s Carolina
Dr. Patrick McMillan, Clemson University
Mark Catesby, an intrepid explorer and naturalist arrived in South Carolina in 1722 and spent over two years traveling far beyond the English settlements documenting and describing the marvels of the wild interior of Carolina. His Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Island is well-known for its dazzling illustrations and tales, but this is only part of the story. The collections sent back to England that now reside at Oxford and in the Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum, London complete the description of what South Carolina was like during the first decades of European settlement. Join Patrick as he takes us back in time to examine a Carolina that most of us would find quite foreign today and learn just how powerful our choices are in transforming the world around us.
Session V
Herbaria as Archives: Structure, Function, and Transformation of Botanical Research Collection
Dr. Charles Horn, Newberry College – Herrick Brown, A.C. Moore Herbarium, USC – Kate Foster Boyd, University of South Carolina
Herbarium collections throughout South Carolina capture and preserve the history and current dynamics of plant populations throughout the state. This session will highlight the composition and value of these collections. Processing, identifying and organizing botanical specimens, developing databases for storage and retrieval of information on the physical collections for researchers and staff, climate control and preservation all present unique challenges for herbarium curators.
We have a new look!
The SCAA website has updated its look! The content should be the same, but email the webmaster if you see broken links, etc. Enjoy!
Summer Social 2014
Join us for an afternoon with curators and archivists at the Native American Studies Center at USC-Lancaster. This event is the fundraiser for the SCAA’s scholarship program, the Darrick L. Hart Endowment Fund. Awards up to $500 are made available to current SCAA members through an application and review process to attend continuing educational training. Click here to learn more about the Hart Endowment
Date: Friday, July 11, 2014
Time: 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Location: Native American Studies Center, 119 South Main St., Lancaster, SC
Cost: $15.00 for SCAA members; $10.00 for students; $20.00 non-members
View the flyer
Spring Workshop 2014 - Update: Registration Open!
Date: Friday, May 2, 2014
Time: 11:30 to 4:00 (includes lunch)
Location: St Helena Branch, Beaufort County Library System. Registration now open!
Registration Fee: $25 SCAA Member; $35 Non-member; $15 Students
The SCAA spring workshop will offer attendees an SAA webinar followed by a panel discussion. The webinar focuses on mitigating risks, building bridges with local law enforcement, and developing a holdings protection program. A panel discussion with front-line archivists, librarians, law officers, public relations specialists, and administrators representing a variety of different repositories (academic, public library, private, etc.) will follow the webinar. Panelists include: Gina White (Winthrop University), Steven Tuttle (South Carolina Department of Archives and History), Lynette Stoudt (Georgia Historical Society), and Douglas Henderson (Charleston County Public Library).
Registration now open - click here to register!
Page 12 of 16
