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| Pictured (left to right) Emy Teis, Becky Ballard, Jane Wilkerson and Stephanie Carter |
Several
members of our staff were in Tucson, Arizona, attending the
2019 Conference of the Inter-Mountain Archivists & Society of Southwest
Archives Joint Annual Meeting, "Crossing Borders, Blazing Trails."
Stephanie Carter, Emily Ties, Rebecca Ballard and
Jane Wilkerson, along with more than 200 archivists from the Southwest region of
the United States, attended the May 15-18 conference. The conference focused on best practices for documenting and preserving materials from minority communities.
Conference speakers discussed the multifaceted challenges their institutions
face when trying to build relationships with divers groups. Speakers also
addressed outreach efforts and obstacles for including elementary and high school teachers, concerns in digitizing manuscripts and using social media platforms to engage the public. The struggles institutions face to determine what
materials would be of interest to a wide-ranging audience were discussed.
Other topics at the conference included the work flow of an
institution. Discussions
included software, strategic planning and organization, the evolution of what archivists do and how to get material out to the
public. The conference provided Arkansas State Archives
staff members an opportunity to explore the ways other archives manage and
process archival collections.
