The officers of ALABI (Association of Librarians and Archivists and Baptist Institutions) would like to announce that ALABI will have its annual convention at Georgetown College, in Georgetown, Kentucky on June 2-3, 2010. The main topic will be The Digital Archivist: Records Management Across the Institution. The program is still coming together, but we expect to release details about it very soon.
The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives is pleased to announce we will be co-sponsoring a Society of American Archivists workshop, Records Management for Archivists, Thursday and Friday February 4-5, 2010, at the SBC building in downtown Nashville.
This practical, introductory records management course provides an overview of records management principles and practices and tools to use for establishing or continuing a records management program.
Members of the Association of Librarians and Archivists at Baptist Institutions are eligible for a $25 discount off the non-member rate.
Enter the code “RMA10TN” into the promotional code on the online registration form and the discount will be activated by SAA staff.
Early bird registration ends January 5, 2010. The course also provides 10 Archival Recertification Credits for individuals who are members of the Academy of Certified Archivists. For more information and to register, visit the education calendar of the Society of American Archivists website, http://saa.archivists.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/events/ConferenceList.html?Action=GetEvents
During ALABI 2009, ALABI President Kent Millwood led the breakout session on User-centered Practices in Libraries. Kent has graciously compiled notes used for the session and provided them for members of ALABI. Kent has some great content here, and he provided an excellent bibliography to help interested ALABI members pursue becoming even more user-centered.
The document is embedded below. If you would like to download a copy, click on “more,” then select “save document.”
OCLC’s newly released WorldCat Local online catalog solution has quickly gathered a number of implementers. This new search and discovery service offers a number of advantages over traditional ILS catalogs.
One Baptist library, the James P. Boyce Centennial Library at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently implemented a WorldCat Local instance to help them better serve their patrons. Rob Brunansky, the IT director at SBTS, shared this library’s “success story” on the OCLC site. Anyone is welcome to try the SBTS WorldCat Local instance if you would like to see how this solution differs from traditional catalogs.
The Virginia Baptist Historical Society has opened to researchers the 16 volumes of diaries, 1885-1889, kept by Dr. William Heth Whitsitt, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The diaries have been opened following the publication earlier this year of the biography W.H. Whitsitt: the Man and the Controversy by James H. Slatton (Mercer Press). Research appointments are required and contact should be made to Darlene Slater Herod, research assistant, at (804)289-8435 or VBHS, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.
The minutes from the 2009 ALABI meeting are now available. They can be found on the meetings page, or you can click here to access them directly.
A hardy thank you to Eldonna Deweese for taking good minutes and distributing them in such a timely fashion!
The 2009 annual ALABI conference was held at the Southern Baptist Convention building in Nashville, June 3-4. Sixteen attended the pre-conference workshop – “Exhibits on a Wing and Prayer: Effective Displays on Limited Budgets†– presented by Taffey Hall and Allan Lefever. There were 26 conference attendees.
In addition to the wonderful pre-conference, there were several superb conference presentations on user-centered libraries and archives, and a special video on Early Southern Baptist Films and Film Makers, which was in and of itself a wonderful documentary. There was also an informative discussion of current Baptist Digital initiatives at four of our institutions. We are grateful that several of the presenters have given us permission to post their presentations online. These will be announced as added.
Other successfully completed business this year includes the approval of the new constitution and by-laws, the tentative selection of Georgetown, Kentucky as the site of next year’s meeting, and the approval of next year’s conference theme – Archiving Electronic Records – including legal aspects, involving the Administration and IT Department as well as other leaders and gatekeepers, writing policies and procedures, identifying and using new information technology, and more.
A big thanks to Bill Sumners and his staff for hosting the conference, for Jason Fowler for creating the program, and for all the presenters and attendees for making the 2009 ALABI Conference a wonderful success.
I want to thank everyone who participated in this year’s ALABI meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the course of the next few days, I will try to post some of the exceptional presentations that our speakers brought this year.
One of the presentations that we heard this year was from Paul Roberts, the Director of Patron Services at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Paul’s presentation was was entitled “From MySpace to OurSpace: Fostering Community through Patron-Centered Spaces,” and he has graciously provided his manuscript for our consumption. His topic was weighty, and I am very grateful to him for providing a manuscript for us to review.
One thing always looms larger than anything else in the minds of Certified Archivists: recertification points. Yes, recertification points. Those little slips of paper that help one avoid ever having to sit through the CA exam again :).
This year, ALABI can assist you in your quest for those recertification points. A pre-conference workshop is being offered at ALABI this year for an additional registration cost of $15.00. The workshop is entitled, “Exhibits on a Wing and a Prayer: Effective Displays on Limited Budgets,” and is being presented by Taffey Hall of SBHLA and Alan Lefever of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection. Taffey has recently informed me that the Academy of Certified Archivists awarded this workshop two recertification points. This is yet another reason to plan to attend this year’s ALABI meeting in Nashville on June 3-4.
If you have not already made plans to attend this year, you still have time. All of the details about this year’s meeting can be found on the meetings page.
A colleague brought this article to my attention, and I thought some of you may find it interesting.
How do you think this recent development will change the way libraries and archives do their work?
(HT: Paul Roberts)
