From the Chair: The Big Easy in D.C.
By Alan Lefever

The come-and-go event will be on Wednesday, August 11th from 5:30 to 7:00pm. Refreshments will be provided and, as always, donations towards the refreshments will be welcomed. Details such as the room number for the reception are still being determined. Please continue to check the newsletter and website for further information. Let’s make this the best attended reception we’ve ever had.

The ARCS Section Meeting is on Thursday, August 12th from 1:45 to 3:45pm. Please join us and be a part of our always lively discussion as we hear from our fellow archivists and swap ideas and good news.

Finally, let me encourage each of you, if you haven’t already done so, to take a moment and complete the member survey located online at the ARCS website. These surveys are vital in determining members’ interest in serving in leadership positions and on committees. We need more involvement from our Section’s membership to continue the work of ARCS, a vibrant and vital organization.

Nominating Committee Proposes Candidates for ARCS Officers and Steering Committee
By Gwynedd Cannan, Chair of Nominating Committee

The Section has two positions open for election this year: Secretary and Representative-at-Large. The Secretary is an officer who keeps records the minutes of the Annual Business Meeting as well as any Steering Committee meetings. The Representative-at-Large is a member of the Steering Committee who advises the Chair and may be assigned special duties by the Chair. Both offices are two year terms. The secretary is the only officer eligible for re-election. Our current secretary Elizabeth Scott has generously consented to stand again. Read about both candidates below.

Elizabeth B. Scott Archivist Saint Michael's College Colchester, VT 05439 Elizabeth Scott is the Archivist at Saint Michael’s College and for the Society of Saint Edmund, the religious order that founded the college. Prior to this she worked as the Archivist/Special Collections librarian at South Dakota State University, and on the United States Newspaper Project in Oregon. She holds an MSLS from the University of Kentucky and a MAR from Yale Divinity School. She enjoys her work as section secretary and is happy to continue in that role. As a relatively small section, it is a great way to participate in SAA. The section brings visibility to religious archives and archivists and she hopes to continue this work if elected.         Jim Havron, C.A. Archivist Tennessee Conference United Methodist Church Nashville, TN Jim Havron is completing a term as president of the Society of Tennessee Archivists as well as a term as member of the Governing Board of the Southern Archivist Conference. He is hoping to broaden the scope of his involvement in the profession by becoming more involved in ARCS. Other professional activities include: long-time member and resource person on the Tennessee Conference United Methodist Church (UMC) Commission on Archives and History, member Southeastern Jurisdiction Commission on Archives and History UMC, member Bicentennial Programming Committee of the Tennessee Conference Historical Society, and director Clouds of Witnesses-Memory Ministry and Missions (a project to provide and promote services to help preserve personal and organizational history.) He also is employed by the Nashville Public Library Special Collections Division. Jim maintains personal and organizational blogs and social networks, as well as participates in Web page maintenance, and tends to prefer on-line presentation for his research. He has presented and conducted workshops in a variety of conferences and seminars, and has pending publication in The Circuit Rider, the journal of the Tennessee Conference Historical Society. Jim has brought specialized training in electronics and digital media to his work, developing programs in these areas in several of his professional positions. Jim is a big believer in collaboration among disciplines and institutions. He is an advocate for mentor programs among archivists and users alike. Jim is particularly interested in networking smaller archives and historical institutions for mutual support and most efficient use of resources.

 
 
 
 
 

Call to Order: Gwynedd Cannan, Section Chair, called the meeting to order at 9:02 am.

RECEPTON
Section chair, Gwynedd Cannan called the meeting to order at 1:35 pm.
Gwynedd welcomed people to the meeting.
Gwynedd thanked Mark Duffy for hosting the reception

COUNCIL
Council liaison, Margery Sly, also a member of the section, talked to us about happenings on Council. She talked briefly about the standards committee and mentioned that there had been some slight revisions to the bylaws of the A&A listserv. Council has agreed to revise the investment policy and established a finance committee. They have also established a new working group on cultural property which may be of interest to this group in particular. She also mentioned that Council is trying to be more transparent and wondered who was aware that the Council materials had been posted.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Carol Prietto, program committee representative and section member, talked about the 2010 program, which does not have a theme. The deadline for proposals is Sept. 24, 2009.

INTRODUCTIONS
Audience members new to the section meeting stood and introduced themselves. Gwynedd mentioned the member survey and urged people to fill it out as it is a good way to reach the board. Members may access the survey on the ARCS website, http://www.saa-arcs.org/ but some hard copies were also available.

MINUTES
Elizabeth Scott, secretary, submitted the 2008 minutes which had also been published in the Archival Spirit. The section approved the minutes.

ELECTIONS
Loretta Greene presented the candidates for office:

• For vice-chair/chair-elect, Teresa Reilly, University of Calgary
• For representative-at-large: Taffey Hall, Southern Baptist Historical Society

SR. CLAUDE LANE AWARD
Robert Johnson-Lally of the Archdiocese of Boston Archives won the award this year.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Complete reports for all committees were published on the website prior to the meeting.

Gwynedd Canaan announced that Newsletter is looking for a successor.

Gwynedd Canaan announced that the Listserv has switched to SAA managed list. The Yahoo list used for last few years has been phased out over the past year and will cease to exist entirely in the fall. Mark Duffy had nothing to add to his published report. Chris Doan of the models and resources committee would love to have some help.

NEW BUSINESS
Trinity Wall Street archives will be providing documentation for a new marketing tool. Terry Riley is working on the Archives Reader with Native American resources. Liz Scott urged people that the leadership’s pleas to get involved are genuine. Alan Lefever, incoming chair, posed the question, “What do you want from ARCS,” for a brainstorming session. The ideas proposed included:

• Electronic records for very small archives with minimal resources.
• How do archivists become relevant with IT as far as electronic records go?
• Religious collections archivists looking at collaboration with state and government records.
• How to handle part-time and temporary positions equitably.
• Consortia among religious archives.
• Documenting non-western religions.

• Religious archives as cultural records
• Exploring college and university archives with religious roots

The business meeting ended when Gwynedd Cannan officially handed the gavel to Alan Lefever.

PROGRAM
This program involved presentations related to online catalogs. Lauren Kata from The Archives of the Episcopal Church presented what they have done, while working with a contract developer. They needed to build an online catalog that could tie all their digital initiatives together:

• Digital repository.
• Digital delivery.
• Cataloging projects.

• Evaluate the data that was already there.
• Evaluate the technology. They chose Archon because it:
  • Follows EAD and DACS standards.
  • Offers phased implementation.
• Is easy to deploy on existing web server platform (LAMP).
• Is highly customizable.

Respectfully submitted by:
Elizabeth B. Scott, ARCS Secretary

ADJOURN
Gwynedd adjourned the meeting.

(Mintues posted on http://saa-arcs.org on May 3, 2010.)
 
 
 
 
 

Digital Library Launched at DePauw By Wesley Wilson The DePauw University Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of its newest resource – the DePauw Digital Library http://digital.library.depauw.edu The online resource contains over 30,000 objects including photographs, publications and images of artifacts spanning the history of DePauw University, Putnam County, and Indiana United Methodism. Highlights include photographs of the campus and Methodist ministers back to the mid-nineteenth century, full-text searchable student newspaper, the alumni magazine, documents such as the selected papers of poet and alumnus, Max Ehrmann (Desiderata) and finding aids to the Archives collections. New content is added continually. Construction of the Digital Library began more than two years ago and centered on making available the student newspaper, The DePauw, and the photographs of Ralph Taylor, a longtime local photographer and DePauw alumnus. Taylor’s collection includes many photos taken of the University and campus events, as well as fraternity and sorority photos. For example, alumni looking for old photographs of fraternity or sorority pledge class members may find them on the Archives home page, which includes a convenient search box that allows users to quickly browse the entire Digital Library for a name or keyword. Alumni planning for a class reunion may find the Web site especially helpful for obtaining photos from their years on campus. Those interested in the United Methodist collections will see photographs of church buildings, congregations, and church activities. Also included are many inventories of church collections in the Archives that describe documents such as missionaries' papers, circuit riders’ diaries and local church membership records. Other features on the Web site include the “Get Copies” option located on the top menu bar that allows users to request digital or physical copies of a print, audio or video piece featured on the site. The link takes users to a request form where they can ask for the medium (or format) they want for the copy. Users can also be specific with the resolution of the copy and assign a deadline for the request to be completed. But, users may also download lower resolution images directly from the site. These are generally good enough for web productions. Here are some recent comments: “This is a fabulous site! I recently visited several of NYPL's preservation labs and came away with heightened appreciation for the mechanics behind digitization. Beautifully done!” --Dr. Daniel F. Flores, archivist, United Methodist Church “The digital of the library archives is AWESOME. I've been working with the local Delta Chi chapter for 20+ years. This digital archive is arguably the best thing I seen to get relevant news and photos back in the hands of alumni. It has always been so difficult before." --Mike Moskos, class of 1985 “I enjoyed learning about the Digital Library. It is a tremendous resource for residents and students in all grades.” Shannen Hayes, Banner --Graphic newspaper, Greencastle, Ind. “This is really great - I enjoyed looking around in it, and I can see lots of ways it will be useful to me.” --Meryl Altman, professor, DePauw University The digital library represents the collaboration of many students, staff and faculty members. Please visit the collection and share your thoughts and feedback. Contact the Archives at archives@depauw.edu.

Orangeville: Congregation at the river for baptism service, Orangeville Methodist Episcopal Church, circa 1890. CentralUB: Central United Brethren Church, South Bend, Ind., circa 1910. Elders1891: Ordination of elders at Washington Methodist Episcopal Church, 1891. E10thSt: Members of East Tenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church at the Indiana State Fair, circa 1900.

 
 
 
 
 

Expanded e-Archives Collection at Marquette University By Mark Thiel Marquette University announces the addition of the 1,000th image to the Holy Rosary Mission – Red Cloud Indian School Digital Image Collection, http://digitalmarquette.contentdm.oclc.org/HRM/index.html. Begun in 2006, this collection documents the visual history of Red Cloud Indian School and the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) in western South Dakota and Nebraska. At Chief Red Cloud’s request, Jesuits in 1888 founded the school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Formerly known as Holy Rosary Mission, Red Cloud School has developed into a two-campus K-12 school system, which has also served as the headquarters for the Catholic Church on the 3,500 square-mile reservation. In 1977, Marquette began to receive the school’s historical records as its official archival repository. However, the bulk of the images were not transferred until 2006. Since then, more holdings have been added for a total of approximately 80,000 images. Work on the digital collection began 2008 and has grown continuously since then. The images provide a small but representative sampling of the entire photographic holdings. Since most of them were acquired with limited identification, preparing them for public use has required painstaking research by Marquette archives staff. In so doing, valuable assistance has been received from Red Cloud alumni, general researchers, and the archives staff of the Deutsche Provinz der Jesuiten Archiv (Munich), Holy Name Province Archives of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity (Denver), and Midwest Jesuit Archives (St. Louis). The images, which date from the 1860s to 2000, provide important visual documentation on the history of the school and western South Dakota. Notable topical areas include: Family home life, Catholic parish activities, native deacons and religious sisters and employment on the Pine Ridge Reservation and elsewhere as tribal officials, cowboys, laborers and Indian dance performers. Prominent figures in Western history, such as Chiefs Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, medicine man-missionary Nicholas Black Elk, and missionary Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J. Prominent visitors, such as Senator Robert F. Kennedy, President Calvin Coolidge and bishops and other church leaders. Students and their activities in academics, Catholic Mass and devotions, drama, Indian powwows and sports such as baseball, football and rodeo. Teaching faculty, administrators and support staff, including Jesuits, Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity and Indian and non-Indian laity. World War II era participants in the U.S. Armed Forces. St. Francis Mission and the Rosebud Indian Reservation of the Brulé Lakota (Sioux) Indians, also in South Dakota and also staffed by Jesuits and Sisters of St. Francis of Penance of Christian Charity. Questions about the collection may be addressed to Mark G. Thiel, Archivist, Special Collections and University Archives, mark.thiel@marquette.edu phone: 414-288-5904.

 
 
 
 
 

ARCS Officers and Editor's Notes

The Archival Spirit is published online three times a year by the Archivists of Religious Collections Section of the Society of American Archivists. Feature pieces as well as announcements of acquisitions and projects are welcome. Deadlines for submissions are Oct. 15, Feb. 15 and May 15. Send submissions to the Newsletter Editor, Wesley W. Wilson at wwwilson@depauw.edu. Send corrections to Mark Duffy, Web Editor, at mduffy@episcopalarchives.org.