Archives Leadership Institute, Day Six

The Lowell Inn and Conference Center, Room 501, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

In the interests of sleep, I’ll try to keep this posting brief.

Twenty-Four-Hour Relief

We opened the meeting by discussing the “24-hour exercise” we discussed in our teams yesterday. In the scenario, a poorly managed private historical site documenting a famous architect was deciding whether to sell off pieces of the collection to make money to float the institution. Our scenario assumed that the archivist had just 24 hours to begin the process to solve this problem. One representative from each team sat at the front of the room and gave short presentations on what they would do, which included contacted sympathetic members of the board and other supporters, bringing this story to the media, and various ways of risking one’s job in order to protect these records.

The Coalition of the Collaborators

Next up were Ellsworth Brown and Kathy Pletcher, who spoke about ways to ensure good collaborations. Brown discussed a number of pertinent issues in collaborations: size (how disparate sizes of collaborators might affect the relationship), missions (which will guide how an organization acts), trust (an essential element), leadership (a necessary component especially if cultures need changing), communication (both informal and formal), open books (so the two parties can check each others’ finances), candor (to include good communication), vision (to direct the collaboration), mutual credit (being sure that each collaborator receives equal billing), and courage (since collaboration is not natural to many people). Kathy Pletcher building on what Brown said, noting that collaborations require a strong leader (with credibility, knowledge and connections) to move projects along and a good governance structure. One sentence Brown said in a sentence resonated with me: A concentrated vision statement “is not dumbing down the statement, but reaching common ground.”

The Art of Grants

Lucy Barber, of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, gave a presentation about grants writing, with particular attention paid to grant applications to the NHPRC itself.

Case Study # 3: Papers from the Teachers’ Union of Ten Gallon, Texas

Archives Leadership Institute Team 4
Jane Rosario, Mary Caldera, Tara Laver, Sara Holmes, and Scott Goodine, Madison, Wisconsin (26 Jun 2008)
This case study concerned the records of a teachers’ union held by a university. A reporter had legally gained access to information used to embarrass the union, which became upset and talked to the university about the release of this information. This issue involved the adequacy of policies, privacy issues, and contractual issues. A good quotation from Erik Nordberg: Sensitive is only sensitive when it’s been used to hurt you.” We carried on a good conversation about this issue and covered a large number of issues in a short time.

Wisconsin Historical

We ended the official part of the day at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where we held a few brief discussions with various staff. Jacqie [sic] Ferry talked to us about a study she has been conducting on the value of the Society’s finding aids to its users. This talk gave us some valuable ideas on how user studies might be carried out (theirs included an observation of users using the finding aids, a followup discussion with a focus group consisting of most of these users, and an online survey). Harry Miller explained the interesting details of the Society’s Area Research Network, a system of thirteen cooperating repositories and which provide care and access to the Society’s records across the state. The system also includes the interesting feature of the equivalent of inter-library loan for records in the system. I can’t say how well this system works, but I can report that this system is the favorite of my father, who is a dedicated and expert genealogist who carries out research across the country. Michael Edmonds explained to us that the Society is both a state agency and a membership group, he described the Society’s various divisions (which cover the gamut of cultural-historical activities), and he gave details about some of the Society’s digital projects.

Fear the Duck

And then it was baseball. Only six of us attended tonight’s baseball game at the Mallard, where the Madison Mallards handily beat the Brainerd (Minnesota) Blue Thunder 10 to 2. For ten dollars apiece, we watched some fun baseball, just a smidge below minor league, received two hotdogs and two cups of beer (Miller Lite). We supported the home team, tried to win any of the prizes being flung at us, whooped when we had to whoop, and had great fun.

Erik Nordberg Showing His Mallard Pride, The Mallard, Madison, Wisconsin (26 Jun 2008)
Top Row: Erik Nordberg and Scott Goodine; Bottom Row: Jeff Kintop, Rosemary Pleva Flynn, and Tanya Zanish-Belcher; The Mallard, Madison, Wisconsin (26 Jun 2008)
A Mallards Baseball Game, The Mallard, Madison, Wisconsin (26 Jun 2008)

In Case You Were Worried

Tom Hyry and a Glass of Water, Madison, Wisconsin (26 Jun 2008)
In case you were worried that I’d forget the day’s picture of Tom Hyry with a beverage raised in salute, don’t be. Here’s Tom, enjoying a glass of water at the restaurant Kabul, where he lunched with Erika Castaño and me.

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