Welcome!
The Local Arrangements and Program Committees are delighted to welcome MARAC's members back to
Baltimore. MARAC has held three other very successful meetings in "Charm City", including the 1995 landmark
joint conference with OHMAR (Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region), which helped to blur the edge between
archivists and oral historians. This meeting's theme is "Archives on the Edge" and Baltimore is an appropriate venue
for such a theme. Baltimore has always been "edgy." A northern industrial city, with a southern sensibility, Baltimore
remained on the edge during the Civil War. It has been the home of such creative spirits as writer Edgar Allan Poe,
singer Billie Holiday, and filmmaker John Waters, all known for living on the edge. As the base of several major
academic institutions – The Johns Hopkins University and Medical Institutions, the University of Maryland, and
the Peabody Institute – Baltimore has been on the cutting edge in graduate education, in particular in the fields of
engineering, medicine, public health, and music.
We have the good fortune to be using the facilities of the Tremont Grand, the newly-renovated Masonic Grand
Lodge of Maryland, located in the Cathedral Hill Historic District, an area with a concentration of commercial,
religious, and institutional buildings. Ninety percent of the district's structures contribute to the historic district.
The Lodge is just one of several fraternal and social organizations that settled within this elegant and prestigious
business and residential area. The Grand Lodge was first built in 1869, with alterations in 1893 and 1909. The
building's fate was recently on the edge – it was nearly demolished for a parking deck. Its fabulous renovation was
completed earlier this year; the developer will be joining us as our Friday luncheon speaker.
Our plenary session will feature the Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein, the leader of NARA, an
institution always on the edge of tomorrow in archival theory and practice. Your attendance at the various workshops
and sessions will no doubt give you the edge over colleagues who were not able to join us in Baltimore.
We hope that conference attendees will be able to take advantage of Cathedral Hill's central location, on the edge
of several other interesting Baltimore neighborhoods. But, of course, all Baltimore neighborhoods are interesting!
Cathedral Hill is directly south of Baltimore's cultural hub, Mount Vernon, and directly north of the Inner Harbor.
Within walking distance are several prominent collecting institutions, including the Maryland Historical Society
and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
Once again, welcome to Baltimore, the City That Reads, the Greatest City in America, as the Local Arrangements,
Program, and Education Committees attempt to feed, entertain, and "edgucate" you. We love Baltimore beyond
the edge of reason; we are sure you will too.
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Workshops
W1 Visual and Sound Materials: Acquisition, Preservation and Access
Instructors: Thomas Connors and Chuck Howell, Broadcasting Archives, University of Maryland
Archivists and special collections curators are increasingly faced with acquiring collections with a significant audiovisual component. Deciding whether to accession such collections can be a daunting task: what exactly are the formats being offered? What are the preservation options? What playback equipment is required for access? What are the problems and pitfalls of digital transfer? This workshop offers a systematic analysis of audiovisual materials in terms of physical and mechanical features, acquisition and appraisal issues, and preservation and access considerations. A wide range of recorded sound and moving image formats will be examined. Participants will come away from this workshop able to make informed decisions on what audiovisual materials to acquire, and, once acquired, how to manage those materials over time.
W2 On Weekends and Holidays, and When No One Is Looking: Collections Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recover at the National Library of Medicine
Instructor: Walter Cybulski, Head, Quality Assurance Unit, Preservation and Collection Management Section, National Library of Medicine
Disasters are notorious for occurring after hours, on weekends or on holidays. They come in all sizes, ranging from fires and hurricanes to restroom flooding or undetected accumulations of moisture in ductwork that nurture mold growth. Repositories need to assess and mitigate perceived risks, and develop a plan of action for responding to disasters. Once drafted, reviewed and adopted for use, a response plan requires periodic evaluation and updating, as well as institutional support for ongoing plan maintenance and staff training. Response, recovery and salvage protocols must be informed, up-to-date, scalable and flexible. This workshop provides an in-depth look at a collection disaster response program that has been in development at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for a number of years. The program continues to change as response and recovery strategies, techniques and equipment evolve over time. Slides will be used to show various types of equipment and supplies, as well as to illustrate some of the basic response and recovery techniques used at NLM. There will be a handout with references to published guidance and links to examples of online response plans. To emphasize the importance of cooperative effort, those in attendance will be invited to participate in a risk assessment and disaster response planning exercise as part of the session.
W3 Managing the Digital Desktop
Instructors: Helen Tibbo, Professor, UNC-CH SILS,
Tim Pyatt, Duke University Archivist,
Janis Holder, UNC-CH University Archivist
If you and your co-workers are having trouble managing your e-mail, let alone other types of electronic records, this workshop may be for you. The presenters will share findings from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)-funded Managing the University Digital Desktop project, and how they relate to electronic records management in the universal university setting. By discussing current e-records management behavior as evidenced in interview findings, they will show how to better manage e-mail and other electronic records, as well as training others to do so. The presenters will suggest ways in which this training can be implemented in the colleege and/or university setting, and will encourage attendees to utilize the project's Web site FAQs, online tutorial, and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Although primarily aimed at college and university archivists and records managers, this workshop is relevant to anyone involved in training and educational activities that include tips for management of electronic records.
W4 Collection Protection: Security Design and Implementation for Repositories
Instructor: Richard Shrake, Assistant Librarian for Technology and Security, American Philosophical Society
Archivists work diligently to preserve the physical integrity of their collections, but may overlook the threats that malicious or careless humans pose. This workshop will provide an introduction to basic archival security, especially concerning perimeter control, internal workflow monitoring, researcher access, and storage. Designed for repositories considering a security upgrade, this workshop will proceed from site survey to design to implementation, and will include an analysis of both planning and current technology. While advanced security systems can be expensive, archivists can apply the principles of basic security design to meet their current budgets. The instructor, Richard Shrake, recently implemented a new security system at his library as part of a major renovation.
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Jennie A. Levine 