In this episode, co-hosts Nicole Milano and Camila Zorrilla Tessler speak with Rachel Chatalbash, Susan Hernandez, and Megan Schwenke about their recent book Museum Archives: Practice, Issues, Advocacy (Society of American Archivists, 2022). Chatalbash, Hernandez, and Schwenke discuss museum archives and archivists, the genesis of the publication and its connection to the Museum Archives Section of SAA, and what they hope readers will learn from the volume.

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The editors want to thank all the contributors to the publication: Seth Anderson, Susan Anderson, Brad Bauer, Ellen Brooks, Rebecca Chandler, Emily Connell, Maygene Daniels, Sarah R. Demb, Nancy Enneking, Christina Velazquez Fidler, Jessica Gambling, Heather Gendron, Melissa Gonzales, Rebecca Morgan, Samantha Norling, Suzanne Noruschat, Michael Pahn, Lesley Parilla, Lynette Stoudt, Dawn Sueoka, Jennie Thomas, Madeleine Thompson, Lindsay Turley, and Kathleen M. Williams.

Episode Extras

Read more about Museum Archives: Practice, Issues, Advocacy in the March/April 2023 issue of Archival Outlook, and order your copy via the SAA Bookstore!

In this episode, co-hosts Anna Trammell and Chris Burns speak with Kristine K. Fallon, Aliza Leventhal, and Jody Thompson about their new book Born-Digital Design Records (Society of American Archivists, 2022), the ninth installment of SAA’s Trends in Archives Practice series. The interview explores the unique challenges of managing born-digital design records, prior efforts to address these issues, emerging research on user needs, and much more. Give it a listen!

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Episode Extras

The authors reference various resources in this episode including “An Archive of Interfaces: Exploring the Potential of Emulation for Software Research, Pedagogy, and Design” by Daniel Cardoso-Llach, Eric Kaltman, Emek Erdolu, and Zachary Furste; “Attending to Process and Data: A Research Alignment for Historical Videogame Production Artifacts and Their Archives” by Eric Kaltman; and “Digital Visual Literacy” by Anne Morgan Spalter and Andries van Dam.

To learn more about Born-Digital Design Records, see SAA’s press release and read Aliza Leventhal’s interview from the September/October 2022 issue of Archival Outlook.

Order your own copy via the SAA Bookstore!

How did archivists partner with activists to document and preserve the history of AIDS activism? How are archivists and community partners activating AIDS archives to reveal AIDS’s continued impact on marginalized communities? What lessons can archivists take from this moment of social and community memory-building as we grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic?

In this episode, co-hosts Anna Trammell and Chris Burns speak with Marika Cifor about her recent book, Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (University of Minnesota Press, 2022). Cifor is an assistant professor at the University of Washington. In this episode, Cifor discusses her inspiration for exploring AIDS archives, how the concept of vital nostalgia can inform archival theory and practice, and lessons for memory workers and activists interested in documenting other social justice movements. 

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Episode Extras

Visit Marika Cifor’s about page and faculty website and learn more about the projects and collections mentioned in the episode:

• Visual AIDS, The Artist+ Registry and Archive Project

• Visual AIDS, Artists+ Registry

• Lesbian Herstory Archives

• New York Public Library, Gay and Lesbian Collections and AIDS/HIV Collections

• New York Public Library Digital Collections, ACT UP New York Records

• NYU Special Collections, Downtown Collection

Listen to additional conversations about the book via the University of Minnesota Press podcast.

More than 1,000 archivists came together in-person—many for the first time since 2019—in Boston in August during ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2022, the annual conference of the Society of American Archivists. Another 1,000 archivists tuned in virtually. In this episode, co-hosts Chris Burns and Anna Trammell talk with attendees about their favorite conference sessions, the perks and challenges of remote work, the “glass half-full” lessons we can take away from the pandemic, and the joy of connecting with other archivists.  

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Episode Extras

If you missed ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2022, or attended but didn’t get to all the sessions you would have liked, don’t worry! All education sessions, both plenaries, and the open forums were recorded and are available for on-demand access on the conference website. Register today to get access—and join us next year for ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2023, which will take place July 22–29, 2023 in Washington, DC.