Architectural Records Roundtable 2006 Meeting Minutes

2006 Architectural Records Roundtable Meeting Minutes

The Architectural Records Roundtable provides a forum for members to discuss issues related to access and management of architectural records and related fields.

Roundtable business:

Liaison reports and discussion

Aimee Felker, SAA council liaison: send any questions we might have to her at: afelker@oa.eop.gov.

Co-chairs asked where we should be sending our ARR archives- they are to be sent to Michael Doylen(sp?), University of Wisconsin . Action items: 1) get formal contact information from Amie, 2) find out how to submit electronic records, 3) update ARR Co-Chair Guidelines to include this information.

Mark Martin, 2007 Program committee representative: no theme for next year's conference in Chicago, open to new approaches to sessions [see Chicago 2007 section below].
Annemarie van Roessel, Standards Committee liaison:

SHRAB, NHPRC: expects more support for states in the next 3-5 years.
AMIA: ANSI standards for digital images Z39.87 to be completed by end of 2006.
RLG: ArchiveGrid will continue under OCLC -- they really like this product.
Archivists Toolkit: this open source software is in test mode with an expected launch in late November. See http://archiviststoolkit.org/
Web portal project continues: looking at a web content management system
Technical committee on descriptive standards (both national and international): working on 3 clusters- description, records management and another to be determined later

Beth Bilderback, Visual Materials Section liaison:

Reminded everyone of the Visual Materials section meeting on Friday at noon
Reminder that the VM Section is holding a silent auction fundraiser
Please submit any news to her for the ARR column in Views: The Newsletter of the Visual Materials Section of the Society of American Archivists .

Tawny Ryan Nelb, Education Group: [nothing to report]

Nomination / election of Chair and Vice Chair for 2006-2007. The slate of Laura Tatum ay Yale University (second term) and Mattie Sink at Mississippi State University (first term) was approved unanimously. Outgoing co-chair Beth Dodd thanked all for their support over the years -- full circle DC 2001 through DC 2006.

Listserv report: the old distribution list is now closed; new members should sign up via new link on SAA website: http://www.archivists.org/listservs/index.asp#roundtables

Membership: as of July 2006, 117 members

Group conference events were reviewed and announced:

Wednesday, August 2nd, at 9:00 a.m., tour by the Architect of the Capitol (AOC): hosts were thanked and remarks were made about their use of compact shelving/map cases, oversized storage, and their user base.
Wednesday, August 2nd, at 11:00 a.m., tour of the National Building Museum: hosts were thanked and comparisons were made with the AOC- their mission, audience, collecting practices. Although it was the hottest day (yet) in DC, those who attended both tours found it to be well worth the effort to see two such diverse repositories that share the common link of architectural records.
Friday, August 4th, from 10:00-11:00 a.m., Helena Zinkham has offered to host us in the Prints and Photographs division of the Library of Congress. There is already an "official" SAA tour going to P&P, but Helena has offered to tailor this tour to those of us interested in their architectural holdings.

CHICAGO 2007: The 71st Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists will be in Chicago, Illinois, August 27 - September 2, 2007. We invite you to participate in development of the meeting by 1) proposing sessions that will be of interest to the profession or 2) volunteering to share your own knowledge and expertise as a presenter. Call for s ession proposals for SAA 2007 due October 9, 2005.

Use online form to submit pre-conference and program proposals http://www.archivists.org/conference/index.asp
ARR can endorse up to 2 programs
Session suggestions

Focus on local flavor/collections : Art Institute of Chicago
Focus on current issues : understanding digitally born architectural records;

Tour suggestions:

Firms: SOM
Chicago Art Institute
Farnsworth
Please send any other ideas to Laura ( laura.tatum@yale.edu ) and Mattie ( MSink@library.msstate.edu )

Old business:

ARR web report : developing in concept; Dodd will continue the project this year
"Architectural Records: Managing Design and Construction Records" by Tawny Ryan Nelb & Waverly Lowell is published! A book sale/signing occurred at the end of the meeting. Congratulations to the authors and thanks to everyone who contributed photographs and data.

New business:

ICAM was promoted by Waverly Lowell. 2007 meeting of North American chapter will possibly take place in the Bay Area.

Round robin: grants, projects, significant changes

Nancy Hadley discussed the AIA's American Architects Authority Database Project. Nancy was inspired by EAC tagging. She received permission to use the Bowker-published directories for this project. Others will be able to contribute, with active links and contact information. She envisions this to serve as a clearinghouse for information on people, not buildings. There is hope to digitize member records. She is working on issues related to living members. This will be open to the public.
Bruce Laverty discussed the status of the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project ( http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/ ). 40,000 hits a day! Discussed how we all have data sets- many are built and then "go away". This is an excellent example of application of a data set.
Nancy Bartlett, University of Michigan discussed the processing of the Albert Kahn Archive.
Bret Carnell, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, discussed current publication efforts. P&P is moving efforts to focus processing on architectural records. Greg Marcangelo is processing the Paul Rudolph collection. Digitization projects include Carol Highsmith photographs, Anthony Dumas theatre material, and Lamb Studio Archives (with hand held digi snapshots). They are looking for feedback regarding this approach.
Annemarie van Roessel, Avery Drawings and Archives at Columbia, discussed the upcoming launch of a revamped website which will include links to EAD finding aids. The voluminous Woodlawn Cemetery archive was recently acquired.
Lorna Condon, curator of the library and archives at Historic New England (formerly Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) is looking for venues for exhibit of 110 works "Domestic Architecture in New England", available in 2008.
Mari Nakahara of The Octagon discussed her recent Getty grant efforts related to an exhibit on Antonino and Noemi Raymond, currently at University of Pennsylvania. The Raymonds went to Japan with Frank Lloyd Wright and ended up staying 30 years.
Waverly Lowell of the Environmental Design Archives at UC Berkeley discussed the Berkeley Design Book series being published by William Stout in San Francisco. Forthcoming title on landscape architect Robert Royston's public parks.
Dayna Holtz, also of the EDA at UC Berkeley, discussed her project on processing the work of Arthur Brown, Jr., a Bay area classicist architect that worked post 1906 earthquake. Information about the architects on the intermediary pages on the EDA website is proving very helpful to scholars, linking names to the finding aids.
Karen Stevens just finished processing construction records for Independence National Historic Park. EAD work was done by History Associates, Inc.
Gail McMillan of the International Archive of Women in Architecture stated that they
have employed several graduate students in architecture to help with processing
collections in the IAWA.
Laura Tatum, Yale University, just finished processing the Saarinen collection. Exhibition will open in Helsinki the first week of October.

Draft submitted by Tatum/notes by Dodd and Tatum, November 9, 2006