From April 23 to April 26, 2014, I was in Kansas City, Missouri, attending my first-ever MAC meeting. I had a wonderful experience; MAC certainly lives up to the hype. Everyone I met was friendly and welcoming, and the panels and presentations were interesting and practical. What more could one ask from a professional conference?
In addition to friendly new acquaintances, I encountered quite a few familiar faces. It was good to see that the CARA membership was well-represented in Kansas City. While there, I was able to spend quality time with Audra Adomenas, Kajsa Anderson, Merle Branner, Diane Pugh, Marcia Stein, and Julie Wroblewski. Whether we were chatting over dinner and cocktails, or comparing our impressions of various panels, it was always a joy to share the conference with my fellow CARA members.
One of the highlights of MAC was the pre-conference workshop I attended on Wednesday, April 23, entitled "From Theory to Action: A Pragmatic Approach to Digital Preservation Strategies and Tools." This workshop was presented by the Preserving Objects with Restricted Resources (POWRR) project, which is an IMLS-sponsored project to investigate, evaluate, and recommend scalable, sustainable digital preservation solutions for libraries with smaller amounts of data and/or fewer resources. I found the workshop extremely useful, as it was specifically targeted to smaller organizations with limited resources in terms of staffing, technical support, and finances. This is the circumstance in which many religious archivists find themselves, and I was pleased that the presentation seemed perfectly tailored to our needs. For example, while the presenters gave a broad overview of the issues and technical challenges inherent in any digital preservation program, they also provided tips for simple processes that an archivist can immediately implement with minimal initial investment. As someone who is just beginning to come to grips with digital collections, it was reassuring to receive the affirmation that a small, humble start is better than waiting for a "perfect solution" to materialize.
My favorite part of the POWRR workshop was the hands-on portion, where participants practiced some of the initial pre-ingest activities required to accession a digital collection. We were introduced to a software called Duke Data Accessioner, which simple to use and provides an easy way of migrating data off disks and onto a file server (or hard drive) for basic preservation, further appraisal, arrangement, and description. I fully intend to use Duke Data Accessioner at my institution, and I am very grateful for to the POWRR team for finding it, testing it, and teaching me how to use it. If you are interested in learning more about the workshop, you can find information at the POWRR webpage, in the tab called "I Survived a POWRR Workshop."
Other highlights of the conference included the bus tour to two fantastic local archives collections, the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library and the Black Archives of Mid-America.
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| Durwood Film Vault at Kansas City Public Library |
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| Black Archives of Mid-America |
Both archives are impressive and are great examples of what can be accomplished with limited resources when you have passionate and enthusiastic archivists on staff. Another conference highlight was the opening reception in the building that houses both the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
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| The American Jazz Museum |
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| The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum |
Both museums were small but splendid, with well-designed, engaging exhibits. All in all, my time in Kansas City was a perfect mix of personal fun and professional enrichment. I look forward to next year's MAC, which will be in Lexington, Kentucky.
--Jerice Barrios, Archives of the North American Province of the Cenacle
