Chicago Tribune reports on Chicago Collections


"...Chicago Collections, a new entity bringing old entities together, is...one-stop shopping for researchers, from high school students to wizened academics. Call it a case study in inter-institutional cooperation...Call it an antidote to the human tendency of being better at saving stuff, as a rule, than at being able to find it again later."                                                                    --Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune, November 5, 2015

Visit the Chicago Tribune website to read the complete article on Chicago Collections: "Chicago Collections brings city-related archives under one digital roof".

Guest Post by Rebecca Skirvin: Attending 2015 ACWR Conference




Attending ACWR at 25: Bridging Tradition with Technology

by Rebecca Skirvin, Archivist, Sisters of the Living Word

As a fairly new archivist who has been working for a congregation of women religious for two years, I was very much looking forward to attending the Archivists for Congregations of Women Religious (ACWR) 25th Triennial Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. I am the archivist for the Sisters of the Living Word, a young congregation headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding this year. I came away refreshed and reinvigorated, with new professional contacts, new ideas about archival outreach and collection enhancement, and a stronger sense of my role as an archivist in a religious community.

Religious archives featured in the National Catholic Reporter

On November 10, 2015, the National Catholic Reporter published
"A historical treasure trove: Social justice tradition runs through Catholic archives," a discussion of the conference "Catholic Archives in the Digital Age: A Conference for Archivists and Teachers" held Oct. 8-9 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Malachy McCarthy, Province Archivist for the Claretian Missionaries U.S.A. Province and CARA member, attended the conference and was interviewed about the importance of religious archives in teaching about social history. Other archives mentioned in the column are Daughters of Charity, Marquette University, and Avila University.

You can find the article at NCR's website.


2015 CARA Fall Meeting held at Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Entry sign for the Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

On November 6, 2015, CARA members gathered at the Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, for their annual Fall Meeting.

Stained glass in the lobby of the Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
As stated on their website, the Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America preserve, protect and make accessible the records of the ELCA, its predecessor church bodies, inter-Lutheran agencies and prominent leaders of the church. Working with the archives of the 65 synods and nine regions of the ELCA, the ELCA Archives serves historians, congregations, synods, genealogists and others interested in Lutheran history by providing resources and answering questions.

Joel Thoreson, Archivist for Management, Reference, and Technology, welcomed CARA members and led a tour of the archives, which occupies a building formerly used by a printing company.
The ELCA Archives collections storage space features high ceilings and tall shelving units
ELCA Archivist Joel Thoreson leads a tour of the collections storage space
Joel estimates that the archives holds 15,000 linear feet of material in various formats including books, artwork, documents, films, photographs, and artifacts. For those who are unable to visit the archives in person, Joel and his staff offer an online catalogue to aid researchers in finding the materials that they need. 

After the tour concluded, CARA members and Joel headed to a nearby Lou Malnati's for pizza and fellowship. Thank you to Joel Thoreson and his staff for a great Fall Meeting!