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CARA Steering Committee member Jerice Barrios (standing at podium) moderated
the Endangered Archives panel discussion.
Panelists (l. to r.): Jane Kenamore, Wanda Dole, Anita Mechler, Malachy McCarthy.
Photograph by Merle A. Branner. |
On Thursday, November 9, 2017, Chicago Area Archivists (CAA) and Chicago Area Religious Archivists (CARA) co-hosted a meeting on "Endangered Archives." Twenty five attendees gathered at the Claretian Building at 205 W. Monroe Street to hear a panel discussion on strategies for identifying and preserving at-risk archival collections.
The first panelist to speak was Malachy McCarthy, Claretian Missionaries Archives USA-Canada, who introduced the archival issues confronting Catholic religious communities. As many are facing reduction and completion, Malachy commented on a national conference to find solutions.
Jane Kenamore, Kenamore & Klinkow, LLC, spoke about her work with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the value of their archives to general researchers. She also discussed the importance of archives consolidation and its process.
Wanda Dole, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, talked about the results of a survey and inventory of the archival collections of congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and presented the challenges of conducting survey research within non-profit institutions that may not be familiar with conducting surveys.
Anita Mechler, Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC), spoke about the evolution of the programs developed and facilitated by the BMRC, such as the Survey Project, Color Curtain Processing Project, the Summer Short-term Fellowship Program, and the Archie Motley Archival Internship Program, and how these all contributed to the importance of advocacy for endangered archives.
For copies of the panel presentations, please contact Jerice Barrios at cenacle.archives@gmail.com.
