Report on 2019 Midwest Archives Conference

MAC 2019 was held at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, April 3-6, 2019.

Chicago Area Religious Archivists joined their colleagues in Detroit, Michigan, at the Midwest Archives Conference, which was held April 3-6, 2019. The conference attracts archivists from all over the region for educational programming, networking events, and archives tours.

Some photos from the behind-the-scenes tour at The Henry Ford.

CARA members were active at the conference. Rebekah McFarland, archivist for the Sisters of the Living Word, participated in a panel called "My Comeback Story: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in the Archival Profession." She talked about how to navigate racial isolation in the archives.

Rebekah McFarland, archivist for the Sisters of the Living Word, presented on imposter syndrome.
Photo courtesy of Derek Potts, Chicago Area Archivists.

Doris Cardenas, Associate Archivist, Claretian Missionaries Archives USA-Canada, presented in a session called "Light from the North: Reviving the Spirit of Archon through AtoM." AtoM is a web-based, open source archival description software that some repositories are using as an alternative to Archon and ArchivesSpace. Doris talked about working with the program and its capabilities when it comes to handling multilingual description and multinational repositories.

Doris Cardenas, Associate Archivist for the Claretians, discussed AtoM at MAC.

If you are interested in learning more about the AtoM software, Malachy McCarthy, Archivist for the Claretian Missionaries Archives USA-Canada, is forming a local users group. Please contact him at mccarthym@claretians.org.

Jerice Barrios, Archivist for the Cenacle Sisters, who serves on the Steering Committees of both CARA and Chicago Area Archivists, organized a CAA @ MAC get-together that was attended by a number of CARA members. It was a convivial evening of drinks and dining at a restaurant in downtown Detroit.

CAA and CARA members enjoy dinner and drinks at Townhouse, a restaurant in downtown Detroit.
Photo courtesy of Derek Potts, Chicago Area Archivists.

Jerice was also on-hand to award the Archives and Archivists of Color Travel Fund Award to fellow CARA member Rebekah McFarland, as well as the other winner, Kheir Fakhreldin.

Kheir Fakhreldin, Jerice Barrios, and Rebekah McFarland celebrate the AAC Travel Fund Award at MAC.
Photo courtesy of Hathaway Hester, Chicago Area Archivists.

As always, MAC was a wonderful way to grow your knowledge of, and appreciation for, the archives profession. Thank you to everyone for a stimulating conference! Hope to see you at MAC 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa!

The Spirit of Detroit