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Another SAA Annual meeting is in the books, and I am here to give you a brief roundup of the highlights of my conference. First of all, I saw the hit musical Hamilton at the Kennedy Center. This was not part of the conference, but I get a good reaction when I tell people about this, so I thought I’d throw it in. Guys, it’s good.

I attended the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section Unconference: Teaching with Primary Sources held at the Library of Congress. This was a full day of lectures and breakout session focused on instruction and primary sources. I have attended this unconference for the past 3 years, and have always found it helpful. This was no exception. I attended breakout sessions on the following topics: Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS)  in College and University, Leveraging Local History, and Teaching Diversity & Intersectionality; Coping with Archival Silences; Archival Ethics. The conversations in each of these breakout sessions were enlightening and inspiring. Based on a discussion I had in the TPS in College and University session, I intend to explore the “Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy” which was recently approved by ACRL and SAA and implement these guidelines into my instruction. An idea that I came to and have already acted on during the Leveraging Local History discussion is to invite Karen Feeney, the archivist from the NC Room at FCPL, to join me and other local archivists at our monthly Hop Into History events to round out our local knowledge. The Teaching Diversity & Intersectionality; Coping with Archival Silences; Archival Ethics discussion focused around institutions facing their sometimes racist or insensitive histories and presenting that information (or lack thereof) to the public in an honest and factual way. There were also session where we did “in class” activities like “Life in a Box Analysis” or other types of document analysis. The TPS Unconference is something I look forward to every year at SAA for the engaging dialogue and hands on activities.  I hope that I will build on my instruction to make a more meaningful impact with primary sources in the future.

I spent a lot of this past year as a member of the Manuscripts Repositories Section (MSS) steering committee planning our annual business meeting. I am proud to say that this panel and meeting were my favorite session I attended at SAA this year. Panelists Dorothy Berry (Digital Collections Program Manager, Houghton Library, Harvard University), Melissa Gonzales (Director, Records Management, Houston Community College), and Beth Myers (Director, Smith College Libraries, Smith College) discussed the current state of hiring practices in the profession. Topicsincluded the value of generalists vs. project positions, labor ethics, temporary vs. permanent, and career transitions. My takeaway from this is that we must do better. We cannot have four part time temporary positions in a department where the employees have masters degrees, are doing professional work, and are not earning a livable wage. I took the advice that was aimed at new graduates looking for a degree and applied it to my role as a manager and an advocate. We in the archival, library, and higher education profession must advocate more for our work to make it more visible and important, and demand the respect and compensation for that work. I hope to use this inspiring panel to be a better advocate, adviser, and manager in the future.

Another session that got me all fired up was “Leading the Way: Transparency in Archives Management” moderated by Davis Benjamin (Head of Special Collections & Archives at the University of Central Florida and an ALI buddy of mine). The panel included Chrystal Carpenter (University Archivist and Coordinator of Special Collections, Elon University), Bob Clark (Director of Archives, Rockefeller Archive Center), Maria Estorino (Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Director, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Verónica Reyes-Escudero (Borderlands Curator, University of Arizona). Some takeaways from that session include:

• Do not use possessive pronouns when discussing staff or collections. People are not “yours” and collections are not “yours.” We are temporary custodians of the “stuff.”
• Management can be lonely. You can’t/won’t/or don’t want to be friends with everyone you manage.
• Transparency is important and valuable to everyone.
• Be authentic and trustworthy.
• Empower people to make decisions and don’t get mad when they do make decisions.
• Help people move through their professional path.
• Manage UP!!!
• Don’t hire someone to fix a problem. Meet problems head on, before they fester.
• Don’t send that email.

I attended the Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Section Business meeting which had a great panel on how to deal with instant “celebrity” when something in your collection gains media attention. I am the incoming chair of the RAO Section and spent a lot of my time in this meeting talking with Steering Committee member and other people on the RAO subcommittees. RAO is a very large section and has many subcommittees including: Communication Committee, Exhibits and Events, and Teaching with Primary Sources. I look forward to my year as chair of this section, and hope to make an impact on the incredible and wide-spread work they are doing.

One more highlight I will mention at this year’s SAA is the Presidential Address delivered by ZSR’s Tanya Zanish-Belcher. I have seen first hand the hard work and dedication that Tanya has put into her SAA presidency and it was showcased in her wonderful speech. Tanya’s dedication to the profession, and to the people coming up, in it were obvious in her speech and during her presidency. I will finish this blog post, and year of President Tanya, to a flashback to eight years ago to the 2010 SAA Annual Conference at the very same venue it was in this year. This was my first SAA, I was working part time at ZSR and going to UNCG for my MLIS. I was so nervous to go to the career center and have someone review my resume because I thought I hadn’t done anything. I brought my very bare professional resume in and had the most wonderful experience. The woman who reviewed my resume was so welcoming, so nice, so encouraging, and told me I had done a lot, I just had to describe it more enthusiastically. I really do remember how nervous I was going in and how much better I felt when I left. A few years ago I was going through some notes in my files and came across that resume review and business card. It was Tanya who had reviewed my resume all those years ago! She was so kind and generous to a young and inexperienced archivist in 2010, and has continued to do that through her presidency and career. She is a champion of archives, archival professionals, diversity, and advocacy. Cheers to President Tanya!