Midwest Archives Conference, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1
The Fall 2005 Midwest Archives Conference is in Bloomington, Indiana this year. You have until September 2nd to meet the early registration deadline. The opening plenary is on Archival Education in the 21st century. Several workshops, a variety of sessions, the usual fun fare.
For the digital folks, check out the following sessions:
Collecting and Appraisal: The Archives and the Institutional Repository
Institutional repositories are becoming more and more common in colleges and universities. Do they off er solutions to managing institutional electronic records? Are they a threat to the traditional role of a university archives? Th is workshop is designed to explore these and other issues in order to better enable archivists to cope with, and perhaps manage, this growing trend.
Arrangement and Description: Developing New Archival Tools for
Digital Projects
Archives have been using digital projects to highlight and provide access to their collections for several years. As time has passed, many institutions have gone beyond the simple on-line access and developed innovative new tools for their digital libraries. This session will look at several projects and highlight their innovative
developments, including the use of EAD in the Kentuckiana Digital Library, the development of on-line exhibits in Ohio Memory, and the inclusion of music in Indiana University’s projects. Speakers will discuss the way the development of these electronic tools has facilitated traditional archival tasks such as describing and providing access to archival collections. Speakers will also discuss lessons learned and give brief guided tours of their projects.
Access and Use: Designing Your Web Site for Users
Designing efficient and usable Web sites is an important but often overlooked component of our description and outreach work. Th is miniworkshop will give you some tips and tricks to simplify your Web presence. Th e instructor will cull lessons from his study of user interactions with archival Web sites into design and coding tips that help your users fi nd your Web site and stay there once they have found it. Topics to be discussed include typical user behaviors, standardized design elements, and finding aid usability. Some experience with HTML, EAD, or other Web technologies is recommended, but not essential.
For more information, visit the Midwest Archives Conference site and the 2005 Fall Meeting site.
