The Wisconsin Collecting Landscape Project
In 2023, the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board (WHRAB) met for a strategic planning session and identified a lack of understanding surrounding the landscape of collecting historical materials in Wisconsin. As a result, the WHRAB developed The Wisconsin Collecting Landscape Project (also called simply "The Landscape Project"). The WHRAB determined to conduct a survey of historical record keepers in Wisconsin, with the goal of developing knowledge about the full makeup of the archival and historical records community in Wisconsin and their collecting priorities and concerns.
Timeline and Purpose
The WHRAB’s 2024-2030 strategic plan will systematically address the need to understand the collecting landscape in Wisconsin. Through measured two-year projects, the Board seeks to serve as a connector between siloed institutions. The WHRAB will use its new strategic plan to identify institutions and collection scopes (year 1-2), build a network where shared needs and interests are identified (year 3-4), and finally (year 5-6) bring together representatives from these organizations to work collaboratively on the needs identified through the network. These are the organizing goals of the 6-year plan for 2024-2030.
The WHRAB recognizes that there are two different audiences of this work: local governments that hold permanent records or records with long retention times and institutions that hold archival materials and are staffed with record keeping professionals and/or volunteers. Managing the needs of these two audiences to create a useful product will be an important component of this project. In addition to various audience needs, a critical piece of years 5-6 of the plan will be sustainability of the network.
GOALS: During years 1-2, the main focus will be to identify the organizational members of the Wisconsin archival and historical records community and their collection scopes.
- Author a white paper on archival scope and collecting to facilitate understanding the relationships in historical records keeping between local governments, local historical societies, and other groups.
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of the archival and historical records organizations and their collecting practices in Wisconsin.
- Produce a list of organizations and their collecting priorities. This list is not a directory of individuals which would need to be maintained every year as individuals change positions. Rather, it is a list of organizations and their collecting goals which is relatively stable and will not need constant maintenance.
The WHRAB Landscape Survey
A link to The WHRAB Wisconsin Collecting Landscape Project Survey (i.e. "The WHRAB Landscape Survey") will be sent out in early 2025 via email to archival and historical records organizations in Wisconsin. The survey will be sent to Wisconsin organizations that are part of a comprehensive—yet not exhaustive—mailing list. The purpose of the WHRAB Landscape Survey will be to identify Wisconsin archival and historical records organizations, their collection scopes and their collecting priorities.
- Round One:
- Launch: March 3rd
- Close: May 12th
- Round Two
- Launch: May 13th
- Close: June 30th
If you are part of an archival and historical records Wisconsin organization and have not been sent a link to the survey, contact: mara.rodewald@wisconsinhistory.org
The Wisconsin Collecting Landscape Project Team
- Project Direction: The Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board
- Project Lead: Abbie Norderhaug, Deputy Collections Division Administrator/WHRAB Coordinator
- Landscape Survey and Mailing List: Jacob Riehl, State Agency Records Archivist; Mara Rodewald, Program Associate for the WHRAB
Learn More
About the purpose, board members, and other projects of the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board.
About how the WHRAB plans to use the landscape survey in the WHRAB Strategic Plan 2024-2030.
Have Questions?
For more information contact:
Mara Rodewald, Program Associate for the WHRAB