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SUSTAINABLE ARCHIVES / AUSTIN 2009
Joint Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists and the Council of State Archivists (CoSA)
Pre-conference Programs: August 9–11, 2009
Conference Dates: August 11–16, 2009
2009 Exposition Dates: August 13–14, 2009
Hilton Austin
Call for Session
Proposals
The 2009 Annual Meeting is being held in a city
that marches to a different drummer. Austin is
Texas the way the locals like it: fresh, innovative,
progressive, and quirky—all that and a
vibrant self identity that attracts new residents by
its undisguised confidence. The confluence of southwestern
geography and modern urban community
makes this Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and CoSA,
August 11–16, 2009, an event that you shouldn’t miss!
Managing change, controlling growth, and nourishing
inclusive lifestyles are mainstays of the Austin
frame of mind. Citizens are also mindful of global
interests and the need for sustainability at home, at
work, and in the context of the various environments
that support them. Sustainability is about maximizing
value and finding underutilized potential in the
human and material resources that are essential to
our work and livelihood.
Sustainability is also a framing concept for conversations
that archivists are having within the
profession and with their resource allocators: How
to manage change now, how to grow our programs
to meet complex information ecologies, and how
to nourish ourselves professionally to thrive in the
unfolding information environment. Today’s archival
holdings exist within environments in which recorded
information is swiftly becoming more compressed,
wired, and remote. Organizations are constantly
redesigning their communications infrastructure to
stay in sync with external change while preserving
their essential mission and values.
Archivists must be a creative part of the capacity-
building process if we are to remain relevant.
Immersed in the record creating environment,
archivists bring a wide-angle lens of insight to
new information systems. Archivists have learned to
improvise and practice our art and craft, even when
the tools are oddly unfamiliar and the solutions are
mostly untested. We increasingly find ourselves
balancing interim measures with the search for longterm
solutions to preserve recorded information in
all formats across the continuum. Scaling and applying
today’s promising solutions requires intuition
and a willingness to take risks. A certain bricolage kicks in and merges with the solid theory and
methodologies that are a baseline resource for
the archival enterprise.
SUSTAINABLE ARCHIVES / AUSTIN 2009 is
an opportunity to explore the concept of sufficiency
across all aspects of archival practice, theory, and
visioning. Is there any one of us who is not trying to
do it better, stretch resources over a wider playing
field, or grow a new idea by borrowing from a colleague’s
seed bank of experience? What have we
learned from the short- and mid-range strategies
that enable us to reduce our processing backlog,
maintain legacy archives, or acquire e records that
might otherwise be permanently lost? Is archival
activity simply more dynamic today than it ever
has been, and what does that say about the kinds
of leaders and practitioners we need to hone our
professional edge?
SAA’s 2009 Program Committee issues a call
for session proposals that:
- Address a range of problem-solving strategies,
methods, and tools that offer evidence of our
ability to sustain our archives and the archival
community,
- Meet our local and global responsibilities for
archival preservation, and
- Engage new technologies and social dynamics
with confidence and creativity.
The Annual Meeting’s organizing theme of sustainability
serves as a broad guide. The Program
Committee welcomes proposals on all new trends and important research. One of our many goals is
to reach a diverse membership with sessions that
appeal to a range of attendees, including newcomers
and veterans, arrangers and administrators, institutional
archivists and specialists. Co-sponsorship of
SUSTAINABLE ARCHIVES / AUSTIN 2009 with the
Council of State Archivists lends a special interest
in exploiting our capital city venue to intersect with
government archives and their impact on our lives
as citizens and archivists. To avoid professional isolation,
the Program Committee asks proposers to
consider how the global perspective and the international
archival context enrich the professional
discussion.
Framing Proposals
Session proposals are welcome on any aspect
of the archival enterprise, with special attention
to program implementations, best practices,
innovations, and solutions that enable us to test
and reformulate our theoretical and methodological
assumptions. Proposals will be evaluated on the strength of the 75-word abstract, the completeness
of the proposal, the diversity of the speakers and
their experience, and attention to the meeting’s
theme or organizing goals. Session proposals that
incorporate one or more of the following will be
given special consideration:
- Elements of the theme of sustainability in
archival programs and practice.
- The impact of government on archival enterprise
in a pluralist society.
- International voices.
- SAA Section or Roundtable endorsements.
- Content scaled to a variety of experience levels.
Proposals for the 2009 meeting will be due on
October 13, 2008 (extended). Proposal forms and suggestions for
how to craft a successful session are posted on the
SAA website at: www.archivists.org/conference/.
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