Congressional Papers Roundtable NEWSLETTER Society of American Archivists Summer 2014 From the Chair: CPR Elections 2014 By Betsy Pittman Spring has finally arrived and that means it’s time to look The Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the 2014 slate forward to the Annual SAA of two candidates for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and four candidates Conference. This year we’ll be for two positions on the Congressional Papers Roundtable (CPR) in Washington, D.C., which Steering Committee. All the candidates have experience with con- presents a variety of opportuni- gressional papers and a commitment to professional service. Please ties for the members of CPR. review the candidate information included in this issue of the news- In addition to possibly check- letter to make an informed decision. ing in with potential donors, I hope you’ll plan on attending Voting for the election will take place online and will occur via the the pre-conference program to Society of American Archivists (SAA) web site. SAA staff will be held on August 13, 2014, in make online ballots accessible to CPR members during the first the Capitol Visitor’s Center. week of July. The Nominating Committee will issue reminders Registration forms for the pre- about the ballot on the CPR discussion list and will announce the conference meeting will be dis- election results as soon as SAA makes them available to us. tributed via the CPR listserv after June 23, 2014. Anyone Thank you to all the members who submitted nominations and to with questions should contact all the candidates for agreeing to run for office! me directly at [email protected] or 2014 CPR Nominating Committee (860) 486-4507. Leigh McWhite, Chair Audrey McKanna Coleman The program committee is try- Brian Keough ing something a little different this year. In order to provide a (Candidate statements are found on pages 3-7) substantial program on topics highlighted in the recent mem- bership survey, the Program In This Issue: and Electronic Records Com- mittees have developed a full day of presentations and dis- From the Chair.……….…1-2 SAA 2014 CPR……………...8-9 cussions at an off-site location. CPR Elections…..…..……...1 Sen. Kaufman E- Records...9-11 Registration information and forms for the pre-Conference SCPC hosts ACSC…………2 Institutional Updates…....12-17 (Continued on page 2) Candidate Statements......3-7 Congressional Papers Roundtable Newsletter Summer 2014 (From the Chair, continued from page 1) gram, Laura Litwer of Texas A&M Commerce program will be distributed through the CPR and Debbie Davendonis-Todd of Baylor’s Poage listserv. Legislative Library. Laura spoke about the inter- personal skills that need to be cultivated by archi- The Business meeting, scheduled for Friday, Au- vists on a panel about the future of congressional gust 15, 2014, will be held at the conference ho- archives. Debbie, along with Sarah D’Antonio tel and will also have a program presentation as from the Dole Institute at the University of Kan- well as the usual reports of activities and issues sas, spoke about the exciting and innovative out- needing membership input. Everyone has been reach programs at their institutions. busy this year and I look forward to catching up with you all in D.C.! The program opened with a keynote address de- livered by former Democratic National Party -Betsy Pittman chair Don Fowler. Seven panels considered the work of congressional chiefs of staff and cam- paign managers, outreach, books and documen- taries, the future of congressional archives, and “bridge” collections (non-legislative collections like League of Women Voters and political car- toonists). In addition, two former members of Congress spoke about their experiences having their papers collected. Program participants in- cluded former Hollings chiefs of staff Joey Lesesne and David Rudd; Congressman Floyd Spence chief of staff Craig Metz, whose dead-on impersonation of Strom Thurmond made him a favorite of the audience; campaign manager South Carolina Political Jamal Gunn; Congressman Bryan Dorn biog- Collections hosts rapher Jack Roper; and USC Professor of Library and Information Science Jennifer Marshall, who Congressional Archivists gave scholarly context to the discussion of the future of congressional archives. South Carolina Political Collections (SCPC) at the University of South Carolina held a success- Attendees received a tour of SCPC and we were ful and memorable 11th Annual Meeting of the surprised that the group seemed enamored with Association of Centers for the Study of Congress our two-case exhibit just outside our processing (ACSC) from May 14 to May 16. The conference area illustrating the steps in processing a major drew 42 congressional archivists, library adminis- collection. We copied the concept from the Dole trators and congressional staff to Columbia. As Institute and it sounds like the exhibit will soon we work in a U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings-centric be replicated at a number of our sister institu- universe here at SCPC, we were pleased to see tions. folks responsible for the papers of Hollings’ men- tor, Richard Russell of Georgia; his mentee, Joe We began planning for this years ago, when we Biden of Delaware: and close friends, Daniel In- first learned we would be moving to a new state- ouye of Hawaii, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and of-the-art facility. The meeting was all we ex- Chris Dodd of Connecticut. pected it to be and certainly solidified our stand- ing as a leading congressional repository. SCPC is gaining a reputation as an incubator of future archival leaders and we were proud to see -Contributed by Herb Hartsook two former SCPC student assistants on the pro- and Lori Schwartz 2 Congressional Papers Roundtable Newsletter Summer 2014 include promotion of the holdings through social CPR Candidate media, engaging undergraduates on campus to Statements promote the use of primary sources, and main- taining active contact with the Oklahoma Con- gressional delegation. Candidates for Chair-Elect What do you bring to the CPR Steering Com- (2 Candidates) mittee? I am an enthusiastic advocate for the preservation Robert A. Lay and use of Congressional collections. These col- lections are vitally important to understanding Title: Archivist politics, government, and legislation in the Unit- Institution: Carl Albert ed States, and their preservation rests solely on Congressional Research the energy of Congressional archivists. We repre- and Studies Center, Uni- sent different repositories of differing sizes and versity of Oklahoma availability of resources, but we share a common Education: BA and mission. My work with ACSC, as well as my pre- MA in History, Louisi- vious experience with four sizeable Congression- ana Tech University al collections at different repositories, makes me well-suited to encourage greater cooperation. Biography: Robert has served as an archivist at the Carl Al- What would you like CPR to accomplish in the bert Congressional Research and Studies Center next 3-5 years? at the University of Oklahoma since 2011. Previ- Highlighting the work of Congress should, like ously he was an assistant archivist at the Robert Congress itself, be a collaborative effort. I would J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, like to see Congressional repositories of all sizes and was a processing archivist for the papers of more actively engaged with one another, as a net- Senator John B. Breaux at Louisiana State Uni- work of archives rather than silos of political in- versity Libraries. He currently serves on the ex- formation. I believe that new technologies and ecutive committee of the Association of Centers initiatives such as encoded description, open da- for the Study of Congress and has been a member ta, virtual reading rooms, and social media pre- of the Academy of Certified Archivists since sent excellent opportunities to knit these collec- 2012. tions together to provide the most complete pic- ture for our patrons, whether they are sitting at a What is your experience with Congressional table in our reading rooms or on a couch in their Papers? living room. I have worked exclusively with Congressional collections since 2007, including the papers of Marc Levitt Senators John B. Breaux and Robert J. Dole, and Congressmen Glenn English and James R. Jones. Title: The Direc- In my current capacity as Archivist at the Carl tor of Archives Albert Center, I spearheaded an effort to migrate Institution: Rob- the Center’s finding aids from HTML to Archon. ert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Currently, I am working with colleagues at Studies neighboring institutions to develop policies for Education: BA from Michigan State Universi- the preservation and access of electronic records ty (Political Science Pre-Law); MA from Villa- in Congressional collections. My outreach efforts nova University (History); MSI from the Univer- 3 Congressional Papers Roundtable Newsletter Summer 2014 sity of Michigan (Archives & Records Manage- I would like to see the CPR push to build a better ment and Museum Studies) understanding and rapport between Members of Congress and repositories that hold their papers. I Biography: would also like to see a movement to extend legal Marc is the CPR liaison with the SAA standards protection over the so-called "personal papers" of committee, is serving on the Executive Commit- members to better preserve the transparency and tee for the Association of Centers for the Study foundation of our representative democracy. of Congress, and has recently joined the Society for History in the Federal Government. He has consulted with other institutions to help establish Candidates for their archives including the Robert H. Mollohan Steering Committee Family Charitable Foundation, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and Shepherd Uni- (4 Candidates) versity itself. In May of 2013, Marc spoke on a panel at the U.S. House of Representa- Debbie Davendonis-Todd tives Legislative Data and Transparency Confer- ence about the processes and challenges of ar- Title: Bob Bullock Archi- chiving constituent correspondence.