NEWSLETTER OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS MAY/JUNE 2007 WWW.ARCHIVISTS.ORG archivalarchival outlookoutlook SuMMer sizzleS… • Members to meet at Chicago lakeshore • Breezin’ to election victory • MayDay is hot table of contents features archival outlook MayDay Focuses on the society of american archivists serves the education and information needs Emergency Preparedness Helen Janousek .............. 6 of its members and provides leadership to help ensure the identification, preservation Sweet Homes, Chicago: An Architectural and use of the nation’s historical record. History Valerie Harris, Janet Olson, Heather Stecklein ............... 8 NANCY P. BEAUMONT Executive Director Election 2007 [email protected] Boles Elected Vice President/President-Elect ......... 10 TERESA M. BRInatI Director of Publishing SAA Voters Cast Ballots for [email protected] ............................ 11 Three New Council Members SOLVEIG DE SUTTER Education Director Nominating Committee Seeks [email protected] Leaders with New Perspectives ......................... 12 BRIAN P. DOYLE Director of Member and Technical Services Conversation with Authors [email protected] Engages Future Archivists Alice M. Goff ............... 14 Rodney FRANKLIN Publications Assistant Archivists-in-Training [email protected] Learn the 3 C’s Alexis Braun Marks ......................... 15 LEE GONZALEZ Office Assistant [email protected] Around SAA .............................................. 21 HELEN JANOUSEK columns Editorial and Production Assistant President’s Message: Being the SAA President .............. 3 [email protected] From the Executive Director: Reading Pleasures ............. 4 TOM JURCZAK Director of Finance and Administration From the Archivist of the United States: [email protected] Timely Access to Public Records. .16 VERONIca PARRISH departments Education Coordinator [email protected] Washington Beat ...................................... .17 National News Clips ................................... .18 CARLOS SALGADO Program Coordinator World View ........................................... .20 [email protected] Currents ............................................. .22 JEANETTE SPEARS Obituaries ............................................ .24 Member Services Coordinator [email protected] Bulletin Board ........................................ .28 Professional Opportunities .............................. .31 Archival Outlook (ISSN 1520-3379) is published six times a year and distributed as a membership benefit by the Society of American Archivists. Contents of the newsletter NEWSLETTER OF THE SOCIETY OF may be reproduced in whole or in part provided that AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS on the cover MAY/JUNE 2007 WWW.ARCHIVISTS.ORG archival outlook Summer Sizzles… A day at Oak Street Beach, ca. 1929. SAA credit is given. Direct all advertising inquiries and general correspondence to: SUMMER SIZZLES… members will be staying at hotels near the beach during the • Members to meet at Chicago lakeshore • Breezin’ to election victory • MayDay is hot 2007 Annual Meeting, August 29 through September 1. Make Teresa M. Brinati, Director of Publishing, Society of plans to cool your toes in the waters of Lake Michigan. American Archivists, 527 S. Wells St., 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60607; 312/922-0140; fax 312/347-1452; tbrinati@archi- Courtesy of Chicago History Museum, Chicago Daily News vists.org; www.archivists.org. negatives collection. ∞ Archival Outlook is printed on paper that meets the requirements of the American National Standards Insti- tute—Permanence of Paper, ANSI Z39.48-1992. 2 | archival outlook • may/june 2007 www.archivists.org president’s message Elizabeth W. Adkins, CA, Ford Motor Company [email protected] Being the SAA President ince I became SAA president last August, a number have been published so far. We’ve also worked with Sof friends have asked me, “So, what does it feel like SAA Past President Steve Hensen on his testimony to be president? How’s it going?” A few times I’ve about the Executive Order to the House Committee on said, half-jokingly, “I ask myself from time to time, Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee ‘What was I thinking?’” (The rest of the time I find on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives; that “It’s going well—SAA is going through some excit- have kept in touch with Lee White (the executive direc- ing times” is the best response.) tor of the National Coalition for History) as legislation The truth is, there’s a lot of work to overturn the Executive Order has moved through the and responsibility involved in being Congress; and have helped formulate communications Nothing makes me feel SAA president, especially when it’s to our members to encourage them to contact their rep- on top of a full-time job. There are resentatives regarding the legislation. better about playing a appointments to be made, Council In addition, we sent a letter to then-Secretary of leadership role in SAA meetings to prepare for, correspon- the Smithsonian Lawrence Small to request informa- dence to answer, presentations to give, tion about the Smithsonian’s agreement with Corbis to than does a good, meaty contacts to be made with our allied scan Smithsonian images; submitted testimony urging professional organizations, Archival full funding for the National Historical Publications public advocacy issue. Outlook columns to prepare . you and Records Commission to the House Appropriations get the idea. Sometimes it can be a bit Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and overwhelming, and I feel terrible when something has General Government; and monitored numerous devel- been sitting on my “to-do” list for months and remains opments for possible SAA action, including the story unfinished business. But then SAA Executive Director that White House staff members have been using per- Nancy Beaumont calls to tell me that a reporter has sonal email accounts to conduct government business. contacted her looking for a comment on a pressing Just before I wrote this column, we sent letters to issue, and suddenly being the SAA president is about Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and to as rewarding and exciting a position as I could want. The Honorable Thomas F. Hogan, Chief Judge, U.S. Nothing makes me feel better about playing a District Court for the District of Columbia, to request leadership role in SAA than does a good, meaty public clarification of a protective order issued by the District advocacy issue—even if I’m not the one who person- Court. The protective order may result in the destruc- ally is speaking out on behalf of SAA. There are times tion of Guantanamo detainee court case files that it when my schedule, my level of expertise, or sensitivi- appears would otherwise be kept permanently according ties associated with my job make it prudent to step to the federal government’s records retention schedule. aside as a public spokesperson in favor of another SAA Sometimes as these issues develop, we do a lot leader. Many SAA presidents before me have had to of work that does not yield the kind of visibility that make similar decisions, as will doubtless be the case we had hoped. Many letters to the editor and op-ed for SAA presidents to come. pieces that we draft are never published, for example, In the last several months I’ve worked with and press interviews (which can take a few hours to Nancy and President-Elect Mark Greene to prepare line up) sometimes fall through as reporters decide to statements for the media regarding President Bush’s “take a different angle.” Although we’re disappointed Executive Order 13223, which supposedly “further when these things happen, I’m still extremely proud at implemented” the 1978 Presidential Records Act but such times to be helping to lead an organization that in fact pretty much gutted it. Mark has taken the lead can make an impact on the transparency and account- on these communications, but Nancy and I have part- ability of organizations and our society by being effec- nered with him regarding strategic direction and have tive advocates for proper management of archives and served as his editing partners in developing the state- archival records. ments. We’ve prepared letters to the editor and op-ed So, yes, there’s an “awful” lot of work involved in pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the being the SAA president. But the professional and per- Houston Chronicle, the Chronicle of Higher Education, sonal satisfaction is tremendous. During a recent visit and National Public Radio, although none of them continued on page 26 www.archivists.org archival outlook • may/june 2007 | 3 from the executive director Nancy P. Beaumont • [email protected] reading Pleasures y reading list for the past several months has According to author Sara Gruen: been pretty random. But with the exception of M I was a day away from starting a different novel Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which imagines a world when the Chicago Tribune ran an article on a photogra- left without records or much else, archives and archi- pher who followed and documented train circuses dur- vists keep popping up…. ing the 1920s and 1930s. The photograph that accom- For Christmas Paul gave me Thunderstruck, the panied the article was stunning – a detailed panoramic latest novel by The Devil in the White City author Erik that so fascinated me I immediately bought two books Larson. Given the number of times I interrupted Paul’s