LA as Subject Meeting: June 2013

LA as Subject Members Meeting

June 11, 2013

California African American Museum

CAAM Exhibits

Things That Cannot be Seen Any Other Way: The Art of Manuel Mendive is on display from April 26^th until October 20^th, 2013. The Legacy of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company: More Than a Business was on display from April 4, 2012 until March 3, 2013. This year’s Diverted Destruction 6 found object assemblage show will debut on June 29^th and be up until September 17, 2013. Afrodescendientes: Photographer Roberto Chile in Guanabacoa, Cuba will be on display from March 28, 2013 until October 13, 2013.

Executive Committee Update

Last minute votes for the election of the new executive committee took place at the beginning of the meeting. The results will be announced on the LA as Subject website on June 12, 2013. The Executive Committee has been working on ways to make the LAAS Directory more robust. The strategic plan has been updated and is available on the website. Lastly, the group has been engaging in discussions about the nature of the organization’s relationship with USC, the leadership wants to be careful in making decisions that will ensure our independent footing in partnerships with the university.  

Archives Bazaar

The 8^th annual Archives Bazaar will take place on Saturday, October 12, 2013 at the Doheny Library at USC. The planning committee has decided to include a “pazuchua” which are lightning style presentations for institutions to present the most compelling aspects of their collections. They are also trying to screen a film, The Good Giants, which documents Black WWII soldiers in Europe. There is still a lot of work to be done in planning for the Archives Bazaar and volunteers are encouraged to contact the planning committee to get involved.

Pasadena City College Certification Program

Linda Steward from Pasadena City College presented to the group about the digitization specialist certification program that is offered through the library tech program at Pasadena City College. The program takes a year to complete and is marketed to working professionals by being offered on Tuesday nights from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The students in the program learn about the equipment, software, and project planning skills required to execute large scale digitization projects. They also learn about four metadata schemas and basic competencies in understanding copyright. The last portion of the program is an internship where students can apply the skills that they have learned. The cost is $46.00 per credit unit for California residents and the next class begins on August 24^th.

Member Announcements

One member has been approved by a publishing house to compile a book filled with Los Angeles diary pages, similar to an existing book, New York Diaries. He encouraged all of our repositories to share any of the published or unpublished diaries from our collections. The group is also interested in collaborating with the New York City archives group, NY Metro; perhaps in a synchronous archives crawl. The Center for Political Graphics is moving to Culver City and is looking for volunteers to help with the relocation. One member shared resources from the Creative Commons, National Endowment of Humanities, and the Library of Congress that could help archivists with questions about preservation and copyright.