Segregation Era Documents Project

A project is underway to preserve African-American history in the state of Virginia.  The Desegregation of Virginia Education (DOVE) project, spearheaded by Old Dominion University archivist, Sonia Yaco, is enlisting help from the public in collecting historical material such as oral histories and photographs.  An article from a local paper in Richmond, Virginia, claims that civil rights history in the state has largely been neglected in schools across the state…

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Occupy Wall Street Library and Archives

According to a November 16 blog entry in Occupy Wall Street Library, organizers have not been able to locate library materials through the mayor’s office since the materials’ seizure.  Claims have been made that, “Many books [have been] destroyed. . . most of [the] library is missing…damaged or destroyed”.

Incidentally organizers had begun collecting archival material as part of the library collection.  In a separate effort altogether, Ben Alexander, Professor and Director of the Archival Studies Program, and Head of Special Collections & Archives, Queens College, CUNY, aims to form an archival group to support the nationally organized effort to document and capture the evolving Occupy movement.

Here is Alexander’s proposal:

“…I do not pose this suggestion as a political comment or strategy.  My interest is exclusively archival.  Simply, I suggest that this movement is a defining extension of an on-going process of activism, and advocacy for Civil Rights that is at the center of the American experience.  It is a defining movement of our time.  Further, I believe the Occupy movement (the strategy of arguing for the interests of 99%) is shaping evolving discussions of inclusion and plurality as we enter the 21st century.  As I result, I feel it important that professionals assist in its documentation and memory.

I propose “Occupy Archives” as working title for this group.  Most succinctly, I propose that this group establish a network of contacts and archives who agree to lend professional assistance and advice to the Occupy movement.  I have contact with many members of the Occupy Wall Street movement and state their universal commitment to preserving and documenting these efforts.  (Many of you may be aware of the 5,000+ volume Library at Occupy Wall Street).

It would seem a logical extension then for interested institutions to offer direct involvement in both capturing the movement as well as preserving its evidences.  Or, to simply provide for the movement’s documentation.  A further extension would seem a collaborative digital presence.  At Queens College we have begun work on all of the above to very interesting and appreciated (by Occupiers) result…

At present, and to get started, I would suggest my compiling a list of interested professionals / institutions based on response to this message with an eye towards outreach and engagement with the “Occupy” community.”

To get involved in Alexander’s proposal, contact him via email.

The 2nd International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives

The ICADLA-2 is being held in Johannesburg, South Africa this fall on November 14th to the 18th as a workshop and conference event.  The theme of this year’s conference is Developing Knowledge for Economic Advancement in Africa.  

The conference organizers invite participants from all African countries, private and public international development organisations, and other countries aiding Africa.  This is a great professional and networking opportunity if you or your organization are interested in capacity development of digitisation projects.  It is a chance to explore and share knowledge in the area of digital resource creation and delivery, digitisation infrastructure, access and preservation of digital resources, and the creation of digital libraries in the African context.

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32nd Meeting of European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation to be hosted by Open Society Archives

The Secretariat for the European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD), in collaboration with the Open Society Archives (OSA) and HURIDOCS, announced its invitation to the 32nd meeting of the ECCHRD.

The ECCHRD is the European network within the HURIDOCS global network of documentalists and librarians of human rights organizations.  The aim of this network is to improve access and dissemination of public information on human rights through more effective, appropriate and compatible methods and techniques of information handling.

The meeting brings together persons working on documentation, information, and communication within human rights organizations and institutions and is used to discuss human rights documentation issues such as developing standards in human rights documentation and the usage of new information technologies in the human rights documentation context. The meeting aims to build and strengthen the cooperation among European human rights documentation institutions.

This year, the OSA will be hosting the meeting in Budapest, Hungary on May 30-31.  A major topic this year is open source library management systems.  See the list of systems compiled by Daniel D’Esposito of HURIDOCS here.

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Read meeting agenda

Meeting registration here

Making Sense of the Information Wilderness: Library and Information Services for the Improvement of Human Rights Work

This week I am featuring a few publication resources brought to the attention of AW by the organization New Tactics in Human Rights.  Below is some information on the first of these publications-Making Sense of Information Wilderness: Library & Information Services for the Improvement of Human Rights Work.

Sometimes institutional strengthening tactics applied inside an organization improve the way human rights practitioners do their work and what they can do. Organizations that use their resources effectively, can more effectively advance human rights work.  In this notebook, the experience of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Sarajevo is presented.  They built a strong information system and central role for an information specialist or librarian.  The utilization of this information system and information specialist’s skills allowed other staff to better, and more productively, focus on their core programmatic missions.  Although the Human Rights Centre is now a fairly large and relatively well-funded organization, the tactic explained in this notebook presents ideas in a way that nearly any group doing human rights work could apply this organizational strengthening tactic.

The notebook is currently available in English, Turkish, and Bangla…

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