Dear SAA members!
I am thrilled to announce the first of three Archival Vistas Briefings Seminars from the International Archival Affairs Section (IAAS).
As you might recall, the Archival Vistas Briefings virtual program series began in 2023 and discusses a topic or theme of international focus. The theme for 2024-2025 is archival standards and how we experience and use them. In each seminar, an international guest speaker(s) introduces attendees to how they have interacted with a particular standard, and shares their aspirations, implementation, and development experience with the standard. Past series' programs can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/SocietyofAmericanArchivists/playlists
For this first Archival Vistas Briefings seminar, we are excited to welcome Anna McNally. She will be discussing her work with the standard ISAD(G) in a presentation entitled: 'ISAD(G), Technology and Me.' This online seminar is scheduled for Thursday, the 27th of February 2025, from 11am-12pm EST.
Anna is a UK-based professional archivist with over 20 years of experience, including positions at the Tate Archive (cataloguing the papers of Ithell Colquhoun, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Naum Gabo) and the University of Westminster (managing the China Visual Arts Project Archive and a substantial teaching program). As the Archivist and Collections Manager at The Cosmic House, Anna is currently exploring appropriately post-modern methods for cataloguing the archive of theorist and designer Charles Jencks. Alongside this role she works freelance, with clients including the art/architecture collective Assemble and the British Music Hall Society. Since 2023 she has written a monthly archives-adjacent newsletter, Related Materials, on Substack. A full list of her publications are available on: www.annamcnally.com
In 'ISAD(G), Technology and Me', Anna will be looking at the impact of descriptive standards on her work as a cataloguer over the last 20 years, a career which has coincided with the wide scale implementation of archival software. In particular, she will look at how the experience of conducting a large metadata transfer has influenced her decisions in setting up the archive of post-modernist writer and designer Charles Jencks. In keeping with Jencks' own methods, the project uses ISAD(G) as a framework, while taking a playful approach to the descriptive metadata. Anna will discuss the utility and flexibility of ISAD(G) for her work, and welcomes both questions about, and feedback on, this approach.
IAAS is thrilled to have Anna share her experiences and expertise with members of SAA and the public. Please feel free to share the event with others, all are welcome to register and attend!
To register, please go to
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/LY1DPr4DSpSNc03DcBcXHg#/registration
You will receive all Zoom log in information via email upon registration. Please note: While the Zoom appointment begins at 10:30am EST for a tech-check, the seminar will not begin until 11am EST.
I look forward to welcoming you all for a very interesting conversation with Anna!
Sincerely,
Jennifer
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Jennifer Dantchev, MSLIS, CRA
Junior Co-Chair of IAAS
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Jennifer Dantchev
Salem MA
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