Wednesday, May 6:

11:30 am – 12:00 pm: Check-in

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Lunch, Archivist’s Reception Room, NARA

1:00 pm – 1:15 pm: President’s Welcome

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm: Session 1 – Keynote speech by Derek Kane O’Leary: “Bound Together: The Social Ties of Archives in the Early U.S.”

From the early days of the U.S., the work of building, maintaining, and using archives was social. Far from the trope of the lone, backward-gazing antiquary, advocates of the nation’s archives gathered together, exchanged and scrutinized materials and information, created institutions, and collectively envisioned both the nation’s past and future. These communities of practice emerged soon after the nation’s independence and expanded during the antebellum period, leading to professionalization later that century. Examining this social life of archives, we can observe the dynamic, collective, and often difficult endeavors that formed the nation’s earliest archives, as well as opportunities for us today to reconstruct narratives about our archives.

Derek Kane O’Leary is the academic director of Archer Center, the University of Texas System campus in Washington, D.C. He has worked in the U.S. government as a Presidential Management Fellow and taught at the University of South Carolina, Bard High School Early College, and UC Berkeley, where he completed his Ph.D. in History. His recent book is Archival Communities: Constructing the Past in the Early United States (2025).

2:30 pm – 2:45 pm: Break, coffee and tea

2:45 pm – 3:45 pm: Session 2 – Jon Ralston in Conversation with Ashton Ellett

Jon Ralston is a journalist and political commentator, the founder and CEO of The Nevada Independent, a statewide, reader-supported, digital-only nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom, and the author of The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight (2026). He will be in conversation with Ashton Ellett, Director of the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies of the University of Georgia Libraries, and will discuss his career as a journalist as well as his new book on Nevada Senator Harry Reid.

3:45 pm – 4:15 pm: Break, snacks

4:15 pm – 5:15 pm: Session 3 – Panel: Senate Spouses

This panel will explore the history and impact of spouses in the U.S. Senate through the stories of three Senate marriages: Senator John and Annie Glenn, Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole, and Senator Mitch McConnel and Secretary Elaine Chao. Panelists will reflect on the historical expectations of the spouses of Senators, the evolution of formal and informal spouses organizations, and marriage in the political spotlight.

Panelists:
Josh Howard, Senate Historical Office
Carly Dearborn, Ohio Public Policy Archives
Alex Adelmund, The Dole Institute of Politics
Debbie Ramsey, McConnell Chao Archives

Moderator: 
Sarah Gard, The Dole Institute of Politics

5:15 pm: Adjourn

Thursday, May 7:

8:30 am – 9:00 am: Coffee and light breakfast items

9:00 am – 10:00 am: Session 4 – Panel: Processing House and Senate Constituent Correspondence

This panel examines approaches to processing constituent correspondence in congressional collections. Panelists will draw on their firsthand experience arranging and describing large-scale correspondence series while highlighting the methodological and practical challenges unique to these records. Collections discussed include the papers of Senator Saxby Chambliss (Lay), Senator Dianne Feinstein (Vance), Representative Doug Barnard (Rayman), and the House papers of Senator John McCain (Jakovich).

Panelists:
Katie Jakovich, History Associates Inc.
Jessica Rayman, University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries
Cali Vance, Feinstein Papers Project at Stanford University

Moderator:
Robert Lay, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies

10:00 am – 10:15 am: Break

10:15 am – 11:15 am: Session 5 – Presentation by Molly Ritchie, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, the Ohio State University

Ritchie discusses her book, Backdoor Lawmaking: Evading Obstacles in the US Congress (2023), which examines how members of Congress shape policy outside formal legislative channels. Drawing on original data collected through FOIA requests and other nontraditional sources, the book sheds light on how legislators influence policymaking through informal and often hidden processes. There will be time for questions after Dr. Ritchie’s presentation.

11:15 am – 11:30 am: Break 

11:30 am – 12:30 pm: Session 6 – Practitioners Corner: Managing Digital Congressional Collections

The practitioners corner consists of a moderated panel highlighting each chapter of the upcoming publication Managing Digital Congressional Collections. As a technical supplement to Cynthia Miller’s Managing Congressional Collections (2008), the book focuses on digital materials produced by members of Congress. The chapters include: Administering a Congressional Collection (O’Hern-Crook), Transferring the Papers (Apodaca), Processing a Congressional Collection (Gunn and Valentine), and Reference Services and Access (Caldwell). A question and answer section with the authors will follow.

Authors:
Megan O’Hern-Crook, Director of Archives and Information Services at History Associates Incorporated
George Apodaca, Senate Archivist
Sabrina Gunn, Feinstein Papers Digital Archivist at Stanford University Libraries
Rebekah Valentine, Feinstein Lead Archivist/Project Manager at Stanford University Libraries
John Caldwell, Political and Public Policy Papers Archivist at University of Delaware

Moderator:
Robert Lay, Head of Arrangement and Description at the University of Georgia’s Russell Library

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm: Lunch, Archivist’s Reception Room, NARA

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm: Session 7 – Business Meeting 

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Session 8 – Outreach Panel: Translating the American Congress Digital Archives Portal Into the K-12 Classroom

The American Congress Digital Archives Portal brings together digitized congressional collections from repositories nationwide into a unified platform, enhancing access for research and teaching. In this panel, presenters will discuss innovative ways they are leveraging the portal to develop lesson plans, lead educator training programs, and engage K–12 audiences with these rich historical materials.

Panelists:
Dr. Beth Shaver, ACDAP, West Virginia University Libraries
Maddi Shinall, Dole Institute of Politics
Christopher Kaergard, Dirksen Congressional Center

Moderator:
Danielle Emerling, West Virginia University Libraries

3:00 pm – Break, snacks

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm: Travel time to the The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. We will enter at the carriage entrance of the Thomas Jefferson, which is the main entrance under the Library stairs.

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Tour and discussions at The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress

5:00 pm: Adjourn

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Recommended activity: Live! At The Library (events and programming at the Library of Congress)

Friday, May 8:

9:00 am: NARA is planning to have a fire drill or shelter in place drill. Hopefully, it should be over by 9:15, but we won’t enter the building until the drill ends.

9:15 am – 9:30 am: Coffee and light breakfast items

9:30 am – 10:30 am: Session 9 – Former Members Panel

U.S. Congressman Nick Joe Rahall II served in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly forty years (1977-2015). He was elected as a Democrat in 1976 to represent West Virginia’s Third District. In this session, he reflects on his career and legacy in conversation with Danielle Emerling, former congressional papers archivist and Associate Dean of Collections at West Virginia University Libraries.

10:30 am – 10:45 am: Break

10:45 am – 12:30 pm: Session 10 – ACSC Strategic Planning Focus groups

10:45 am – 11:30 am: Focus Group 1; Group 2 will have an Archives Vault Tour

11:30 am – 11:45 am: Break

11:45 am – 12:30 pm: Focus Group 2; Group 1 will have an Archives Vault Tour

12:30 pm: Adjourn