Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress

Library of Congress

May 10-12, 2017

May 10, 2017 Wednesday

Noon

Check-In

12:15 p.m.

Lunch

Welcome by Program Committee 

Welcome by ACSC President and introduction of officers and committee chairs

Membership report and Introduction of New Members

Preview of Business Meeting Announce Award winners

1:30 p.m.

Session 1: Keynote, A Fireside Chat with Dr. Colleen Shogan 

Join LOC’s Dr. Colleen Shogan for a lively conversation about outreach. Our speaker will focus on LOC’s core strategies for best practices related to the development, execution and evaluation of outreach initiatives.

Panelists: 

Dr. Colleen Shogan, Deputy Director of National and International Outreach

Moderator: 

Ellis Brachman, Chief Communications Officer and Senior Advisor, National & International Outreach at Library of Congress

2:30 p.m.

Break

2:45 p.m.

Session 2: Creating a Congressional Center: A Member’s Perspective

Majority Leader and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) shares his thoughts of public service, legacy and building a congressional center.

Moderator: 

Deborah Skaggs, Archivist, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and Elaine L. Chao Archives, University of Louisville

Panelist: 

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell

3:15 p.m.

Break

3:25 p.m.

Session 3: Congressional Centers Go Speed Geeking

The News Round Up is updated for 2017! Join your colleagues for an immersive, invigorating and fun approach to meeting people and learning about your congressional center colleagues and institutions.

See folders for instructions!

Moderator: 

Debbie Davendonis-Todd, Director, W. R. Poage Legislative Library

4:35 p.m.

Adjourn

6:30 p.m.

Dinner @ Clyde’s

Details to Follow!

May 11, 2017 Thursday

8:00 a.m.

Executive Committee Meeting

8:30 a.m.

Coffee and Danish

9:15 a.m.

Session 4: LOC Manuscripts Division

Four staff share the expertise, goals and insights of the Division, focusing on processing, preservation and research use of LOC congressional and public policy collections.

Moderator: 

Karen D. Paul, Archivist, US Senate

Panelists:

Connie Cartledge, Senior Archives Specialist: Processing Congressional Collections

Kathleen O’Neill, Senior Archives Specialist: Preserving and Processing Born-Digital Material

Sahr Conway-Lanz, Historian and Manuscript Specialist: Providing Access to a Split Collection the Yale-LOC Kissinger Papers Project

Ryan Reft, Historian and Manuscript Specialist: Recent Trends in the Research Use of Modern Congressional and Public Policy Collections

10:15 a.m.

Break

10:25 a.m.

Session 5: Former Member Spotlight

Moderator: 

Ray Smock, Director, Robert C. Byrd Center for Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education

Panelist: 

Barney Frank (D- Massachusetts), 1981-2013

Peter Kovar, Takoma Park City Council Member, former Chief of Staff, Congressman Barney Frank

11:25 a.m.

Break

11:35 a.m.

Session 6: Business Meeting Action Items for Membership Vote: Treasurer’s Report

Budget

Items Brought from the Executive Committee

President’s Report

Preview of Continuing or Upcoming Projects

Next Year’s Annual Meeting Host and Dates

12:10 p.m.

Lunch

1:15 p.m.

Session 7: Researchers, Teachers, Oh My!

Let’s hear about how our collections have been used in the past year! We will talk to a college professor about incorporating congressional collections in his classroom.

One of our own congressional archivists will discuss her knowledge in developing and collaborating on entire courses around Congress. We will also talk to a “traditional” researcher, an ACSC Grant for Research in Congressional Collection recipient, about using congressional collections for her dissertation as well as her experience researching government archives in England.

Moderator: 

Sarah D’Antonio Gard, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas

Panelists: 

Hope Grebner Bibens, Political Papers Archivist and Assistant Professor of Librarianship, Drake University

Caitlin Rathe, Ph.D. candidate at University of California Santa Barbara

Dr. Brad Owens, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Public Relations and News Media at Baylor University

2:15 p.m.

Break

2:25 p.m.

Session 8: Creating New Connections with Existing Collections

Many repositories have robust collections that support scholarly research. Are you looking for new ways to connect with new audiences? Why not repurpose your existing efforts and invite the public to partner with you in exploring innovative ways to access collections. Find out about the Library of Congress’s National Digital Initiatives symposium ‘Collections as Data’ and an upcoming data hackathon.

Learn more from NEH about the exciting

‘Chronicling America Data Challenge’ that encouraged the public to explore LOC’s digital newspaper repository and create imaginative web-based projects. Find out how NARA is encouraging ‘citizen scanners’ and crowd-sourced transcription at the ‘Innovation Hub’. All of these inventive ideas might inspire you to look at your collections in a new light and to find connections with a new audience.

Moderator: 

Alison White, Deputy Archivist, U.S. Senate

Panelists: 

Jaime Mears, Program Office, National Digital Initiatives

Leah Weinryb Grohsgal, Senior Program Officer, Division of Preservation and Access, National Endowment for the Humanities

Andrew Wilson, Director of Digital Engagement, National Archives and Records and Administration

3:25 p.m.

Break

3:35 p.m.

Session 9: Outreach: High Impact, Low Cost

Gather ‘round for fresh insights into low- cost, effective, innovative ways to engage educational and public audiences with archival resources.

Moderator: Charles Flanagan, Outreach Supervisor, Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives

Panelists: Val McVey, Curriculum Director, Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government, discussing the S.I.P.S. Program (Students Investigating Primary Sources).

Katie Munn, Education Specialist, The Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives discussing Distance Learning

Andrea Lewis, Public Program Coordinator, The U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Innovative Strategies for Engaging Visiting Families

4:35 p.m.

Adjourn

May 12, 2017 Friday

8:30 a.m.

Coffee and Danish

9:00 a.m.

Session 10: Wikipedia and Civic Engagement

Wikipedia is in the top 5 most visited sites on the internet, with over 5.3 million articles. Panelists will share their expert perspectives on working with both Wikimedia and cultural heritage communities about finding opportunities for congressional centers to contribute to the online encyclopedia.

Moderator: 

Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator, Congressional and Political Papers Archivist, West Virginia University Libraries

Panelists: 

Kelly Doyle, Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity, West Virginia University Libraries

Andrew Lih, Associate Professor, School of Communication, American University

Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, Northeastern University Libraries

10:05 a.m.

Break

10:15 a.m.

Session 11: Digital Preservation @ LOC

This session will focus on a few of the many different digital preservation initiatives the Library of Congress is currently undertaking. Our LOC and NDSR presenters will provide insights into how they are tackling some of the most challenging issues facing archivists today. From the complexities of preserving federal websites to emails to managing a large-scale collection of born-digital photographs to recommended formats and standards, our expert panelists will give overviews of the projects they are working on and will highlight the archival challenges and opportunities they face. In addition, they will share lessons learned and provide connections and ideas for the future that you can take back to your own institutions.

Moderator: 

Katie Delacenserie, Archivist, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Panelists: 

Abbie Grotke, Lead Information Technology Specialist, Web Archiving Team, Library of Congress

Kate Murray, IT Specialist, Digital Collections & Management Services, Library of Congress

Abigail Potter, Senior Innovation Specialist, National Digital Initiatives Division, Library of Congress

Ted Westervelt, Head of the Serials – Arts, Humanities & Sciences Section, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, Library of Congress

Elizabeth England, National Digital Stewardship Resident, The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University

11:30 a.m.                                                                 Executive Committee meeting [if necessary]

Conference Ends