Jun 17th 2008 MAA
I just returned home from the Michigan Archival Association (MAA) Conference held in Mackinac City, Michigan. This my first time attending an MAA conference and my first time presenting at any professional conference. The last time I gave a presentation was in college, so it was a little nerve wracking. At least this time I wasn’t graded!
I attended sessions on odd reference requests and do-it-yourself exhibits. Both were very interesting and informative. We don’t work with the media too often at the Archives of Michigan, so it was interesting to hear from institutions that the media frequently contacts. The do-it-yourself exhibits session was particularly well done. The presenters explored designing descriptive panels, borrowing artifacts from museums to compliment archival material, and exporting physical exhibits to the web. They all provided step-by-step hand outs, so I’m excited to dig a bit and play around with the concepts.
I gave my presentation on the “Thank God for Michigan” Project that I am working on at the Archives of Michigan. People seemed very interested in the project, so my presentation must have at least kept most of the audience awake! I write a blog about the project, available here . I try to update it fairly often (I’m much better about that one than my blog here!). I’ll also write more about my projects at the Archives of Michigan in a new post.
Greg Kinney from the Bentley Historical Library also spoke at my session. He announced that DLPS (from the University of Michigan) is interested in beginning a Michigan EAD consortium with all EAD guides hosted on their servers free of charge. The Archives of Michigan was the first institution offered this free license for the “Thank God For Michigan” Project and I’m really excited to part of this pilot project.
This was MAA 50th Anniversary and I was glad to be a part of it. Aside from doing well on my presentation, my other goal was to become more involved in this organization. Everyone was very friendly and I am planning on joining the program committee for next year’s conference in Marshall, Michigan.
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