Please welcome SMA’s new officers:
President – Kate Gregory
Past President – Carrie Mastley
Vice President – Miranda Vaughn
Board members – Angela Stewart (2022-2024), Heather Moore (2022-2024), Mona Vance-Ali (2023-2025), Jessica Perkins Smith (2023-2025)
SMA’s 2023 annual meeting was held at Mississippi State University on April 20-21.
THURSDAY, APRIL 20
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Registration and poster presentations
POSTERS
“Behind Locked Doors: A Practicum Journey”
Lara Taylor, Library Associate, Mississippi State University Libraries
“A Content Analysis: Using a Context Strategy to Write Metadata for a Photography Collection”
Brennan Collins, student, University of Southern Mississippi
10:00 a.m.
Welcome from the President
Carrie Mastley, Assistant Professor, Curator of Material Culture, Mississippi State University Libraries
PANEL #1 (Virtual) – Reimagining Archives
“We Are All Lichens: Archive as Translation Poetics”
Corrine Dekkers, Ph.D.; Katherine Gaffney, MFA; David Greenspan, MFA
11:00 a.m.
PANEL #2 – Training and Education for a New Generations of Archivists
“Tire Matters, Women’s Health, and UFOs: Creating an Interdisciplinary Archival Experience for Undergraduates”
Jennifer Brannock, University of Southern Mississippi, Curator of Rare Books & Mississippiana
“Archival Triage! Stat!”
Jeff Hirschy, Assistant Professor, The University of Southern Mississippi
“Passing the Torch: A Proposal to Inspire High Schoolers to Protect the Past” (virtual presentation)
Victoria Patrick, graduate student
12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch on your own
Visit dining.msstate.edu for on-campus options
1:30 p.m.
PANEL #3 – Communities of Archival Users — Virtual Panel
“Getting Your Digital Content Noticed by Genealogists”
Melissa Barker, Archivist/Records Manager
“Prison Libraries: 50 Years of Decisions and Discussions A Bibliometric Study on Prison Libraries in Court Decisions and Academic Literature from 1970-2020”
Donnie Boman, graduate student, the University of Southern Mississippi
2:30
PANEL #4 – Outreach Skills for Archivists
“Connecting the Dots: Strategies for Training Online Students in Hands-On Archival Processing”
Danielle Stoulig, Head of Archival Processing, Louisiana State University
“Innovation in Community Engagement”
Jennifer Greene, University Archivist, Associate Professor, the University of Southern Indiana
3:30 p.m.
Visit library museums on your own
Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, 4th floor; Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana Gallery, 4th Floor; Templeton Music Museum, 4th floor, assorted exhibit cases, 2nd floor atrium
6:00 p.m.
Keynote dinner
Keynote speaker: Dr. Sharron Streeter, Tougaloo College
FRIDAY, APRIL 21
9:00 a.m.
PANEL #1 – Developing Archival Skills for Graduate Students
“The Disciplines and the Archives: Experiences from a Pilot Program”
Erin Cain, Brad Johnson, Riley Cheek, graduate students, Mississippi State University
10:00 a.m.
PANEL #2 – Student Engagement with the Archives
“Grant Us the Serenity: Challenges and Achievements Thus Far”
Lorraine Stuart, Associate Professor, Head of Special Collections/Curator of Historical Manuscripts and Archives, the University of Southern Mississippi; Karlie Herndon, Assistant Curator of the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection, the University of Southern Mississippi; Jessica Clark, Assistant Curator, Historical Manuscripts, the University of Southern Mississippi; Emma Anderson and Jaq Jefcoat, graduate students, the University of Southern Mississippi
11:00 a.m.
PANEL #3 – Creating Inclusive Archival Experiences
“Fall 22 Queer Mississippi Exhibit Case Study”
Danielle Townsend, Audiovisual Special Collections Librarian & Associate Professor, The University of Mississippi
“Collecting, Describing and Discovering Women’s Health Ephemera for Student Research and Exhibits”
Diana Simpson, Assistant Professor/Catalog Librarian, The University of Southern Mississippi; Jennifer Brannock, Curator of Rare Books & Mississippiana, University of Southern Mississippi; Dipper Nobles, USM sophomore History major and Library Science minor
12:00 p.m.
Closing remarks from the Vice-President
Kate Gregory, Assistant Professor, Director of the Mississippi Political Collections, Mississippi State University
1:30 p.m.
Executive Board Meeting
All SMA members are invited and encouraged to attend, especially if they are interested in leadership positions!
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SMA’s Virtual Table Talks are one-hour informal discussions to promote the sharing of knowledge between archivists working in Mississippi galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. Each talk will feature a speaker who will share their experience and knowledge on a given topic. The theme for the 2022-2023 season is “Representation Matters.” SMA is looking for presenters to speak on their experience working in underrepresented archival repositories and/or collections related to underrepresented groups and subjects.
Presentation ideas include, but are not limited to:
If you are interested in serving as a speaker for a Virtual Table Talk, contact Miranda Vaughn (mvaughn@mdah.ms.gov) no later than September 9, 2022. Please iclude your name, institution, presentation title, and a description of your presentation (description not to exceed 200 words). In your description, you may wish to include how your activity/project originated, how you instated or completed the activity/project, why it is important to our profession and patrons, what problems or issues it might resolve, and any insights or lessons learned. Final presentations should be no longer than 45 minutes in length. Student presentations are encouraged.
Tentative Series Schedule
Fall 2022 Session
Friday, October 28, 12:00 pm CST
Spring 2023 Session
SMA Annual Conference
Summer 2023 Session
TBD
Xavier Sivels, a PhD candidate in History at Mississippi State, won SMA’s first Distinguished Student Presentation award for his presentation, “Metadata Musical: Perspectives on Digital Archives Management,” at the 2022 annual meeting.
Below is the schedule for SMA’s 2022 virtual conference, held on April 21-22. Slides and video links are listed beside each presentation where available.
Thursday, April 21
8:30-9:00: Welcome from the SMA President (Mona Vance-Ali, Archivist, Columbus-Lowndes Public Library)
9:15-10:15: Session 1A – “Program Guide for Archives” (Victoria Patrick, MLIS Student, University of Southern Mississippi) Program Guide | Slides
10:30-11:30: Session 1B – “Gathering Collections for Underrepresented Groups in Your Archive” (Mandy Lawrence Hornsby, MLIS Student, University of Southern Mississippi) Slides
11:30-12:30: Lunch
12:30-1:30: Session 1C – “Reorienting Perceptions of Racism: A Case Study of the Equal Justice Institute’s Legacy Museum” (Rori Holford, MLIS Student, University of Southern Mississippi)
1:45-2:45: Session 1D (Panel)
“Descriptive Equity and Historic Sheet Music” (Jennifer McGillan, Coordinator of Manuscripts, Mississippi State University and Lauren Geiger, Metadata Librarian, Mississippi State University)
“Metadata Musical: Perspectives on Digital Archives Management” (Xavier Sivels, History PhD Candidate, Mississippi State University) – Winner of the Distinguished Student Presentation award
Friday, April 22
8:30-9:30: Session 2A – “Digital Collection Cliff Notes: Repackaging Research in a Virtual Environment” (Jennifer Brannock, Curator of Rare Books and Mississippiana, University of Southern Mississippi and Elizabeth La Beaud, Digital Lab Manager, University of Southern Mississippi) Slides
9:45-10:45: Session 2B – “Disaster Stories: Using The Stories of The Past To Influence The Present And Future” (Jeff Hirschy, Professor of Library and Information Science, University of Southern Mississippi) Slides
11:00-12:00: Session 2C – “New Faces, Old Materials: Engaging First Year Students in Archives and Special Collections” (Hali Black, First Year Experience Librarian & Learning Design Coordinator, University of Southern Mississippi) Slides
12:00-1:00: Lunch
1:00-2:00: Session 2D – “Pivot! Pivot! Engaging Primary Source Literacy through Semi-Virtual Game Experiences” (Autumn Johnson, Special Collections Librarian, Georgia Southern University) Slides
2:15-3:15: SMA Board Meeting & Closing Remarks (all SMA members are invited!)
This year, our speakers were asked to present on the theme “New Faces, New Futures” – or how they envision the future of archives. We have an exciting slate of presenters who will give their talks over the course of two days. See the tentative schedule below.
Thursday, April 21
Friday, April 22
SMA’s annual meeting will be held virtually this year due to continuing risk from COVID-19. Join us on April 21-22! A schedule and registration link will be posted soon.
The Society of Mississippi Archivists (SMA) welcomes student presentations at our 2022 Annual Meeting, which will be held virtually on April 21-22. To celebrate excellence in student presentations, the SMA Distinguished Student Presentation Award recognizes an exceptional presentation by a student at the Society of Mississippi Archivists’ Annual Meeting. This honor is awarded to an individual currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate studies with a desire to work in libraries and archives. The award recipient will receive a certificate and a $100 honorarium following the conference.
Presentations will be reviewed by a selection committee who will determine the recipient. In the event that none of the presentations meet the requirements of the honor, no award will be given this year.
To submit a proposal, go here. To qualify for consideration, please self-identify as a student under professional title.
If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Brannock at Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu.
Congratulations to Mona Vance-Ali, who is now President of SMA, and to Carrie Mastley, who is now Vice President / President Elect! Thanks to Laura Heller for agreeing to continue serving as Secretary / Treasurer.
We now have three open board positions. If you are a member of SMA, please submit your choices in this poll by noon on Friday, April 23.
Below is the schedule for the Society of Mississippi Archivists’ annual meeting on April 16, 2021.
Links to recorded sessions have been added below the graphic.
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9:30 am – Welcome / Session 1 [watch recording]
“Taking out the Fun Stuff”: Reworking First Year Experience Classes’ Encounters with Archives During COVID-19 (DeeDee Baldwin, Melody Dale, Jessica Perkins Smith)
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11:00 am – Session 2 [watch recording]
Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs: A History of Literacy Advocacy and Library Service (Miranda Vaughn)
This recording must be downloaded from Google Drive because YouTube won’t process it for some reason.
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1:00 pm – Session 3 [watch recording]
A COVID-Style Celebration: Creating a Socially Distant Exhibit Experience (Kate Gregory)
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2:30 pm – Session 4 [watch recording]
Keeping Archives on the Front Burner Through Social Media (Jennifer Brannock, Jennifer Ottinger)
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3:30 pm – Board Meeting
All members of SMA are invited to attend board meetings, especially those interested in leadership positions for the coming years.
The Society of Mississippi Archivists 