About the Book
Management: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections explores the kinds of challenges that managers of archival programs face today and how those challenges can be met to achieve optimal results while working within existing resources. The book features thirteen case studies that demonstrate solutions to both traditional management concerns as well as new issues and opportunities presented by changes in technology and organizational environments.
The featured case studies are:
1) “We’ll Never Let You Retire!”: Creating a Culture of Knowledge Transfer
2) Raising Cash and Building Connections: Using Kickstarter to Fund and Promote a Cultural Heritage Project
3) A Winning Combination: Internships and High-Impact Learning in Archives
4) A Thief in Our Midst: Special Collections, Archives and Insider Theft
5) Tackling the Backlog: Conducting a Collections Assessment on a Shoestring
6) A Platform for Innovation: Creating the Labs Environment at the National Archives of Australia
7) Setting Our Own Agenda: Managing the Merger of Archives and Special Collections
8) Taking Control: Managing Organizational Change in Archives
9) Implementing Pre-Custodial Processing: Engaging Organizations to Invest Resources in their Records
10) Building Effective Leaders: Redesigning the Archives Leadership Institute
11) From Evaluation to Implementation: Selecting Archival Management Software
12) More Bang for the Buck: Sharing Personnel and Resources Across Institutions
13) “Make a New Plan, Stan”: Useful and Painless Strategic Planning
The collected case studies present pragmatic approaches to challenges and opportunities that are common to organizations of all sizes and types. Their common focus is on building stronger archival programs by making effective use of people, technology, and resources while working within organizational requirements and constraints.
The volume will be useful to those working in archives and special collections as well as other cultural heritage organizations, and provides ideas ranging from the aspirational to the immediately implementable. It also provides students and educators in archives, library, and public history graduate programs a resource for understanding the issues facing managers in the field today and the kinds of strategies archivists are using to meet these new challenges.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1) “We’ll Never Let You Retire!”: Creating a Culture of Knowledge Transfer
Maija Anderson, Oregon Health & Science University Library
2) Raising Cash and Building Connections: Using Kickstarter to Fund and Promote a Cultural Heritage Project
Thomas Smith, Project Gado
3) A Winning Combination: Internships and High-Impact Learning in Archives
Lisa M. Sjoberg, Concordia College
4) A Thief in Our Midst: Special Collections, Archives and Insider Theft
Christopher J. Anderson, Drew University
5) Tackling the Backlog: Conducting a Collections Assessment on a Shoestring
Joanne Archer and Caitlin Wells, University of Maryland Libraries
6) A Platform for Innovation: Creating the Labs Environment at the National Archives of Australia
Zo? D'Arcy, National Archives of Australia
7) Setting Our Own Agenda: Managing the Merger of Archives and Special Collections
Caroline Daniels, Delinda Stephens Buie, Rachel I. Howard, and Elizabeth E. Reilly, University of Louisville
8) Taking Control: Managing Organizational Change in Archives
Fynnette Eaton, Independent Consultant
9) Implementing Pre-Custodial Processing: Engaging Organizations to Invest Resources in their Records
Rob Fisher, Library and Archives Canada
10) Building Effective Leaders: Redesigning the Archives Leadership Institute
Rachel Vagts and Sasha Griffin, Luther College
11) From Evaluation to Implementation: Selecting Archival Management Software
Kira A. Dietz, Virginia Tech
12) More Bang for the Buck: Sharing Personnel and Resources Across Institutions
Erin Passehl-Stoddart and Jodi Allison-Bunnell
13) “Make a New Plan, Stan”: Useful and Painless Strategic Planning
Mark Greene, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Index
About the Editor
About the Author :
Kate Theimer is the author of the popular blog ArchivesNext and a frequent writer, speaker and commentator on issues related to the future of archives. She is the author of Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections and the editor of A Different Kind of Web: New Connections between Archives and Our Users, as well having contributed chapters to Many Happy Returns: Advocacy for Archives and Archivists, The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping, and the Encyclopedia of Archival Science. She has published articles in the American Archivist and the Journal of Digital Humanities.
Kate served on the Council of the Society of American Archivists from 2010 to 2013. Before starting her career as an independent writer and editor, she worked in the policy division of the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. She holds an MSI with a specialization in archives and records management from the University of Michigan and an MA in art history from the University of Maryland.
Kate Theimer is the 2014 recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition. Since 2011, Theimer has used Facebook, Twitter, and her blog to raise money for Spontaneous Scholarships that help unemployed, underemployed, and underfunded archivists to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The first year the scholarships were offered Theimer raised $5,504 to assist 18 students and 8 SAA members at the full registration rate; the program continued in 2012 and 2013 resulting in a total of more than $20,000 in donations and almost one hundred archivists assisted over the first three years. Theimer recently launched a campaign to raise funds for the 2014 scholarships.
Review :
This collection of 13 case studies from the United States, Canada, and Australia will inform practitioners and students in archives and special collections about concerns and strategies that occur in these and other cultural heritage organizations. Presented without section headings, the clear chapter headings will help readers to find desired selections, while the index will help with finding information on specific topics. Ranging from creating a culture of knowledge transfer to internships and high impact learning in archives, conducting collections assessments on shoestring budgets, and managing mergers, there are chapters for institutions of all sizes. Those looking for guidance in selecting archival management software, managing organizational change, building effective leaders, or sharing personnel and resources across institutions will also benefit, as will those who, unfortunately, need to know about insider theft. This book will help those studying archives and special collections as well as practitioners who want to know about what is going on in other collections.
This collection of case studies is undoubtedly a valuable resource for practitioners and educators.
Overall, Management: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections is an enjoyable read and a welcome addition to practical examples of management in the archives field. Readers may wish to read straight through or choose the topics most relevant to their work or interests. Either way, most archivists will find something of interest and relevance, whether they are already managers or not.
[T]here is much here to admire and to learn from. Those who work in the Higher Education sector may well feel that it is especially worth their while to acquire this volume.
Management, the fourth title in Rowman & Littlefield's Innovative Practices of Archives and Special Collection series, is an excellent resource for intentional and accidental managers alike. The volume brings together thirteen case studies that provide real-world examples of how repositories of all sizes and resource levels have responded to change and challenges in innovative and forward-thinking ways.... [T]he collective does a laudable job of delivering what it promises - innovative, relatively easily implementable solutions to a variety of common archival management issues. Archivists, archival managers, and administrators at all levels will find much of use in this volume; the diversity of case studies and range of strategies employed by the contributors ensure that this book contains something for everyone.
Kate Theimer makes an outstanding contribution to archival management literature. These 13 case studies by experienced practitioners expertly cover the wide range of challenges facing contemporary archival managers. This volume is a must for any manager’s library!
After managing archives for three decades, I approach any new management book with a jaundiced eye, but Kate Theimer's Management: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections is a breath of fresh air. The book brims with innovative ideas, presented in a highly readable manner, with a steady focus on practical application. Whether you've been managing for three days or three decades you’ll find something worthwhile in every chapter!
