Plan, Collaborate, Delegate, Track, Complete: Project Management in the Archives

Title: Plan, Collaborate, Delegate, Track, Complete: Project Management in the Archives

Description: 

From on-going tasks that can be thought of as a series of mini projects like processing physical and/or digital collections, to larger projects that might unfold as batches over the course of years, to one-off data remediation and finding aid clean-up projects, a lot of the work that we do in the archives could benefit from some of the project management strategies and tools developed and used widely in organizations and businesses beyond the archives sector. AirTable, an online project management tool that has both free and paid versions, is both adaptable to nearly any project, and quite powerful even in its free version - making it an ideal tool for archivists working on many types of projects!

This virtual workshop will be useful for anyone interested in building their project management skills and making archival projects more organized. Whether you’re a lone arranger or managing a team of folks, and regardless of what your project is, or what type of collections you work with, the skill you learn in this workshop will be useful. Our goal is to make this workshop flexible and productive for you and your project: to have each participant leave the workshop with a functional project management base in AirTable that they could either start using right away or use as a model that they could build from in the future.

This workshop will be divided into two parts. For the first half of the day, participants will all be on the same track: to learn about some of the concepts of project management and how to use AirTable. We’ll provide demonstrations of how AirTable is currently being used at the Center for Creative Photography to help you start thinking about how the tool might be useful for your own project. Then, we’ll teach everyone the basic concepts needed to use AirTable. We’ll engage in a group workshop in which each participant will build their own version of a sample project in AirTable. Following a break for lunch, the second half of the day will be all about you and your project! We’ll facilitate a group workshop for participants to formalize their own projects. Then, participants will have time to work on their own and get help from facilitators to build their projects. Along the way, we’ll take breaks to build a community of practitioners together and learn from each other.

Prerequisites: 
While AirTable doesn’t require programing or database skills, to make the day productive for all participants there are four main things that all participants will need to have in advance of the workshop:
* At least basic familiarity with spreadsheets and general web use skills, and an openness to learning new technology. If your skills are more advanced but you haven’t used AirTable before, that works too.
* A functional computer with reliable internet so that you can participate in a virtual workshop to learn how to use an online tool.
* A project you can use. This can be a real or one that you make-up on your own, but you will need to come to the workshop with your own project in mind.
* 60-90 minutes prior to the start of the workshop to complete pre-workshop homework. This assignment will require you to spend a little time really thinking through your real or made-up project and answer some basic questions about your project that you will then use in the second half of the workshop day.

Location: Online via Zoom, virtual workshop for all participants 

Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Capacity: 12 participants

Required Knowledge and/or Equipment: No prior knowledge or skills required.

Instructor:  Emily Una Weirich
Email: emilyuna@arizona.edu

Co-Presenter:  Ali Jeffords

Refunds: Full refunds for annual meeting and workshop registrations are available no less than 10 business days prior to the first day of the annual meeting. Refunds requested after that date will incur a $25 penalty.