Society of Southwest Archivists

NAFAN focus group opportunity for archives staff/volunteers

  • 31 Mar 2021 8:17 AM
    Message # 10256307
    Rebecca Romanchuk (Administrator)

    (please excuse cross-postings)

    Colleagues:

    NAFAN is seeking interview participants to help the project improve access to archival collections. This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard as this project gets underway. Here is the announcement from NAFAN:

    Do you work for or volunteer at a library, archive, museum, historical society, or other organization that collects and stewards archival materials? Are you interested in providing broader access to your collections, by publishing descriptions of those collections (or “finding aids”) online?

    We would like to invite you to participate in a virtual focus group interview as part of the IMLS-funded project (LG-246349-OLS-20), “Building a National Finding Aid Network" (NAFAN). This is an opportunity for you to share your knowledge and experiences creating archival descriptions, publishing finding aids on the web and/or participating in an aggregation of archival descriptions, and facilitating access to archival materials. We welcome participation from anyone with experience creating archival descriptions, supporting online discovery of and access to archival descriptions and collections, or administering an archives program or memory collection, and are eager to include participants with varying experience, expertise, and representing a wide array of archival collections and institutions. Please feel free to share with colleagues that may be interested in participating.

    If you would like to participate, please follow the link to sign up here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7DT9WVZ

    Consent
    The focus group interviews will last approximately 90 minutes and be conducted remotely via Microsoft Teams. The sessions will be recorded. Recordings are used solely for transcription purposes. Your participation in this study would be voluntary and involves no more than minimal risks or discomfort. After you consent, you still may refuse to answer specific questions, withdraw from the study at any time, or ask that information be removed from our dataset. You also may ask questions concerning the study before, during, or after.

    Confidentiality
    Although there are plans to publish research results, you, as a participant will not be identified in any reports on this study. All research records will be kept confidential to the extent provided by federal, state, and local laws. Data from the study will be kept in a secure location with limited access to the study team only. A copy of this document is available for your records and one copy will be kept with the research records.

    Questions
    If you would additional information or have questions about this research, you can visit the project website or contact Lesley Langa, Associate Researcher, OCLC, Inc., 6565 Kilgour Place, Dublin, OH, 43017-3395. Email: langal@oclc.org

    About NAFAN
    NAFAN is a 2-year research and demonstration project rooted in the goal of providing inclusive, comprehensive, and persistent access to finding aids by laying the foundation for a national finding aid network available to all contributors and researchers. The California Digital Library (CDL) is coordinating the project, in collaboration with Chain Bridge Group, OCLC, Shift Collective, and the University of Virginia Library (UVA), and in close partnership with statewide/regional finding aid aggregators and LYRASIS (ArchivesSpace). NAFAN is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, through grant LG-246349-OLS-20. The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov.

    I hope you'll consider participating!

    Best regards,
    Rebecca Romanchuk
    2021 TARO Steering Committee Immediate Past Chair

    Rebecca Romanchuk, MLIS, CA, DAS
    Team Lead, Archives / Archivist III
    Archives and Information Services
    Texas State Library and Archives Commission
    PO Box 12927 | 1201 Brazos St.
    Austin TX 78711-2927
    512-475-1734 | rromanchuk@tsl.texas.gov
    https://www.tsl.texas.gov/arc


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