Each year, approximately 25,000 librarians, information professionals, authors, and publishers from across the country join together at the annual American Library Association Conference and Exhibition. This year's conference was held in Chicago from June 22-27. Through a competitive process, a team of collaborators from the Tacoma Public Library and the University of Washington were selected to present a session on the Community Archives Center project.
The session, titled "Collecting Stories from Underrepresented Communities: How to Co-Create a Community Archive at Your Public Library," allowed the Community Archives Center project team to describe the two year project, discuss next steps, and answer questions from librarians interested in taking on similar projects.
The Community Archives Center began as a program of the Northwest Room in 2021 after receiving a $250,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. A major part of this project was to produce a toolkit that can serve as a guide for other public libraries to take on similar projects in their own communities.
Library Director Kate Larsen, Archives and Special Collections Manager Anna Trammell, and Community Archives Center Associate dindria barrow from Tacoma Public Library were joined by UW Senior Research Scientists Chris Jowaisas and Jason Young and UW Doctoral Student Sarah Nguyễn for the panel presentation and discussion.
The conference also allowed staff to learn from and network with other librarians. The Internet Archive Community Webs meeting in Chicago coincided with the conference and provided an opportunity for staff to work with librarians and archivists who are engaged in web archiving activities.
The project team will be finalizing and releasing the toolkit in August of this year. Stay tuned to our blog and newsletter for more updates!
