Western Archivists Meeting 2020 (Cancelled due to COVID-19)

This presentation seeks to engage the conference theme of Labor, Power, and Privilege with an alternative format presentation that addresses collective responsibility and solidarity in archives and memory work. Fifty percent of the allotted time is planned as a traditional presentation wherein, archivists working in academic archives will discuss their respective projects, within the context of the conference theme, examining how academic archives hold power and exploring how archivists can diffuse that concentration of power, especially in rural, regional, and excluded communities. Presenters will discuss their processes around community based archives, including outreach for post-custodial digitization, and oral history projects formulated in response to community crisis. 
In November 2018, the Camp Fire erupted quickly becoming the most destructive wildfire in California history. Stefani Baldivia, Archivist at California State University, Chico will discuss the Camp Fire Oral History Project (CFOHP) and will share strategies on negotiating power through community archives and memory work. Undergraduate student Cheryl Watson will discuss the process for transcription and indexing audio recordings applying a local metadata schema with the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer. Randy Williams, Fife Folklore Archives Curator at Utah State University, partnered with those with substance abuse disorder, community scholars, and content specialists on Informing the National Narrative: Stories of Utah’s Opioid Crisis, with the aim to help reduce stigma, open conversations around trauma, and promote archival autonomy. Humboldt State University Librarian, Louis Knecht, will discuss “Humboldt History Digitization Day.” Funded by a Library Service and Technology Act grant, this community-based archives project offered community members the experience of learning how to digitize personal or family records while also allowing the public to take control of their own histories.
The remaining fifty percent of the allotted time will be a guided discussion framed as a participatory learning space for presenters, others doing this work, and those interested in engaging in community based archiving. Prompts will engage participants to consider how to decentralize the role of the archivist in archival work, and shift focus to collaboration and inclusion. This forum highlights the efforts of three archivists who are connecting collections and communities through archival partnerships that give voice to often excluded, overlooked or digitally disparate groups. With a dynamic alternative session format, presenters and attendees will create a safe autonomous learning space to explore the reframing of archival work as cultural work.