2006 MAHD Conference Highlights By Gerald Patout AMERICAN VISIONARY MUSEUM . . .
American Visionary Museum Founder and Director Rebecca Hoffberger said, “It’s been a miracle, the last ten years,” and the Baltimore Sun has described the museum as a “people magnet.” For MAHD and SLA, the personally guided tour of the American Visionary Museum, led by Ms. Hoffberger, was a highlight of the 2006 conference. A celebration of the creative spirit, the museum is an eclectic and synergistic blend of exhibition, distinct galleries, permanent collection artifacts, mechanical theatre as well as public art throughout the museum grounds. For museum librarians, the whole environment was sheer delight, food for thought and very empowering. Ms. Hoffberger’s personal tour of the complex was indeed the pièce de résistance. This is one museum not to be missed! History Factory.com presentation a real hit . . .
As the division’s conference Horizon program for 2006, the History Factory session could not have been a better choice to feed MAHD librarians appetite for the issues related to their own special libraries and settings in the shifting organizational information management paradigm. The History Factory is a heritage management firm that helps organizations discover, preserve and leverage their history to address a wide variety of business challenges. Presenter, founder and CEO Bruce Weindruch who Forbes magazine described as the man who’s “Making History Pay,” informed the standing room only session that effectively managing corporate heritage and using historical resources can benefit the corporate bottom line. Utilizing a well-crafted PowerPoint presentation and his remarkable personality with facts at hand, Bruce wowed the attendees as to their roles in unleashing the potential of these historic resources found in their libraries. What a setting & what a story! The Miles Harvey lecture . . .
Map thief Gilbert Bland started his cartographic crimes by slicing out atlases in rare books from John Hopkins Peabody Library and after having his crime exposed in a newspaper piece in 1995, Miles Harvey became obsessed with this mysterious thief. Harvey’s Island of The Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime is his personal expose on Bland’s crimes as well as an exciting journey through centuries and continents of unknown lands and maps. Miles Harvey told his story with great depth and emotion and set within the magnificent columns and arches of the Peabody Library, his narrative truly did come to life for the overflowing crowd of SLA attendees. Major event sponsor SpaceSaver was instrumental in getting Miles Harvey to Baltimore to tell his story that is so important for Special Librarians. MONDAY MAHDNESS settles the score at Sports Legends!
Monday MAHDNESS in Baltimore 2006 was all about networking and socializing this year. Through the gracious and generous support of Minisis, division membership enjoyed themselves in a unique sports museum setting, surrounded by historic Baltimore sports memorabilia of all kinds, while nibbling on spectacular crudités from one of Baltimore’s most noted catering companies. In the shadows of Camden Yards, the opportunity to network and talk shop was certainly prevalent and a good time was had by all. By the way, the catering was done by Sacha’s and MAHD Treasurer Joyce Weaver did an outstanding job in making this event quite special and lots of fun. By Melinda Snarr, MA No doubt most members of the Museum, Arts, and Humanities Division consider grants to be the lifeblood for funding special projects—particularly digitization projects—in their libraries. As such, MAHD’s back-to-back sessions on grants for special libraries on Tuesday, June 13, provided valuable advice and strategies about seeking and administering grants. While the focus was primarily on digitization projects, the insights from these sessions are applicable to many types of libraries and grant projects. Grant Opportunities for Special Libraries Susan Malbin gave an overview of the various grant programs available to libraries through the IMLS. In particular, she highlighted the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian and the National Leadership Grants for Libraries programs. Malbin closed her presentation by offering tips, hints, and suggestions for grant seekers:
Daniel Stokes talked about the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission, the funding arm of the National Archives and Records Administration.
NHPRC helps non-federal institutions preserve and provide access to records of historical value. Joseph Herring from the NEH Division of Preservation
and Access was the session’s final presenter. The National Endowment for the Humanities funds projects for museums,
libraries, and other nonprofits in a variety of program areas, including a $1 million allocation for the We the People Project to stabilize
humanities collections and $5,000 preservation assistance grants. Herring’s main tip for grant seekers was to develop
relationships with the program officers and granting agencies. They are a good source of advice as you develop your proposal. During the three presentations and the question and answer
period afterward, a few other helpful suggestions were made:
Successful Digital Library Grants: an Overview from the Practitioners Susan Benz of the Brooklyn Public Library spoke about her library’s
extensive Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online project and the much
smaller Fulton Trade Card Collection project. Benz offered several words of wisdom for managing grant projects large and small:
Julie Beamer of the
Virginia Historical Society shared strategies and lessons her organization learned since it began digitization in 1997:
Finally, Beatriz Hardy of the Maryland Historical Society proved
that even with all the careful planning and hard work that goes into a successful grant proposal, things can and do go wrong.
Hardy talked about how she managed the Eubie Blake Collection
digitization project, which was funded by an IMLS National Leadership Grant. By the time the project began, most
of the staff involved with the proposal had left the organization. Hardy was hired to oversee the library and the project,
and she talked about the many things that went wrong when she took on the job. Despite the problems, the project was a
success. Hardy offered her words of advice based on this experience:
Events at The Historic New Orleans Collection From July 18 through November 4, 2006, The Historic
New Orleans Collection presents City of Hope: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Historic photographs, prints,
maps, and books trace New Orleans’s perseverance through 300 years of periodic flooding and natural disasters,
while contemporary photographs, oral histories, video footage, and ephemera explore Hurricane Katrina’s impact
and the city’s will to survive and rebuild against all odds. The exhibition showcases two of The Collection’s
post-Katrina initiatives—a comprehensive oral-history program and a visual archive. Through Hell and High Water: New Orleans, August 29 through September 15, the oral-history program,
was spearheaded by manuscripts curator Mark Cave to document the experiences of first responders—firemen, police
officers, and members of other rescue agencies who helped save lives and property in the storm’s aftermath.
City of Hope features audio stations playing excerpts from the oral histories. In the months following the storm, the
photography department—Jan White Brantley (head), Keely Merritt, and Teresa Kirkland—systematically
photographed the city, neighborhood by neighborhood, to record Katrina’s effects. The photographs showcased
in City of Hope provide a comprehensive survey of the post-Katrina landscape. In conjunction with the exhibition, The Collection
will host presentations throughout the fall by area artists who have created works in response to Hurricane Katrina.
Please visit www.hnoc.org for updated information. To commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,
The Collection will host an all-day event featuring presentations by the Times-Picayune reporting staff, winners
of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and a lecture and book signing by Richard
Campanella (Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm, August 2006). The event will take place
Tuesday, August 29, 2006, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., followed by the City of Hope reception from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Historic New Orleans Collection (* denotes student member) The DMAH Bulletin is
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