AHC Director Mark Greene addresses conference attendees.
On Friday, October 15th, the AHC hosted the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists’ 2010 fall conference. The title of the conference was “Archives: Outreach in the Modern Era” and the conference focused on the variety of ways that archivists can reach out to patrons.
Mark Greene, director of the AHC, gave the opening remarks. The other presenters were Kathy Marquis, from Albany County Public Library, Dennis Moser, from the University of Wyoming Libraries, Cyns Nelson, from Voice Preserve Colorado, Keith Schrum, from the Colorado Historical Society, and Dick Keane and Christine Sundeberg, from National History Day. The topics covered included web 2.0 technologies, oral histories, exhibits, and promoting digital collections.
The Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists is a regional archival organization covering Wyoming and Colorado, although members traveled from as far as Idaho to attend the meeting. It meets twice a year for day-long conferences. Outreach was chosen as the theme for this fall’s conference because of the difficulty archival organizations sometimes have in making the public aware of the services archives offer to the community. The best way to reach out to the public can vary from archive to archive, and it was the intent of this conference to provide SRMA archivists with information about different outreach ideas which might be effective for them.
The total number of attendees was 48. Lunch catering was provided by Turtle Rock Coffee, located in Laramie, Wyoming, and Hollinger Metal Edge, Inc., retailer of archival supplies, sponsored the event.
–Shaun Hayes, AHC archivist and SRMA program coordinator
