SCHOAM! for April 2024

Special Collections, Historical Organizations, Archives & Museums

News from SCRLC

New Collection: Cayuga and Seneca Canal Collection

This was made possible with a 2023-2024 SCRLC Digitization Grant to Seneca Falls Library. The materials are primarily from the 1850s and include the business accounting of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, which connected the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. This canal was incredibly important to the prosperity and development of communities like Waterloo and Seneca Falls. You'll see many familiar local surnames in the collection, which has moved to the Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry.

New Collection: History of Seneca County Collection

A patron from afar asked Cyndi Park-Sheils, director of the Waterloo Library & Historical Society, if she had a particular book in the collection. He'd found it for $400 on a rare book site. She did have a copy, and he donated the $55 to have us scan and upload the book to NYHeritage. It's a beautiful book and has 80+ illustrations of early Seneca County that we also posted separately, showing Junius, Ovid, Seneca Falls, Tyre, and other villages.

New Collection: Hornet Student Newspapers

Many thanks to archivist Noah Roth for letting us copy material from SUNY Broome's existing repository into NYHeritage.org. (If this is something your institution is open to, just email me!) These student newspapers range from 1996 to 2003 and include music reviews, film reviews, opinion pieces, and more.

New Collection: Guidon Collection

Former Cortland Free Library director Jen Graney had us digitize their small collection of local history resources, which included some newsletters from the late 1990s created and circulated by Civil War historians and enthusiasts in the Cortland area. The group focused on Major Andrew Grover, a Cortland native who died in battle in 1863, but they included other local names as well.

Grants & Assistance

★★★ SCRLC Digitization Grants ★★★

Apply for up to $5,000 from us, your friendly neighborhood library council, for your digitization project. Our most common grant awards are for microfilmed newspapers to go on NYS Historic Newspapers or for us to digitize yearbook collections for NY Heritage - but we're open to new and different projects!

If you need a quote or have any questions, reach out to me at clovell@scrlc.org.

Cayuga Community Fund

If you serve communities in Cayuga County, apply for a grant of up to $10,000 by April 14.

Schuyler County Fund

If you serve the people of Schuyler County, apply for a grant of up to $2,000 by May 5.

NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Grant Program

New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) partner on this opportunity to provide funding for collection management supplies for chartered nonprofit museums, historical organizations or other cultural institutions in NYS. The limit is $650, with no match, for things like storage boxes, acid-free tissue paper, HEPA vacuums, and dehumidifiers. Deadline is May 31.

Challenge America

This is an art-focused grant opportunity that could be used for projects like commissioned artwork and arts programming. Perhaps you could commission a local artist to make a public mural - like a commemoration of the bicentennial of NYS's abolition of slavery, or you could hire a local arts organization to make your summer youth programming more robust (and artsy). Apply by April 30.

NEH: Digital Projects for the Public

These are huge projects, but the application is now available and you have two months before the deadline. A few members have talked to me about bringing HistoryForge to their communities, and I think this would be a good grant to support that., especially if you know the platform's presentation could help the public understand a historically significant story, like of immigration or Urban Renewal.

Ideas & Inspiration

Ask An Archivist

If you have questions you need a professional archivist to answer, send them our way! Recent questions, which you can find answered on esln.org, cover mold on bound newspapers and preservation of framed items for display in a school.

NYS Archives Microfilm Survey

SCRLC sent out a brief survey a few months ago for our own purposes, and now the New York State Archives has some similar questions about your microfilm collection. Fill it out by April 12 here.

Approachable Audio Guides in Special Collections

In the March/April 2024 issue of SAA's Archival Outlook, Michele Jennings of the University of Dayton gives some useful tips for a foray into audio guides - a less staff-intensive alternative to docents. They used Gesso, a free, scalable interactive audio tour platform.

Responsible AI in Libraries and Archives

This IMLS-funded project aims to create resources that will help practitioners make ethical decisions when implementing AI in their work. There are case studies and plenty of recommendations.

Happening in the Neighborhood

DPLA Looking for a New Home

The Digital Public Library of America is looking for a new host. The library councils had been funneling New York State materials, including New York Heritage materials, into DPLA up until 2019 or so. This would be monumental undertaking, to say the least. Preliminary expressions of interest are due April 30.

Delaware County Presentations

Casey Jakubowski, PhD, former Delaware County resident and classroom teacher, will visit Delaware County Historical Association on Saturday, April 13 at 2 pm to present a lecture about small, centralized schools. Return to DCHA on Saturday, May 11 to hear NYS Historian Devin Lander present the plans being made to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of our nation's founding. Call 607-746-3849 or e-mail dchadelhi@gmail.com to register for either or both free presentations.

Women's Lives and Mother's Day in Cortland

Cortland County Historical Society has a nice upcoming fundraiser: a Mother's Day brunch! In late April, they have a workshop focusing on the daily lives led by women and documented in often-looked-over primary sources: diaries. They'll include resources and guidance for starting a personalized journal, too!

Thoughtful Farewell in Ithaca

Zoë Van Nostrand of the History Center has taken a new position at the American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program at Cornell. I thought this farewell post to Zoë was perfect: it's warm, grateful, respectful, celebratory, and - forward-thinking! I really liked this line, prepping their audience for change: "As a new person takes over these digital spaces in the coming months expect that some of these communication practices will evolve to embrace the approach of our new marketing staff!"

Women's History in Alfred

Alfred University shared a lovely tribute to the inaugural librarian of the Scholes Library, Emily Van Shoick, over Facebook as a celebration of Women's History Month. Archives Coordinator Laura Habecker provided the photos and research, which was all very well received by the greater Alfred University community. One commenter even added sweet personal reminiscences of Ms. Van Shoick.

Zooms & Webinars Up Your Alley

The Role of Libraries in Fighting Misinformation: The Tulsa 1921 Race Massacre

Tuesday, April 9 at 3 pm

Demystifying Misinformation

Wednesday, April 10 at 10 am

Bibliometrics For Librarians

Wednesday, April 10 at 10 am

Flashing the Hazard Lights: Unraveling Artificial Intelligence in Librarianship

Thursday, April 11 at 11 am

Beyond the Budget Crunch: Building an Affordable Collection with a Multi-Model Approach

Thursday, April 11 at 12 pm

Learn Interactive Marketing with Augmented Reality Technology

Monday, April 15 at 2 pm

Sticky Notes: Finding the Music in WQXR Archival Recordings through the Bob Sherman Collection

Tuesday, April 16 at 12 pm

Stories from the Field: Oral History Exhibition at the Reher Center

Tuesday, April 16 at 2 pm

Engaging Talent from Day One: How to Welcome New Staff, Foster Relationships and Build Culture

Wednesday, April 17 at 2 pm

Applying the Learning: Practicing Giving and Receiving Feedback

Thursday, April 18 at 1 pm

Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Metadata

Thursday, April 18 at 1 pm

Reproducibility through Open Protocols: Opportunities for the Library

Thursday, April 18 at 2 pm

Generation Z and Academic Libraries

Wednesday, April 24 at 2 pm

Ready Or Not: Cultural Heritage Disaster Preparedness 

Thursday, April 25 at 1:30 pm

Institutional Repositories: A Shared Experience

Thursday, April 25 at 2 pm

Local Contexts: Tools for Supporting Indigenous Rights and Interests in Collections

Thursday, April 25 at 2 pm

Smart Patron Driven Acquisition and Flexible Licensing Models with Kanopy

Thursday, April 25 at 2 pm

MARAC: Right To Be: "Resilience: This Moment and Beyond"

Friday, April 26 at 10 am || $30

Disaster Planning for Digital Repositories

Friday, April 26 from 11 am to 2:30 pm

Alternative Vocabularies: What to do if LCSH isn't enough

Friday, April 26 at 2 pm

The Future of IPEDS: The Need For Library Data

Tuesday, April 30 at 10 am

Cover to Cover: Profiling Predatory Publishers

Tuesday, April 30 at 11 am

Ukrainian Archives in War and Peace

Tuesday, April 30 at 6:30 pm

Connecting Communities: The Role of Libraries in Public WiFi Access

Tuesday, May 7 at 10 am

An Introduction to Software Preservation and Emulation

Tuesday, May 7 from 1 to 3 pm

Basic Book Repair for Libraries

Wednesday, May 8 at 10 am

Special Projects in Reparative and Inclusive Description

Friday, May 10 at 1 pm

Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services

Wednesday, May 15 at 1 pm

Building Your Research Data Management Toolkit: Integrating RDM into Your Liaison Work

Tuesday, July 16 & Wednesday, July 17 || $100

In Person Events

DHPSNY: Basic Salvage Techniques for Paper Collections

Free one day events, from 10 am to 4 pm. Pick one:

SUNY Fredonia: Thursday, April 25

SUNY Fredonia: Friday, April 26

Corning Museum of Glass: Monday, May 6

Corning Museum of Glass: Tuesday, May 7

Genesee Country Village Museum: Thursday, May 30

Genesee Country Village Museum: Friday, May 31

Greater Hudson Heritage Network: Deep Dive: Stressed About Pests?

at the Historical Society of Rockland County, New City

Thursday, June 6 from 9:30 am to 4 pm || $55

88th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists

August 14 - 17 in Chicago, with virtual options

Recordings & Follow-up Resources

• From Chaos to Clarity: Improve Your Library’s Web Presence with Content Strategy
• What Does the Genealogist Want from You? And How to Provide It
• Harnessing the power of primary sources: How libraries empower innovative teaching strategies
• COPY BYTES: Digitization And Libraries, Part 2
• Know The Path, Avoid The Pitfalls: Arranging Contracts for E-Resources

Openings in the Field

• Library Director at Cortland Free Library
• Electronic & Media Resources Librarian at Northeast College of Health Sciences
• Director of Operations at Dundee Library (Yates County)
• Liberal Arts Liaison Librarian at Rochester Institute of Technology
• Coordinator of Information Delivery Services at Tompkins Cortland Community College (Dryden)
• Programming Librarian at Marcellus Free Library (Onondaga County)
• Library Manager at Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library (Oneida County)
• Library Director at Munson (Utica)
• Lead Librarian for Research Strategies at Cornell University Library
• Deputy Director of the Law Library at Cornell University Library
• COLA Liaison/Librarian at Rochester Institute of Technology
• Historic Site Manager at Lorenzo State Historic Site (Cazenovia, Onondaga County)
• Paid Collections Internship at Cayuga Museum of History and Art
• Paid Research Internship at Cayuga Museum of History and Art
• Operations Director at Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation (Fayetteville, Onondaga County)

That's all for this month! Send me an email if there's anything at your organization you'd like me to include in the next newsletter: clovell@scrlc.org | Claire Lovell, Digital Services Librarian