States and Territories

Training for Professional Archivists

Alaska

Taking advantage of services and programs provided by external providers; senior staff provide advice and assistance to junior staff and new employees.

Colorado

When funds are available, we try to expose staff to additional training.

Connecticut

No activity reported in this area at this time

July 13, 2010

1)  a preservation workshop on "Managing Historical Records" for the Florida Trust (March 21, 2001)

2) a workshop, "Managing Photographic Collections," for the Society of Florida Archivists (May 2, 2001).

3) a session on "Managing Historical Records for Local Government," the Florida Records Managers Association's annual meeting (February 23, 2001).

4) "Records Management Training Series," for state and local government agencies. Six workshops given throughout the state (March 5, 13, 20, 22, 26, & 28, 2001).

5)  specialized workshops for Law Enforcement and local government agencies.

Georgia

Designed for beginning archivists, manuscript curators, and librarians, the 34th Georgia Archives Institute will offer general instruction in basic concepts and practices of archival administration and management of traditional and modern documentary materials. The Institute is sponsored by the Georgia Department of Archives and History, the Jimmy Carter Library, and the Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education. Dr. Elizabeth Yakel of the University of Michigan will be the instructor during the first week. Topics will include acquisition, appraisal, arrangement, description, reference, and legal and administrative issues. Kathleen Roe of the New York State Archives will speak on the MARC format, and Hilary A. Kaplan of the Georgia Department of Archives and History will speak on preservation. The remainder of the Institute is devoted to a practicum experience, during which students disperse to several local archival institutions.

Illinois

Graduate student interns in our regional archives depository system (IRAD) are provided an intensive two-day training program at the beginning of each academic year, and with an extensive reading list.  Seventeen such interns are trained each year.  As to regular staff, they have traditionally come to us already trained, and we experience very little staff turnover.  Administrative leave is provided for any staff who wish to take further university training.  Tuition reimbursement is often promised by our Personnel Department but has never materialized.

Kansas

Support for our staff to attend MAC and SAA workshops is available on a regular basis.  Also annual KCAA workshops.

Louisiana

No courses presently being offered.

Maine

No training is provided by the Maine Archives for other professional archivists, Maine State Archives staff all attend NARA's Archives Institute on hiring; most attend either NAGARA or New England Archivists, or ARMA (one every few years).

The State Archives of Michigan (SAM) supports training for professional archivists through classes offered by several institutions and professional organizations. Early in 2001, SAM and the Records and Forms Management Division (RFMD) of the Department of Management & Budget hosted a NARA workshop on Disaster Preparedness and Response. The limited enrollment workshop was made available to federal, state and local government employees as well as public universities. SAM archivists attend training provided by the Michigan Library Consortium on the MARC cataloging of government accessions and manuscript collections for inclusion on the OCLC database.

Missouri

The Missouri State Archives encourages professional development of staff through covering tuition, travel and lodging costs to several in-state and one out-of-state educational conference each year.  The Archives also promotes continuing education for professional archivists on staff through funding tuition costs at area universities and colleges.

Montana

Staff archivists are sent to outside training, come back and train others.  Only two none MHS "professional" archivists working in the state.  They are welcome to attend any of the programming provided for grassroots, local government, etc., but no specific programs are developed for them.

Nebraska

Regular paid and unpaid (students get graduate credit) offered, primarily through the Museum Studies program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Spring 2001, "Management of Archives" - a graduate level course offered by the Archives at the University.  Will be a regular offering in subsequent spring semesters.

Nevada

SHRAB funded a project for the Nevada Museum Association (NMA) to hold six workshops for librarians, archivists and museum curators.  NMA contracted with Amigos Preservation and Imaging Services to conduct the workshops.

Three workshops were selected and held twice (once in Las Vegas and once in Carson City).

Introduction to Preservation Issues and Practices

Introduction to Preservation: Holdings Maintenance

Introduction to Imaging and Imaging Technology for Libraries and Archives

The Conference of Intermountain Archivists Annual Meeting was held in Carson City in 2000.  Pre-conference Workshop was "Preservation of Audio/Visual Materials" presented by Linda Tadic of the Getty Institute.

The Nevada SHRAB also intends to incorporate many items from the NFACE action agenda in its education plans, especially:

2. Pursue partnerships, collaboration and regular communication among professional archival organizations and with organizations serving allied professions;

5. Improve the quality and accessibility of archival continuing education and information resources for individuals from diverse communities or who work with records documenting diversity;

6. Improve the quality and accessibility of archival continuing education and information resources for allied professionals, including public librarians and museums curators, who bear responsibility for historical records as an adjunct to their primary duties; and

11. Develop collaborative approaches to providing archival continuing education in specific geographic regions particularly west of the Mississippi, in which individuals and repositories are located at great distances from each other and from potential sources of education and assistance.

New Hampshire

Belong to the New Hampshire Archives Group (NHAG) and support its training programs.

New Mexico

The Commission of Public Records is continuing a program of Archives and Records Management Training started under an NHPRC grant to the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board that concluded last November.  The courses are offered to government and private repositories at costs of $25 to $50.

The Archives and Historical Services Division provides training to archivists through group study sessions and topical workshops designed by the Archives Bureau Chief and the Archives and Historical Services Division Director. 

The NMHRAB is also looking at either developing a week-long institute for intensive training, or alternatively seeking funds to assist individuals in attending existing institutes.

New York

Ten percent of non-personnel service allocation is budgeted for internal staff development.  Also provide on-going training for non-government repository staff through our Documentary Heritage Program.

In-house and external training for archivists on the staff is provided within budgetary constraints. We work closely with such groups as SNCA (Society of NC Archivists), the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies, the SHRAB, and more recently the Access to Special Collections Work Group in developing training opportunities for professional archivists.

Cooperative efforts continue with other state groups in planning educational opportunities for professionals and non-professionals.

North Dakota

The SHRAB hosts one training event (workshop) per year that we try to gear to professionals as well as to some local historical societies.

Oklahoma

The Archives and Records Management divisions are administrative units within the Oklahoma Department of Libraries Office of Government Information (OGI).  The department’s director and office administrators are committed to providing the maximum opportunities for professional growth and training for all staff consistent with available funding and other resources.  Obviously, training must be work related and afford professional growth.  Within this context, options for staff are fairly broad.  With regard to the State Archives, staff is encouraged to attend meetings of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA), the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the Society of Southwest Archivists (SAA), the Oklahoma Conservation Congress (OCC), and other professional organizations and associations.  In addition to NAGARA, SAA, and OCC, among other programs and meetings, staff has attended conferences sponsored by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Oklahoma Municipal League, a digital imaging workshop at Cornell University, and a “School for Scanning” at the Northeast Document Conservation Center.      

Pennsylvania

We sponsor an Annual Archives and Records Management Seminar in cooperation with one of our local government organizations and the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services.  We concentrate on offering sessions of interest to state and local government archivists, records managers, officials, and staff.  Many of the topics relate to the use of technology, microfilming, and our Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission grants program.  In the past, we tried to offer a separate track for archivists and volunteers from historical records repositories, but attendance kept declining.  We now plan the program to appeal to government archivists, records managers and officers.

As part of our agency’s grants program, we do offer a number of annual grants workshops around the state.  As part of these workshops, we hold special  sessions on our Archives and Records Management grants category.  These workshops are open to local governments and historical records repositories.  

Our staff archivists attend appropriate sessions at the Annual Seminar; MARAC and NAGARA conferences; NARA courses; conferences related to special topics such as genealogy; and specialized training in areas such as technology, disaster planning and Web design.

South Carolina

The SC SHRAB provided support to the SC Archival Association for its fall 2000 and spring 2001 meetings and to the SC Public Records Association to co-sponsor a fall 2000 speaker on electronic records.  Each of these co-sponsorsed meetings attracted over one hundred participants.

Next fall the State Archives will begin an NHPRC-supported electronic records awareness and training project, which will include six workshops (basic and advanced) open to archivists and records managers in the non-government sector.  The grant project also calls for providing a plenary session speaker at the fall 2002 meeting of the SC Archival Association.

The SC SHRAB is now forming a Historical Records Repository/Organization Summit Group to help with state plan implementation and in improving coordination/collaboration in training and other archival concerns in SC.

South Dakota

Have provided workshops on preservation of documents/photos, brought in consultants on photo preservation and disaster recovery (open to the public.)  Organized informal group called "Dakota Archivists" which meets to discuss archival issues of common interest.  Also participates in SHRAB Archives planning project.

May offer workshops/consultant to train board members/public on undetermined educational issues through the SHRAB Planning Grant.

Tennessee

Little outside of travel to professional development venues such as Southeast Archivists Regional Conference (SARC), Society of Tennessee Archivists, etc.

Texas

No such training offered at present by SHRAB or State Library and Archives Commission.

Utah

Last fall, cosponsored a workshop on audio preservation.  Have ongoing series of workshops for staff concerning electronic records.

Vermont

For Archives staff we identify educational needs and then budget for training.  Recent examples, enrolled Assistant State Archivist in on-line college course on Web page  design and in week long workshop on digital imaging at Cornell.  Enrolled staff in three workshops held under SHRAB's current regrant (workshops on basic archival care; disaster response; and care of photograph collections).  We also encourage, within the limits of our resources, participation in professional organizations.

Training opportunities for other professional archivists are included in general shrab re-grant effort; for example the disaster response and photograph care workshops were intended for a broad audience of municipal clerks, local historical societies and others, but the quality of instruction (instructors from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and from the Northeast Document Conservation Center) offered opportunities for Vermont's small group of professional archivists.

Virginia

Archivists on staff at the Library of Virginia have the opportunity to attend professional conferences and classes, including the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives.  The Records Management and Imaging Services Division at the Library of Virginia offers a variety of workshops for records officers across the state, including sessions on basic and intermediate records management, disaster planning, electronic records, and document imaging.  The state archivist and deputy coordinator traveled to Roanoke for a meeting of local archivists (as part of the NFACE project) and discussed the need for additional training, especially in the western half of the state.  This need has likewise been discussed with the State Historical Records Advisory Board, which may offer training opportunities in conjunction with meetings during the coming year.

Washington

No training offered in this area at this time.

Wisconsin

State Board is not active in this area.  The State Archives supports graduate level training for budding professionals and budgetary support for professional staff continuing education.

Wyoming

The State Archives has co-sponsored with the Wyoming Chapter of ARMA International, or sponsored by itself, various seminars through the years.  During the last few years, the major seminars with larger attendance, have related to the retention, management, and disposition of electronic records, and various topics relating to data processing technologies including E-Commerce and E-Signatures.  One scheduled for Feb. 8 is titled: E-mail and Other Electronic Records in Litigation, and will include Archivists in attendance.  However, all of these seminars include messages about the disposition and permanent preservation of electronic and non-electronic records. 

Most of the above mentioned training has been organized or implemented in cooperation with other groups or organizations.  The State Archives works closely with the Training and Development Unit, Human Resources Division, of the Department of Administration and Information, in planning, scheduling, and marketing the on-going training programs.  The State Archives will, and has, conducted training programs for small groups, individual agencies' units, divisions, or total departments, or one-on-one with government staff.  Although it's expensive, video-conferencing has also been successful in reaching out to government staff throughout the state. 

We have been in contact with, and would like to bring some training programs to Wyoming or the region, under a cooperative effort.  These include organizations like the Northeast Document Conservation Center and the Association of Image and Information Management, which are periodically offering various programs throughout the country which are not vendor oriented.  We have also discussed the possibility of creating videos and sound recording, that would help market the resources of the State Archives.