ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2018: 107 - Trying to Put It Out There: Confro...

107 - Trying to Put It Out There: Confronting Challenges in Processing and Providing Access to Legal Collections

Many institutions hold manuscript collections that contain or are composed entirely of legal documents. Providing long-term access to legal collections benefits the public by helping to improve accountability, enhancing transparency of the legal process, and contributing to the cultural record. But stewardship of legal collections can bring special challenges. In this session, we share lessons learned in processing and providing access to the personal papers of a local NAACP president, the records of the national ACLU office, and the 19th-century legal documents "hidden" in manuscript collections.

Katherine Palm: Navigating Challenges in Processing and Providing Access to the American Civil Liberties Union Records (with Rachel Van Unen)
Jennifer McGillan: That's Not A "Letter": Adventures in Identifying 19th-Century Legal Documents in Manuscript Collections
Linda Reynolds: Archivist vs. Legal Counsel: Local NAACP President's Papers
Rachel Van Unen: Navigating Challenges in Processing and Providing Access to the American Civil Liberties Union Papers (with Kate Palm)

Moderator: Katherine Palm

Chair

Katherine Palm

Associate Archivist & Records Center Coordinator, American Civil Liberties Union

Katherine Palm is the Associate Archivist & Records Center Coordinator of the American Civil Liberties Union. She holds an MSLIS from Pratt Institute's School of Information and a JD from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Speakers

Jennifer McGillan

Coordinator of Manuscripts, Mississippi State University

Jennifer McGillan is the Coordinator of Manuscripts at Mississippi State University. She received her JD from New York Law School and her MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to MSU she worked at the Columbia University Medical Center Library.

Linda Reynolds

Director, Stephen F. Austin State University

Linda Reynolds has been the Director of the East Texas Research Center at Stephen F. Austin State University since 2007. Her involvement with digitization began in 2003 with a Texas Telecommunication Infrastructure Fund (TIF) grant with the creation of Texas Tides. She currently serves... Read More →

Rachel Van Unen

Archivist for Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rachel Van Unen is the Archivist for Collections at MIT's Institute Archives and Special Collections. She previously worked at Princeton University's Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library and NYU's Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.

S107 Slides pdf

Thursday August 16, 2018 10:30am - 11:45am
Washington 5, [Exhibition Level] Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC 20008