Note: Associate Archivist Britney Helton recently completed the second year of attending the Tennessee Archives Institute hosted in Nashville by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. This course occurs each Spring to help educate individuals working in archives and other repositories throughout the state in best practices for managing the invaluable documents housed in public facilities in Tennessee. This year, 26 individuals from across the state attended. It is a three-year program on the completion of which attendees earn the designation of “certified archives manager.” Britney will get her certificate next year. We thought readers might be interested in some of what happens in the program. Here is Britney’s account of this year’s institute.
The Tennessee Archives Institute, April 18-19, 2024:
A Brief Account
At this year’s Institute, the theme was advocacy. Participants were asked to come with a 1-3-minute elevator pitch advocating for their archive. Throughout the two days, we worked on our pitches with other participants from across Tennessee, and at the end, third-year participants presented their pitches to the group.
One of the first presentations we heard was one from “the Legal Genealogist” Judy Russell. As a professional genealogist with a Juris Doctor degree, Judy talked to the group about copyright law, what resources may be under copyright, and what protections librarians/archivists have against copyright infringement. Another presentation on the first day included an interesting talk on ChatGPT and how AI (artificial intelligence) can help small archives manage their workload. Corinne Dune, the TSLA’s Conservation Manager, gave a talk on the importance of basic collection care, with humidity and temperature being the main sources of damage to documents. We closed the first day with a tour of the Bicentennial Mall.
The second day started with a talk on “Inventorying Archival Collections.” With our archive currently completing an inventory of records in the various county offices, this talk was especially relevant. The next presentation dealt with Born-Digital and E-Records. Even though our archive does not deal much with born-digital records, this talk still provided a lot of information that can be applied to the electronic records we create as well as the records we may preserve in the future. On the theme of advocacy, we had a discussion with a panel of archivists including Myers Brown (Executive Director of Belmont Mansion), Tom Price (Maury County Archivist), and John Lodl (Rutherford County Archivist) on some of the ways they have advocated for their own archive. The last presentation was about creating exhibits for your archive. They included some scaled down, cost-effective ways to advertise your collections through exhibits. The institute closed with graduates presenting their elevator pitch and later receiving their Certified Archives Manager certificates.
It was really fun talking with individuals from county archives across the state, and I learned a lot from the TSLA staff and guest speakers during the two-day institute. Hopefully, I will be able to apply some of the things I learned to help advocate and support the Washington County Archives.
— Britney Helton, April 2024
Tennessee Archives Institute, class of 2024, TSLA staff and students
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POSTCARD EXHIBIT HIGHLIGHTS
WASHINGTON COUNTY SCENES
The newest exhibit at the archives highlights one of its’ most scenic collections. The Washington County Archive’s postcard collection features over 150 postcards that depict some of the county’s most well-known buildings, monuments, sites, and scenes. Ranging from 1874 to the 1960s, the postcards include photos and illustrations of the Veterans Administration (Mountain Home), First National Bank of Jonesboro, East Tennessee State University buildings, Washington County Courthouse, local churches, John Sevier Hotel, along with many other places in Jonesborough, Johnson City, and the surrounding area.
The postcards in this collection have come from donations by Henry Higgins, Betty Jane Hylton, and Daniel Gregory, as well as digital copies made public through the Tennessee State Library and Archives. With the Postcard Collection spanning two collections (Manuscript Collection: Accession 16 and Digital Collections), researchers can come in to see physical copies of these postcards or explore the website to see scans of the collection. The department website’s url is: www.wctnarchives.org.
5-2024
Washington County, Tennessee Department of Records Management and Archives 