2013 Annual Meeting

Indianapolis, Indiana, April 18-20, 2013

Call for Proposals

The Midwest Archives Conference invites submissions of presentations, sessions, workshops, and papers for its annual meeting, to be held April 18-20, 2013, in Indianapolis, IN. The 2013 Program Committee invites proposals on all aspects of archives and archival work. Creative and timely presentations from professionals in archives and related fields (public history, libraries, museums, genealogy, information science, and records management), and from graduate students are very welcome. 

Typically, sessions are 90 minutes in length with three panelists and a chair or moderator. Workshop proposals are also encouraged.

Although fully developed proposals are preferred, proposals that need additional presenters or fine-tuning will also be considered. Your 2013 Program Committee is willing to help match presenters with similar session topics if needed.

All makes and models of presentations will be considered for 2013 MAC. Don’t delay; send in your proposals today!

Early proposal submissions are encouraged, but the final deadline is September 20, 2012! For questions, please contact Program Committee Co-Chair Meg Miner, [email protected] or 309-556-1538.

To submit a session proposal, please fill out the on-line form 2013 Call for Proposals

Ideas

All submissions will be thoroughly evaluated by the Program Committee; here are some ideas to help you get started:

1) Proposals focusing on transportation culture or that otherwise complement the meeting’s theme of “In the Driver’s Seat: MAC at Indy.” Is car culture, advertising or specific repository content your passion? Put it in overdrive and let us know!

2) Civil War connections to Indiana are prevalent. Given the ongoing 150^th anniversaries, we think MAC members would be interested in hearing from colleagues about their Civil War holdings. Could you share what Civil War materials are in your collections? How do people find out about them? How are they used? Do your users have thoughts on how we can improve access? What curatorial compromises do you make to enable use and/or balance use with needs to protect the collections? Panels with users are welcome!

3) Did you know that Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passed through Indianapolis on April 30, 1865? That will be 148 years almost to the day of our Indy meeting! The Lincoln train holds promise for sessions on both transportation and the Civil War! Lincoln also lived in southern Indiana for 13 years (1816-1830) and his mother died during that period. Bottom line…Lincoln sessions will be timely, too.

4) Do you hold collections that are unusual for your type of institution or its location? We imagine session possibilities on holdings residing in unlikely places. How do you reveal your hidden gems to the world? With social media or through other avenues?

5) Have you identified useful approaches to processing specific holdings such as political collections? Are there preservation solutions and outreach methods that work well for you?