The Texas Capitol and Visitors Center are worth a visit while you’re in Austin for SAA. The Capitol, built in the Renaissance Revival style, was completed in 1888, and the dome is taller than the national capitol in Washington, D.C. It is the largest state capitol building (360,000 square feet) with approximately 400 rooms and 900 windows.

The Capitol was constructed of “Sunset Red” granite that was quarried in Marble Falls, Texas. Construction was not paid for in cash, but in the exchange of 3,000,000 acres of land in the Texas Panhandle that later became the famed XIT Ranch.

The lush Capitol grounds include, among others, statues to the Heroes of the Alamo, volunteer firemen and Texas Rangers. The Visitors Center is located in the southeast corner of the grounds and has both permanent and rotating exhibits, including Voices from San Jacinto, covering the final battle of the Texas Revolution.

Some links for further reading:

Texas Capitol History- Texas State Preservation Board

Monument Guide and Capitol Grounds- Texas State Preservation Board

Beyond the Dome: Hidden Places and Secret Spaces in the Texas State Capitol (exhibit & video link)

How to get there from the SAA meeting hotel (Hilton; 500 East 4th St):

The distance from the Hilton is close to a mile, but easily navigable on foot or by public transportation, and the process is similar– so if you walk there, but want a ride back, you can take the ‘Dillo. Keep in mind that the ‘Dillo runs from 7am-7pm on weekdays only. The ‘Dillo is 50¢ for a two-hour pass.

Link to ‘Dillo information and pdf map here.
Map of area and distance

I fully support equal civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Americans. Period.

For those of you who haven’t been involved in the various discussions on the Archives & Archivists listserv or on other blogs, this might be a bit of a departure from my usual posts. I’ve been tossing this post around in my head for a few days with no definite idea of what exactly I wanted to say– and I think that much of it has already been said more eloquently by colleagues and friends. Instead of belaboring the point, I’d like to encourage you to visit the links below.

My goal here is to simply add my support for my colleagues and others, and to stand up for what I believe is a fundamental issue of civil rights.

For more on the discussion of SAA and Prop 8, take a look here:

Archives & Archivists forum- first related thread

Beaver Archivist- I <3 equality!

ArchivesNext- Advocating for the rights of gay and lesbian archivists

@rchivista- Sobre archiveros, derechos civiles y el papel de las asociaciones (”About archivists, civil rights, and the role of associations”)

By no means an exhaustive list, but a few links on advocacy:

Human Rights Coalition

Mass Equality

List of rights denied to GLBT populations (compiled by the Kentucky Equality Federation)

 1138 reasons equality matters

However, I’m not convinced that this should be facilitated or initiated through SAA. I know, for example, that there are knitting archivists that get together at the annual meeting. I think that the knitting GTG is a great idea, and I’d love to participate, but I don’t think that SAA needs to be involved. Same with other groups– why not spread the word using existing methods, whether that’s on A&A or elsewhere, and let nature take its course? Many of the groups proposed in the post already have a way to communicate (Archivists on Facebook, for example), or could figure out a way to get the word out to folks that might be interested. Additionally, notes advertising these specialized gatherings could be posted on the unofficial wiki, or on the physical bulletin board by registration (still useful for something).

Maybe I’m missing the point, and if so, I’d like to hear more. Strictly speaking for myself though, if I were looking for a group of like-minded people  to hang out with for non-professional reasons, whether religious-based, or ultimate-frisbee based, I probably wouldn’t be looking for it in my professional organization. Furthermore, I think I’d rather SAA focus their funds and expertise on our (collective) professional goals and interests instead of my personal ones.  I also agree with Mark over at thesecretmirror, whose post prompted me to write this one– I think that the potential exists for some privacy concerns.

The first thought is related to my post about the Issues and Advocacy roundtable at SAA, and to today’s post over at Archives Next. A friend posted this on Twitter ages ago, and I’ve been meaning to talk about it since then. The NYT article is titled “Girl Power at School, but not at the Office,” and I think that it mentions some of the same issues presented at I&A; namely the problems associated with not advocating for oneself, and being marginalized in the workplace, and to an extent, in the larger world. The Issues and Advocacy roundtable is attempting to address issues that were raised in the meeting, relating to this topic statement:

Our goal is to explore issues related to the financial and professional issues archivists and related information professionals face in trying to earn acceptable compensation, access to health care insurance, professional advancement and financial challenges while staying in the archival profession.

If you’re interested in this at all, check out the wiki, and think about volunteering to be part of a session proposal for next year’s SAA meeting.

The other main (related) issue that’s been jumping out at me is advocacy for the defining and professionalizing of the archives profession. I doubt that I was the only one out there who was reading (or listening to) Mark Greene’s plenary address and saying “Yes! We need to think about this!” I think that Mark was right on the money in many areas, and I think that he did a great job of putting words to some latent frustrations in the field. I think that the recent push for SAA accreditation is borne from some of that frustration, and I intend to discuss my thoughts on that some other time. (For background look here, here, here, and here, and if you’re still behind, look through past posts on the A&A list).

Some of my thoughts: we do need to do a better job, as a group, of defining what an archivist is, not just what an archivist does in order to move past “functionary” status. We need to actively work to gain power and agency for ourselves and our profession in order to professionalize the work that we do and elevate the status from optional to critical.

I think Mark hits it exactly right when he says,” When we seek resources, we cannot continue to behave as if we “deserve” resources and recognition because we are meritorious; that is we do good work.” This ties directly to the above article– why are we so quiet when it comes to advocating for ourselves and our collections? Do we really believe that we’ll get paid what we’re worth if we don’t speak up?

In fact, I think if we don’t speak up, we’re probably getting exactly what we deserve.

ETA: Mark Greene’s address can be found here (pdf)