Towson, the seat of Baltimore County, Maryland will be the site for the
Spring 2002 Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
(MARAC). The conference will be held from April 18 to
20, 2002, at the Sheraton Baltimore North, where room rates will be $119
per night. Please note that the cut-off date for the conference rate is
March 18, 2002.   The program for this meeting is now  available on-line
at the MARAC webpage http://www.lib.umd.edu/MARAC/spring2002a.htm.
If you have any questions about the conference please contact
Mary Mannix <[log in to unmask]>. Further details follow:

The theme of the meeting's program is "Beyond the Basics."  Sessions are
divided into four tracks:  Preservation, Access, Management, and Special
Focus.  These sessions are geared towards mid-level archivists who need to
sharpen their skills and learn new methods to meet the challenges they
face in their repositories.  Sessions within the preservation track
include:  how to publicize preservation programs, issues relating to
permanence, and a session on preserving flags and banners with a special
appearance by Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, the conservator for the
Smithsonian's Star Spangled Banner project.

Access track sessions include:  how researcher interest can affect access
to records, how EAD will affect the future of archival description,
and the new trend in reference-the use of web-based virtual reference
systems. Management sessions include a presentation on the TEAMS
management system, how NARA moved the Clinton White House to Arkansas, and
the ins and outs of consulting.  The special focus track includes
presentations on issues relating to small repositories, sports
history in Baltimore, and the story of the slaughter of over 1000
African-American troops in southern Mississippi during World War
II.  Though aimed at mid-level professionals, all archivists will
find something of interest within the programs provided.

Conference tours will provide a delightful mix of Baltimore and its
environs.  On Thursday, tours will be offered at Hampton Mansion,
a national historic site, administered by the National Park Service
and the Georgian home of the Ridgely family, the Babe Ruth Museum
along with Oriole Park at Camden Yards. A Historic East
Towson Walking Tour, a glimpse into the African American enclave
where generations of families still reside in a once-thriving black
community.  The tour will sample local landscape, structures, and
folklore.  Friday events will be capped off with a Baltimore
By Moonlight Bus Tour. On Saturday a walking
tour of Baltimore's historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood will be conducted.
In 1860, Mt. Vernon was home to the largest combined slave and free
African American population of any ward in the city.  The tour will focus
on the churches in the neighborhood that ministered to the African
American population and will capture the stories of both affluent and
slave African Americans in Mt. Vernon.

The Friday evening reception is being hosted by the Maryland
Historical Society (MHS).  Located in Mt. Vernon, the city's
cultural heart,  the Society is Maryland's oldest collecting
institution.  Today the MHS administers an active museum, library,
and press.

The luncheon speaker will be William Noel, Curator of Manuscripts
at the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.  Dr. Noel will discuss the
Archimedes Palimpsest, the oldest surviving manuscript containing
the work of the noted scientist and mathematician.  He will
describe the work that has been undertaken to preserve it for the
future and to make its text legible.

For the plenary session, Carol Allen, President of Historic Towson,
Inc., will lead a panel discussion on a documentary film project of
Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital , one of the nation's leading
mental health facilities.  The film, "The Building of a Sanctuary",
focuses on how control of "place", both architecture and landscape,
contributed to the development of compassionate healthcare for the
mentally ill. Panelists will include Ms. Allen; Elizabeth C. Wiggins,
Project Research Director, who developed the interview questions and
worked extensively in the hospital's archives; and W. Byron Forbush,
Chairman of the Board at Sheppard who has written a history of the
hospital.  As part of the plenary, we will be treated to a special showing
of the documentary's promo.  The half hour film will air on Maryland
Public Television.

Workshops, offered on April 18, are "First Class Exhibits on a Fourth
Class Budget: Producing Professional Displays with Limited Resources",
"Strategies for Managing Archives and Records on Web Sties", and "Doing
Oral History".  Workshop descriptions and pricing is available at the MARAC
webpage.

Please direct all queries to Mary Mannix  <[log in to unmask]>
or see the MARAC webpage http://www.lib.umd.edu/MARAC/spring2002a.htm.

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