It’s 2014, do you know where your electronic records are?

We’re very, very pleased to announce that A&SC is co-sponsoring a week long electronic records training intensive with the Society of American Archivists.

A few years ago, in response to professional demand, SAA developed a Digital Archives Specialist certificate that is completed through a series of in-person courses and web seminars. More information on the DAS program is on the SAA site. Those of us who work here at A&SC have long been wanting to get the training (and the credential) but traveling to individual workshops all over the country was not financially possible. So we’re bringing it here. Part of it. Depending on the success of this intensive, we hope to offer a second one in June of 2015 that will allow us to complete the full series (and then some).

You can take 1 course, or all 8. You do not have to be pursuing the DAS credential to take any or all of the courses. You don’t have to live in Alaska to come take these (in fact, we’re really hoping some of you will use this intensive as an opportunity to come visit our beautiful state–and to encourage that, you will NOT believe the housing rate we’ve arranged for on-campus dorm space. More on that in a bit.)

Course Schedule (please follow links to the workshop description, intended audience, and what you need to know before attending):

• June 16: 4 webinars* (free to those registering for the full week, otherwise $10.00 each):
  • 8:30-10:00 am: Basics of Managing Electronic Records
  • 10:30-noon: Beginners Guide to Metadata
  • 1:00-2:30 pm: Electronic Records, the Next Step
  • 3-4:30 pm: Information Architecture
• June 17 (all day): Digital Curation, Creating an Environment for Success
• June 18-19 (all day, both days): Arrangement and Description of Electronic Records Part I and Part II
• June 20 (all day): Digital Repositories

Registration and fees:

For the Monday webinars, please contact Arlene Schmuland (arlene at uaa.alaska.edu) by June 9, 2014 (payment is due at the webinar). Registration for the all day courses will be handled through the SAA site.  Registration may be limited, so please sign up as soon as possible.

If you sign up for all three Tuesday-Friday courses, the four webinars on Monday are free. If you don’t sign up for all of Tuesday-Friday, the webinars on Monday are $10.00 each.

Doing Tuesday to Friday as an intensive is the best buy. Aside from the fact you get the Monday webinars free (if you choose to attend them), SAA is offering a cut rate to SAA members who register by June 1. That works out to $676/week (or $916/week if you register after June 1.)

But what if you don’t want to attend all three of the longer courses? That’s okay, but the price goes up a little. The two day-long courses (curation and repositories) are $189 each for the SAA member rate ($249 non-member rate) and the two-day course (arrangement & description) is $319 ($379 non-member). Again, that’s the pre-June 1 early bird rate and after June 1 all of these rates increase.

Important for Alaska residents! Due to A&SC’s financial sponsorship of this training, we’re offering you a price break. If you register for the full Tuesday-Friday intensive, you get the SAA member rates (see above). If you don’t want to do the full intensive, we’re offering a small “Alaskan discount” of $25 per course for individual course fees, so please contact Arlene for details on how to get that discount applied to your registration.

*Webinars. I’ve fielded this question a couple of times now, so to explain: this offering of the webinars is available for viewing here at the Consortium Library only. A&SC is purchasing a site license to show them and participants must be in attendance. Having said that, SAA webinars are also available to you at the place and time of your own choosing if you wish to purchase a site license. More details as to the webinars and site licenses can be found on the SAA website.

And back to more logistical concerns:

Location:

All courses will be held in Room 309 of the Consortium Library.

Parking:

On campus parking is $2.00/hour Monday to Thursday, or $8.00 for an all-day pass. The main library lot has a pay-and-park machine. Friday, parking is free. Please do not park across the street at Providence Hospital: you’re likely to be towed and/or ticketed.

Housing:

The closest hotel to campus (walking distance, just across the street from the dorms) is the Springhill Suites, University Lake. For other nearby hotel suggestions, please contact Arlene Schmuland at the above email address. We strongly advise making hotel arrangements as early as possible, as this is the height of the tourist season and costs and availability can be limited.

But dorm space, financially, is a great savings. And even better, UAA’s conference services is allowing attendees to book dorm space to up to a week before and a week after the intensive for those of you who want to travel a bit in Southcentral Alaska (since you’re coming all this way) and are thinking about making Anchorage your hub for that travel. If you’re willing to share a suite (individual bedrooms, shared bathroom) the cost is $40/night/person + tax. Solo accommodations are limited but available, and are $59/night/person + tax. If you’re paying for the housing via a government or university credit card, no housing tax is charged. No couples housing is available (yes, it’s all twin-long beds). For details on housing arrangements and to register, please see the UAA Conference Services website. In the box for Group/Conference Name, please enter SAA/DAS Intensive. In the box for Contact Person for Group, please enter Arlene Schmuland.

Food:

The Kaladi Brothers coffee shop next to the library will be open limited hours during the intensive. We will be supplying coffee/tea/water and snacks during day-long courses in both morning and afternoon. Providence Hospital also has an excellent cafeteria with a wide selection of inexpensive options. And the crew at the Archives is always happy to make other dining suggestions in the greater Anchorage area (perhaps we’ll do a few no-host dinners?)

Getting to the Consortium Library:

The Consortium Library is at 3211 Providence Drive in the U-Med (midtown) district at the corner of Providence and Alumni Drive, just across the street from Providence Hospital. It’s usually easy to see our green-lighted spire on the roof of the building. From the south, take the Seward Highway north to 36th and take a right, 36th becomes Providence Drive as you cross over Lake Otis Parkway. Alumni Drive is the 4th light after Lake Otis, take a left, and then the first left into the Library parking lot. The pay-and-park machine is on the right and has a lighted pole next to it. From the north, take the Glenn Highway, head south on Muldoon, right onto Northern Lights, left onto UAA Drive, left onto Providence Drive, and Alumni Drive is the next light on Providence.

Getting to Anchorage:

A number of national and international airlines fly into the Ted Stevens International Airport. Alaska Air, JetBlue (from Long Beach and possibly Seattle starting in May), Virgin (from San Francisco), Delta, American, United, and so many others. Do be aware that part of Alaska’s charm is the number of red-eye flights that serve Anchorage. The benefit of that is that the red-eyes can often be less expensive than the more humane daytime flights.