Center For Information Policy Research

 

Archives and Ethics: Reflections on Practice: November 30, 2007

 

A one-day conference sponsored by the CIPR, School of Information Studies, the UWM Libraries, UWM Archives, and the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter, UWM.

 

Registration:

Fee: $15 professionals/$7 students.

Send a check or money order, made payable to UWM-SOIS, with the registration form, to

Center for Information Policy Research
School of Information Studies
PO Box 413
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Milwaukee, WI 53201

 

We will focus on the ethical issues in archives as a growing area of importance, both to the general public and to the information and archival professions. Such significant ethical issues as social justice, ownership of records, representation in the historical record, accountability, and privacy must be considered in theory and in practice, as archives are a particular representation of memory, of voice, and of story. Archives have historically collected records from the perspective of the “historical mainstream,” and have often missed the opportunity to collect the stories and the histories of more diverse, marginalized groups. In response, the archival profession is currently raising many ethical questions revolving around the stewardship of the archival record, and the ownership of image and voice. 

 

Featured Speakers include:

Verne Harris is Project Manager for the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory at the Nelson Mandela Foundation and an honorary research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand.  He participated in a range of structures which transformed South Africa’s apartheid public records system – amongst others, the African National Congress’s Archives Committee, the Arts and Culture Task Group, the Consultative Forum which drafted the National Archives of South Africa Act, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the South African History Archive.  Widely published, he is best known for the books Exploring Archives: An Introduction to Archival Ideas and Practice in South Africa (1997, 2000 and 2004), Refiguring the Archive (2002), A Prisoner in the Garden: Opening Nelson Mandela’s Prison Archive (2005), and Archives and Justice (2007).  He is also the author of two novels, both of which were short-listed for South Africa’s M-Net Book Prize.

 

Menzi Behrnd-Klodt, General Counsel, American Girl, Inc. is a certified Archivist, attorney, and consultant, residing in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She is Archival and records consultant with Klodt and Associates, Madison, WI (since 1983), with a focus on corporate, organizational, and museum archives. She is Counsel with American Girl Brands, LLC, Middleton, WI, a children's toy company and book publisher (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mattel, Inc.) (since 1999), with a focus on intellectual property law (copyright, trademarks, rights and permissions); she contracts to obtain content for company licensing and was previously Manager of Research and Library Services. Menzi is Co-editor, with Peter J. Wosh, of the book Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives: Archivists and Archival Records, published in July 2005 by Society of American Archivists, Chicago  (2006 winner of the Custer Award for best book from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference), and is author of Legal Manual for Archivists (working title) , accepted for publication by Society of American Archivists

 

David Wallace, University of Michigan is a lecturer III at the School of Information. Wallace's major areas of research include investigations into the connections between archiving and the shaping of the present and the past; the role of archives in enabling and denying accountability and justice; and computerization of government records. Since 1994 he has authored more than 45 publications and given over 50 presentations at professional forums on recordkeeping and accountability; freedom of information; government secrecy; professional ethics; electronic records management; graduation archival education; information infrastructures; and, cultural heritage on the Web.

He is co-editor of Archives and the Public Good: Accountability and Records in Modern Society (Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books, 2002), and served as the series technical editor to the National Security Archive's The Making of U.S. Policy series (Chadwyck-Healy & National Security Archive, 1989-1992). In 2001 he received ARMA International's Britt Literary Award for best article in the peer-reviewed Information Management Journal.

Wallace has consulted widely, including associations with the Nelson Mandela Foundation's Centre of Memory; the South Africa History Archive; and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

 

Schedule:

9:30-10:00: Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00-10:15: Introductions: SOIS Dean Johannes Britz, SOIS Archival Studies Director Amy Cooper Cary, UWM Archives Director, Michael Doylen

10:15-11:45: Keynote Speech, Mr. Verne Harris

11:45-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:45: Ms. Menzi Behrnd-Klodt

1:45-2:30: Mr. David Wallace

2:30-3:00: Discussion and Conclusions

Accommodations (sign language, accessibility) contact cipr@sois.uwm.edu

 

Conference Location: UWM Libraries Conference Center, 4th Floor, 2311 E. Hartford Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211

UWM Maps and Directions to Campus

UWM Parking Information

 

Near-by Hotels include:
The Knickerbocker on-the-Lake
The Astor

 

Questions: cipr@sois.uwm.edu