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1^st Report from LSU to IMLS on the SAEC Project

Calendar Overview:¹

The Southeast Archives Education Collaborative got underway on October 1, 2003. In the first six months, we completed the following activities:

Management

We hired Bradley Brazzeal as the administrative graduate assistant for the program, set up administrative routines, and created computer files needed for ongoing management of the project.

We completed a contract between LSU and both Auburn and UKy.

We held three electronic meetings (Nov., Feb., March) of the Advisory Board.

We brought the Advisory Board, consisting of partner PIs, technical leaders, and instructional designers, to a meeting in Baton Rouge during which we sorted out a lot of details as to what each partner would offer, when we could offer it, and when it will meet. The technology folks worked on details of how the systems will really work together, and we established a schedule for monthly electronic meetings. We succeeded in creating a sense of community among the faculty, technical experts, and instructional design folks involved.

We established a Blackboard site as a form of "private" communication among SAEC faculty and PIs, away from the prying eyes of Web crawlers and the public at large.

Course Delivery

We established a process for awarding scholarships. In February we brought faculty to Baton Rouge for three-days of intensive training in the basics of online course development, design, and evaluation.

Evaluation

The SAEC P.I., the SAEC meeting moderator, and the SAEC evaluation consultant attended the IMLS training on outcomes evaluation.

Dissemination

We created a general information brochure for distribution at a reception held during the onsite Advisory Board's meeting; we've included one with this report.

The LSU Office of University Relations featured the grant on the front page of LSU Today, a campus-wide newspaper aimed at faculty and staff. The student newspaper, Reveille also ran a story about the project. We distributed the LSU Today news release to the newsletter editors of the Society of American Archivists, the Society of Southwest Archivists and the Louisiana Archives and Manuscript Association. The University Relations office sent the story to the editors of The Advocate [of Baton Rouge], [the New Orleans] Times-Picayune, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans TV. In addition, they sent it to all daily and weekly newspapers around Louisiana. They sent it to media in Columbia, S.C.; Lexington, KY; and Auburn, AL, as well as to their national placement firm to see if they can get a national media placement, hopefully in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. See Attachments for samples.

In the first six months, we have initiated the following actions, but have not yet completed them:

Management

We started the paperwork required by the partners' various offices of sponsored programs.

Since loading the Website in mid-December, we have routinely updated it to reflect project development.

Course Delivery

We started the process of harmonizing each partners' "Archives 101" course.²

We started the process of converting courses now presented "on the ground" to an online environment.

Evaluation

We started developing a detailed list of measurable outcomes for this project as a whole. Each course will include it's measurable outcomes and before the show goes on the air, we will coordinate outcomes to assure that information will flow from course-level evaluation to project-level evaluation.

Dissemination

We proposed a panel on this project for the 2003 annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists which the Archives Educators Round Table of SAA endorsed and the SAA program committee accepted. We will present in August, 2003.

We proposed a session for the annual meeting of the Association of Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE) for January, 2004.

We have been asked to propose a session for the National Council on Public History's annual meeting in March, 2004.

We have begun to develop a fuller brochure for student recruiting.

Problems:

In January, less than a week before the first Advisory Board meeting, Georgia College and State University realized that it's I2 infrastructure wasn't ready to participate in this project and that it could not afford the cost of the telecommunications systems it would need to use. It dropped out of the Collaborative.

The Advisory Board discussed our options and decided how we would re-allocate the GCSU's money if IMLS did not want it back. IMLS Director Bob Martin assures us that IMLS definitely does NOT want it back, and Jeanne McConnell indicated that we should re-work the budget to reflect our intentions. IMLS would then send written approval of the re-allocation. I have sent the new budget with this report; 1) we re-allocated GCSU's tuition money and teaching load to the remaining partners; 2) we added a third Advisory Board meeting for January of 2005 to firm up plans to make this an on-going collaboration, 3) we added the remaining funds to conference travel to enhance our dissemination efforts, and we adjusted the salary figures to reflect the current salaries of participating personnel.

The subcontracts between LSU and South Carolina has developed very slowly. The LSU contract routinely includes an indemnification clause which SC law disallows. Negotiations between the two universities continue.

Comments:

Each partner submits a quarterly report using this format. While they largely report the local rendition of the activities noted above, they occasionally include a statement of impact on their individual campuses. Along with my comments, I have included excerpts from them.

To date this has proved a remarkably agreeable group of people to work with. While we don't all see eye-to-eye on everything, we have had no breaches of trust and no strained relationships.

The technical people have worked a miracle or two.

I had not consciously planned to include Instructional Design experts on the Advisory Board, but two of the partners - Auburn and Kentucky - brought one to the January meeting in place of someone else, and they have proven invaluable.

From SC: "The existence of this program, in addition to our joint program with Public History, has been influential in attracting a strong faculty candidate to apply to the school. These factors have also affected the awareness of the School's³ faculty in being willing to place a high priority on hiring someone with an archives specialization to replace a former faculty member." - second quarterly report.

Submitted by:
Elizabeth H. Dow
5/02/03

¹ See p. 8 of the grant proposal. Means the task has been completed.

² “Each institution will provide its own 'Archives 101' class, but will coordinate its syllabi with the other schools."-p. 6.

³ At the Time College of Library and Information Science at USC agreed to participate in the grant, it stood as a distinct college. In the time since then, it has been merged with the School of Journalism to become the School of Library and Information Science in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, headed by the dean of the former College of Journalism.