Seattle Area Archivists

Restricted Public Access
May 14, 2003 – NARA – Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle)

Michael Saunders, Regional Archivist, Puget Sound Branch, Washington State Archives, discussed Washington State Senate Bill 5275 and House Bill 1153, which call for a seventy-five year limit on archival record restrictions. Washington State Archivist Jerry Handfield was scheduled to speak but was instead attending the ceremony at which Governor Locke signed HB 1153.

Susan Karren, Director of Archival Operations at NARA’s Seattle facility, addressed NARA’s Records of Concern Program, designed to restrict access to archival records of potential use to terrorists.

Patti Scheffer, Information Services Project Manager, Swedish Medical Center, spoke about newly implemented HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations, which place tighter restrictions on access to and maintenance of medical records.

This was the final meeting for the Seattle Area Archivists’ 2002-2003 season. New Steering Committee members Helice Koffler and Peter Schmid were introduced. Marjorie Reeves won the grand door prize of paid registration fees for the Northwest Archivists’ 2004 Conference in Olympia. Several students from Western Washington University’s Archives and Records Management Program attended the meeting. Their presence, along with a good turnout from Seattle Area Archivists members and other guests, resulted in record attendance.

Crossing Organizational Boundaries – Bridges Across King County
February 26, 2003 – University of Washington Records Management Services, Seattle

Guest Panel:

Mary Montgomery, Museum of History & Industry, Project Administrator
Kody Janney, University of Washington Libraries, Project Administrator
Rachel Howard, Project Manager, Crossing Organizational Boundaries
Jacqueline Lawson, Black Heritage Society
Julie Kerssen, Project Metadata Specialist
Theo Gerontakos, Project Metadata Specialist

Panel members shared their experiences with the cooperative photograph digitization and Web access project led by the Museum of History & Industry and the University of Washington, with the participation of ten members of the Association of King County Historical Organizations. Panelists discussed the challenges and benefits of the project, explained image selection and cataloging procedures, talked about the process of evaluating the collaborative effort, and showed historical photographic images provided by participating organizations.

OCLC Western Service Center Introduction
November 13, 2002 – Puget Sound Regional Archives, Bellevue

Gayle L. Palmer, Digital & Preservation Services Manager for OCLC Western Service Center, Lacey, WA, and Sam Sayre, Library Services Consultant, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Portland, OR, discussed and demonstrated the OCLC digital and preservation services and products now available online and through the Western Service Center, including consulting, grant review and writing, workshops, the OCLC Digital Cooperative, CONTENTdm (digital collection software suite), the Digital Archive, Olive historic newspaper software, and digital and preservation reformatting services.