Last month, we held our Archival Educators Roundtable (AER) Winter Workshop. These winter workshops grew out of the annual AER meetings that occur every summer since the start of the group in 2016.
Both the summer and winter gatherings are remote, flexible, and casual. They are a way to achieve our goal of connecting archivists, educators at all levels, librarians, museum educators, and archival education allies. The AER has grown to a community of 90 professionals whose work is centered around primary source education and outreach.
The fifteen attendees engaged in lively throughout the hour-long workshop. We had professionals join from a range of schools and cultural institutions based in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, Drexel University, and the Pequot Library. We discussed topics as wide-ranging as building and promoting anniversary events, transparency between faculty and archivists and librarians, and effective scheduling practices.
The attendees gave feedback on digital promotion, suggested scheduling tools, and shared experiences with creating open lines of communication with educators and faculty. For our upcoming summer meeting, we will be putting out a call for projects to workshop. Attendees are encouraged to send along all relevant materials ahead of time, so that the group is ready to support their colleagues with feedback and connections.
The AER community thoroughly enjoys helping each other, furthering the archival education field, and is open and knowledgeable. We look forward every winter and summer to seeing colleagues we have collaborated with since the start of the group and always welcome new professionals to the table. If interested in learning more or joining us this summer for our 9th annual AER meeting on August 22nd, please check out the RAC’s Teach with Archives hub.