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As an undergraduate history major, history is something that has mostly existed for me in the abstract: as a set of ideas and arguments over the events of the past; humankind’s cumulative collection of stories that have shaped the present. Yet, I always knew that there was an underlying foundation, the physical evidence that holds together and allows researchers to expand the construction of history.

It’s been a busy few weeks of conferences for the D-Team, and it wrapped up for me with the 2023 Information Architecture Conference (or IAC23 as it’s more commonly known). While not on my regular rotation (the last IAC I attended was in 2016 in Atlanta), I continue to find this conference a welcoming, provocative, and generative environment. Since this is probably not a conference that other archivists attend with any regularity, I thought I’d provide a rundown of the themes that stood out for me this year, as well as a couple of the talks which most resonated with me.

I was told about an internship opportunity with the Rockefeller Archive Center by my roommate. She encouraged me to apply, knowing that I was looking for new opportunities. I applied, was interviewed, and began to work with the RAC in the Fall of 2022. I had no previous experience in archival work, but was excited nonetheless. I was ready to explore more of what you could do with a History degree. Little did I know that I had stumbled into greatness.

While my Digital Strategies team colleagues attended the Code4Lib conference last week, I was able to attend Deque’s axe-con 2023 digital accessibility conference, which was a virtual event that included talks on a broad range of topics related to accessibility including organizational strategy, technical development, maintenance, testing, design, and advocacy. In this post I’ll highlight two of these talks that relate to my own work and upcoming projects at the RAC, but axe-con is free and recorded, so all the talks are available online for further exploration.

This past week, we both attended the Code4Lib conference in Princeton, New Jersey. This year’s Code4Lib was exceptionally well programmed, both in terms of content and sequencing. Our reflections below offer a brief insight into our experience.