Archives Committee Meeting: October 13, 2025

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Brandi Fialek (Harper College), Rebecca Fitzsimmons, co-chair (Illinois State University), Matt Gorzalski, co-chair (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale), Melody Hauf-Belden (Principia College), Ashley Howdeshell (Northeastern Illinois University), Elaine Fetyko Page (Elmhurst University), Meghan Ryan (National Louis University), Erin Zimmerman (Heartland Community College)

Member absent: Steven Szegedi (Dominican University)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Martin Kong

Decisions

• The September 8, 2025 minutes were approved by unanimous vote. Elizabeth will add a link to the results of the 2023 CARLI membership archives needs survey.
• Another call to the CARLI membership for documents to add to the Archives and Special Collections Resource page will go out later this year.
• An open house event will be held at Illinois State University followed by an Archives Committee meeting in April 2026.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
• Rebecca Fitzsimmons will create a document in the Archives Committee Box folder for sharing resources and questions for the October Ask-an-Archivist webinar.
• Matt Gorzalski and Brandi Fialek will research out to the presenter for a Digital POWRR preservation workshop to schedule a meeting to continue the planning process.
• Elaine Fetyko Page and Steven Szegedi will periodically review the Archives and Special Collections Resources page for currency of links and content.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Brandi Fialek (Harper College): Recently conducted a number of successful workshops on digital preservation that had a high level of engagement with 25-30 participants in attendance.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • A search is underway to fill the Senior Director position at CARLI. The goal is to have someone in the position before current Senior Director Anee Craig retires on December 31, 2025.

Discussion

• Elaine Fetyko Page and Steven Szegedi will be attending the CARLI Annual Meeting on October 21, 2025, and will lead the afternoon “Table Talk” event on behalf of the Committee. Exploring Archives Collection Software: Tools and Challenges was selected as one of the ten tabling topics from twenty ideas submitted for inclusion in the event. Elaine will come up with 2-3 questions to prompt participation. Archives Committee members are welcome to send suggestions through our listserv. A QR code at the table will allow event participants to type responses during the conversation and this data capture, along with notes from Elaine and Steven, will guide a future discussion of how this information can inform programming.
• Matt Gorzalski and Brandi Fialek gave an update on plans for a born-digital records webinar. They reached out to Danielle Taylor, Digital Preservation Librarian at Indiana University, who has taught Digital POWRR workshops and is enthusiastic about presenting a CARLI webinar. The target date for offering this program is the 2nd week of December, but this will need to be pushed into the spring semester if there is a need for funding for a stipend. A minimum of six weeks is needed for promotion and registration to CARLI and the professional development alliance (if the speaker agrees to open the event to a wider network). Matt and Brandi will reach out to Danielle to schedule a planning meeting, with a proposed date of October 24, 2025. If Danielle agrees to a December presentation date, a save-the-date announcement will go out through CARLI channels, including the October newsletter.
• Brandi Fialek, Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Matt Gorzalski, and Meghan Ryan will attend the Committee’s upcoming Ask-an-Archivist webinar on October 27, 2025. Other Committee members may also attend as schedules allow. Elizabeth Clarage will share any questions submitted through the registration form ahead of the event. The Committee will have resources and questions on hand in case the attendees are not talkative. Meghan will prepare some resources to share. Brandi suggested highlighting any good questions we may receive through our other Ask-an-Archivist institutional programming. Rebecca will create a document in the Box folder where the entire Committee can share questions, resources, and other relevant ideas. All Committee members planning to attend need to register for the event by October 23, 2025.
• Elaine Fetyko Page and Steven Szegedi will periodically review the Archives and Special Collections Resource page for currency of links and content. Elaine reported that a recent document submission looks good and is ready to share on the page. At a future meeting the Committee will discuss which sections of the resource page could use additional content and send out another call asking CARLI members to share documents.
• The Committee decided that enough members are interested in attending an in-person meeting that plans will move forward. Elizabeth Clarage suggested that a morning open house event highlighting the circus collection be offered to CARLI members, with an Archives Committee meeting held after lunch. A date in April will be selected at the November meeting (avoiding the ELUNA conference during the last week of April). The meeting portion of the day will be hybrid so that anyone who is unable to attend in person can still participate.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Archives Committee will meet next on November 10, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.

Committee Meetings:
August 4, 2025: Minutes taker – Matt Gorzalski
September 8, 2025: Minutes taker – Brandi Fialek
October 13, 2025: Minutes taker – Rebecca Fitzsimmons
November 10, 2025: Minutes taker – Melody Hauf-Belden
December 8, 2025: Minutes taker – Ashley Howdeshell
January 12, 2026: Minutes taker – Elaine Fetyko Page
February 9, 2026: Minutes taker – Meghan Ryan
March 9, 2026: Minutes taker – Steven Szegedi
April 13, 2026: Minutes taker – Erin Zimmerman
May 11, 2026: Minutes taker – to be determined
June 8, 2026: Minutes taker – to be determined

Deadlines:
May 29, 2026 – Committee Annual Report due to the CARLI Governance Board.