Archives Committee Meeting: December 08, 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), Steven Szegedi (Dominican University), Erin Zimmerman (Heartland Community College)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Martin Kong

Decisions

• The November 10, 2025 minutes were approved.
• Monday, April 20, 2026 at 1:30pm for the Spring Ask-an-Archivist
• Resource of the Month will appear at the top of the Archives Resource page. The webpage will be updated by Martin and/or Elizabeth.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Ashley Howdeshell.
• Matt Gorzalski and Brandi Fialek will write up a summary of the Appraisal workshop for the CARLI newsletter that has a deadline of January 21, 2026.
• Matt Gorzalski and Steven Szegedi will do a write up about George Harrison’s sister living in Benton in relation to archival collections held at Southern Illinois University for the CARLI Newsletter that has a deadline of January 21, 2026.
• Resource of the Month will appear at the top of the Archives Resources page to highlight resources and/or bring attention to new additions. Martin and Elizabeth will handle this change/update to the page.
• Call for documents and workflows for digital archiving/curation will go out to listservs and newsletter. Steven Szegedi will write this up.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Rebecca Fitzsimmons (Illinois State University): The library is interviewing for Associate Dean for the Information Assets division with a start date in January. The Director of Special Collections will be retiring in late December, so that position will be posted at some point, stay tuned.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • Laurie Blandino has been named CARLI Senior Director. Her first day is December 8, 2025.
  • Upcoming Programs:
    • December 11: Preserving and Providing Access to Historical Newspapers in Illinois Library Collections
    • February 4: Archives in Action: Empowering Student Workers and Community Volunteers
    • February 11: Art Exhibits in the Library

Discussion

• Archives and Special Collections newsletter spotlights
  • January topic – Spotlight of resources (250-400 words approximately)
    • Goes out last Wednesday of the month, for January Newsletter January 21st deadline.
    • Write up summary of December webinar. This can also include a link to the captioned video too.
    • Highlight collections and/or acquisitions which would be a good way to promote collections and informing other CARLI members of collections available.
  •  Responsibility for writing the text (month-to-month)
    • For workshop write up, one of the committee members that organized the event could also do the newsletter write up.
    • Committee member that would like to highlight a collection/acquisition would be tasked with writing up the newsletter content.
    • Matt has a Beatles collection and how George Harrison’s sister lived in Benton. Steven has some collections that could also highlight Benton for the January newsletter.
    • Committee will discuss the February topic for the newsletter at the January meeting, feel free to email group with topics.
• Archives and Special Collections Resource Page
  • Digital archiving/curation related documents and workflows could be useful for the page.
  • Resource of the Month at the top of the page to highlight resources or bring attention to new additions. Martin and Elizabeth could handle this change/update to the page.
  • Call for documents and workflows for digital archiving/curation will go out to email lists and newsletter. Steven will write this up.
• December 12, 2025: Introduction to Appraising Born-Digital Records Webinar Update
  • Interested committee members need to register.
  • 65 registered attendees so far.
  • Is it possible to get stats on how many people access the webinar recording? Yes, there is a way to see how many times the video is watched but not where they are from.
• April 16, 2026: In-person meeting/Open House
  • Everything set for Illinois State University to host. It will be a hybrid meeting that follows the Open House including a tour of the collections.
• Spring/summer workshops
  • Archives 101 basics type of offering for the Spring/Summer per the requests in the Ask-an-Archivist session. Planning committee will meet in January to define topic and date.
• Spring Ask-an-Archivist office hours date
  • Preservation Week is April 20-24, 2026.
  • The committee selected Monday, April 20, 2026 at 1:30pm for the Spring Ask-an-Archivist.
• The committee discussed the April deadline for ADA Title II, curious to hear how other institutions are handling this transition, happy to move that conversation to email too.
  • Other committee members are also struggling to address this and feel like clarity on how to handle certain issues is definitely needed.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Archives Committee will meet next on January 12, 2026 at 10:00 a.m.

Committee Meetings:
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.