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• Congratulations to all the recent grads!!
• Welcome new students !!

Welcome to SAA@Pitt!

SAA@Pitt is the website of the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter (SAASC) at the University of Pittsburgh. SAASC sponsors events, tours, and speakers throughout the academic year. We also hold special programs and encourage activitiy in SAA and other archival conferences.

Upcoming Events

Poster Session - Creating Bridges from Breadcrumbs

Recognizing the benefits of recorded memory and continuity, SAASC has begun a process of gathering and documenting information about the chapter. The project will implement tools to:

• Examine the additive value of student chapters to the graduate experience
• Document the history of the chapter by creating physical and virtual archives
• Reconnect with former University of Pittsburgh SAASC members
• Create a guide for future chapters

Students are developing a poster for the 5th Annual Student Poster Session at the 2005 SAA Annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 16-21, 2005.

Matt Novak, Cassie Pyle, Jennie Cole, Cristela Garcia-Spitz, and Mike Oliveira, New Orleans, August 2005. Photo by: HeaLim Rhee.

Recent Events

Picnic for Graduating Students and New Students

On August 6, 2005, SAASC hosted a picnic to welcome new archives and preservation track students and to celebrate the graduation of current students. It was a great opportunity for graduating students, continuing students, faculty, and new students to meet!

SAASC Picnic, Pittsburgh, August 2005. Photos by: Cristela Garcia-Spitz.

Speaker, John Kirk, Sony Pictures Film Specialist

SAASC along with Infinity, the student preservation organization, sponsored two events with Film Specialist, John Kirk. Before MGM joined Sony Pictures, Kirk was Director of Technical Services at MGM Studios. On May 26th, John Kirk presented the recently restored, extended version of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at the Oaks Theater, an independent theater in the Pittsburgh area. The screening was followed by a question and answer session with Kirk. This was the first theatrical screening of the restored version in Pittsburgh. It was a unique opportunity to view the classic film and speak with the person responsible for its restoration. The following day, May 27th, John Kirk gave a lecture on film preservation and restoration on campus. He presented film clips and discussed the process and issues surrounding the restoration of such classic films as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Kiss Me Deadly.

Trip to Washington D.C.

SAASC organized a trip to visit archival repositories in the Washington, D. C. area. On May 5th, the group of 14 students visited Archives II, the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland, which houses the government's twentieth century archival materials. Employees James W. Martin, Jr. and Donna Melito provided an introduction to the NARA facility and the archival practices and procedures at Archives II. Students toured different departments, such as audio, photographs, prints, maps, as well as research and closed stacks areas. Later that evening, Pitt's student chapter met with SAM, Student Archivists at Maryland, University of Maryland's archival student chapter, for dinner and conversation.

On May 6th, students went on a special guided tour of the museum section of NARA's Archives I facility, viewing the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom," as well as the Public Vaults exhibit, led by a visitor services representative. Finally, the group met with Deborah Richardson at the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, which is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. Richardson and her colleagues described the mission and goals of the Archives Center, provided a tour of the facility's workrooms and closed stacks, and described their work with images and databases.

SAASC, Washington, D.C., May 2005. Photos by: Jamie Peretich.

Tour of the Andy Warhol Museum & Archives

On Friday, April 29, 2005, students visited the Andy Warhol Museum, the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the world. The collection consists of more than 4,000 works of art by Warhol including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, film, videotapes, and an extensive archive that consists of ephemera, records, source material for works of art, and other documents of the artist's life. Collections Manager, Allison Smith, led a tour of the archives, showing the group an example of one of many "time capsules" created by Warhol himself. During the tour, the group discussed issues that arise for the Warhol staff as they attempt to remain faithful to both the artistic community and archival standards for preservation. This situation is especially problematic in dealing with Warhol's time capsules, which are simultaneously seen as works of art and documents of Warhol's life. Smith also showed the group the museum database and discussed description when cataloging time capsule items.

Remembering Polio:
A Tribute to Pittsburgh's Own "Polio Pioneers"

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Salk Polio Vaccine, the University of Pittsburgh held a commemorative reception. During the April 10th reception, SAASC members, Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Cassie Pyle, Ian McDermott, and Carly Reed participated as Oral Traditionalists in the videotaping of memories and recollections of the "Polio Pioneers," which include anyone who contracted polio, joined in the early pilot studies and later mass immunization campaigns, or was associated in any way with the development of the Salk polio vaccine. The goal of the organizing committee was to ensure that these interviews were conducted and preserved in a way that maintained their archival integrity for those who would like to study this milestone in the future. SAASC Co-President, Cassie Pyle interviewed Actor and March of Dimes Spokesperson, Mickey Rooney at the event.

For more information about the event, see the April 4, 2005 issue of the University of Pittsburgh newspaper, the Pitt Chronicle.

Tour of Iron Mountain

Students toured the wondrous"vaults" of Iron Mountain on Friday, January 14, 2005. Iron Mountain was established in 1951 as one of the first records management companies. It is a full-service provider of management and storage services for:

• Business Records
• Healthcare Records
• Film & Sound Archives
• Vital Records

The tour included a presentation by Tom Roth on the history of the Iron Mountain from a mining facility to records storage site. Students then viewed selected vaults within the facility, notably the Bettman Collection at Corbis, the BMG-Sony vault, and the Warner Brothers vault, thus viewing different storage and environmental conditions. Additionally, students had the opportunity to speak to professionals who work in the facility, especially those dealing with sound and image manipulation.

Panel Discussion - Confused & Frightened
About Your Future in Archives?

On Sunday, November 7, 2004, SAASC presented an informal discussion between archives professionals and MLIS students to help answer students' questions about the work of archivists. The panelists covered many issues such as: a typical day in the life of archives professionals, their personal career paths and education experiences, the professional organizations they suggest joining, and the reasons they enjoy their work.

Panel members included: David Grinnel - Accessions Archivist, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; Kate Colligan - Archivist, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh; Miriam Meislik - Archivist/Photograph Curator, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh; Martha Berg - Archivist, Rodef Shalom Congregation; Karen Gracy - Professor/Moving Image Archives & Preservation, University of Pittsburgh.

David Grinnel, Kate Colligan, Matha Berg, Miriam Meislik, and Karen Gracy, Pittsburgh, 2005. Photo by: Jill Hershorin.

Last modified: August 11, 2005

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