Community Archiving Workshop (CAW)
About CAW
About CAW
Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) is a volunteer-organized workshop sponsored by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). Traditionally, CAW is an annual pre-conference workshop that takes place within the city where the AMIA Annual Conference is held. The purpose of the Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) is to support organizations wishing to jumpstart the preservation of their audiovisual collections. While anyone can hold a workshop or use the CAW models, current CAW project focus on under-represented and geographically isolated collections.
The workshops are usually a one-day audiovisual preservation and training workshop that pairs trained archivists with collection caretakers and community volunteers to provide training in audiovisual collections care, and work together to accomplish a goal for an audiovisual collection. Often the workshop focus is on inventory and assessment of a collection. However, CAWs have also included digitization, digital file organization, film inspection, and other activities. The workshop often includes tours, talks, screenings, and meals together which build strong regional networks and develop ideas for collaboration
How to Use this Website
This online handbook documents past and present projects by CAW and its partners. It is also a toolkit that contains resources, training modules, and methodologies for holding a workshop of your own. These resources are developed by CAW from over a decade of experience holding workshops in audiovisual collection care. They are free to use and adapt for your project.
Growth of the CAW Model
Since 2018, CAW has expanded the resources and training it offers, thanks in large part to funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and support from the Association of Tribal Libraries and Archives (ATALM) and Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). The Training of Trainers program trains organizations in geographically isolated areas to hold their own workshops using CAW training modules as a foundation. The Tribal Libraries and Archives Collection Care Project develops workshops for tribally held collections using the CAW modules. Both projects work long-term with partners to develop Preservation Plans, and both projects provide digitization kits, film inspection kits, and collection assessment kits in those regions.
CAW History
CAW has its roots in the Activist Archiving workshops organized by the Mona Jimenez, a professor emeritus with the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP) at New York University. In 2010, Jimenez worked with the Independent Media Interest Group of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) to hold the first workshop in conjunction with the AMIA conference. The goal was to support archiving in the communities in which the AMIA conferences were held. Since that time, CAW has grown into a collective with a rotating group of core members (and dozens of partners) who direct the program and determine its vision.
The Community Archiving Workshop model is adaptable for all collections. We would love to hear about your workshops and how these resources have supported your project.
Acknowledgements
CAW has grown from a group of volunteers that organize an annual workshop to an international network which organizes dozens of workshops, training sessions, and free online resources. Our growth is thanks to many individuals, partners, organizations, and sponsors.
Planning Organizations
- Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) (2011- present)
- AMIA Independent Media Committee (2011-2023)
- AMIA Diversity Committee (2012-2016)
Community Partner Organizations
- Austin History Center, Austin, TX
- Three Dollar Bill Cinema, Seattle, WA
- Valentine Richmond History Center, Richmond, VA
- All Walks of Life (AWOL) & Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, GA
- Vanessa Renwick (artist) & Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Portland, OR
- Attack Theatre, City of Asylum, & David Newell, Pittsburgh, PA
- NOVAC, New Orleans, LA
- KBOO, Portland, OR
CAW Committee Members
Assistant Media Archivist, Media Commons, Media Archives, Robarts Library, University of Toronto. She also teaches an introductory course to management of audio-visual documents in libraries and archives at University of Toronto’s iSchool and has been a member of the CAW organizing committee since 2012.
Siobhan Hagan holds her M.A. in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has worked in a variety of collecting organizations throughout her career, including the UCLA Library, the National Aquarium, and the DC Public Library. Siobhan is now the Coordinator of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative. Siobhan also is the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive (MARMIA) and has been an active member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA): she is currently Co-Chair of the Regional Audio-Visual Archives Committee and has previously held the positions of Co-Chair of the Local TV Task Force, member of the Election Committee, and Director of the Board. Siobhan’s passion is the preservation and access of regional audiovisual materials, local television, home movies, and community and personal archiving.
Independent archivist, consultant, and curator specializing in community-based audiovisual preservation and access projects. Kelli is the project director for the Assessing and Addressing Digital Readiness for Audiovisual Collections project, funded by the NHPRC, and the founding archivist and manager at the Nashville Audiovisual Heritage Center. Her past clients include the Smithsonian Institution, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Appalshop Archive, and the National Geographic Society.
Former Associate Professor/Associate Director, Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, New York University. She initiated the concept of CAW as part of her over 20 year commitment to AV preservation, and has previously designed and delivered training of trainers and mentoring programs for volunteers, activists and professionals around issues of legal services and public health.
Audiovisual Archivist for Crowing Rooster Arts and Digital Archivist for Ballet Tech. She has been involved in CAW since attending a workshop in 2010, and became more active on the planning committee around 2014. Marie has worked as a consultant for Third World Newsreel, Smithsonian Institution, Queens Museum, and Center for Puerto Rican Studies. She is also a member of the NYC-based XFR Collective.
Archivist and media art conservator whose clients have included the Kramlich Collection, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago; he is the former director of Independent Media Arts Preservation and has led numerous workshops on media preservation.
CK is a Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist. A graduate of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at NYU, they have worked at a variety of archives across the country. They are the former Project Manager and Archivist at the South Side Home Movie Project at the University of Chicago.
2010 – 2018, 2023-
Yvonne was a member of the CAW organizing committee from 2010-2018, and is looking forward to rejoining CAW in 2023 after a hiatus living in the Czech Republic. Yvonne works as the Senior Program Manager of Archives at WITNESS, where she supports activists using video and technology to protect and defend human rights.
Afsheen is the Media Asset and Archive Manager for KEXP radio in Seattle, WA. A graduate of the UT, Austin Department of Radio-Television-Film, his film production and exhibition background got him his start in the world of audiovisual archives. Prior to joining KEXP, Afsheen was Technical Director at the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (2008 – 2019) and Audiovisual Archivist at the Austin History Center (2019 – 2023).
Lorena, a graduate of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at NYU, is an AV archivist and web developer extraordinaire.
Amy is the Collections Archivist at the Harvard Film Archive, where she manages preservation, cataloging, and access to the archive’s holdings of audiovisual, manuscript, and digital collections. She is a former board member of the Center for Home Movies (2014-2022) and has been an active CAW member since 2011, including serving as a regional mentor on the IMLS funded “Training of Trainers” project and team leader on the “Assessing and Addressing Digital Readiness for Audiovisual Collections” project funded by the NHPRC.
Independent archivist and PhD candidate in Public History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She managed CAW’s IMLS funded “Training of Trainers” project and NEH funded “Audiovisual Collections Care in Tribal Archives” project. From 2011 to 2017 she served as Diversity Chair for AMIA and was the Preservation Program Director at the Bay Area Video Coalition from 2011 to 2014. Moriah has worked as a consultant for the Smithsonian Institution, SFMOMA, San Francisco Arts Commission and as the Assistant Reviews Editor for The Public Historian, the journal of the National Council on Public History.
Director of California Revealed, a California State Library initiative that helps public libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other heritage groups digitize, preserve, and provide online access to materials documenting the state’s history, art, and cultures. She teaches preservation workshops and assesses archival collections for a variety of organizations across California. She also serves on the board of the Center for Home Movies.
Head of McGovern Historical Center, Texas Medical Center Library, manages the preservation and access to the library’s special collections, including rare books, audiovisual materials, photographs, institutional records, personal papers, and digital materials. She specializes in audiovisual preservation, digital collections, digital archives, and web development and has been a member of the CAW organizing committee since 2011. She has been the online resources consultant for the CAW grant projects.
Sponsors
Thank you to the generous funding and partnerships below that has allowed CAW to expand our training opportunities.
