Great Expectations:  Meeting the Challenge of Archives and Records Management in New Jersey will be held at the Lafayette Yard Marriott Hotel in Trenton from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.  It is cosponsored by the New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management (NJDARM) and will mark NJDARM’s 25th anniversary.

The audience for Great Expectations will include archivists and records managers in state, county, and municipal government, historical organizations, museums, voluntary associations, churches, corporations, colleges and universities; historians; genealogists and related professions.

“The work of NJDARM has taken on even greater importance in the Internet Age, and therefore any challenges must be approached with the utmost effort and unity – here in Trenton and throughout the state.” noted Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells. “Not only will the Conference inform and educate archivists and record managers, it will facilitate discussion on the best practices to most effectively deal with the fluid hurdles the Internet and other modern technologies present to upgrading and maintaining precious historical and public records.”

PARIS Awards

The Great Expectations conference will be followed immediately by the second annual Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Grants Program Awards for Excellence.  PARIS Awards for Excellence acknowledge outstanding efforts by county and municipal government agencies to fulfill the grants program’s mission “to meet the strategic archives and records management, storage, and preservation needs of New Jersey’s county and municipal governments.” 

Conference Highlights

The conference’s keynote address will assess the “great expectations” the Internet era has raised among archives users and managers, and the opportunities and problems to which these expectations have given rise.  Presenting the address will be Kathleen D. Roe, director of archives and records management operations at the New York State Archives, and the former president of the Council of State Archivists.

Other conference sessions will deal with electronic records and the legal process; disaster planning and response in the post-9/11, post-Katrina age; shared services projects of county and local government agencies; preservation planning for archives; care of unusual items in archival collections; and marketing records management programs.

The program also includes a luncheon presentation about the NJDARM’s first quarter-century of operations—and the impact the state agency has had on archives and records management in New Jersey generally over the past 25 years.

Other featured speakers are Julie Framingham, director of the Council of State Archivists’ Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records (IPER) project, who will speak about IPER’s potential for creating a national program to protect vital records in the case of national and regional emergencies, such as Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; and Daniel W. Noonan, electronic archivist/records manager at the Ohio State University Archives, who will discuss online records management systems that can be adapted to a wide variety of governmental and private organization uses.

See the entire program and a registration form at the conference’s website, www.njgreatexpectations.com.

Registration Information

The conference’s cost of $30 per person includes continental breakfast, morning break, lunch, all program sessions, informational materials, and the PARIS Awards reception.  NOTE:  There is no charge to those attending only the PARIS Awards event.  Register by Friday, September 26.  Send registration form (download and print it from www.njgreatexpectations.com) with a check payable to CARMA/NJ to  Great Expectations, c/o Michele Caple, PO Box 124, Woodbury, N J 08096.

###