ARCHIVES 2015

In April 2015, the Houston Astrodome celebrated its 50th anniversary. A revolutionary building when it opened in 1965, with its 642 foot clear span and fully air conditioned interior, it is now unused and unusable. Despite this fact, 25,000 people attended the anniversary party to share their memories of notable events during its history, including baseball, football, concerts, monster truck races, and its use as a shelter after Hurricane Katrina.

The Houston Public Library, in partnership with the Houston Metropolitan Research Center; the Harris County Archives; the Woodson Research Center Special Collections & Archives, Fondren Library, Rice University; Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries; and the Harris County Public Library, has developed a community resource documenting the history of the Astrodome as told in archival collections at http://astrodomememories.org. Creation of this resource required the partners to resolve numerous copyright concerns while negotiating political issues concerning the ultimate fate of the structure.

The second phase of the project, which began with the 50th anniversary event, invites the community to share digital copies of their own items and memories. This phase introduces new challenges, including whether to adopt a "post-custodial" model of archives and what that means in terms of privacy, intellectual property, and access to collections. Archiving personal stories shared on social media adds additional complications.

This presentation will address the role of archives in community memory projects and provide access to resources developed by project partners and consultants. Share your #AstrodomeMemories with us!

About the Authors:

Amanda Focke is the Asst. Head of Special Collections at Fondren Library, Rice University. She works with university archives, manuscript collections and rare books, with a focus on policies and workflows for digital content. She holds an MLS from the University of Maryland College Park, has been a Certified Archivist for 10 years, and has is a certified Digital Archives Specialist. She serves as a member of the Coalition to Advance Learning in Archives, Libraries and Museums and as co-chair of the Texas Archival Resources Online Steering Committee.

Vince Lee is the Archivist for the Shuart Women’s Archive and Houston and Texas History Collection at the University of Houston Libraries. In this role, he collaborates with the Friends of Women’s Studies, the Department of Women Gender and Sexuality Studies, and external stakeholders such as the Houston Area Rainbow Collective History (ARCH) and the Archivists of the Houston Area (AHA!). His research interests include Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and the role women have played in forming Houston and Texas history. Vince received his BA in Political Science from University of Michigan and his MLIS from Wayne State University.

Danielle Cunniff Plumer is a digital collections consultant working with cultural heritage institutions developing online collections and preserving digital materials. She also teaches digital curation and access to digital collections for the University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Austin, and Texas State University. She earned an M.S. in Information Studies at The University of Texas at Austin in 2003. Prior to that, she earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Davis.