CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou Public Library Director Anastasia Weigle visited the recent International Archive Education and Research Institute (AERI) Conference at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., July 9-13.
Weigle said the Archival Education and Research Initiative represents an unprecedented and exciting collaboration among leading archival education programs in the U.S. and worldwide to train and support future faculty and professionals. The conference was by invitation only, with professionals traveling from China, Russia, Chechnya, Australia, the UK, Poland and Japan.
“I was invited to the AERI conference to present a workshop on building collaborative relationships and resource sharing initiatives between library archives and genealogical societies by using the Caribou Public Library and Aroostook County Genealogical Society (ACGS) as an example of such successful collaborations,” said Weigle.
The Caribou Public Library is the official repository for ACGS collections.
Genealogical societies and libraries share a common ground as both offer resource materials and assistance to their users.
“In an era of tight budgets, finding ways to maximize resources through partnerships and collaborations can prove to be advantageous for some libraries and genealogical societies,” said Weigle.
The workshop resulted from a paper written by Weigle, Wendy Bossie (library trustee, Caribou historian and archivist) and Brenda Bourgoine (ACGS genealogist and archivist), which was published in the book “Genealogy and the Librarian: Perspectives on Research, Instruction, Outreach and Management,” released this spring.
The workshop focused on building collaborative relationships and resource sharing initiatives between library archives and genealogical societies by using the Caribou Public Library and ACGS as an example.
