Community History Seminar’s 2026 Cohort

The 2026 Community History Seminar is officially underway!

On August 12, CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh and CALS DIY Memory Lab coordinator Meredith Li welcomed the 2026 Community History Seminar cohort for its first session. Over the course of four sessions, this year’s participants will learn practical skills for preserving, digitizing, organizing, and sharing the histories of their organizations and communities.

The Community History Seminar is a free evening program hosted by the CALS DIY Memory Lab and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, which is housed in the Bobby L. Roberts Library of History & Art. Designed for community-based organizations in Central Arkansas, the seminar supports groups working with historically significant or at-risk records, with a particular focus on preserving the experiences and histories of marginalized communities. We accepted applications in Spring 2026 for this cohort and are excited about the great range of diverse organizations that applied and were accepted.

Meet the 2026 Cohort

This year’s cohort brings together eight community-based organizations from across Central Arkansas, representing a wide range of experiences, missions, and community histories:

• Arkansas Press Women
• Arkansas United
• Hot Spring County Handy Homemakers Extension Homemakers Club
• Indivisible Arkansas
• InTRANSitive
• Little Rock Freedom Fund
• Read. Write. Share. – The Celebrate Maya Project
• City Connections

Together, these organizations form a new shared space for learning, collaboration, and conversation around community memory and preservation.

Learning to Preserve Community History

Throughout the seminar, participants are gaining hands-on experience with archival practices and digital tools that can help their organizations preserve their records for future generations.

The first two sessions, Preserving the History Part I & Part II, focus on identifying historically significant materials, building a retention schedule, understanding privacy in sensitive records, organizing records, and learning proper storage and preservation strategies. During the second session, cohort members received their archival starter kits.

In October, participants will turn their attention to digitization and preservation, learning how to scan materials using tools available through the CALS DIY Memory Lab, establish appropriate file standards, create useful descriptions, and think about long-term digital preservation.

An optional drop-in session in November will provide additional time for digitization and metadata work.

The final seminar session, “Telling Your Story,” will explore ways organizations can share their histories with broader audiences. Participants will learn about digital storytelling tools, including timelines, maps, and simple websites, and receive guidance as they develop a short history of their organization for inclusion in a new digital project hosted on the Roberts Library website.

Building a Shared Space for Community Memory

Beyond technical skills, the Community History Seminar is about building relationships.

By bringing organizations together in a cohort, the seminar creates what we think of as a third space, a collaborative environment where community organizations can learn from one another and develop a shared commitment to memory, history, and preservation.

Each participating organization will ultimately contribute a 500–700-word history and ten digital media items to the seminar’s digital project. Together, these contributions will create a growing collection that highlights the people, stories, and work of Central Arkansas community organizations.

Participants also receive curated resources, hands-on guidance, and access to a private forum where they can stay connected with fellow cohort members and instructors between sessions.

Looking Ahead

Over the next several months, the participating organizations will continue building their archival skills, working with their own historical materials, and developing new ways to share their stories.

We look forward to seeing what the 2026 Community History Seminar cohort preserves, creates, and shares, and celebrating the many stories that contribute to our shared understanding of Central Arkansas.

For a look at last year’s seminar, read about the 2025 cohort of religious communities.

Danielle Afsordeh is the community outreach archivist and programs coordinator for the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Roberts Library.