Spring Spotlight: Engaging with Our Profession and Community

The staff of the Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art engages in outreach and professional development all year, but spring is typically our busiest season for these activities. Here’s a glimpse into what we were up to while we were out and about this spring.

Arkansas Historical Association

The Arkansas Historical Association Annual Meeting took place this year in Monticello. The program highlighted labor, land, and learning in Arkansas. Danielle Afsordeh, community outreach archivist and programs coordinator, and Liam Carey, Butler Center 2025 summer intern, had the privilege of participating in a pre-conference seminar on representation of labor in archival collections in the state alongside other archival repositories. Afsordeh highlighted the Agriculture in Arkansas digital project and its associated digitized content showcasing agricultural labor in Arkansas before the age of mechanized large-scale farming. Carey highlighted the Labor and Industry in Arkansas story map he created during his internship using digitized materials from the Butler Center’s collections. The story map captures a formative moment in Arkansas workers’ struggle for dignity, security, and basic democratic rights.

Additionally, at the conference, chief archivist Brian Robertson, who leads the Arkansas Vietnam War project, received a Diamond Award in recognition of its impact. The project was created to document Arkansas’s role in the war and preserve materials from the period. The Butler Center seeks to ensure that these materials are preserved for educators, researchers, and family members to help future generations understand more about the war and our veterans’ experiences in it. Since the project’s inception, the stories and archival records of over fifty Arkansas Vietnam War veterans have been preserved. The Diamond Award is given by the Arkansas Historical Association annually to an institution or to an individual representing a collective initiative that makes an exceptional contribution to the study, preservation, or promotion of Arkansas history.

Other Spring Conferencing

Colin Thompson, CALS art administrator, attended the Arkansas Museums Association 2026 Conference in Newport. Sessions addressed the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Thompson also attended the American Alliance of Museums conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference focused on museums and cultural sites as spaces that help communities understand the past, make meaning of the present, and prepare for the future. Philadelphia was chosen as the site for this conference because it is a city of firsts in memory making, and aptly for us here at CALS, the location of the nation’s first public library. While attending these conferences, he had the opportunity to explore the surrounding city, and he brought back some images of public art.

Staff members from the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies also attended the Society of Southwest Archivists conference in Waco, Texas. The conference theme, “Deep in the Heart of Archives,” celebrated the passion archivists bring to their work and the missions that drive collecting efforts. Butler Center staff were able to engage in educational sessions covering everything from AI to succession planning and enjoyed a tour of the collections of the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco and a visit to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

Roberts Library staff were encouraged by the support expressed by plenary speakers and colleagues for the work cultural institutions are undertaking to preserve and promote complex and underrepresented histories in the current political climate. Staff noted that this theme emerged consistently throughout the conferences they attended.

Community Outreach

Roberts Library staff engaged with the larger community through several events and programs this spring. Highlights include our annual visit to the Sakura Matsuri Festival at the Plantation Agriculture Museum in Scott, Arkansas. The festival serves as a commemorative gathering for families of Japanese American descent who settled in Scott following the conclusion of World War II and celebrates the cherry blossom tree. Meredith Li, CALS DIY Memory Lab coordinator, attends annually to help families connect with our personal archiving classes and to learn more about the lab. She also sets up our mobile memory lab so the public can see digitization in action.

CALS genealogy and local history specialist Rhonda Stewart is often invited to speak to groups or participate in panels highlighting her work here at the CALS Roberts Library. In May, Stewart participated in a panel titled “Curating, Preserving and Sharing Our Stories,” in which she explored the role of genealogy in helping individuals better understand their personal and family histories. Historian Janis Kearney and Iris Wiliams hosted the event, which was held at CALS’s own Sue Cowan Williams Library.

These are just a few highlights of our professional development and outreach work this spring.

Interested in having a staff member speak to your group? We offer programs and guest speakers to groups of all sizes and ages. Our staff can speak about various topics in Arkansas history, the CALS Art Collection, Butler Center collections, personal archiving, and the DIY Memory Lab. Learn more and request a speaker.

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