Use of archival collections is accelerated by the presence of finding aids, which communicate the arrangement and description of collection contents. To arrive at the optimal arrangement of a collection, archivists rely on some item-level processing or knowledge gained by exploring and manipulating digital reproductions of the contents. In this paper we consider archival student and instructor perspectives from hands-on course experiences directly with two distinct collections: one pertaining to the development, 2017 transfer and launch, and ongoing maintenance of the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property (IRP2), and one a selection of unclassified catalog entries about digitized nuclear science reports. Visualizing is a data practice that permits the discovery of key content patterns, identification of computational models to be carried out to aid further analysis, and query-resolution for subject experts with precise - and historically significant - research questions. While archival data visualizations have previously been implemented as an extension of descriptive work including finding aid element counts, here we connect visualization to the work of archival outreach and access. We study how visualizations generated by groups of students working with textual and numerical dataset portions can ultimately accelerate time-sensitive uses of collections.

This paper discusses the use of Computational Thinking (CT) in Archival Educators’ instruction towards enhancing the training and professional development of the library and archival workforce to meet the needs of their communities, and enhancing digital collection management and access to information and resources through retrospective and born-digital content. Four educators share their teaching strategies aimed at modernizing the way digital LIS and computational education are conducted. Their goal is to create an active and engaged community of future archival practitioners, ready to tackle the digital records and archives future.

Abstract Continuing education for information professionals serves to inform professional conduct and broaden theoretical applications. Since its establishment as a regional organization in 1961, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (LACASIS&T) has provided a program for professional development relevant across a range of information institutions within a major metropolitan area. This research examines three factors influencing continuing education activities within the Los Angeles region: founding principles, services contributed by members, and program topics drawn from the range of information professions. Methods employed comprise archival research and oral history conducted with the Chapter's founder, with attention given to the industrial context of the region. The study reveals the centrality of members' contributions to professional trends and information science applications, and a continuous history of individual leaders, contributors, and program offerings presented also emerges. The effectiveness of library and information science continuing education, when presented and coordinated by groups such as chapters, is observed in successful consortial activities consisting of both inreach and outreach to prospective program participants.