Jacksonville, Fla. (May 20, 2025) – Elaine Slayton Akin, archivist at Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP), has been awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Network (DPOE-N), a program originated by the Library of Congress in 2010 in an effort to provide digital preservation training across the United States. The program transitioned under the dual direction of the Pratt Institute School of Information and New York University’s “Moving Image Archiving and Preservation” program in 2018 to further develop and support it into the future.
Slayton Akin will allocate the funds to attend the Georgia Archives Institute, a two-week program in Atlanta offering instruction in the most up-to-date archival trends and best practices as they relate to collections care and digitization. The program runs from June 2-13.
The course will benefit Slayton Akin in further developing her skills as she continues the work of cataloging and digitizing the archives and historic objects in the RAP collection.
“The Georgia Archives Institute will advance my knowledge and skills to provide better care and preservation for the RAP collection to ensure its accuracy for the public,” Slayton Akin said, “Ultimately, my participation in the program will position RAP as an even more treasured resource for the community.”
Earlier this month, Slayton Akin presented at the Society of Florida Archivists Annual Meeting in St. Augustine. Her presentation explored how to responsibly describe and display artifacts originating from the problematic “Oriental” movements of chinoiserie and Japonisme, prevalent in America from roughly 1919-1939 when the art deco movement was in its prime. The content specifically relates to the RAP collection’s artifacts from the Buckland family, dating back to the late 19th century in Ohio and Florida. The Buckland Family lived in the home that is now the RAP offices from 1912-1990. Slayton Akin’s presentation is titled “Writing to Repair in Community: Utilizing Creative Partnerships to Responsibly Describe Early 20th-Century ‘Oriental’ Material Culture in the Buckland Family Archives.”
About Riverside Avondale Preservation
The purpose and mission of Riverside Avondale Preservation, Inc., colloquially known as RAP, is to preserve, enhance, and celebrate the historic fabric, arts, culture, local businesses, and public spaces of the Riverside and Avondale neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Fla. The weekly Riverside Arts Market, under the administration of RAP, is hosted every Saturday under the canopy of the Fuller Warren Bridge from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine.
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