Bill Landis, Candidate for Council

Professional Experience: Head of Research and Instructional Services, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010–present. Head of Arrangement and Description, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University, 2006–2010. Metadata Coordinator, California Digital Library, University of California Office of the President, 2004–2006. Manuscripts Librarian, Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine, 1998–2004. Production Coordinator, JSTOR, 1996–1997. Archivist, Cranbrook Educational Community, 1995–1996

Education: MILS, University of Michigan, 1994. BA, History, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1989.

Professional Activities: Society of American Archivists: 75th Anniversary Task Force, 2009–present. DACS Working Group, 2007–2010. Workshop instructor, "Describing Archives: A Content Standard" and "Implementing DACS in Integrated Content Management Systems: Using the Archivists' Toolkit," 2005–present. American Archivist Editorial Board, 2006–present. Committee on Education and Professional Development, 2002–2005. Program Committee, Co-chair, 2001–2002. Nominating Committee, 2000–2001. Description Section, Vice Chair/Chair, 1999–2001. Visual Resources Association: Cataloging Cultural Objects Advisory Group, 2006–2009. Digital Library Federation: Aquifer Metadata Working Group, 2005–2009. Orange County (CA) Dept. of Education: History Day Judge, 2002–2004.

Awards: Fellow of the Society of American Archivists, 2008.

Publications: "Plays Well With Others: DACS and CCO as Interoperable Metadata Content Standards," VRA Bulletin, 2007. Archives and the Digital Library, Haworth Information Press, 2006 (simultaneously co-published as Journal of Archival Organization, 2006) with Robin L. Chandler, eds.  Describing Archives: A Content Standard, SAA, 2004, contributor. Encoded Archival Description Application Guidelines, Version 1.0, SAA, 1999, contributor.

Question posed by the Nominating Committee: SAA has developed three strategic initiatives: technology, diversity, and public awareness/advocacy. If elected to Council, how will you work with SAA groups and members to move these forward?

SAA has made measurable and important progress in pursuing its three strategic initiatives in technology, diversity, and public awareness/advocacy. We have to remember, though, that these are ongoing, evolving issues and that we can never sit back, content, and feel as though we've done all we can. Technology, diversity, and advocacy pervade what we do as individual archivists and within the organizations and social settings where we practice our profession, in addition to their centrality in our work within our professional association.

As a member of Council, I would work to expand communication efforts with and among SAA groups concerning ways to highlight and advance these strategic initiatives. As an association and as individual members we need as rich a dialog as possible to keep our focus on these issues fresh, relevant, and evolving. The governance and management infrastructure of SAA must continue to explore ways of leveraging the association's components and peer groups in order to build on past momentum and creativity.

In order to be effective, this cannot be simply a top down effort, but Council is in an ideal position to engage leaders and members of SAA Sections and Roundtables about ways of advancing these strategic goals that will resonate and challenge. Efforts can be small or large, but keeping the conversation going on many fronts and encouraging novel approaches is a role that members of Council are uniquely positioned to play. Are there things we should be doing at the annual meeting, when well over a thousand of us are face to face for the better part of a week, to advance our strategic initiatives? Can we work across and among SAA's component groups in more effective ways? Can we more creatively utilize time set aside at annual meetings for SAA Sections and Roundtables in order to experiment with new avenues of focusing on these initiatives? Are there unexplored ways of harnessing SAA's publication and education programs in raising awareness and encouraging attention to these issues? Are we using connections within a peer network of professional associations to advance our strategic goals as creatively and efficiently as possible?

I don't think there's a magic end point for any of these initiatives, but I do think that Council plays an important role in keeping the pot stirred within SAA. We measure, assess, and celebrate our collective and individual work on these important strategic issues in small, incremental steps, but it is one of Council's important roles to keep an eye on the big picture and on gathering movement within the association.