2016 Election Candidate Information

This year we are electing one Vice Chair/Chair Elect and two Steering Committee members. Electronic ballots will be sent to RLRT members in early July. 

The Vice Chair/Chair Elect serves a two-year term. Year 1: Serves as Vice Chair and participates as a member of the Steering Committee. Year 2: Serves as Chair of the Roundtable.

Steering Committee members may be appointed or elected, each for a one-year term that is renewable for up to three consecutive years at the discretion of the incoming Chair.

Candidate for Vice Chair/Chair Elect (1 position)

Lisa Carter

Bio:

Lisa Carter is the Associate Director for Special Collections and Area Studies at The Ohio State University Libraries.  Previous to her appointment at OSU in 2011, Carter was the Head of the Special Collections Research Center at the North Carolina State University Libraries and before that, Director of Archives at the University of Kentucky Libraries’ Special Collections and Digital Programs.

She is an active member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, ALA/ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, and the Midwest Archives Conference. Carter was an Association of Research Libraries’ Research Library Leadership Fellow in 2007–09, a Visiting Program Officer to the ARL Special Collections Working Group from 2009-14 and participated in the 2014 Senior Fellows Program at UCLA. In 2015-16, she participated in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Academic Leaders Program.  Carter’s research examines strategies for integrating special collections widely throughout the academic enterprise.  

Statement of interest:

Among the various professional committees I have served on, I am a member of SAA's Research Libraries Roundtable and served on the steering committee from 2010-2015.  When the call for nominations occurred in 2014 and 2015, I did not express my interest in continuing to serve on the Steering Committee or in the Vice Chair role because I knew that I would be unable to attend SAA in 2015 and 2016 due to a conflict with the IFLA conferences.  I am currently serving on the local arrangements committee for IFLA which is being held in Columbus in August 2016.  As this commitment wraps up, I am looking forward to getting back to participating more fully in SAA and particularly hope to contribute more concertedly to the Research Libraries Roundtable.  

My interest in contributing to the Research Libraries Roundtable's mission is strongly connected to my long professional experience in research libraries, most recently in the library-wide leadership role of Associate Director of Special Collections and Area Studies at OSU.  From this vantage point, I can see the value of coordinated and collaborative action across research libraries to advance the contribution of archives to the broader agenda of research libraries.  As general collections in research libraries become more homogeneous, distinctive collections such as archives and special collections become greater signifiers of the unique contribution of each research library.  While each research library works to succeed in its area of distinction, greater value can come from working together concertedly.  This has been a struggle for archives and special collections in research libraries for various reasons, but increasingly there are opportunities we can explore to raise the profile of archival efforts and collaborate to have greater impact across the research life-cycle.  I think the Research Libraries Roundtable is uniquely positioned to examine this area of need and identify ways to make a difference for archives, for our research libraries and for our global community of users.

Candidates for Steering Committee (2 positions)

Anton duPlessis, CA (B.A., Political Economy, Tulane University, 1994; M.A, Political Science, University of New Orleans, 1999; M.A., Spanish, Texas A&M University, 2003)

Bio:

I am a Certified Archivist and curator / archivist at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives (Texas A&M) where I work with the Colonial Mexican, Texas & Borderlands, and Ragan American Military collections. I am also Director of the Primeros Libros Project, an international effort to digitize and make available 16th Century New World materials. While I work with primary documents I am also committed to the creation and use of digital tools to display rare and archival materials to broaden their discovery, accessibility, and use. To that end, I have had roles in several projects that have been funded by CLIR, The Mellon Foundation, and the NEH.

I routinely conduct instruction sessions to expose students to primary materials for their research projects as well as collect and process materials and aid researchers in locating archival materials, especially Texas county records. I also have had substantial roles in mounting exhibits concerning World War 1 (2013-14), The Battle of the Bulge (2015-16), Cervantes / Don Quijote, and Texas (Fall 2016) in terms of item selection, layout, drafting of the text used in placards and catalogs, and creating digital displays.

Statement of interest:

Through my roles and membership in professional organizations intersecting, such as SALALM’s Subcommittee on Digital Primary Resources, TARO’s Funding and Sustainability subcommittee, and as a representative on the Texas State Library and Archives Commission's Regional Historical Resources Depository focus group, I am positioned to reach a broad network of colleagues engaged in archival and library work that spans different communities of patrons, researchers, and educators. 

Ryan Lee

Bio:

Ryan Lee is the curator of 19th Century Mormon and Western Manuscripts at BYU’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections, and has held this position since September 2013. His research interests include collection assessment, digitization, primary source literacy, and outreach. Ryan was the lead author on an article titled “Data-Driven Decision Making at L. Tom Perry Special Collections,” co-authored with Gordon Daines and Cory Nimer, and published in the proceedings of the 2014 SAA Research Forum. This article was a case study on how to analyze and use usage data to make decisions regarding digitization. Prior to working at BYU, Ryan was the metadata specialist and corporate records archivist at the LDS Church History Library from 2008-2013.  He also worked as Assistant Archivist at Indiana University Archives in Bloomington, Indiana, from 2006-2008. Ryan received a Master of Library Science degree, with a specialization in Archives and Records Management, from Indiana University in 2006.

Statement of interest:

Serving on the Steering Committee for SAA’s Research Library Roundtable would be a wonderful opportunity to mingle with like-minded professionals and help in influencing an important organization like SAA. Since many archivists are tied to research libraries in one way or another, I believe this round table is very important in serving the needs of many within SAA. As a member of the Steering Committee, I would commit to learning as much as I can about the members of this round table, and beyond, to better understand what needs they have and how this round table could meet those needs. I truly believe that we will all be more effective in our work if we learn to collaborate and not work in silos, and this round table could do much to provide such collaborative opportunities, whether it be in simple meet-and-greets during SAA to provide networking opportunities, or provide avenues to collaborate on significant research projects. If elected, I would like to foster more open communication between the membership of this round table on research interests, or even simply questions or issues people are grappling with in their day-to-day work. The goal would be to help foster a greater opportunity for dialogue among the group that could help answer these questions together, or even lead to working together on a research project and potential publication that would potentially benefit others within the profession.