Tomaro I. Taylor, Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect

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Tomaro I. Taylor

Director, Special Collections

 

After my first semester as an archives apprentice, I never looked back.

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BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

I entered the archives profession in 2003 during a post-MLIS residency program at the University of South Florida Libraries. I had worked in the Libraries’ reference department as a graduate assistant, and so my residency began there. However, I had an interest in working with materials and was curious about what a position in special collections would entail, so I asked my mentor to help me secure an assignment in that department. After my first semester as an archives apprentice, I never looked back. I have since built my career in special collections and special libraries at USF, supplementing my library and information science graduate degree with a certificate from the Western Archives Institute, continuous education and professional engagement that have also helped me maintain the Certified Archivist credential since 2005, and a second master’s degree in American studies with an emphasis on class, gender, and race in twentieth-century popular culture.

Twenty years of being an archivist is such a small blip in time when considered against the age of materials many of us work with. In that time, though, I have established my own record of leadership, innovation, and mentorship. Notable aspects of my service to the profession include: three years as co-manager of the SAA DAS Exam, co-chair and member of the Program Committee, chair of the Appointments Committee, and newsletter editor for the AACR. External to SAA, I have served as president of the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA), the ACA’s Regent for Exam Development, and president of the Society of Florida Archivists (SFA). In 2012, I received SFA’s “Award of Excellence.”

My current area of archives-based research assesses the management, promotion, and use of science-focused collections in academic archives and special collections.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT

Each candidate prepared a diversity statement according to SAA guidelines.

I currently live and work in a state that regularly makes the news for both legislation and rhetoric targeting those of us who are, live as, support, advocate with, are allies for, and teach about the DEIA umbrella. It is frustrating and infuriating and scary and eye-opening and calls into awareness many issues that I have not dealt with either personally or professionally. To put it bluntly, I have been rather privileged—socially, economically, academically, and professionally—and I recognize that this creates blind spots in my relationships with other people and their experiences. Maintaining a growth mindset helps me identify where I am lacking in knowledge so that I can work to expand my understanding and put it into practice. I’ve done much of this work through learning, listening, observing, and actively engaging with different communities throughout my career, and I consistently apply and adjust my approaches as time and circumstances change and evolve.

It is imperative, in my home state and beyond, that we individually and collectively recognize our responsibility towards addressing inequities and removing systemic barriers. And, although it’s a bit cliché, it is true—we are stronger together when working toward common goals, specifically when those goals center responsive practices in our field. Recent examples of my work in these areas include implementing conscious editing practices at my home institution in all special collections-centered work (e.g., archival description, metadata, oral history, digitization, and digital collections) and working with an ACA task force to identify and integrate cultural competencies both for and into the Certified Archivists’ exam.

QUESTION POSED BY NOMINATING COMMITTEE

One of SAA’s four strategic goals is meeting members’ needs. With the evolving state of the world, the archives profession, and efforts to bridge communities of practice, how do you envision meeting members’ needs in this new “normal”?

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE 

The Nominating Committee asks how candidates “envision meeting members’ needs in this new normal,” but there isn’t anything “normal” about the current state of our world. There never has been, and there never will be. Normalcy is perceived individualistically based on previous experiences, current tolerance, and future anticipations and expectations. What may seem normal to one person, or one member, will be completely (ab)normal for another.

For reasons that have not always been under my control, I have learned a great deal of flexibility and adaptability during my career. Regardless of the external factors requiring these “adjustments,” I have found ways to tether these changes to a core sense of values and purpose. For me, that has equated to being in service to my chosen field and creating my own sense of professional normalcy when my job and other life things were awry. I propose that others consider the same when it comes to their relationship with professional organization(s)—think about the organization’s core values and mission as foundational to the ways in which you may navigate your own normal in the profession. And, when your mission and values do not align with those of your organization, work to effect change where it is needed most. Identify opportunities for both leading and participating in solutions-oriented processes that will provide the steadiness and support our friends and colleagues need. This is what I have done and will continue to do throughout the next phases of my career. And if that includes serving as Vice President/President-Elect of the Society of American Archivists, it is what I will do alongside and in collaboration with you.

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