Katy Rawdon, Candidate for Council Member

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

For the past eleven years I have served as the Coordinator of Technical Services in the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University, a large public university in North Philadelphia serving a diverse student body. At Temple, I oversee accessioning, archival processing, rare book cataloging, and collections management for our extensive holdings. My previous work experience includes more than thirteen years in art museum archives as well as several stints as a project archivist, which provided me with an understanding of the challenges facing severely underfunded non-academic repositories and contingent workers.

I have been privileged to serve the profession both regionally and nationally in several positions including Treasurer of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Association (MARAC), Finance Committee member of MARAC and the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL), on multiple working groups of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of ACRL, and as Chair of SAA's Museum Archives Section, Steering Committee member for the Description Section, and member of the Technical Subcommittee on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (TS-DACS). I also currently co-convene the Description Group of the Queer Metadata Collective.

My heart lies in technical services work, which I believe serves as the foundation for all other archival activities. But I also perform reference, instruction, and exhibition work—and I believe that no archival labor exists in a vacuum. Those working on the "back end" of archives must understand their audience as much as public service archivists must be familiar with their collections and how they are processed. Throughout my career I have also tried to bridge the gap between "archives" and "library" work, and believe that collaboration and cross-pollination with related fields is necessary for a healthy archival profession.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT (Each candidate prepared a diversity statement according to SAA guidelines.)

For me, diversity means true representation in our profession, people from marginalized groups holding real power and having agency and voice in all aspects of our work, and for the re-envisioning of archival work to achieve justice and to repair the harms of the past and present.

As a white woman with over twenty-five years in the profession, I have had ample time to evolve my beliefs, actions, and implicit biases in my work and life. I am grateful to the colleagues from backgrounds different than mine for their generosity in telling me when I have been wrong. I am also grateful to the diverse student body and patron base at my current institution and to our diverse archival collections for further educating me about my own biases and uninformed beliefs. This is how I have learned, and I will continue learning, getting things wrong, and trying again. As a queer person with invisible disabilities, I know the harm that biases, a lack of representation, and outdated practices can cause, and I am committed to advocating for change.

Beliefs are important, but actions create change. I founded Temple's first interdepartmental Inclusive Metadata Committee, I was a co-author of the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) Anti-Racist Description Resources and of the book chapter "What's in a Name? Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia and the Impact of Names and Name Authorities in Archival Description," and I wrote one of the first harmful language statements. My area of expertise is description and cataloging, but I am also concerned with representation in our profession, diversity in collecting, challenging beliefs about ownership and custody of archival materials, who should have access (everyone), and how we can serve those who have traditionally been excluded. I am also active in my union because labor rights are always entangled with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

On SAA Council, I would advocate for making the profession more welcoming to people in marginalized groups, to amplify those voices, to critically examine our professional practices, and to turn the same critical eye on SAA itself. And I will listen, listen, and listen some more. Institutions will not willingly change their practices that have served them for years—we must demand change, fight for it, and use whatever privilege we may have to make it happen. I hope to do exactly this by serving on SAA Council.

QUESTION POSED BY NOMINATING COMMITTEE

Council members’ most important responsibility is to govern the Society thoughtfully and with an eye to the future of the profession, including supporting SAA’s financial stability and growth and developing and implementing the Society’s strategic priorities. Can you outline specific goals or initiatives you would prioritize during your term to address current and emerging needs and challenges facing the archival profession?

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE 

As someone who has served various professional organizations in financial oversight positions and on many types of working groups and committees, I truly enjoy the work of sustaining these institutions, and believe they offer us community, learning, and cohesion in our frequently dispersed and sometimes lonely profession. SAA has been personally important to me throughout my career, inspiring and supporting me and my development as an archivist.

SAA must be financially and organizationally stable in order to provide this support to all of its members, and to act in the necessary role of advocate for archives and archivists present and future. As a member of Council I would be privileged to use my experience to assist in the continued wellbeing of SAA.

That said, no organization is immune to critical examination or the need for improvement. SAA members for years have been voicing their needs—easier access to educational programs and conferences, a more welcoming atmosphere to those wishing to become involved in the organization, more diversity within the profession and organization, financial support for those who are underresourced, more advocacy on behalf of archivists and the archival profession. All of these are achievable goals.

SAA's Strategic Plan lists as core organizational values the advancement of the public standing of archivists, diversity of its membership and leaders, the profession, and the archival record, fostering an open and inclusive culture, providing excellent member service, and ensuring transparency, accountability, integrity, professionalism, and social responsibility. There is such enormous opportunity for action in these values, and without action these values mean nothing.

Can SAA become a truly activist and vocal advocate for archives? What can we do as a professional organization to not only encourage members of underrepresented groups to enter the profession, but make the experience of being an archivist an enriching and sustainable one? What policies, best practices, and standards can we endorse or create that would shift traditional concepts of archival custody, collecting priorities, and collection description and access? Can we effectively mentor and build connections between the several generations of archivists currently in SAA? How can we improve transparency and engagement with members without overburdening archivists at a time when we all feel overburdened? Can we make engagement easier, more enjoyable, more active? How can we enact justice, first within our own organization and then outward?

I believe all of this is possible, if we are willing to have the hard conversations, if we upend old ways of doing things that our members say aren't working, if we listen to those members and then take action. Organizations dislike change—their nature is to be self-perpetuating, even at the cost of their own members. But change is possible. I believe we can challenge, question, maintain, and nourish SAA all at the same time. This is our professional organization, and it is made of us. It can be what we want it to be if we are willing to do the work to make it so.

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