Eira Tansey, Candidate for Council Member

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

I am excited to run for Council to give back to an organization that has been a source of support throughout my career. I have a long record of service within the Society of American Archivists starting with my involvement in the San Jose State University SAA Student Chapter, Annual Meeting local host committee (New Orleans, 2012-2013), Communications Task Force (2012-2013), election to Nominating Committee (2014-2015), various roles including Chair of the Records Management Section (2014-2018), and the Committee on Public Policy (2018-2021). I have also previously served several times as a conference panelist, conference navigator, mentor, Archival Outlook author, and American Archivist author and reviewer.

I am the founder and manager of Memory Rising, LLC. Memory Rising provides research, consulting, and archival services for cultural and humanities institutions and other organizations. My areas of expertise include climate change, environmental and labor movements, and Ohio Valley regional history. Prior to founding Memory Rising, I worked in academic libraries as a professional archivist for fifteen years. I previously worked as Digital Archivist/Records Manager at the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library from 2013 to 2023, and in processing positions at Tulane University’s Louisiana Research Collection from 2008 to 2013.

I am a leading international expert on the impacts of climate change on archives, with extensive research, teaching, and community-building experience. My research has been profiled in Nature, VICE, Pacific Standard, and Yale Climate Connections, and I’ve written for a wide variety of archives, history, and environmental policy journals. My most recent publication is A Green New Deal for Archives.

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

My enduring concerns for both climate justice and labor justice deeply shape my thinking on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the archives profession. Archives face two existential and intertwined issues: ensuring appropriate staffing and preparing for climate change. Climate change poses immediate and long-term risks to archives including fires, floods, hurricanes, sea-level rise, and geographic relocation. Just as climate change disproportionately impacts marginalized communities that have contributed the fewest carbon emissions, climate change will disproportionately impact small archives, community archives, less resourced archives, and archives that exist outside of predominantly white institutions. Working class communities and communities of color are on the front lines of climate change-related displacement. The archival records of these communities must be prioritized and safeguarded as part of larger climate justice efforts. Archivists have also suffered from decades of underfunding, leading to precarious staffing models at most institutions. Inadequate staffing also makes archives more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, as there are fewer staff to undertake long-term planning or respond to the aftermath of a disaster. Recent research has indicated that precarious positions are becoming more widespread in the profession. While there has been growth in BIPOC archivist numbers, BIPOC archivists feel less included in the profession. It is vital that professional associations and employers prioritize retention as much as recruitment to ensure that the gains that have been made in diversifying the profession are not lost. In my previous position, I was an elected member of my union's executive council. Unions play a vital role in leveling the playing field for workers and reducing workplace exploitation. I am inspired by recent unionization campaigns among archivists and cultural heritage workers, such as the Minnesota Historical Society. Data from the field of librarianship show that being part of a union makes a major difference. According to the AFL-CIO, librarians who are union members earn 37 percent more per week than their non-union counterparts.

I believe there are major opportunities within SAA to address both of these issues, including:

• Building alliances with climate justice organizations on work related to memory, community history, and local recordkeeping policies 
• Advocating for expanded federal appropriations to grantmaking agencies with an emphasis on climate change adaptation 
• Developing workshops for archivists interested in pursuing unionization 
• Formalizing additional data gathering efforts like A*CENSUS II in order to gather more salary and workplace benefits data for benchmarking purposes

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 

The Society of American Archivists was founded in 1936. If an organization founded during the Great Depression has survived this long, it must have been doing something right for the last eight decades. Every generation of SAA members has faced their own unique challenges that shifted SAA's trajectory. Today, the increasingly precarious employment landscape for archivists has direct implications not just for archives but the health and vibrancy of our professional archival associations. When early career archivists are in precarious positions, they often do not have the time, resources, or workplace support to get involved in organizations like SAA. Furthermore, archivists who are in secure positions are often feeling squeezed and burnt out as their organizations often have fewer archivists on staff compared with the past. For this reason, among SAA's current Strategic Plan goals, I would prioritize Goal 1 (Advocating for Archives and Archivists) if elected to Council. Based on my experience serving on the Committee on Public Policy, writing A Green New Deal for Archives, as well as other archives-adjacent professional service, archivists need advocates from across the public and private sectors to ensure that our work is valued. SAA has a unique role to play in training and supporting archivists so that we can influence policy makers, funders, and business leaders to recognize the importance of having full-time and permanent professional archivists in every organization and institution. Events like Archives on the Hill are important functions that train archivists with skills they are able to use not just in the legislative sphere, but advocacy in many other settings. The Strategic Plan Goals 2 (Enhancing Professional Growth) and 4 (Meeting Members' Needs) are also connected with the stability of SAA in terms of what it offers to members and member participation. The A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey showed that many workplaces cut back on professional development funding during the pandemic, and it is unclear if those cuts will be restored. This obviously poses major issues for SAA, given the role that the annual meeting and continuing education plays in generating revenue for the organization.

I have previously written about the environmental and accessibility challenges of continuing to hold large in-person meetings. While the pandemic increased the use of virtual programming, the costs of creating hybrid programs are significant compared with in-person only events. However, shifting entirely to virtual programming is also not the answer. In-person events provide enormous benefits for early career and more isolated archivists in building professional networks. If elected, I would like to see Council prioritize a new model of gatherings that brings together the best of both in-person and online conferencing. This may look like alternating in-person and virtual gatherings, collaborating with the regional associations, or other possible models.

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