2013 Election and Candidate Information

The Nominations Committee this year includes:

Kimberly Anderson

Adriana Cuervo

Jaimie Quaglino

A call for nominations was sent to the section membership in May with June 1 as the response deadline.  The section’s by-laws stipulate that all nominees, including self-nominations, are entitled to run for office. The Chair Elect (write-in candidate) will serve as Section Chair in 2014-2015 and Past Chair in 2015-2016.  Two seats for the section’s steering committee will be filled for the 2013-2015 term. Steering committee members serve two years and may be re-elected for an additional term.  

Electronic balloting will begin in July and will be conducted by SAA staff. Biographical information and responses to questions were submitted by each candidate.  

CANDIDATE FOR VICE-CHAIR/CHAIR-ELECT

Write-in Candidate

CANDIDATES FOR STEERING COMMITTEE

Candidate for the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section Steering Committee – Bethany Anderson

Bethany Anderson is a Visiting Archival Operations and Reference Specialist in the University Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she appraises, arranges, and describes the born-digital and analog records of UIUC’s College of Engineering and conducts oral histories with its faculty. She holds a master’s degree in Information Studies with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. She has also worked at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan and Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at UT Austin, where she contributed to a NHPRC grant-funded project to uncover “hidden” collections. As a member of the Society of American Archivists and the Midwest Archives Conference, she has served as a bylaws committee member for the Women’s Collections Roundtable and is currently co-chair of the organizing committee for the Midwest Archives Conference’s 2014 Fall Symposium. In addition, she will serve as the SAA Publications Board Intern, August 2013-2014. 

What do you bring to the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section Steering Committee?

I’m currently interested in the ways archivists can better provide access to archival materials related to science and technology and how current appraisal practices influence the writing of this history. In particular, I’m examining appraisal considerations concerning how changing communication and research practices in digital environments are yielding new formats of material, especially related to research data and datasets. The large influx of data produced by scientists and engineers creates unique challenges and opportunities for archivists to develop acquisition and appraisal policies that address the complexity of managing “big data.” This is not unique to science and technology, however, as archivists managing social science datasets or email can attest. Given the issues I am currently exploring, I hope to add to and generate discussions within the Section in order to address such challenges and propose practical solutions and best practices. As a Steering Committee member, I will advocate the development of online resources and collaborations with other SAA groups, such as the College & University Archives Section and the Electronic Records Section. The donor brochures yielded by the recent collaboration between the Manuscript Repository Section and the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section is a testimony to such a successful partnership. Indeed, I fully believe our collective responsibility as stewards of cultural heritage should continue to give rise to collaborations across the SAA membership, which are key to both the Section’s growth as well as its ability to provide useful resources for its members. 

What would you like the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section to do in the next two years?

Over the next two years, I would like to see the Section’s continued involvement with other groups as well as the development of resources for its members and sessions at the Annual Meeting. Since the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section is an important forum for archivists to grapple with the disparate theories of appraisal that inform practice, I would especially like to see the Section’s continued interest in creating online resources, such as for born-digital acquisitions and appraisal tools. In order to formulate best practices and online resources that account for the multiplicity of perspectives of the Section’s members, the Section should promote meaningful discussions and provide guidance that address the concerns of such members as lone arrangers or those who are managing specific subject-based material, such as women’s history collections or science and technology archives. By generating discussion of case studies, providing online resources, collaborating with other SAA groups, and promoting workshops on acquisitions and appraisal, I think the Section can continue to successfully meet the challenges archivists are facing.

Candidate for the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section Steering Committee – Heather Soyka

Heather Soyka is a doctoral student and teaching fellow in the Archival Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences. Prior to this position, she was the assistant university archivist and then head of preservation for Texas Tech University. Primary duties as assistant university archivist included responsibility for appraisal and accessions, campus outreach, and records scheduling for a large state university system. She has also worked in a variety of archival roles for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Harvard University Art Museums Archive.

Heather has been an active member of SAA since 2005, and recently completed three years on the Distinguished Service Award Committee. She has served on several SAA roundtables, presented during the SAA conference each year since 2009, and has been an active participant in the IMLS-funded Archival Education Research Institute (AERI) for the past four years. She received a masters degree with concentration in archives and records management from Simmons College GSLIS, and expects to earn the PhD in Archival Studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 2014.

What do you bring to the Acquisition and Appraisal Section Steering Committee?

I believe that appraisal and acquisition decisions are among the most important concerns of professional archivists; essentially shaping the core of archival practice. As a professional archivist, I have been responsible for creating processes for appraisal and deaccessioning activities, policies, and training. As an archival educator, I have had the opportunity to discuss practical tools and and theory with students to help inform their future work in the field. I am excited by encouraging archivists to make thoughtful, effective, and even creative decisions about acquisitions and appraisal that work in concert with the support of institutions, donors, and societal needs.

What would you like the Acquisition and Appraisal Section to do in the next two years?

Appraisal and acquisition are essential professional practices that inform other areas of archival practice. Because these overlap with the interests of other groups, I would propose additional collaborations with other SAA sections and roundtables to develop best practices over the next two years.

I would also like to see more activities related to sharing useful models and templates for appraisal, and to disseminating information about appraisal practices. Depending on the interests and needs of the section members, this could take the form of mentoring, work groups, educational outreach, publications, or other related activities. I hope that this core area of archival practice can receive additional interest and attention over the next two years.