Candidates for the 2022-2023 Member-At-Large Runoff Election

Melissa Lawton

Archivist for Collections Management, Special Collections & Archives, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University

Bio:

 I am currently the Archivist for Collections Management at Northern Arizona University, where I oversee and coordinate donor relations, acquisitions, appraisal, deaccessions, loans, rights management, environmental controls, and space management. Prior to joining the NAU Special Collections and Archives team in March 2022, I was the Archivist, Librarian, and Records Manager at the Museum of Northern Arizona from 2018-2022 and Photo Research and Permissions Librarian at History Colorado from 2013-2018. I earned my MS in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archival Studies from Drexel University in 2012 and BA in Anthropology and History from the University of South Dakota in 2008.

Candidate Statement:

After working in museum archives with various roles for a decade, transitioning into a purely collections management role in a university archives is an exciting time for me professionally. I'm very interested in exploring the practices and issues around accessioning, acquisitions, and appraisal more closely, and becoming involved in this section as a steering committee member to connect with peers with similar duties and interests will allow me to contribute to SAA and the profession. 

The addition of accessioning to this section not only makes sense in the grander scheme of archival work, but I think offers a chance to study the intersections of these integral tasks. I welcome the opportunity to utilize my practical experience to serve this section, which has become one of the most relevant to me in the day to day work that I do, and help continue integrating and expanding upon the work already done by leaders of this group. 

Meg Rinn

Assistant Archivist, Bridgeport History Center

Bio: 

 Meg Rinn is the assistant archivist at the Bridgeport History Center, part of the Bridgeport Public Library, where she wears many archival hats including appraisal, arrangement, description, and digitization.  She serves as the vice-chair of the New England Archivists Inclusion and Diversity committee and is a co-founder of Archives and Special Collections Connecticut (ASC-CT) and recently co-authored Nothing About It Was Better than a Permanent Job: report of the New England Archivists Contingent Employment Study Task Force, a study focused on the impact of contingent employment on archival workers in New England. 

Candidate Statement:

Working as an archivist in a public library, acquisition and appraisal has a different shape and texture compared to other repository types.  My interest in joining acquisitions and appraisals comes from this perspective, and the understanding that our profession’s attempts to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive archives starts at acquisitions and appraisals.  As we are expected to be the first to examine material and determine the historic value and the appropriateness for our institutions, we must always consider what stories are being told or hidden, and the choices that we make at the outset impacts the rest of the archival process.  I am also looking forward to becoming more active in SAA as a whole.