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Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2024 Archives Management Section election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.
You will be voting for:
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
The following candidates are running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect position:
Head, Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections and Inteirm Head, Univeristy Archives and Historical Collections, Michigan State University
Leslie Van Veen McRoberts (she/her) is the Head of the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections at Michigan State University. She has served as the Interim Head of University Archives and Historical Collections since the fall of 2022. Prior to joining MSU, she served as the Local History Archivist at the Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University, a Processing Technician at the Walter Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, and the Eastern Michigan University Archives. She earned a Master of Science in Historic Preservation with a Historic Administration concentration from Eastern Michigan University, a Master of Library and Information Science and a Graduate Certificate in Archival Administration from Wayne State University. She has been active in SAA since 2013, previously serving in leadership roles for both the Women Archivists Section (WArS), and Manuscript Repositories.
The Archives Management Section is dedicated to providing clear values and opportunities for managers in various stages of their careers all the while cultivating accessibility, delivery and equity among our repositories all while navigating change. We are all faced with similar challenges across the profession; including, diminished workloads and resources. Currently, Leslie is a member of the AMS Steering Committee, as vice-chair/chair elect, she would provide continuity, and perspective to the role to help maintain the section’s leadership which is critical to the mission. Supporting current as well as future archives managers to succeed in their careers as well as the repositories they serve is crucial to fostering new and innovative ideas. I have relied on the AMS section to support a space for idea-sharing and networking. I hope to continue this momentum. I believe that at all stages of our careers mentorship is needed; to be encouraged and supported by our colleagues and administrative partners.
The following candidates are running for the Secretary position:
Jessica Harden
Collections Unit Manager, Archives of Michigan
Jessica Harden is the collections unit manager at the Archives of Michigan where she’s worked since 2011. Prior to becoming the collections unit manager in 2022, she worked as a reference archivist and state government records archivist. Jessica holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree with a graduate certificate in archival administration from Wayne State University and was a member of the 2022 Archives Leadership Institute cohort.
I am excited by the notion of stepping into professional service by joining the Archives Management Section steering committee. Archives managers face unique challenges and I would love to help provide opportunities for communication, resource sharing and collaboration across the profession. My interests as a steering committee member would be helping to plan virtual events to facilitate connection between section members as well as looking at ways to expand the resources available on the section website.
The following candidates are running for the section steering committee:
Collections Management Archivist, Brandeis University
Elizabeth Mubarek is the Collections Management Archivist at the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections at Brandeis University Library in Waltham, Massachusetts. She has served in this role since September of 2022. Elizabeth holds a Master of Arts degree in Public History from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a professional certification in Arrangement and Description through SAA. While at Brandeis, she is also working towards completion of a Master of Science degree in Project and Program Management. Elizabeth has been a member of New England Archivists (NEA) since 2016 and a member of SAA since 2019. She currently serves on SAA’s Key Contact Subcommittee for District 1, as well as on the Editorial Team for Descriptive Notes, the blog of SAA’s Description Section.
At Brandeis, Elizabeth’s role involves performing collections management activities for both University Archives and Special Collections materials, including collections surveys, accessioning, storage, maintaining control files, and managing the physical transfer of new collections to the department. She also develops and executes priorities, plans, and other acquisition activities for special collections materials. Previously, she held the role of Archivist at Lexington Historical Society in Lexington, Massachusetts, an organization with which she served for over eight years. During that time, she was responsible for the care of all archival collections spanning over 250 years of Lexington’s rich and diverse history, handling public access through monitored research visits, digitization, and the creation of an online collections presence. With the construction of a new, state-of-the-art collections repository in 2019, she managed a large-scale collections move, which included inventorying and rehousing all collections in preparation for their transport to this new facility.
I am interested in joining the Archives Management Section Steering Committee because I strongly agree with their mission to identify management issues that are relevant to all archivists and archives, regardless of the varying types and sizes of institutions that exist. As I have now had experience as both the sole archivist at a local historical society, as well as a team member at a larger university archives, I hope to use my varied experience to build on and learn from the work already being done by the Section leaders and members. As an archivist dedicated to professional development and continued learning within the field, I believe that my focus on project management and efficient archival workflows could be an asset to the Archives Management Section. I would be interested in actively engaging in the community discussion, as well as learning from others within the archival community.
The work of this Section is especially important to me because I have seen firsthand how important it is to have a team or community to be supportive advocates for archival work and workflows. I also believe strongly in the importance of staying up to date on archival trends and best practices, as well as building awareness of the social and cultural responsibilities of the field as we consider ways to better our archival administration.
Head, Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University
Michelle Sweetser is the Head Librarian for the Center for Archival Collections (CAC) at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). Before joining BGSU in 2016, she served as the University Archivist at Marquette University (2004-2016). Sweetser has held numerous volunteer and elected positions throughout her career, including serving as chair of SAA’s Membership Committee, as well as the Privacy and Confidentiality, Acquisitions and Appraisal, and College and University Archives Sections and on Council and as Vice-President of the Midwest Archives Conference. She currently serves as a member of the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board, as a member of SAA’s Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment (CORDA) on the Research Forum Team, and as the co-chair of the Educational Planning Committee for the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA). Her research interests include archival description, the use of technology to improve workflows, and the impact of caregiving upon the archival profession. A member of the 2012 Archives Leadership Institute cohort, Sweetser holds an A.B. in Anthropology from Dartmouth College and an MSI from the University of Michigan.
In the nearly eight years that I’ve served as head of the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University, I’ve come to understand many of the challenges and opportunities faced by archival managers, and more specifically middle managers. While there are many differences between repositories - including staffing levels, budgets, institutional culture and context – we face many of the same issues, including personnel issues, change management, resource allocation, backlogs, and more. The role of an archives manager can be isolating and at times overwhelming, as our own time and energy are finite. I’ve benefitted personally from insights and advice from a network of trusted colleagues that I have come to know through my workplace and professional service, as well as the resources offered by this section. I would be honored to give back to this community, to serve amongst the leaders of this section in providing informational resources and helping to foster the personal relationships that allow individual managers to move forward in their roles with confidence.