Recorded Sound Section 2017-2018 Election Nominee Biographies

SAA Recorded Sound Section 2017/2018 Elections

Nominee Bios and Statements

Vice Chair/Chair Elect 

Sarah Cunningham: Sarah Cunningham is the Audiovisual Archivist at the LBJ Presidential Library branch of the National Archives (2003 – present) and is on the faculty at the Graduate School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches the Introductory and Advanced classes in Audio Preservation.

Cunningham’s work revolves around digitization projects, the preservation and transfer of vintage audiotapes, system upgrades, the storage of information and digital delivery of audiovisual recordings.

Her areas of expertise are the preservation of archival analog media and digital solutions for the preservation of audio and video recordings on unstable media. Interests include forensics for digital audio recordings, media archeology and the tools needed to keep digitized recordings connected to their analog existence.

Newsletter

Elizabeth Strong: I am a Master's student in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing a career in archives after having completed a doctorate in linguistics at Purdue University in 2010. I am currently working on a project to digitize and develop metadata for a collection of early 20th century disc recordings of Texas dialect elicitations, Texas German interviews, and other linguistic recordings. I am also serving the community as an Inventory and Item Metadata Intern for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image; as a volunteer in the Collections Department at the Institute of Texan Cultures at the University of Texas at San Antonio; and as a member of the Schertz, Texas Historical Preservation Committee. I am experienced in evaluating and editing academic writing, having served as an abstract reviewer for the National Communication Association Student Section from 2008-2009, as an article reviewer for the Purdue Linguistics Association Working Papers in 2008, as a freelance copy-editor for graduate students at Purdue University, and as a former writing tutor in the Learning Skills Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I have worked as an adjunct instructor in education at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, South Dakota and have spent the past seven years as a full-time K-12 educator. I am passionate about sharing knowledge with communities and about the opportunities that recorded sound collections afford for exploring recent history from different angles.

 Web Liaison 

Steering Committee 

Jolene Beiser:  I am currently working as the Project Archivist for the Cornell Hip Hop Collection at Cornell University's Rare and Manuscript Collections, leading the work on an NEH grant-funded project archiving the Afrika Bambaataa Hip Hop Archive, which includes approximately 600 cubic feet of primarily audiovisual materials. Prior to this project, I worked for six years as an archivist at the Pacifica Radio Archives. I have been active in the Recorded Sound Section (formerly Roundtable) since 2012, and served as the 2013-2014 Chair and Web Liaison since 2014. I have presented my work at SAA’s 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Annual Meetings, and the 2013 and 2015 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Conferences. I wold like to be a Steering Committee member in order to continue to help the Section run smoothly and contribute my knowledge and experience in any way that's needed.

Eric Cartier: I have been active with the Recorded Sound Section for a few years now, and I would like to continue to contribute once my position as Chair concludes. I work with audio recordings in an academic library on a daily basis, and I keep up with current archival articles and music news, and this SAA section is of great interest to me. Please consider electing me to the 2017-2018 Steering Committee.

Danielle Cordovez:  To continue service with the Recorded Sound Section!

Jesse Johnston: Jesse is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland's iSchool, where he teaches digital curation and preservation and is affiliated with the Archives Research & Collaboration Lab and the Digital Curation and Innovation Center. He is also a program officer for preservation and access at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He was one of the principal organizers in 2016 of the NEH's "Play/back" symposium, a meeting devoted to starting collaborations to advance the work of audiovisual preservation. He previously worked with sound collections in the Rinzler Archives at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and taught ethnomusicology at Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan–Dearborn. 

I served as a steering committee member and web liaison for the recorded sound section in 2012-13, and I am interested in rejoining the steering committee. I would like the section to explore the possibility of helping SAA to release a position statement on audiovisual preservation, which is critical and affects many archives that hold hybrid collections. Even though these materials are highly vulnerable, they often get lost in the processing fray when other materials are prioritized due to staff expertise, institutional priorities, and other concerns. I'm also based in DC and would look forward to helping craft a program for the section that builds on this year's success.