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Biography: Jennifer Mitchell is Head of Manuscripts Processing at the Louisiana State University’s Hill Memorial Library. Jennifer supervises the processing of manuscripts collections and for the last year has been working on a project to improve the documentation and description of hidden collections in advance of the implementation of ArchivesSpace. Prior to coming to LSU, Jennifer worked as an Archives Assistant in Special Collections at Virginia Tech. She currently serves as the Louisiana Liaison for the Publications Committee of the Society of Southwest Archivists. Jennifer holds a Master of Arts in History from Virginia Tech and a Master of Library and Information Science from Wayne State University.
Candidate Statement: The Description Section and groups like it give archivists with similar experiences and interests the opportunity to get together and compare notes. These opportunities can prove to be invaluable experiences both in terms of learning new things but also reinforcing existing practice. The increased professionalization of archival work has led to efforts aimed at the standardization of descriptive processes. Standardization of archival description can only help our users to become more comfortable with the usage of archival materials as their encounters with archives become less mysterious and intimidating. As the heir to legacy finding aids and inadequately described materials I have understood exactly how easy it is for collections to remain hidden from our users. Making our collections more accessible is at the very heart of the mission of archival institutions and good description is the key to access. I would appreciate the opportunity to serve as the Vice-Chair/Chair Elect in order to more fully participate in the activities of the section and learn more about the exciting things coming up on the horizon.
Biography: Chrissy Rissmeyer is the Metadata Librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Chrissy holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to joining the UC Santa Barbara Library, she was the Digital Projects Metadata Coordinator at the Boston Public Library and a Metadata Cataloger for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s digital archive program.
Candidate Statement: I highly value the work of the Description Section and would appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community by serving on the Steering Committee. Over the last few years I have collaborated with my archivist colleagues on a variety of projects including a major migration of legacy archival description into Archivists’ Toolkit, the development of best practice guidelines to support the efficient creation and reuse of archival description, and numerous digitization projects. As a metadata librarian, I work with a variety of descriptive standards and believe that standards are a key part of making archival data more discoverable, accessible, and reusable. I look forward to the opportunity to support the work of the Section, and to collaborate with colleagues to explore innovative and sustainable approaches to description.
Biography: Katrina Windon is the Photograph Archivist for the University of Nevada, Reno’s Art Department. Before moving to Reno, she served as a Project Archivist with the Governor’s Papers Project at a consortium of Oregon universities. Katrina received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012, and has been a Certified Archivist since 2013. While at UT-Austin, Katrina interned with the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, as well as worked on projects for the Lower Colorado River Authority Corporate Archives. Now in her third year as a professional archivist, she hopes to become more involved in SAA and section leadership.
Candidate Statement: As new standards and procedures for archival description are discussed, trialed, and implemented, information-sharing between section members is crucial. As the Description Section's Secretary, I would be committed to keeping detailed minutes of annual section meetings to ensure that all section members, even those unable to be present, would have equal access to this important resource. I am eager to contribute to the leadership of the Description Section, which has been a key resource in my own professional development, and I would also look forward to the opportunity to work with other Steering Committee members to serve the section membership, and to manage elections and contribute to the sustained governance of the section.
Biography: Tracy Jackson is the Processing and Digital Archivist for Seton Hall University, where she has been for two years. At Seton Hall, she started and is overseeing the Overhaul Project, an inventorying project aimed at creating basic descriptive records for all collections held in the Archives and Special Collections Center. She presented a poster describing this project at the 2013 SAA meeting in New Orleans. In addition to this project, she has created and documented new workflows for processing collections and creating DACS-compliant EAD finding aids, been closely involved with creation and revision of policies and procedures in the Archives, and worked with the Cataloging Department to create MARC records for archival collections for the first time. In 2011 she received her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also worked as the William R. Ferris Processing Librarian for the Southern Folklife Collection and a Graduate Assistant in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives. She is currently serving on the SAA Theodore Calvin Pease Award subcommittee, and has served on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archivists Conference (MARAC) 2013 Philadelphia Program Committee.
Candidate Statement: I believe strongly in the importance of good, standardized archival description to our profession, as the force that balances the competing demands of preservation and access. I’m extremely interested in the application of descriptive standards to day-to-day archival work, particularly as both standards and relevant technologies evolve. Over the past few years, I have focused on processing and descriptive workflows designed to increase both public access to collections and description and internal control over materials, by creating and continually revising procedures and documentation and working with archives and library staff to communicate and improve these workflows. My work at Seton Hall has allowed the description of nearly 100 hidden collections to be made available online in several ways, and I am continuing to explore methods and tools to leverage new and existing description. I would relish the opportunity to be more directly involved with the ongoing work of the Description Section Steering Committee, assisting in the development and promotion of descriptive work.
Biography: Ryan Lee is the curator of 19th Century Mormon and Western Manuscripts at Brigham Young University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections in the Lee Library. He has held this position since September 2013. Prior to working at BYU, he was an archivist and metadata specialist at the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City from 2008-2013. Ryan received a BA in American Studies and US History from Utah State University in 2002 and an MLS with a specialization in Archives and Records Management from Indiana University in 2006. Ryan is an active member of the Conference of Intermountain Archivists (CIMA) where he has served as a council member (2012-2014), a member of the local arrangements committee, and is currently serving on a committee to revise the organization’s handbook. He is also a Certified Archivist as of 2011.
Much of Ryan’s experience has been related to archival description and its standards. As a graduate student at Indiana University in 2005-2006, he received a merit scholarship from the School of Library and Information Science where he worked as a full-time EAD encoder for the Indiana University Archives and the Lilly Library, the university’s special collections. As a metadata specialist at the LDS Church History Library, he was responsible for researching and training the staff on descriptive standards, including EAD and DACS, and mapping data from a locally-made legacy descriptive system to one that was more closely aligned with national standards. He also helped in designing a software tool for creating EAD finding aids according to regional standards and served on the Church’s metadata standards board. Over the years, Ryan has become very well versed in EAD, DACS, and MARC, and has had exposure to several archival and library metadata standards.
Candidate Statement: In running for member-at-large in the Description Section of the Society of American Archivists, I look forward to being a part of the leadership that will shape the descriptive standards for archivists in the United States and globally. I am well-grounded in the primary archival descriptive standards, including EAD and DACS, and have exposure to several other metadata standards, including MARC, Dublin Core, PBCore, TEI, METS, MODS, and others. I believe this background will help me be a voice in this organization as we try to move these standards into the 21st Century and begin to deal more with changes in records description and access as a result of emerging technologies and their effects on the record as we know it. I believe the keys for us as archivists to manage this challenge are two-fold: education and flexibility. Description is at the core of what we do as archivists, and we need to educate ourselves and be well-versed in descriptive standards that affect our field to be an influence in managing and preserving records of historical value in the digital age. Our descriptive standards also need to be ever-evolving to meet the needs of records as they change with the technologies of our day, and we need to be aware and be willing to adapt to changes as they occur, as well as be proactive or foresighted in anticipating necessary changes. Description and access has been the passion that has driven me throughout my archival career, now spanning eight years, and I look forward to any opportunity to be involved in the further development of archival description as we move into the 21st century.
Biography: Elizabeth Surles is Archivist at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. Prior to joining the Institute, she was Digitization Archivist and then Library Director at the American Alpine Club Library in Golden, Colorado. She formerly worked as a Graduate Assistant at the Sousa Archives and Office of Collections at the University of Illinois, where she earned master’s degrees in musicology and library and information science and a certificate in special collections. She has volunteered for the University of Illinois SAA student chapter, the American Music Research Center at the University of Colorado, the New York Public Library, and the Wayne County Historical Museum. Before her time in Illinois, Elizabeth served as the Starr-Gennett Foundation’s Project Coordinator in Richmond, Indiana. She holds a bachelor's degree cum laude in music and history from Lawrence University.
Candidate Statement: My interest in becoming a member of the SAA Description Section Steering Committee stems both from my belief in the centrality of description in serving both users and the profession as well as from my research interests. Description is the core archival function for providing access to collections. Improving descriptive access to collections increases their usefulness and in doing so, offers archivists use-based evidence to advocate for the value of archives. Beyond my belief in the importance of description, I am currently researching issues related to standardized description of archival music materials. Using the results of my research, I hope to collaborate with fellow archivists to establish best practices for description of music materials as a supplement to DACS. Also, as an early career archivist, I hope to represent the perspectives of both new and soon-to-be archivists while serving as a member of the Steering Committee.
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