2019 Election: Candidate Statements

2019: Candidate Statements

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for the 2019 Description Section election. Please read below for candidate biographies and statements of interest.

You will be voting for:

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect

One (1) Member-at-Large

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidate

The following candidates are running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect position:

Katie Duvall

Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress

Biography:

Katie Duvall has been an Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives since early 2015 where she has worked to update and document description standards. She will be transitioning to a position in the Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress in June 2019. Previously she was an Institutional Archivist for the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, CA where she was responsible for managing the records management and archival needs of one of the Trust’s five programs. Katie earned her MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA in 2011 and a BS in Film from Boston University. She was on the Steering Committee for the Privacy and Confidentiality section of SAA from 2016-2018 and was a member of the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section’s working group on access to electronic records in 2014-2015. She also served on the local arrangements committee for the Society of California Archivists in 2011-2012.

Statement of Interest:

As an archivist who processes collections, manages processing, and has also worked through multiple data migrations at the National Anthropological Archives, evaluating quality and consistency of description has been a major part of my work. In addition, working at a repository that holds a great deal of collections that document American Indian populations, the ideas around developing description standards that are more equitable and inclusive are at the forefront of my mind, especially with the recent adoption of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials by SAA. If elected to the position, I would be excited to support discussions surrounding these issues and contribute to the continuing work of the Description Section.

Julia Stringfellow

Professor, University Archivist, and Library Department Chair, Central Washington University 

Biography:

Julia Stringfellow received a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2002. She has been a member of SAA since 2002 when she first joined as a student. During her membership with SAA she has served in the Key Contact Program, Mentoring Program as both a mentee and a mentor, and the Regional Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC). She became a Certified Archivist in 2011. Stringfellow served as vice-president and then president of the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists from 2012-2014 that included planning and overseeing the 2014 annual conference. She has presented at several conferences including CIMA, NWA, SAA, and ALA. Stringfellow has served in her current role of Professor, University Archivist, and Library Department Chair since 2015. She was previously an archivist at Boise State University.

Statement of Interest:

 As an archivist who began arranging and describing collections pre-DACS and then as those descriptive standards were emerging and adopted, I have witnessed the necessity of having descriptive standards to aid in the consistency of arrangement and description and how they also enable collections to be more discoverable and accessed. The archives discipline is ever-evolving and adapting to meet the needs of describing born-digital records in addition to those in traditional formats. As vice-chair of the SAA Description Section I would hope to contribute to the group’s strong work in the sharing of information and ideas and continuing the work of providing clear description standards in meeting the needs of our archives’ patrons.   

Member-at-Large

We have three candidates, Anna McCormick, Elizabeth Russell, and Helice Koffler, running for the Member-at-Large position:

Anna McCormick

Librarian for Archival Arrangement and Description, New York University

Biography:

Anna McCormick is currently the Librarian for Archival Arrangement and Description at New York University. She oversees the arrangement and description work, sets policies and best practices, develops goals and metrics to evaluate work, and helps plan and set priorities for long term processing projects. She has previously worked as Collections Management and Reference Archivist at the University of Hong Kong, and as an archivist for a United States Senator. Anna has an MA in History from American University and an MLS from Florida State University. She also earned a Digital Archives Specialist certificate in 2017, and became a Certified Archivist in 2018. While she lived in Hong Kong Anna was a member of the Hong Kong Archives Society and served as Archivist for the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch.

Statement of Interest:

Arrangement and description have always been my favorite parts of working in archives, and I feel very lucky that as my career progresses I have been able to specialize more in these areas. I am interested in the ways we can use archival description to best promote discovery of and access to collections and would like to contribute to the work the Description Section is doing in these areas and others. After living abroad for several years, I’m excited to have the opportunity to become more involved in SAA and to have greater opportunities to meet with and collaborate with other archivists in general. I think the Description Section is a natural fit for me due to my professional experience, interests, and current job duties.

Elizabeth Russell

Associate Archivist, Providence Archives for the Sisters of Providence and Providence Health & Services

Biography:

I am currently Associate Archivist for Providence Archives, the archival repository for the Sisters of Providence and Providence Health & Services in Seattle. Previously I worked as Washington State Jewish Historical Society Archivist for the Washington State Jewish Archives at the University of Washington, and as the founding archivist at Tacoma Community College (Tacoma, Wash.).  After receiving my BA from the University of Washington, I earned my MA in Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University. Switching career paths, I received my MLIS from the University of Washington. I am a Certified Archivist. Currently, my professional service includes membership in SAA’s Technical Subcommittee on Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning and an appointment as Membership Coordinator for Northwest Archivists.

Statement of Interest:

Description is at the core of what we do as archivists. It is vital that we maintain description standards while embracing innovative tools, technologies, and systems that can facilitate descriptive work, enhance collection management, and enable researchers to find and contextualize information. I would like to serve as Member-at-Large for the Description Section Steering Committee in order to support the productive exchange of information about archival description standards and procedures, challenges and opportunities in descriptive work, and the development and use of systems and tools.

Helice Koffler

Processing Archivist, Shubert Archives

  Biography:

Helice Koffler is the Processing Archivist for the Shubert Archive. Prior to this position, she worked at the University of Washington in Seattle as Manuscripts and Special Collections Cataloging Librarian. Other past employment includes stints with the New York Public Library, King County Archives, and Fales Library, New York University. Helice received a B.A. with a double major in Art History and English, as well as an M.A. in English from Hunter College, City University of New York. She earned her M.L.I.S. at the Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University. Helice is a Certified Archivist and also has had significant experience as a freelance archival consultant. She has been active with numerous professional and scholarly organizations. Helice is the current co-chair of the SAA Performing Arts Section and has previously served as co-chair of the Women’s Collections Roundtable and on the steering Committee of the Manuscript Repositories Section. She also is a member of the

Theatre Library Association’s Executive Board and has been involved with the American Theatre Archive Project (ATAP), a national grassroots initiative dedicated to assisting active performing arts companies with the preservation of their legacy.

Statement of Interest:

Having worked to provide access to archives and special collections materials as a processing archivist or cataloger in many different settings, I would be honored to become more involved with the Description Section by serving as a Member-At-Large. I am especially interested in trying to address the challenges we all face as archivists in incorporating principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion into our descriptive standards and practices as we try to create more equitable access to archival records.

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