2020 Election: Candidate Statements

2020 Election: Candidate Statements

Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens! 

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidate

The following candidate is running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect position:

Kate Madison

Archivist, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Biography:

Kate Madison is an archivist in the Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress. Previously, she worked as project and processing archivist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and at the Senator John Heinz History Center’s Detre Library & Archives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds an M.L.I.S. with a specialization in archival studies from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences and an M.A. in early American history from the College of William & Mary. She has served as a steering committee member for both the Students and New Archival Professionals Roundtable (2016-2017) and the Native American Archives Section (2017-2018). She is also the 2016 recipient of SAA’s F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship and the 2018 recipient of the SAA Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for her article “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: The Use and Representation of Records in Hamilton: An American Musical.”

Candidate Statement:

Since entering the archives field in 2015, I have been drawn to the challenges of applying standardized descriptive practices to wide swaths of unique materials. Over my three years at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives, I processed collections of culturally significant anthropological materials, many of them in non-English and endangered languages. I also worked to assess and update legacy finding aids and catalog records. I am deeply interested in inclusive, respectful, and equitable description. As Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, I would support the current Chair in executing the business of the Section and supporting the valuable discussions and projects the Section contributes to SAA. I would also be interested in deepening conversations with other SAA sections (such as the Native American Archives Section and the Diverse Gender and Sexuality Section) to expand our understanding of equitable and inclusive descriptive practices.

Secretary Candidate

The following candidate is running for the Secretary position:

Will Clements

Public Policy Papers Archivist, Princeton University

Biography:

Will Clements is currently Public Policy Papers Archivist at the Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University. In this role he processes personal papers and organizational records in the Public Policy Papers, which comprises a number of collections documenting United States public policy, diplomatic history, and international development. Will’s current work at Mudd also includes co-leading the migration of Princeton Special Collections descriptive metadata into a new ArchivesSpace instance.

Previously, Will was Digital Projects Archivist at Washington State University’s Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation, where he managed descriptive metadata of digital cultural heritage materials on behalf of a number of Native American tribes and nations in the Northwest. Will obtained a Master of Science in Information Studies from the University of Texas School of Information in 2017.

Candidate Statement:

As a new archival professional, I am keen to get involved with service in the structure of SAA. In particular, the Description Section feels like a natural fit, as so much of my current and previous jobs have involved managing and creating descriptive metadata. With many professionals in the field looking critically at the cultural and political dimensions of archival description, this section seems like a vitally important force in SAA and the field more broadly. As secretary, I would bring experience with the administrative aspects of working groups and committees, a fresh commitment to professional service, and an interest in critical discussions about archival description.

Member-at-Large Candidates

The following candidates are running for the Member-at-Large position:

Megan Badgley-Malone

Collections and Outreach Archivist, Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections

Biography:

Megan Badgley-Malone is the Collections and Outreach Archivist at the Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections.  She coordinates tours, teaches introduction to archives sessions, manages social media, answers reference inquiries, and arranges and describes archival collections.  Megan earned a MLIS and a certificate in Archival Administration from Wayne State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and History from Saginaw Valley State University.   She completed the SAA Arrangement and Description certificate, and serves on the National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives committee.

Candidate Statement:

In my ten (10) years of experience arranging and describing archival collections, and providing reference assistance, I have seen the impact description has on researchers.  Good description facilitates access, and provides researchers with a positive experience using archives. It is imperative for archivists to keep up with changing descriptive practices and accepted terminology, and to maintain a high level of quality and consistency in our work.  I am interested in serving as a Steering Committee Member-at-Large to assist with the section’s important role in providing a setting for archivists to share their expertise and offer guidance. 

Kelly C. Bolding

Project Archivist for Americana Manuscript Collections, Princeton University Library

Biography: 

Kelly Bolding is currently the Project Archivist for Americana Manuscript Collections at Princeton University Library, where she has worked since 2013. While her primary responsibility is the arrangement and description of manuscript collections related to American history in the 18th and 19th centuries, she is also closely involved with born-digital processing, digital preservation, audiovisual digitization, and management of descriptive metadata. She chairs the Inclusive Description Working Group, which is developing local guidelines for remediating oppressive legacy metadata, conducting a large-scale description audit, and coordinating redescription projects. Previous service in SAA includes terms as an Editor and Team Leader of the Electronic Records Section blog (bloggERS). Other professional activities include co-authoring Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Resources and participating in the DLF Born-Digital Access Working Group. She holds an MLIS from Rutgers University (2016) and a BA in English Literature from Reed College (2011), and has worked previously at the New York Public Library and the Reed College Library.

Candidate Statement:

As an archivist whose career has largely centered around arrangement and description, I am interested in contributing to the work of this section which has been an important resource for my own professional practice. I have been a member of the Description Section since I joined SAA in 2015, and I had the opportunity to speak about anti-racist description work at last year’s section meeting. One area I would be particularly interested in exploring as a member of the steering committee is finding additional ways to support initiatives to confront racist, sexist, homophobic, and other types of oppressive archival description that are emerging from so many institutions and communities. I would also welcome the opportunity to contribute to discussions around descriptive standards and to advocate for standards that are in line with the new DACS principles’ commitment to archival description as an “ethical, iterative practice that requires continual engagement with core values” and that centers users and promotes transparency.

Alexandra (Lexy) deGraffenreid

Processing Archivist, Penn State University 

Biography:

Lexy deGraffenreid is the Processing Archivist for Penn State University. Since becoming the processing archivist, she has collaborated with the Head of Collection Services to write the new Processing Manual and to push forward with anti-racist and reparative arrangement and description practices. Prior to Penn State, she worked as a Staff Archivist for the History Factory and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Information in 2015. She has recently served SAA as a member of the Students and New Archives Professionals (SNAP) Steering Committee.

Candidate Statement:

An archivist whose primary responsibilities include assessing the current state of archival description and overseeing arrangement and description at Penn State, Lexy is excited to become more involved in the Description Section as a Member-At-Large. She is excited to continue the work of the Description Section in evaluating current standards to ensure that principles of diversity, inclusion, and reparative practices become standard archival practices throughout the profession. She also is looking forward to continuing to promote the Description Section Documentation Portal so that institutional manuals can be shared and referred to by other archivists seeking examples for writing their own institutional workflows or as examples of industry practices.

Lara D. Friedman-Shedlov

Digital Records Archivist, University of Minnesota Libraries

Biography:

Description and Access Archivist for the Kautz Family YMCA Archives, a collecting unit of the Archives and Special Collections Department of the University of Minnesota Libraries, since 2002. In transition to a full-time role as Digital Records Archivist for the Archives and Special Collections Department (currently 25% time).  Co-chair of the UMN Libraries' Electronic Records Management Group. Member of the Libraries’ DEI Leadership Committee since 2010 and co-chair since 2018.

Lara received her B.A. from Vassar College and her M.L.I.S. from the University of Michigan. She was among the first cohort to earn SAA's Digital Archives Specialist certification in 2013. When she's not working she can usually be found dancing (she teaches and performs several traditional dance forms from England and Scotland) or performing feats of strength at the gym.

Candidate Statement:

As Description and Access Archivist for the Kautz Family YMCA Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries for the past 18 years, description is my primary responsibility and interest.  I have served in a number of leadership roles with regard to description over this time, including coordinating implementation of EAD at the University of Minnesota Libraries, leading a project to develop principles around diversity, equity and inclusion in metadata, and serving on our department-wide Description Group.  I am currently transitioning to the role of Digital Records Archivist for the UMN Libraries Archives and Special Collections department, and issues around description will continue to be an important aspect of my work.

I have previously served on several committees for MAC and RBMS, and was a member of the joint SAA/ACRL-RBMS Task Force on Standardized Holdings Counts and Measures.  I have been following the work of the Description Section throughout my career and would very much like to be more involved.  I am currently not an individual member of SAA but I serve as the contact for the University of Minnesota, which is an institutional member.  I believe I am eligible to serve on that basis.

Andrew Harman

Archivist, Center for American War Letters Archives at Chapman University

Biography:

Andrew Harman is a Certified Archivist working with the Center for American War Letters Archives and the Huell Howser Archives and California’s Gold Exhibit in the Leatherby Libraries of Chapman University in Orange, California. He graduated from Chapman with a BA in History, with a Political Science Minor in 2015. One year later he was the first student to graduate with a MA in the newly formed War and Society program, 2016.

Candidate Statement:

Andrew began earning hands-on experience in the archival field while attending Chapman, where he learned the skills of archival arrangement and description within the same repositories he now manages. During this time he has published several articles and papers in the field of history as well as the archival profession. His current duties managing the war letters archives has led him to consider descriptive practices and their various institutional standards, leading to his publishing of “Bio/Historical Notes: How Much is Too Much?” in the Winter 2019 edition of Descriptive Notes, the Description Section quarterly newsletter. He looks forward to working with the section’s steering committee to get more involved in the archival community and continue to analyze descriptive standards, and institutional variances, to inform and lead the Society of American Archivists in understanding how we describe our collections.

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