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Thank you to all of the candidates for the 2022 Description Section election. Please read below for candidate biographies and statements of interest.
You will be voting for:
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
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-managing Princeton Special Collections’ 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.
Statement of Interest
With many professionals in the field looking critically at the cultural and political dimensions of archival description, the Description Section is a vitally important force in SAA and the field more broadly. As Description Section Secretary these last two years, I’ve had a chance to learn how the Section is leading in this area, as well as how forging connections between SAA Sections and governance can strengthen the field and the organization. I’ve also gained familiarity with the ongoing day-to-day administrative work of the Section, its goals over the next several years, and the excellent work of the Descriptive Notes blog team. I feel confident that as Vice Chair and eventually Chair, I can help steward the Section’s current goals and bring them forward. In addition to my time on the Section, I bring experience leading and supporting working groups and committees in Princeton Special Collections.
Phoebe Nobles is a Processing Archivist at Princeton University, where she describes material for the University Archives. She serves a number of groups centered on inclusive and reparative description–the Inclusive Description Working Group, the Indigenous Collections Working Group, and, as co-chair, Princeton University Library’s Inclusive and Reparative Metadata Working Group, which is exploring and applying alternatives to Library of Congress subject headings. She has worked for the University Archives since 2016, when she was a part-time temporary archivist. She became a laid-off temporary worker mid-2020, and returned full-time in 2021. She has an MLIS from Simmons College, an MFA from the University of Michigan, and a BA from Barnard College.
Statement of Interest
Working with cataloging colleagues on subject headings lately gives me a fresh appreciation for the opportunities we have to address past, present, and future practices in archival description–especially when we collaborate across workplaces in a group like the Description Section. As we embrace the momentum in our field around reparative and inclusive description, I hope we can make change on the ground. I am particularly interested in reparative as well as user-centered practices of description. The Descriptive Notes blog is an encouraging, engaging development. As I continue to learn from colleagues in this profession, I hope to contribute to the work of the Description Section, to take an active part in its discussions and to support the section as Secretary.
Kate works as Head of Special Collections at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As head of a small department, she does a little bit of everything: leads collection development efforts, delivers instruction, works in public services, and contributes to descriptive decision-making efforts with her team. Recent milestone accomplishments include leading a successful migration to the ArchivesSpace PUI for user access, and collaborative work with the AV archivist to revise acquisition and accessioning procedures for AV and digital content. Kate holds a Master of Information Science degree from SUNY Albany, and earned the Digital Archives Specialist Certificate from SAA in 2018.
Statement of Interest
My interest in the member-at-large position comes from my desire to increase my involvement in SAA and engage meaningfully with colleagues in archives and related fields around issues related to description. I began my career in a processing role, directly creating and revising archival description and implementing descriptive standards. Now, as Head of Special Collections for a small repository experiencing growth, (additional resources, staffing, new technologies, a building renovation on the horizon) I find that my work to shape and revise our local descriptive practices intersects with all areas of archival management. The descriptive decisions we make impact everything: user access and discovery, collections management, re-description efforts, and even resource allocation. I am passionate about leveraging our systems to support efficient, resource-appropriate descriptive processes and I love to learn how other institutions and individuals approach different descriptive challenges, from AV description to systems integrations. I hope to serve the Description Section as member-at-large to connect and contribute meaningfully to the field.
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