Candidate Statements for the 2019 Section Leadership Elections

Candidates for Co-Chair (2019-2021)

Alison Anderson, MLIS, CA

Senior Processing Archivist; Harvard Property Information Resource Center

Biography and Candidate Statement:

I am currently the Senior Processing Archivist at the Property Information Resource Center (PIRC) in the Harvard Planning Office, where I have worked for the last twelve years. The PIRC is the main repository for Harvard’s building and land records and supports capital-level construction and campus planning at Harvard. As the Senior Processing Archivist, my role involves appraising, arranging, and describing all collections, which include architectural drawings, maps, photographs, property agreements, reports, and books. In addition to being involved in every aspect of archival processing, I am also responsible for the continued maintenance of data once it is in our collection management system. I have been involved with numerous collection management projects to enhance metadata and improve access, including data reconciliation, collection imports, and a large-scale digitization project. I hold an MLIS from Simmons College in Boston, I have just enrolled in SAA’s Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) certification process, and this past year, I sat for and passed the Certified Archivist exam.

My broad interests include finding innovative solutions for enhancing metadata, discovering efficiencies in workflows, and creating connections across collections to improve user experiences. More specifically, I am interested in the preservation issues surrounding digital design records as the architecture community starts to push for fewer hard copy donations. I am also interested in building and strengthening relationships with members of the design community to show that there is intrinsic value in the records created in the design and construction process and not just the physical building.

For these reasons, I would like to be considered to serve as co-chair on SAA’s Design Records Section.

Karen Jamison Trivette

Head of Special Collections and College Archives; Gladys Marcus Library, Fashion Institute of Technology

Biography:

Associate Professor Karen Jamison Trivette is the Head of Special Collections and College Archives (SPARC) in the Gladys Marcus Library at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a part of the State University of New York; she is the first incumbent to hold this position and has served in this role since 2008. She holds a Master of Library Science with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from the University at Albany (New York) and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from UNC-Chapel Hill (North Carolina). She has worked primarily in art libraries and art archives (including the Albany Institute of History and Art; the Clark Art Institute Library; and the Museum of Modern Art Archives) except for an over three-year post at the New York State Archives where she primarily advised practitioners on archives and records management matters. She served the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) as its Vice President (2016-2017), President (2017-2018), and then as Past-President (2018-2019). She has presented at many conferences, both national and international in scope, the most recent of which was held in Radenci, Slovenia (April 2019). She recently co-wrote a chapter for The Fashion Forecasters (2018) and edited Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style (2015), sourced completely from SPARC holdings. Along with her husband-archivist, she co-hosts a weekly podcast entitled, “An Archivist’s Tale,” which has the mission of giving voice to archivists. She currently serves SAA on its Regional Archival Associations Consortium representing ART and on SAA’s American Archivist editorial board. She is a member of the International Council on Archives, SAA, and ART and recently oversaw a $4 million-dollar renovation of the entire SPARC footprint, bringing it to a state-of-the-art condition for its valuable holdings.

Candidate Statement:

Hello! I am Karen Trivette and I am running for the Co-Chair of SAA’s Design Records Section. I have dedicated my professional archivist and librarian life to working with records of a design nature, my current position being the most challenging and rewarding. I am an Associate Professor Librarian and Head of Special Collections and College Archives at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), State University of New York; I have held this position for nearly eleven years. While holding this position, I have developed deep knowledge of many design areas in FIT's curricula—especially communication design, interior design, and of course, fashion design. Design of many kinds engages me, the study of which filters into my personal life as well. I take full advantage of design-oriented sites when I travel, have been a member of DoCoMoMo US/NY Tri-State chapter since 2001, and have amassed a design-centered library of my own. One of my most prized possessions is Russel and Mary Wright's Guide to Easier Living. I would be privileged and honored to serve SAA’s Design Records Section as its Co-Chair and I appreciate your vote.

Candidate for Steering Committee (2019-2022)

Aliza Allen Leventhal

Assistant Section Head, Technical Services; Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Biography and Candidate Statement:

Aliza Leventhal is a passionate member of the design records archival community. As the co-founder, former chair, and continuous member of the Digital Design Records Taskforce (formerly CAD/BIM Taskforce) she has continued to push the profession’s conversations and thinking about the future collecting practices of design records that contain both analog and digital materials. Her research and professional engagement has focused on lowering the barrier to entry and encouraging archivists to join the design records community. She has worked with design records for a local government office, an academic museum, an active international firm, and now at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. She has also revamped and co-taught the SAA course “Managing Physical and Digital Architecture, Design and Construction Records”.

Through her diverse set of experiences, as well as her extensive writing and presentations, demonstrates that Aliza is concerned about and familiar with the variety of perspectives and needs of design records collections for the myriad of institutions stewarding those records. If elected, as a member of the Steering Committee, Aliza would focus on continuing to build the community of the Design Record Section and identify opportunities to support the needs of its members from methods of communication to leveraging the research being conducted by the Digital Design Records Taskforce.  

Candidate for Web Liaison (2019-2021)

Julia Diane Larson

Reference Archivist; Architecture and Design Collection at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Biography and Candidate Statement:

I have been a member of SAA since 2015, and a member of the Design Section for the last few years as well. I recently graduated from San Jose State University MLIS program with an emphasis in Archival Management and Data Curation, and I have been working as a reference archivist since 2016. Previously, I worked at the UCSB Library as a staff member in the Course Reserves department, with a focus on digital media.

The Architecture and Design Collection (ADC) is one of the largest architectural archives in the country-- we have over 250 collections (with close to 2 million items) of architectural drawings, renderings, photographs, project files, furniture, and models-- with an emphasis on 20th century Southern California architecture. We only collect architecture and design related materials, so my focus is very much on design and architectural plans. Since I am the only archivist on staff, my work takes me in many different directions-- I am the processing archivist, reference archivist, acquisitions archivist, and digitization archivist. This allows me to work with the specific problems of large architectural drawings-- space/storage concerns, preservation of physical and digital items, and access to physical and digital materials. I also created an online exhibition website to highlight some of our popular collections: http://www.adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu/. As Web Liaison, I would work towards improving the content on the Design Records Section site on the SAA website, adding content and updating links, as well as keeping up with any task force related materials.