Election 2020

Open Positions

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect – 3-year term, August 2020 – August 2023
Steering Committee Member (2 seats) – 3-year term, August 2020 – August 2023

Candidates

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect

  • Sara Rogers (she/her)

Steering Committee Member (2 seats)

  • Faith Charlton (she/her) [candidacy withdrawn]
  • Valencia L. Johnson (she/her)
  • Jenny Korns (she/her)

Statements to Voters and Biographies

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect

Sara Rogers 

Sara Rogers is a Digital Archivist and ACRL Diversity Alliance Resident Librarian at the Frances Loeb Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She received her Master of Science in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. As her library’s first digital archivist she is responsible for creating a program for processing born-digital materials, stewarding the library’s web archives program, and researching the preservation of complex digital design files for a grant based project. Additionally, she assists with the management of public services in the library’s reading room and as a result is aware of the need to create access solutions that are scalable across collections, user friendly, and require minimal staff intervention. Sara also brings six years of records management experience that continues to help her work closely with project stakeholders - donors, users, IT services, and other library workers.   Sara is particularly interested in collaboration and outreach. If elected Vice-Chair, she envisions taking the following courses of action over the next three years: continuing the outreach efforts of the Electronic Records Section to graduate students, resident librarians, and new professionals in order to continue to demystify working with born-digital content and to make it clear that ERS is a community interested in hearing new voices; contributing to and helping coordinate the creation of resources that are helpful to those managing digital objects for the first time and to long term practitioners; and seeking out collaborations with other SAA Sections to share expertise/resources and build communities of practice.   In Sara’s experience the ERS community is one filled with archivists and digital preservationists who are generous with their time and resources. She is excited to have an opportunity to share her ideas and thanks you for your consideration. 

Steering Committee Member (2 seats)

Valencia L. Johnson

 As an archivist who primarily work with university student organizations, I have relied on the expertise of this group for years. I feel that I am now in a position to give back to this wonderful community. I’ve had the fortune to work on several projects that dealt with the description, access, management, and preservation of digital content and the intersection of all the above. With my background in project management and outreach, I will be able to support the continual effort of the section’s Resource Project team. In addition to sustaining the welcoming environment of the section to new members, especially our early-career colleagues.   Valencia is a certified archivist and holds an MA in Museum Studies from Baylor University. Her work includes building outreach programs, exploring how archives can improve access, and empowering people to preserve their histories for themselves. In addition to her involvement with the Society of American Archivists (SAA), she is also involved with several cooperative organizations, including Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia, Project STAND, and the Archival Workers Emergency Fund.

Jenny Korns

I intend to actively contribute to ERS projects if I am selected to be a member of the Steering Committee. Having worked for a number of small not-for-profit archives in the arts, I believe I could offer the Steering Committee a different perspective. I am particularly interested in digital preservation strategies that are accessible to institutions with limited funding and IT support. With those institutions in mind, I would advocate for initiatives that seek to increase awareness of low barrier workflows and tools for processing born-digital materials.

Jenny Korns is the Digital Archivist at Hauser & Wirth Institute, a nonprofit private operating foundation dedicated to art historical scholarship and to the preservation and accessibility of artists’ archives. Ms. Korns received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.S.L.I.S. from Pratt Institute School of Information. Prior to joining Hauser & Wirth Institute, Ms. Korns worked in a number of roles pertaining to artists’ archives. She served as Archival Assistant to artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation. Ms. Korns was the Archivist at the American Academy in Rome, where she managed the organization’s institutional archives. She also worked at Franklin Furnace Archive in a variety of positions, including Digitization Specialist for a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Program Coordinator for its grant program for performance artists, and Digital Archivist for a video digitization project funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources.