2016 Elections

Thank you for participating in the 2016 election for the International Archival Affairs Roundtable (IAART). We are holding elections for two open positions:

•   Junior co-chair – Two year term (one year as junior co-chair, and one year as senior co-chair)

•   Member-at-large – Three-year term

Please read the candidate biographical statements below, and then vote for one candidate for each position by July 20, 2016.

Thank you again for voting in this year’s election!

IAART Steering Committee (Danielle Scott Taylor, Ryder Kouba, Christopher Laico, Katharina Hering and Susanne Belovari)

Junior co-chair

Daniel Necas

Candidate Statement/Biography:  

  Candidate Statement:

I am interested in running since as an archivist and curator I have experience working with archives, libraries, and repositories in the United States, Latin America – primarily Mexico – and Spain. This in large part stems from my work directing the Primeros Libros Project, an international effort to digitize and make available 16th Century New World materials. Being collaborative, this project shares skills and expertise across 5 countries ultimately to make materials discoverable and accessible for research and instruction as well as building a type of cultural patrimony. A second source of international engagement is collaborating with colleagues, under the auspices of a CLIR Hidden Collections grant, from the Hemeroteca Nacional de México and theBiblioteca Clavigero at the UniversidadIberoamericana, (Mexico City) to develop templates for students to enter basic metadata for archival materials from colonial and early independent Mexico.  

 Through my roles and membership in professional organizations intersecting, such as SALALM’s Subcommittee on Digital Primary Resources, I am positioned to reach a broad network engaged in archival and library work.

Biography:

I am a Certified Archivist and curator / archivist at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives (Texas A&M) where I work with the Colonial Mexican, Texas & Borderlands, and Ragan American Military History collections. While I work with and process primary documents, I am also committed to the creation and use of digital tools to display rare and archival materials to broaden their discovery, accessibility, and use. To that end, I have been a co-PI in several projects that have been funded by the Council on Library Information Resources (CLIR), The Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I also have had substantial roles in mounting exhibits at Cushing Library concerning the First World War (2013-14), Cervantes / Don Quijote (Summer 2016), and Texas (Fall 2016) and selecting materials for the The Battle of the Bulge / Texas Aggies Go to War at the Bastogne (Belgium) War Museum (2015-16). 

Margarita Vargas-Betancourt

Candidate Statement/Biography:

Margarita Vargas-Betancourt is the Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Collections at the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida. After obtaining a B.A. in Hispanic Literature and Language from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she received a fellowship from Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) to pursue graduate school at Tulane University. There she obtained a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies. Her past studies have originated keen interest in the study of colonial Mexico, indigenous cultures, theatre and ritual, and her current job has resulted in interest in the Caribbean, its economic, social, and political history. As the Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Collections at the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida, Margarita Vargas-Betancourt is in charge of processing Latin American manuscripts and of serving as liaison and reference to faculty and students.   She is currently Co-PI in the Florida and Puerto Rico Digital Newspaper Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Digital Newspaper Program, and she is rolling off as co-chair of the Society of American Archivists’ Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Archives (LACCHA) Roundtable. In her tenure as LACCHA’s Co-Chair, along with LACCHA colleagues, she developed the webinar series Desmantelando Fronteras/Breaking Down Borders. The series has served to strengthen ties among US, Latin American, and Caribbean archivists.