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Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2022 Issues & Advocacy Section election! Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.
You will be voting for:
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
The following candidates are running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect (or Co-chair) position (choose one):
Holly Rose McGee
Cataloger, Archives Planning & Operations, Warner Bros. Discovery
Biographical Information:
I have been archiving professionally for 13 years, and have worked in libraries on and off for the past 32 years. Through these years, I have worked at public libraries, college libraries, as a researcher in private and special archives and libraries, art galleries, book stores, in museums, academic institutions, at a radio station archive, and inside the entertainment industry. Along with these varied contexts, I have performed a variety of information profession duties, including cataloging, reference, shelving, conservation, digitization, archiving, policy formation, public outreach, and collaboration to create connections within institutions. I’ve worked with just about every format imaginable, from writing .xml instructions for an ingest package of .dpx files to a piece of cheese taped to an index card. Libraries and archives are my passion, and I feel compelled to constantly do the best work I can in order to honor the past as well as the future of our cultural heritages and records. Though I pride myself on a strong work ethic, my experience has also taught me that besides respect du fonds, to also respect the individuals and cultures who have created or will use and access the collections for which I am a custodian. I feel strongly about collaboration within the field, which is why I have and continue to aspire to mentor, publish, and present at a wide variety of professional and informal conferences.
Statement of Interest:
I grew up in a house of artists and collectors and thus was taught from an early age that all material is information and can hold meaning, from a group of rocks in a specific formation to a doctoral treatise on the Dada art movement. I also grew up with strong ethics in social justice and critical thought, so I’ve always been interested in raising up questions, issues, and especially voices and viewpoints that have been purposely or mistakenly silenced, particularly those of cultural minorities in the United States, such as Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx and Chicanos/Chicanas, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. Our histories can be nourishment for our future, and archives and archivists are an integral part of keeping our histories preserved and accessible for all who seek information. I have seen the deep value of communication, collaboration, and sharing amongst different workers in the profession as well as the public, and I feel like more involvement is always helpful. I hope I can be a help to both the profession and the public by being on the Steering Committee of the Issues & Advocacy Section of the Society of American Archivists.
The following candidates are running for the section steering committee (listed in alpha order – choose two):
Marissa Friedman
Digital Project Archivist, Bancroft Libribrary (University of California, Berkeley)
Biographical Information:
Marissa Friedman is a Digital Project Archivist at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. She received her MA in History (2017) from the University of California, Riverside, and her MLIS (2020) from San Jose State University. Her interests include labor issues in archives, Collections as Data, metadata and reparative description, and critical digital librarianship.
Statement of Interest:
As a relatively early-career professional (I graduated with my MLIS in 2020 after years of mostly unpaid internships or precarious, non-benefitted, or part-time employment), I am no stranger to many of the labor issues which plague our field. My interest in labor and advocacy issues spurred me to get involved as the co-chair of the Society of California Archivists' Labor, Advocacy, and Public Policy Committee, where I helped draft a salary transparency statement adopted by the organization; currently our committee is hard at work creating and gathering feedback on a Fair Labor Principles document. I also am a member of the Archival Workers Collective and have assisted with data collection and report writing related to the labor and health and safety conditions of archivists during this ongoing pandemic. All of these experiences, as well as the sense of community and mutual support I've found through professional service with my peers, are what motivates me to apply for a Steering Committee Member position for the Issues & Advocacy Section.
Jacqueline Devereaux Asaro
Archives Manager, Vanderbilt University
Biographical Information:
My name is Jacqueline (she,her,hers), and I am an early career archivist who is deeply interested in how we describe collections and support each other as colleagues in the profession. In my experiences across institutions in California, Texas, and most recently in Tennessee, I have been able to work in many environments with differing resources, staff numbers, and facilities in the past 3 years. My current work focuses on university archives - and I look forward to moving beyond complications in my own work to see how others in the field handle various obstacles.
Statement of Interest:
Before becoming an archivist, I worked in museum collections and curation. With the museum foundation, I see a different perspective in how museum collections are handling work in repatriation and sharing information with the public. I believe that considering how our section can connect outside the profession with other GLAM repositories may provide a richer picture of obstacles facing the cultural memory field. Understanding the daily work realities of our members is important to build on the work for boosting important issues to a larger number of people. With the excellent resources online, I would like to contribute to the Hive Mind series or expand the toolkits to address other concerns. On a personal note, I love using this section’s toolkits on advocacy!…I use the elevator pitch to explain to stakeholders (and my family) what an archivist is all the time! Considering how to best promote the profession as a whole and justify budgets, collection development decisions, and staffing is essential with the looming proliferation of digital born records. Integrating and acknowledging the issues in the profession will assist us in the future to better advocate for ourselves. I would be honored to serve in this section to grow my skill set and learn from the experiences of my fellow members!
