Nominees for Chair
Jennifer Day, CA
Archivist, The City of Oklahoma City Clerk’s Office
Bio:
I have been in the archival field since graduation from the Library and Information Studies program at the University of Oklahoma in 2005. At that time I began working for the Oklahoma Historical Society in the Manuscripts Division. I assisted in their move into a new facility in 2007 and became head of the Manuscripts Division at that time. In 2009 I gained my certification with the Academy of Certified Archivists after testing at SAA in San Francisco.
In December of 2012 I began my current position in the City Clerk's Office for the City of Oklahoma City. Frances Kersey, the City Clerk, saw the need for records preservation and a centralized records facility. I am the first archivist to work for a municipality in the state of Oklahoma.
I was elected as Secretary for the Society of Southwest Archivists in 2012 and have just begun my second term in that office. I attended the Archives Leadership Institute in 2013.
The City of Oklahoma City Clerk’s Office has just been awarded NHPRC funding for a basic processing project that would process and create finding aids for 1200 cf of records in the Clerk's Office. The long term goal for my position is to create an archival facility that will house the records of all City departments that are on a permanent retention, and will operate a public research room, this grant project is the first step to meet that goal.
I am heavily involved with my local archivist community and work closely with Jan Davis, the Administrative Archivist at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.
I am very dedicated to the preservation of government records, I recently chaired a session at the Society of Southwest Archivists 2014 annual meeting on the importance of government records in historical research with New Orleans Parrish archivist Irene Wainwright and Amy Cannon, former City Archivist for San Antonio.
Statement of Interest:
If elected I will facilitate more involvement of local government archivists in SAA and regional archival organizations. I will also coordinate with Dave Evans of the Government Records Section of SAA to continue the work of a survey project to identify holdings of local government records. As an archivist working in the City Clerk’s Office, I am also a member of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks and ARMA. It is my hope that the LGR Roundtable can increase its membership and bring professionals with diverse backgrounds into the work we are doing.
Nadia Dixson
City Archivist, City of Somerville, Massachusetts
Bio:
I became the first full-time archivist of the City of Somerville, Massachusetts in 2012. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and literature from Portland State University and Masters Degrees in archives management and history from Simmons College. I began working for the City of Somerville in 2008 as Records Management Clerk, and my position has grown with the city’s current programs in open government and data driven governance. I have been a member of SAA since 2009, and have managed the Local Government Roundtables Facebook group since 2013.
Statement of Interest:
Becoming active in SAA’s Local Government Roundtable helped me to establish the archives and records management program of the City of Somerville. As members of local government, we are frequently asked what other counties, cities, and states are doing to address the issues we face. The opportunity to speak with archivists who face the same challenges is an advantage I hope to extend beyond the annual meeting. As chair I hope to find ways to make the roundtable more interactive to increase its value to its members, and to identify future projects.
