2015 Election and Candidate Information

This year we are electing a Co-Chair (2-year term with a possible 3rd year on the steering committee) and 3 steering committee members (each for a 3-year term).

Candidates for Co-Chair

Arcadia Falcone 

As Discovery Metadata Librarian at Yale University, I focus on transforming and enhancing metadata to improve user discovery. Previously I worked on metadata for digital collections at the Harry Ransom Center and the Bancroft Library. I hold a MSIS with a specialization in Archives, Metadata, and Digital Collections from the University of Texas at Austin.

Statement of Interest: Having been a member of the MDOR Steering Committee for the past year, I would like to continue to serve the interests of roundtable members by providing venues for communication and collaboration around metadata issues. As manager of the @mdor_tweets Twitter account, I have sought to share a wide range of news and information regarding digital object metadata from both within and beyond the archival sphere. I would welcome the opportunity to expand these efforts to foster fruitful connections among ideas, projects, and people, in order to support sharing commonalities and learning from divergences across metadata and archival communities.

 Candidates for Steering Committee

Matt McEniry   

Matt McEniry is a Metadata Assistant Librarian at Texas Tech University working mostly with the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library producing item level metadata for their manuscript digital collections. Matt has presented and published on digital preservation as it relates to video games.

Statement of Interest: As a metadata librarian which works with and describes digital objects daily, I’m very interested in contributing to this roundtable through the steering committee. I’m also eager to learn from and network with other professionals in the field of metadata and digital object processing and believe that serving on the steering committee will expose me to these opportunities.

Aaron Speight  

With roots in the profession creating metadata and digital objects for the Arizona State Museum, then interning as a metadata and digital objects validator for the Arizona Memory Project, Aaron Speight has finally come to the point in the profession where he manages a collection of digital objects at Truman State University.

Statement of Interest: I, Aaron Speight, am interested in serving on the MDOR steering committee.

Melissa Torres  

I’m a native Iowan with an MSIS from UT-Austin. I live in Houston, Texas and have been an archivist and/or metadata and digitization specialist for about 10 years, mostly in academic libraries. I subsist on Twitter and coffee.

Statement of Interest: I have been working at the intersection of archives, libraries, and digital humanities for my entire career. Ten years ago, I began my professional career as a lone arranger at a museum and archives, and after moving into academic libraries, where I focused exclusively on special collections metadata, I am now once again on my own as the University Archivist at the University of Houston-Downtown. Here I created an archives from scratch and manage parallel digital and physical collections. I am very interested in primary source literacy and creating meaningful access to digital collections through good digitization and metadata creation. I’ve served on the Joint Committee between Archives, Libraries, and Museums, as well as with the Technical Services Discussion Group for RBMS. In both of these roles, I see my service as helping to disseminate information and increase shared knowledge among the professionals who create the metadata. I believe MDOR is a vital part of supporting metadata creators and curators in seeking knowledge and collaboration, profession-wide. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work on the roundtable.