2016 Election and Candidate Information

This year we are electing a junior Co-Chair (2-year term, second year as Senior Co-Chair, optional third year as steering committee memeber). Additionally, we will be filling 2 steering committee member positions (each for a 3-year term).

Voting for Co-Chair and Steering Committee membership is separate; votes in one area do not apply to the other.  For those candidates running for both positions, the one with the most votes for Co-Chair will be dropped from consideration for the Steering Committee.  

Candidates for Co-Chair:  

Deborah Gayle got her MSLIS from Drexel University in 2013.  Prior to that, she worked at Auckland City Archives and on mass digitization and metadata creation projects at Scion in New Zealand.  Deborah now work as an Archives Technician in Research Services at the National Archives in DC.

My primary interest throughout working on my MSLIS was metadata and its use in providing access to records.  The use of metadata in providing access to digital materials, photographs in particular, is one of my main focuses.  Having worked extensively with digital and digitize photographic collections, I have spent many hours trying to determine the best keywords, subject headings, and other user-defined metadata to ensure that users will be able to find the photographs they need.

I have always worked with databases, particularly museum and archives collection databases, and have been fascinated with the creation of metadata for access.  Working with digital/electronic and digitized records is the future of archival practice.  For this reason, and because of my own interest, I concentration on digital asset management and electronic records during my MSLIS, using all of my electives to build my knowledge of current practices.  I also just completed a cross-training assignment in the Electronic Records section of the National Archives (NARA), which provided a lot of insight into how NARA makes its electronic records available to the public.

While I don't generally have a lot of opportunities in my current position to create metadata or work with electronic records on a regular basis, I hope to move into a position where I get to on a regular basis.  Working with this committee as Junior Co-Chair will allow me the opportunity to share my past experiences and knowledge of metadata and digitization, and to learn as much as possible from all of the members of the MDOR Roundtable.

Deborah is interested in either the Co-Chair or the Steering Committee position. You may vote for her for Co-Chair, steering committee, or both. 

Martha Alvarado Parker was the Librarian-In-Residence from January 2012 through June 2015 at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she is now the Digital Services Librarian.  Martha is a Mexican-American and has lived in both countries at various periods in her life. She has evolved through three careers: careers: primary education educator for 5 years, business executive for 16 years, and librarianship for the last 5 years.  She received her DAS Certificate in April 2016, and has had the honor to serve in several national level committees:

• ACRL's Diversity Committee-Chair from 2014-2015
• REFORMA's Organizational Committee and New Chapters - Chair from 2013 to present
• IRRT's International Visitors Center's member since 2012 to present.  I am the current co-chair
• SAA member since 2015
• ArLA- Arkansas Library Association member since 2012

My drive is to learn as much as I can to provide the greatest service at my institution as the Digital Services Librarian.  Realizing that the only constant in my life and in this digital profession is change; I am interested in interacting and collaborating with others who would like to improve the profession. Please review this link which includes an article about me http://acrl.ala.org/residency/?p=4104

Candidates for Steering Committee:  

Laurel McPhee is the supervisory archivist at UC San Diego Library, Special Collections & Archives Program. Her career has spanned big university research libraries (she started out at UCLA), public libraries (an Air Force base library in Germany) and small museums. Laurel's foundation in cataloging and description has served her well throughout a variety of positions.

My archives work has always involved a significant metadata component—planning digitization projects, building digital objects, and cataloging images. When I’m crafting finding aids and working with my team, I always encourage creative “downstream” thinking about our descriptions and how the metadata we create for collections can be repurposed and linked across platforms. Now, more than ever, my program is involved with ingesting content into our Digital Asset Management System (UC San Diego is a Hydra partner) and fruitful collaboration with our Digital Library Development Program. I’m glad to have the opportunity to broaden my participation in the archival metadata community and help foster cross-institutional learning and knowledge sharing.

Blake Graham is an archivist with 5+ years of experience in archives and special collections. Blake holds two masters degrees, which were completed after a six-year stint in the Marines. Since moving to Colorado in 2013, he has enjoyed advancing the mission of Douglas County Libraries.

I have kept abreast of discussions in the MDOR Discussion List, as well as LinkedIn conversations, for many years, and I would now like to play a proactive role in the roundtable's activities and progress forward. I have a background in academic archives, city museums, and public library special collections, and have exploited learning opportunities about metadata and digital objects in many different subject areas. Most recently, I attending DigCCurr Institute and iPres Conference in 2015-2016 in hopes of bringing international discussions on digital objects and digital curation to a local level. Similarly, I'm eager to begin helping the roundtable coordinate events and promote educational opportunities to those who are interested. Although I'm willing to help in any area of need, I would like to help with publishing the newsletter. One idea i have is to create a calendar of events in the newsletter or on the Roundtable's home page, and I would be thrilled to monitor and contribute ideas and activities to this calendar. I look forward to the nomination results, and hearing how I can further the mission of MDOR. Thank you in advance for the consideration.