The 2019 Nominees for the MDOS Special Election

Arel Lucas

BIO: Arel Lucas is the Metadata & Digital Collections Specialist for the San Diego State University Library in their Information and Digital Technologies Department.  Prior to her 5-1/2 years at SDSU, Arel worked for United Airlines as their administrator for the digital asset management system containing their engineering drawings, and before that for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as Special Collections librarian and manager of their Aviation Safety and Security Archives.  Her Master's degree in Library and Information Science is from San Jose State University, her Bachelor's from Stanford.

STATEMENT OF INTEREST: As I do metadata I find I'm interested in just about every subject, but especially in metadata best practices, creating vocabularies (thesauri), and how to make metadata interesting, for instance by adding maps, or by placing digital objects in context to the extent time and resources allow.  I'm very grateful for the insights and situations described in postings to the Metadata and Digital Object Section and feel I should take my turn at administrative duties.

Carolyn Runyon

BIO: Carolyn Runyon is the Director of Special Collections at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) where she supervises and actively contributes to digital object creation and curation. Prior to joining UTC, she served as the Digital Collections Archivist at the American University in Cairo where she was instrumental in building a digital archive that documents the January 25 Revolution. Carolyn led the governing committee for the state of Tennessee’s DPLA service hub for two and a half years, and continues to serve as an active member of the group. She has also served as the Web Liaison for the SAA Collection Management Tools Section and Leader of the ArchivesSpace Users Advisory Council Reports Sub-team. Carolyn is particularly interested in leveraging metadata stored in archival management, digital asset management, and digital preservation systems to streamline workflows and enhance interoperability for archivists and researchers. She is also constantly investigating lean workflows and project management strategies for smaller institutions who rely on student and/or volunteer staffing to create, collect, and sustain digital objects.

STATEMENT OF INTEREST: I am interested in serving the Metadata and Digital Object Section (MDOS) as the co-chair inorder to foster communication and provide resources for all of us who are engaged digital curation. I have been working in archives with digitally captured and born digital objects for more than a decade, but more importantly, I am a responsive, committed, and organized leader. I know how to set and reach achievable goals through teamwork, communication, and consensus. I have a proven track record of gathering feedback and communicating shared missions and visions for professional committees on which I have served. I also have experience serving on several conference planning committees, organizing and setting agenda for regular meetings of professional committees with distributed membership, and publishing committee documentation such as meeting minutes, annual reports, strategic plans, and surveys in an effort to cultivate a culture of transparency. I am honored to be considered for the position of co-chair, and I hope that I can serve MDOS through outreach, planning, and collaboration.

Andrea Belair

BIO: Andrea Belair is currently the Librarian for Archives and Special Collections at Union College in Schenectady, NY, where she has been working since July. Previously, she was Archivist in the Office of the President at Yale University for the past five and a half years. At Yale, she co-chaired the Web Archiving Working Group. She was chair of the Education Committee for New England Archivists in 2018 until she moved out of the region as well, and she was the chair of the Records Management Roundtable for that same organization for term as well.

STATEMENT OF INTEREST: I would like to express my interest in the position of co-chair for Metadata and Digital Object Section Steering Committee for the Society of American Archivists. I work at Union College in Schenectady, NY, as Librarian for Archives and Special Collections, which is a faculty position that started in July of 2018. Before that period, I was Archivist for the Office of the President at Yale University for almost six years. There, I was co-chair of the Web Archiving Working Group. In terms of professional organizations, I have very much enjoyed my participation in the Society of American Archivists, but I haven’t been in an appointed position yet due to commitments in more regional-based professional associations. Until relatively recently, I was chair of the Education Committee for New England Archivists, and I was chair of the Records Management Roundtable for that same organization, both of which were approved by a vote of its Board. In addition, I was liaison for the Programming Committee for the Annual Meeting of 2018 in New Haven, CT.  I did enjoy my positions, but I moved out of the New England region when I accepted my new job. I would love to be involved with the Metadata and Digital Object Section Steering Committee for SAA because of its larger geographical reach, its professional demeanor, and its particularly important role in the development of the archival profession as a whole. I feel that I could bring a lot to the committee based upon my past experience with a broad range of activities, such as records management, or digital preservation and curation. I know, too, that I could learn a lot from involvement in the MDOS Steering Committee as well, since the area is constantly expanding and changing. I would value your consideration to be co-chair of the Metadata and Digital Object Section Steering Committee for SAA, and I would like to thank you for reviewing my application.