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Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
Hillary Bober, CA
Dallas Museum of Art
I have been the Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art for almost 8 years. As the only staff in the archives, my duties run the gamut of archival tasks, from processing and digital projects to reference services and records management. Prior to coming to Dallas, I was the Assistant Archivist at the Cleveland Museum of Art for 7 years, working primarily on processing and web projects. I received a MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh (2002) and a BA in Archaeology from the University of Minnesota (2000); I became a Certified Archivist in 2007 and received the DAS certificate in 2014. I am completing a term on the SAA Standards Committee and have previously served on committees of regional archives associations.
I would like to serve the Museum Archives Section to support and promote museum archivists and all archivists working in a museum setting. Communication and collaboration within the section and with the archival community is important so we can learn from other’s activities and be inspired by their accomplishments. This is a field I have been a proud member of for 15 years and the section is the perfect place to continue my professional service.
Recording Secretary
Tara Laver
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City
I became the archivist at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City in January, having spent the previous 20 years of my career in university archives and special collections. As a new member of the Museum Archives Section, I am excited to become involved with its activities, make new professional connections, and expand my knowledge and develop further expertise in this particular brand of archival work. Serving as secretary and a member of the Steering Committee seems like the perfect way to advance these goals.
Before coming to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, I held the position of the Head of Public and Research Services at the LSU Libraries’ Special Collections from May through September 2017. In that role, I was responsible for developing and implementing policies and procedures for the reading room, providing reference service and in-depth research assistance to local and remote patrons, providing instruction and outreach for the collections, supervising departmental staff, and curating exhibits, among other duties. Before that, I had been Curator of Manuscripts at LSU since 2000, with responsibility for acquiring, overseeing, and promoting the use of the historical document collections found in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections. From 2011-2013 I also served as Interim Head of the LSU Libraries Special Collections, and as such was responsible for all aspects of administering the Libraries’ rare book, historical manuscript and photographic collections, and the University’s archives, as well as activities such as reference and public service, processing, digitization, exhibitions, and outreach for the collections. Prior to my tenure at LSU, I was the University Archivist at Delta State University, Cleveland, Mississippi (1997-2000).
From 2013 to 2015, I co-directed an NEH grant to digitize materials related to free people of color that are held at LSU and in several New Orleans repositories. I have also been active in the Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association and the Society of Southwest Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, and the Academy of Certified Archivists, and recently joined the Kansas City Area Archivists and the Midwest Archives Conference. In addition, I have authored articles on archival and library topics, as well as works of historical documentary editing. I received both a BA (1994) with a double major in history and broadcast journalism and MLIS (1996) from LSU, as well as completed graduate coursework in American history, and have been a certified archivist since 2004.
Web Liaison
Rachel Panella
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
I am an emerging archives professional in the North Texas area. A 2015 graduate from the University of Texas at Austin; I served in several roles at archival and museum repositories in and around the University. I was able to parley my experience at these institutions into a posting as the Librarian and Archivist at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Concurrently, I served as project archivist at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, digitizing special collections as part of a grant funded initiative to bring all of their holdings online. In this role, I digitized 11,000 pages of primary documents for ingestion into the museum’s collections management system. At the end of the grant period the Amon Carter brought me on full time as Technical Services Librarian and Archivist, recognizing the tremendous quantity and quality of work accomplished in such a short period.
Both positions helped me to understand the unique responsibilities and obstacles that work as a museum archivist entails—the need to wear many hats, multitask, and find innovative solutions to problems in a cash tight non-profit environment. Many of us are either lone arrangers, as was the case in my position at the Modern, or must straddle the line between archives and libraries, as my current position dictates. In addition to these challenges, we must continue to be advocates for our work in libraries and archives, touting our essential role in research and scholarship at our institutions. My experience in advocacy positions me ideally to serve as Web Liaison for the Museum Archives section of the Society of American Archivists.
Ryan Evans
Bard College
As Archivist at the Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, Ryan Evans performs processing, reference, and instruction for manuscript and institutional collections in all formats for a master's degree program and contemporary art museum. Ryan holds an MS LIS from Pratt Institute, an MA from Columbia University in Modern Art, Critical and Curatorial Studies, and a BA from Boston University in Art History and French. He has been an active member of SAA’s Museum Archives Standards and Best Practices Working Group since 2012.
Newsletter Editor
Katrina T. O’Brien
World of Speed
I am the Archivist & Collection Manager at World of Speed motorsports museum just outside Portland, OR where besides managing the physical and digital collections, I also manage the WoS Archive Blog with collection highlights, collection-related articles, interviews, and other exhibit-connecting materials, as well as providing Collection-related collateral for print, digital, and social media. I also copyedit articles for the Journal of Western Archives. You may also see my handwork as SAA host committee article liaison and writer for the 2017 preliminary report and related Outlook articles. Prior to working in museum archives for the last five years, I have been a content developer which covered nearly every aspect of editing, alongside my work as a project archivist.
Past Elections
