2019 Privacy and Confidentiality Election Ballot

2019 Privacy and Confidentiality Section Ballot

Positions to be Elected:

1.       Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. (term 8/2019-8/2020)

2.       Steering Committee (term 8/2019-8/2021)

3.       Steering Committee (term 8/2019-8/2020.) Note: This is a one year interim position that will complete the unexpired term of current Steering Committee member Rachel Gattermeyer).

Candidate for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect

Rachel Gattermeyer

Current position: Digital Archivist, University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center

Bio

Rachel Gattermeyer is the Digital Archivist at the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center. She currently serves as a steering committee member for SAA’s Privacy and Confidentiality section. Throughout her career, Rachel has worked in various archival settings where she promotes enhancing user experiences and developing online access to records. She holds her Masters in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Data Curation from the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign.

Statement

Privacy and confidentiality issues now, more than ever, take a central role in how archives ethically and legally function. We live in an age that both demands unlimited access to information and requires safeguarding of personally identifiable information. Archives need to find the right balance between access, security, and confidentiality. I pursue finding that ever-shifting balance in all of my work, and from my time as a Privacy and Confidentiality (P&C) steering committee member, I believe that the section can lead the discussion in practical and informed ways.

If elected as Vice Chair, I would continue my current work as a P&C section steering member to enhance available digital resources on the P&C website and blog that examine the evolving relationship between new technology and privacy. I would engage with my section community by offering additional venues to share practical steps and policies for dealing with privacy issues, as well as creating new, welcoming spaces for members to ask questions. I would also continue to partner with other sections to lead the discussion on striking the balance between access, security, and confidentiality.

Candidate for Steering Committee (two-year position)

DiAnna Hemsath

Current Position: Assistant professor/archivist, McGoogan Library of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Candidate Statement:

In January, I joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s McGoogan Library as the archivist in the Special Collections and Archives Department. Currently, I supervise packing and moving special collections for the library renovation. When not in “move mode,” I coordinate and conduct accessioning, processing and preservation of archival materials, artifacts, and art, and provide reference services. While not working, I spend time outdoors biking and hiking, or indoors binging Netflix.

Some questions I have asked myself this year include; can we accept the doctor’s undocumented collection of skulls? Why are the Last Will and Testament and social security number in that archival collection not restricted? What do we do with our digitized yearbook photos depicting students in blackface? A University Health Sciences Library’s collection contains endless opportunity to explore privacy and confidentiality rights, laws, and ethics. I am not the only balancing collections access with privacy. As a Steering Committee member, I would encourage and contribute to discussions and research about complicated subjects related to privacy and confidentiality of collections.

Candidate for Steering Committee (one-year interim position)

Daniel McCormack

Current Position:

Archivist/Records Manager, Town of Burlington (MA)

Bio:

Daniel McCormack has served as the archivist/records manager for the Town of Burlington, Massachusetts since 2002. In that position he is primarily responsible for the town’s public health, personnel, and municipal business records. Prior to serving in Burlington he was a reference librarian at the Brockton (MA) Public Library and a newspaper reporter. A member of SAA since 1999, he previously served as the Lone Arrangers Roundtable liaison to the Standards Committee. Currently he is chair of the Privacy and Confidentiality Section and a member of the National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives Grant Review Committee.

Candidate Statement:

Privacy and confidentiality are among the paramount considerations for archivists in our institutions and in our dealings with the wider world. All of us are responsible for helping shape the profession’s actions on these issues. More than ever, the archivist’s training and vision is needed to clarify the value of privacy considerations. Having served recently as section chair, I wish to participate on the Steering Committee to continue keeping concerns over privacy in the forefront of what we do, while helping clarify SAA’s positions on these issues.

I am seeking to complete the term of Steering Committee member in order to help continue the work undertaken by the Section during the past year. Much of the Committee’s work as involved management and governance issues related to the Section’s operations. Continuity is needed to complete that work in the next year and my experience will help support those efforts. In the coming year I would also look to add to the volume of resources available to Section members, particularly in the bibliography available to our members.

In our lives at work and outside, we are all affected by threats to, and violations of, our privacy. So commonplace is the misuse and mishandling of private data that we often become immune to the impact of every successive data breach and release of personal information. I want to raise the archival community’s voice in this matter and reinforce our concerns over privacy and confidentiality protections within the information universe.

All of that will involve looking long and deeply at our own profession while working with other stewards of private information. I am committed to working with other sections and other organizations in matters of data and privacy protection. At the same time, our institutions, commercial entities and those who use our collections have a reasonable expectation of access. We have to work with those seeking access and gathering data for legitimate purposes while continuing to present the archival perspective on privacy. This section needs to promote that discussion.

More than anything else, the Steering Committee needs to engage the membership on shaping the evolving privacy landscape. There is a great deal of expertise and knowledge within the section and greater participation will help us play an active role on these issues. In the past year, the leadership of the section has helped gather information and improve the resources available to members. We need to refocus on the issues facing us as stewards of this essential part of the archival enterprise. I ask your vote for Steering Committee to continue this work.

Referendum Question:

Shall the Privacy and Confidentiality Section of the Society of American Archivists vote to eliminate the existing Section IV, subsection B. “Officers,” and replace it with the following:

B. Officers. The officers of the section shall be a Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past Chair. The Vice Chair shall be elected annually for a three-year term, serving in year one as Vice Chair, and in year two as Chair, and year three as Past Chair. In addition, a Steering Committee of four members shall be elected, each for a two-year term, with staggered terms.

A “Yes,” vote will alter the makeup of the Section leadership by adding a Steering Committee member to the existing leadership roster. It will also establish this officer as a member of the leadership in a third year as Past Chair.

A “No,” vote will leave the standing rules and the makeup of the Committee as is.