2024 P&C Section Election: Candidate Statements

Leslie Schuyler

Lakeside School (5-12 private school)

Biographical Statement 

I'm currently the archivist at Lakeside School, an independent, 5th-12th school located in Seattle, Washington. My work mirrors the work of corporate or business archivists; my main users are internal to the school, and the focus on privacy & confidentiality is important partly because Lakeside is a private institution, and partly because students are minors. Although FERPA doesn't legally apply, many private schools use it as a guideline, and are governed by state laws and regulations. Of particular interest to me are ways in which archivists can adopt practices that respect and protect individual student identities over time.

Candidate statement addressing the question "What projects or initiatives would you be interested in pursuing as part of the Privacy and Confidentiality Section leadership?"  

Archivists working in every kind of repository wrestle with issues of privacy and confidentiality. Because of that, we can all benefit from the policies, tips, and experiences of our fellow members. The question, I think, is how the Privacy & Confidentiality section can effectively facilitate connections between its members; offer engaging educational events; and publish and maintain an up-to-date, resource-rich, and varied bibliography. None of us has a surplus of time, so I'm committed to trying to make section offerings as easily accessible, concise, and insightful as possible. In the end we really need to hear from the membership: what would be most useful to all of you? I'm genuinely curious and hope to find out.

Steering Committee Member Candidates 

The following candidates are running for the section steering committee: 

Michelle Chiles

Providence College

Biographical Statement  

Michelle Chiles is the Head of Archives and Special Collections at Providence College in Rhode Island. She has worked at several archives and libraries in RI and MA, and earned her MLIS with an archives concentration from Simmons University in 2013.

Candidate Statement addressing the question “What projects or initiatives would you be interested in pursuing as part of the Privacy and Confidentiality Section leadership?” 

As a steering committee member for the Privacy and Confidentiality section, I would like to pursue projects and contribute to discussions around establishing policies and guidelines for private institutions. When public records laws don't apply and records retention schedules have no teeth, it can be difficult for archives staff to advocate for better management of sensitive but essential records. In many of these cases, collections that were accrued over decades without formalized guidelines regarding privacy and confidentiality has lead to a backlog of privacy issues that must be addressed.

I would also like to explore ways that we can hold these types of discussions and produce meaningful guidance for colleagues across a variety of areas in the profession. Personally, I have found co-hosted section and committee talks to be super helpful in connecting these larger, and often nebulous, topics to a practical area of our profession. I would like to contribute to making these conversations continue.

Kimberly Henkel

Arizona State Museum

Biographical Statement 

I am the State Archaeology Archivist at the University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum Library and Archives. I have almost a decade's worth of experience in ethical archives, restricted materials, and archival outreach and education.

Candidate statement addressing the question "What projects or initiatives would you be interested in pursuing as part of the Privacy and Confidentiality Section leadership?"  

My current position entails I process and hold stewardship over archives that stem from the Arizona Antiquities Act. This means that my collection is largely made up of restricted material such as archaeological site maps, confidential location information, NAGPRA collections, and state repatriation material. In addition to those materials our collection is the largest repository in the state for southwest, borderlands, and indigenous materials. Often these materials are culturally sensitive and restricted. I began my position here immediately after graduating with my MALIS and remember thinking, they did not teach me to say no. The MALIS program is centered around providing access to materials but there was not nearly enough discussion on how to say no, how to properly decide what should and should not be made public and how to vet possible researchers. Not all materials are made for public use, and it is important that we as an archival community learn when and why we should restrict materials and learn how we can have conversations with our patrons about why without seeming like we are gate keeping. I am interested in this section because I want to open those conversations, talk about teaching archivists, both current and new, how to have harder conversations and how to look at our collections from a non-western ideology of access.