Women's Collections Roundtable 2015 Ballot

Meet our wonderful slate of candidates for the 2015 WCRT ballot. The two candidates receiving the most votes will serve as co-Vice Chairs of the roundtable in 2015-2016 and co-Chairs of the roundtable in 2016-2017.

Holly Smith

Biography

Holly A. Smith is currently the College Archivist at Spelman College. Previously she served as African American Materials Specialist in the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her B.A. in History and Black Studies from The College of William and Mary, an M.A. in History from Yale University, and her M.S. in Library and Information Science, with concentration in Archival Management, from Simmons College. Ms. Smith is a member of the Steering Committee for the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable, chair of the American Library Association's Spectrum Scholar Advisory Committee and Vice Chair of the Society of American Archivists Diversity Committee. She is also a field recruiter for ALA's Knowledge Alliance Initiative, which focuses on recruiting students from underrepresented groups in the library and information science profession through career fairs and other programmatic efforts.

Statement of Interest

I have a passion for documenting the stories of communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in the archival records. I am excited about this opportunity to potentially be a part of the leadership team of the Women's Collections Roundtable, and collaborate with the membership on ways to highlight collections documenting the experiences of diverse groups of women. I would be interested in utilizing social media to share information and materials of interest from collections represented in the Roundtable. I would also be interested in revisiting the idea of another symposium or a panel discussion at Annual meeting, as well as pursuing having quarterly webinars on topics pertinent to Women's Collections. Additionally, I am eager to connect with other archival repositories that might not be in a Women's centered space but have collections related to documenting women, that can participate and contribute in the Roundtable.

Erin Lawrimore

Biography

Since 2011, I've been University Archivist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (which was the state's publicly-funded woman's college from its opening in 1892 until 1963). Previously, I worked at North Carolina State University and the University of Tennessee. I have an MS in Information Studies from the University of Texas, and a BA in English from Duke University. I currently serve as the editor of the open-access journal Archival Practice. I'm also a member of the Society of North Carolina Archivists and the Society of Georgia Archivists.

Statement of Interest

Professionally, I'm particularly interested in archival outreach and awareness issues (I currently serve on SAA's Committee on Public Awareness, and I'm a former steering committee member of the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable). As a leader in WCRT, I would hope to explore venues for cross-promoting content and impact of archival collections documenting women using social media platforms like Tumblr or Twitter. What role can the Roundtable play in helping us spread stories from our collections? A single communications platform focused on spreading the word about women's archival collections would be helpful for archivists and researchers alike. Cross-promotional efforts would allow archives across the country to build on each others' awareness efforts and more broadly advocate for the importance of women's collections and women's history. Within the profession, we would learn more about each others' holdings and activities. We could also involve other SAA component groups to help bring focus to archival collections documenting women of color, LGBT women, women in business, women in religion, etc. Social media allows us to extend our individual communication circles and take advantage of the whole. The WCRT has an excellent opportunity to serve as a clearinghouse for promoting these collections within the profession and to a broad public.

Lori Birrell

Biography

My name is Lori Birrell, and I’m the Historical Manuscripts Librarian at the University of Rochester’s Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation. As an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College, an all women’s, liberal arts institution in Massachusetts, I became immersed in studying women’s history through the rich collections at the college and at neighboring archives like the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Sifting through documents that enable researchers to tell the stories of women’s lives heavily impacted my decision to pursue both a Masters in History and ultimately, a career in archives after completing a Masters of Library Science at Simmons College. Since joining the staff at the University of Rochester, I continue to seek opportunities to connect our students, faculty, and other researchers with our collections like the Susan B. Anthony Papers, Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers, the local chapter of the YWCA that document women’s daily lives and their historical contributions.

Statement of Interest

As important as it is to share our collection with potential researchers, so too is it critical for us, as professionals, to have a forum to share ideas, projects, and challenges that we encounter as we work to raise awareness of the women in our collections. As Vice Co-chair I would be interested in working with members to develop short presentations to be shared during our annual meeting to provide our community with the opportunity to learn more about what exciting initiatives are taking place across our profession. If members were interested, I’d also like to explore the possibility of planning a second women’s collections symposium, similar to the one-day pre-conference that took place during the New Orleans meeting in 2013. This event could include formal presentations, informal discussions about topics of interest, as well as opportunities for newer members of WCRT to meet one another, and those who have long been involved with the roundtable. This symposium could be a first step in developing possible cross-institutional collaborations to tie in with national or regional events, like the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020.

As a five-year member of WCRT I have deeply enjoyed and benefited from the close community of the roundtable. Through the role of Vice Co-chair and Co-Chair I look forward to fostering this current community of members in WCRT, and looking for opportunities to expand our the conversation to include other SAA roundtables and sections, to ensure that connections can be made across our professional organization.

Jenny Gotwals

Biography

I am a lead archivist at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I majored in Women's Studies as an undergraduate, and consider myself lucky to work with historical collections I am passionate about. I oversee several archivists, manage processing projects, develop exhibits, and determine cataloging priorities. In the past few years have been lucky to supervise and mentor a number of amazing students and beginning archivists.

Before coming to the Schlesinger in 2007, I worked in New York City at the New-York Historical Society and the Woody Guthrie Archives. I hold a Masters in History and a Certificate in Archival Management from New York University.

Last month I presented a paper at the Women's History in the Digital World conference at Bryn Mawr College, and was very invigorated to be at a conference with a diverse group of archivists, librarians, historians, and digital humanists. I'm excited to reach beyond professional silos to encourage collaboration, particularly in projects related to women's history. I'm also interested in the current academic tensions between "women's history" and "gender history," which have ramifications for our "women's collections" and how they're discovered, used and interpreted.

Statement of Interest

I'm excited for the opportunity to be more involved in the leadership of the Women's Collections Roundtable. I'd like to explore ways to use the roundtable blog as a vehicle for members to more actively post news about their repository's women's collections. I'm also interested in investigating ways we can help each other to publicize collections (outside of the SAA blog), hold joint events, coordinate outreach, and share ideas. I'm an experienced and enthusiastic Wikipedia editor and edit-a-thon planner; I would love to help interested institutions and archivists learn to do this as well. The next several years of SAA meetings are in new cities, and it will be a great opportunity to organize tours of local repositories and arrange for the Roundtable to hear from local women's history projects at each new location. I look forward to serving the Women's Collections Roundtable community.