Tag: unionization

Steering Share: Meet Burkely Hermann

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes courtesy of Steering Committee member, Burkely Hermann, National Security Archive, and current I&A Blog Coordinator. Other members currently on the I&A Steering Committee include Danielle Simpkins, Caitlin Rizzo, Sheridan Sayles, Liz Call, Holly Rose McGee, and Claire Gordon.

1) What was your first experience working with archives?

I first worked in an archives after graduating from college with my B.A. in Political Science and History, as a researcher at the Maryland State Archives for a project trying to track down the stories of Maryland Revolutionary War soldiers, called the “Finding the Maryland 400” project, having a flexible start and end time, often either working with a historian on staff or independently. While that job only lasted six months as the grant money from a non-profit ran out, it began my interest in archives, which was rekindled in later years when I started my MLIS degree and worked at NARA’s College Park location as a work study in my last semester.

While I was drawn toward genealogy when working at the Maryland State Archives, I remember digitizing documents, using a push cart to move heavy books from the stacks to my desk, the in-house system I used to input information, or the many databases I used day in and day out. On the other hand, there were mold remediation efforts during the end of my time there. Worst of all, however, was the public transit nightmare I endured to get to the archives. Every day, I went on a light rail train to the end of the line, then a caught bus down to the archives itself. One wrong transfer or traffic would cause delays either by minutes or by hours. One major lesson I learned from the whole experience was to work somewhere that is accessible through public transportation!

2) What is an archival issue that means a lot to you?

That is a hard question. I would say precarity in the archives profession is very important, as many of my jobs since graduating have been precarious, whether working at a grant-funded position at the Maryland State Archives, an unpaid internship for NARA, or a graduate assistantship at University of Maryland, where I earned my MLIS degree, focusing on Archives and Digital Curation. Connected to this are those trying to unionize archivists, have fair pay, and safe working conditions, among other efforts to help archival issues.

Currently, I work at a non-profit which relies on grant funding, so in that way, it is a bit of a precarious position, I suppose, as a loss of funding could lead, possibly, to cuts in wages and benefits. I am glad that archival precarity has received a lot of attention in recent years and I hope that it continues to be seen as important by those in the profession, including in the SAA. This seems by the case from what I can gather when filling out the A*Census II.

3) What do you hope to gain by being on the I&A Steering Committee?

I hope to connect with like-minded archivists who are concerned with various archival issues, such as reparative processing, redescription, institutional sustainability, institutional racism, and preserving social media posts. I’ll be using my perspective to positively contribute to the Issues & Advocacy Section (I&A) to continue existing advocacy and outreach efforts, including continuing to promote the value and importance of the archival profession.

4) What can we find you doing outside of the archival profession?

Well, read a lot of webcomics and watch a bunch of animated series. And I write reviews of shows and comics I read, some of which have archivists and librarians! Also, for fun, I write fiction and incorporate some archivists into some of my stories. I occasionally do family history research for both sides of my family and have some blogs about that as well. When I’m not doing all of that, and it’s good weather, I go on hikes and read books.

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Archivists on the Issues: LAC Union at University of Michigan

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. In this post, Steering Committee member, Sheridan Sayles, talks to a member of the newly formed LAC at University of Michigan.

In March 2021, Lecturer-rank employees at the University of Michigan Libraries—specifically the Librarians, Archivists, and Curators (LAC)—voted to form a union as part of the University of Michigan’s Lecturers’ Employees Organization. This involved coordinating among the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn campuses and setting standards and goals for all three work environments.
The members of SAA’s Issues and Advocacy section stand in solidarity with the union and, beyond signal boosting their incredible efforts, we hope that getting an insight into the experience of unionizing will support others who wish to take this same path. In this exchange, Colleen Marquis of the Flint campus shares some of her experience.

  1. What inspired you to unionize?
    Our conditions on campus. The Flint campus is very isolated and struggling. The Ann Arbor administration treats us like the problem child rather than support us. Our librarians are overworked and underpaid and it’s embarrassingly obvious to students and fellow faculty in other departments. The breaking point was when we went to re-describe our job duties and redefine our roles (after several positions were left vacant) and realized that we all need two to three job descriptions while being some of the lowest-paid librarians not only in the University system but in the whole state.
  2. What issues were most important to you when forming your union?
    Equality across campuses, better cross-campus library collaboration, job security should the Flint campus close, pay, and better working conditions. 
  3. What research did you need to complete at the onset of your efforts?
    A lot! I learned about how to have the organizing conversation, how to be relentless when contacting people (even if it didn’t work!) and I of course researched ATF and LEO as much as possible. I wanted to be sure that LAC would fit well and it was soon obvious that this was the best way for us to organize.
  4. You were able to get a fairly disparate group together, what strategies did you use—communication or otherwise—in your organizing efforts?
    I used every tool at my disposal including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, every day I could to try to contact people I did. My efforts focused on the Flint campus though and with a whole faculty of 7 people in the library and archives and the realities of our working environment, it wasn’t difficult to get a majority to sign fairly quickly! I had a lot of trouble contacting and getting responses from Ann Arbor librarians.
  5. If you could change one thing about the experience of forming your union, what would it be?
    CoVID made it hard to get face to face with people and I feel like that could have made things go much smoother. It’s easier to ignore the hardships of someone telling you on a computer screen, much harder to ignore them in person. I had a conversation with someone who had no complaints about their job but when I spoke about the trouble I was having they said, “Yeah but that’s you in Flint.” It was harder to connect the individual with the whole community. 
  6. Lastly, what advice would you give to someone looking to unionize?
    You will have frustrating and dumb conversations. You have to remember that we live in a society that actively discourages organizing. There is a negative narrative surrounding unions that is pushed harder here than anywhere else.  You may come across as looking sneaky or non-transparent when working in secret is a necessary first step. Some people won’t let their egos go about not being the first person to be contacted for unionizing efforts, therefore they have a problem with the union. Others will nit-pick and bring up other issues they think are more important or need to be addressed before organizing. Just be ready with answers and be ready to repeat those same answers when their concerns are repeated back to you but with different wording (maybe this is strictly a problem with academics?!) Also, recognize when someone isn’t going to budge and then move on. If someone has strong idealogical (ie not based in their or anyone else’s reality) reasons to reject a union, move on to where your efforts will bear fruit. Finally, you need tenacity, you need to go after a yes over and over. Doesn’t matter if you feel like you are bothering them – you probably are and that’s good! Keep bothering them, push the issue, get them to make a decision cause they’ll have to justify that decision to themselves. Hopefully, they will realize inaction is a decision and will sign a card.  
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Steering Share: Meet Lauren McDaniel

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes courtesy of the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Lauren McDaniel, Special Collections Archivist at the Getty Research Institute.

1) What was your first experience working with archives? 

Half by chance, I got a student job at UCLA Library Special Collections–20 years ago now! That experience dovetailed perfectly with my undergraduate studies in history and art history, leading me to realize I wanted to work with special collections materials professionally. Staff encouraged me to apply to library school and I began UCLA’s MLIS program planning to become a rare book cataloger. But my introductory coursework introduced me to archival studies and I realized that archival processing is what I was really interested in, particularly of arts-related and material culture collections. The many dual aspects of the job–cerebral/physical, detailed/big-picture, solitary/service-oriented, innovative/reparative–fit my skills, goals, and values really well. I feel very lucky to have found work I love. #ILoveBeingAnArchivist 

2) What is an archival issue that means a lot to you?

But although we love and value our own work as archivists, those whom we work for often do not. This has become painfully obvious in the past decade or so as contract positions have become the norm, and has had an especially devastating effect on our lives over the past year. It is more important than ever that we collectively advocate for ourselves. Fortunately, many of us are already hard at work resisting vocational awe, establishing guidelines for more ethical hiring practices, and taking care of each other during the pandemic through mutual aid campaigns! 

In my previous contract position, my colleagues and I used the collective power of our union to push back against the misuse of temporary appointments in UCLA Library Special Collections. Two years in, we are still fighting, and it has been powerful to see the positive effect of our organizing beyond our library: from receiving public support and professional recognition to raising more awareness of the widespread problem of precarious labor in the cultural heritage and education fields. 

3) What do you hope to gain by being on the I&A Steering Committee?

My union experience inspired me to step up my labor activism by running for a leadership position in the Issues & Advocacy Section. Since joining the Steering Committee in August, I have met a range of committed archivists from across the country (albeit virtually) and learned more about the issues they and their colleagues are facing. During the pandemic, workplace safety has been the biggest concern, of course, with furloughs and layoffs a close second. I have observed that this Section is a crucial network for sharing information, collaborating, and providing support as well as a platform for members’ interests. Over my next 2+ years serving on this committee, I hope to help us become an even more important resource and an even louder voice for everyone in the profession. 

4) What can we find you doing outside of the archival profession?

Organizing my own stuff, for fun(!); endlessly searching for and looking at objects, art, and ephemera (mostly online these days, of course–sigh); listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks (favorite narrator: Hugh Fraser); and hanging out with (you guessed it) my cat! 

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Steering Share: Meet Courtney Dean

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes courtesy of the past-chair of the I&A committee, Courtney Dean, the head of the Center for Primary Research and Training in UCLA Library Special Collections.

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1) What was your first experience working with archives?

As an undergrad I wrote a paper on the history of May Day in Boston using mircrofilm copies of old newspapers, but that’s as close I got to anything remotely archival for a long time. When I was thinking about grad school I came across the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) and the Riot Grrrl collection at Fales and was disabused of the notion that archives are stuffy and elite. Then I found out “archivist” was an actual job and was completely sold. My grad school internships were at the Wende Museum of the Cold War, Pacifica Radio Archives, and LACMA. I worked with artifacts and artworks; ¼ inch audiotapes; and institutional records. While in grad school I also worked in the Center for Primary Research and Training in UCLA Library Special Collections, a program I now head. There I had the opportunity to work on collections from the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives as part of their partnership with UCLA Library.  

2) What do you hope to gain by being on the I&A Steering Committee?

This is my third(!) and last year on the Steering Committee and I hope to contribute to both the continuity and sustainability of the section and its ongoing work. So much volunteer work is thankless and burnout-prone, but I’ve always appreciated how I&A’s charge is broad enough for folks to pursue issues of importance to them. The enthusiasm of my fellow steering committee members is infectious, and I look forward to pushing forward conversations around issues facing the profession. 

3) What is an archival issue that means a lot to you?

Fair and ethical archival labor has been something I’ve been passionate about for a long time- everything from paid internships to temp labor to salary transparency and barriers to entry in the profession. Aside from I&A, I participate in the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Labor Working group, co-chair the Society of California Archivists (SCA) Labor Issues Task Force, and am on the organizing and issues committees for the librarian unit of my union. Right now a lot of this work involves data collection, which can hopefully be leveraged to better advocate for change. Like others have mentioned, I’ve also started thinking more and more about the environmental impact of the profession- flying to conferences, digital storage, etc. 

4) What can we find you doing outside of the archival profession?

Way too much of my free time has been devoted to archives adjacent activities, but I’m trying to get better with boundaries and work life balance. I play guitar in a punk band called Red Rot, just joined a rad book club, and am obsessed with my cat, Walrus. (My other feline bff Potato just passed away last week which was really hard.) I’m also currently watching Deadwood for the first time.

 

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Archivists on the Issues: An Update on UCLA temporary librarians

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Today’s post comes from current and former UCLA Temporary Librarians. While all the contributors to this post currently hold or held archivist positions at UCLA, the term “librarian” is used since that is way the institution classifies these positions.  At UCLA, the term librarian is used to refer to a variety of academic staff. All staff under this umbrella term are afforded the same protections. For these reasons, the terms archivist and librarian are used interchangeably throughout the text.

UCLA_Entrance_Sign

Since writing an open letter to UCLA Library administration in June 2018, we have received support from colleagues from all over the country. Thank you. Our situation at UCLA, and the grievance filed on our behalf by our union UC-AFT, are still unresolved and we wanted to post a brief update.

The Situation

2013 MTV Movie Awards - Red Carpet

As archivists who are classified as temporary librarians, we are well acquainted with the many reasons why the practice of hiring on temporary contracts is problematic. Over the past five years, and maybe more, our department Library Special Collections (LSC) has had more temporary archivists than permanent. This undermines the professionalism, expertise, and worth of archivists, it damages our personal lives, it diminishes institutional knowledge, it inhibits long-term decision making, and it disrespects our donors, users, and collections. These reasons and more are detailed further in the temporary archivists’ open letter to UCLA Library administrators.

LSC is continuing to capitalize on promises of “processing, preserving, and making [collections] accessible” to attract funding during UCLA’s Centennial Campaign. LSC’s funding and staffing priorities, however, tell a different story: one in which curatorial and collection development positions are given the lion’s share of endowments and funding, while archival work is addressed only once, through the creation of a relatively paltry general “fund to support the processing of high-priority collections.” (And let’s call that what it is: funding for more temporary hires to deal with processing that administration has promised to high-priority donors without regard for our staffing constraints and existing priorities.) The UCLA Library continues to respond to core and ongoing departmental needs by systematically under-staffing the Collection Management unit of LSC, which manages the work of archivists and catalogers, with precarious temporary positions, while ignoring and denying the effects of such a practice.

LSC continues to create and fill curatorial positions while its Collection Management staffing reaches critically low levels, as archivists’ contracts continue to expire. Administration has attempted to obscure this by blurring archival responsibilities in the department’s recent positions, in this way undermining professional boundaries and devaluing the work of processing archivists, as well as creating an undue burden for these positions and providing no roadmap for processing work in the long term. The concentrated effect of these decisions and hiring practices is to deprofessionalize our jobs as archivists- and, given UCLA’s size and status, is bound to have far-reaching effects on our profession as a whole.

Grievance process

Our union UC-AFT filed a grievance on our behalf in May 2018. The grievance alleges that UCLA Library is in violation of Article 18 of our contract, which details specific conditions for the hiring of temporary librarians. We have exhausted Steps 1-3 of the grievance process, as well as a preliminary “informal” meeting that occurs prior to Step 1. At each step of this process, we have reiterated the ongoing and permanent nature of our work and cited the widespread professional support that our case has garnered. At each step, Library Human Resources (LHR), UC Labor Relations, and, most recently, the UC Office of the President (UCOP) have denied our requests, citing a variety of ever-changing justifications. As of earlier this month, UC-AFT has voted to bring our grievance to arbitration.  

To date, we have not received any direct response or acknowledgment from library administration. This lack of response has been particularly disappointing.

UC-AFT includes abuse of temporary appointments in bargaining

UC-AFT Unit 17 Librarians have been engaged in bargaining with the University of California since April 2018. At its fourth bargaining session in July, UC-AFT proposed changes to Article 18 of our MOU, regarding Temporary Librarian appointments. Drawing on our experience, the Temporary Librarians helped draft the language changes and gave testimony on the necessity of the proposed changes.

The current contract language on Temporary Appointees addresses the issue by attempting to limit the scenarios in which temporary appointees are appropriate. However, UCLA continues to abuse and misapply this article by exploiting various loopholes, which we felt were necessary to close. The suggested changes include limiting the situations in which hiring temporary appointments are appropriate to three scenarios: filling in for a librarian on leave, filling in for a temporarily assigned librarian, and time-limited projects fully funded by extramural funding (i.e., grant funding) or external funding (e.g., donor-funded). They also seek to require UC to inform temporary appointees whether they will be re-appointed within a specific timeframe, as well as give more notice if they will be released early — the latter coming with the right for the employee to have an informal hearing before the release. We felt it was important for the UCOP team to hear firsthand from temporary librarians about the deleterious effects of exploiting the temporary provision and hope that the UCOP team values hearing directly from affected staff.

Future updates

If you would like to continue to get updates on the UCLA temporary archivists, please sign up here: https://tinyletter.com/UCLAtemps

Links to additional information/coverage

Daily Bruin articles:

https://dailybruin.com/2018/07/29/submission-ucla-librarys-reliance-on-temporary-workers-is-inefficient-unethical/

https://dailybruin.com/2018/08/05/editorial-uclas-disregard-for-its-librarians-shows-once-again-its-exploitation-of-workers/

https://dailybruin.com/2018/07/27/librarians-bargain-with-ucop-about-academic-freedom-temporary-positions/

Professional support:

Leadership of the DLF Working Group on Labor’s Statement on UCLA Archivists

SCA Statement in Support of Temporary Archivists at UCLA: https://ift.tt/2zpl4bR

 

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Steering Share: Conversations on Labor Practices in Archives

Steering Shares are an opportunity to find out more about the I&A Steering Committee. This post comes from I&A Chair Courtney Dean, Head of the Center for Primary Research and Training in UCLA Library Special Collections.

Despite the continuing prevalence of institutions relying on temporary labor and unpaid internships, and individuals leaving the profession (including I&A’s own Vice-Chair Summer Espinoza) because it simply isn’t a sustainable way to make a living, I am heartened that conversations around labor practices in archives are happening with increased frequency and volume. I expressed a similar sentiment back in October, when I presented as part of a panel entitled “Building Community & Solidarity: Disrupting Exploitative Labor Practices in Libraries and Archives” at the DLF Forum in Las Vegas. The panel briefly explored a number of issues including unpaid internships; the proliferation of temporary, contract, and grant-funded labor; ad hoc and siloed conversations around these issues; the lack of POC in leadership positions; and the problematic expectations of “diversity work.” While current labor practices in GLAM professions disproportionately affect students, new career workers, and POC, it is these same populations who are leading the resistance to traditional white cis hetero patriarchal ableist LIS systems and enacting community building. (Here I’d like to shout out We Here, DERAIL, and the Los Angeles Archivists Collective.)

Building Community & Solidarity: Disrupting Exploitative Labor Practices in Libraries and Archives Panel at DLF in Las Vegas 2018

As Joyce Gabiola mentioned during the panel, the success of this type of organizing has a lot to do with community driven efforts, rather than trickle down initiatives. However, it should not have to be the responsibility of those most affected by a broken system to fix it. To this end, as I’ve mentioned before and will continue to advocate for, we can and should be leveraging our professional organizations to provide a platform, make space, and take a stand on labor issues. The DLF has been an exemplar in this regard, both with their conference programming (last year’s forum also included sessions on “Valuing Labor When You’re ‘The Man’”; student labor; and organizing for change) and through their Working Group on Labor. The latter, has been nothing short of an inspirational and I’d recommend that anyone interested in these issues to refer to their Research Agenda: Valuing Labor in Digital Libraries as well as the draft Guidelines for Developing and Supporting Grant-Funded Positions in Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums. The Labor Working Group’s Ruth Kitchin Tillman and Sandy Rodriguez also received an IMLS grant for “Collective Responsibility: National Forum on Labor Practices for Grant-Funded Digital Positions” which will host two meetings in the coming months.

I am also thrilled that my state archival org, the Society of California Archivists (SCA), is in the beginning stages of forming their own group to address labor issues. (California archivists should look out for a meetup at the SCA AGM in Long Beach!) Early conversations point towards a project to develop a best practices document for the use of temporary employees in archives. This comes in conjunction with the SCA board’s statement in support of temporary archivists at UCLA in their grievance to the university and current SCA President, Teresa Mora’s President’s Message.

I’ve mentioned several of SAA’s efforts before and I’ll just add that Council’s decision to prohibit the posting of unpaid internships on SAA’s Job Board is a great move. To bring it back to I&A, the Steering Committee is (finally!) planning to launch our survey on temp labor in late winter/early spring to obtain some baseline data, and we are continually exploring ways in which we can advocate for ourselves as professional archivists in our capacity as section leaders. We’re aware there are so many other labor issues in our profession that need addressing: salaries; under-classified positions; a turn to using “paraprofessionals” for archival processing; a lack of a national union- the list goes on. We invite guest blog posts, Twitter chats, and any other type of dialogue to highlight and resist exploitative labor practices. You know where to find us.

Further reading and resources:

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Announcing…Candidates for Our 2016 Election!

Drumroll… announcing the fantastic candidates for Issues and Advocacy Roundtable leadership for 2016. A big round of applause to each of these individuals for running!

Voting will will start during the first week of July and will be open for two weeks. Descriptions of each position’s responsibilities can be found here, and in the I&A Bylaws.

Note: because we have so many (wonderful!) candidates, this post is lengthy. But oh so worth the scrolling!

Candidate Listing (scroll down for bios and statements)

Vice-Chair (Two-Year Term: first year as Vice-Chair and second year as Chair) (vote for one candidate)
Hope M. Dunbar
Rachel Mandell

Steering Committee Member (Two-Year Term) (vote for two candidates)
Stephanie Bennett
Samantha Dodd
Keith Phelan Gorman
Lucinda Manning
Alessandro Meregaglia
Megan Miller
Blake Relle
Alison Stankrauff

Steering Committee Member (One-Year Term) (vote for two candidates)
Megan M. Atkinson
Hilary Barlow
Laurel Bowen
Tara Kelley
Daria Labinsky
Rachel Seale

Candidate Bios and Statements: Vice-Chair (vote for one)

Hope M. Dunbar
Bio:
I would like to nominate myself for the position of Vice-Chair for the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable. I am currently an Archivist at SUNY Buffalo State College in the Archives & Special Collections Department. Previously, I have had roles in the Special Collections & Rare Book Department of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library; the Library & Archives of the John Felice Rome Center, Italy; and the Archives & Special Collections Department of the Newberry Library, Chicago. I participated in the I&A Legislator Research Team in early 2016.

Statement of Interest:
In addition, prior to my work in the archives field, I was an attorney in Illinois focusing on government and federal mediation. I have worked in Washington, D.C. and Chicago for federal offices, including the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the U.S. Dept. of State, and the U.S Dept. of Education, and understand the necessity of institutional advocacy. Based on my interdisciplinary background, I can offer additional perspectives and expertise. Archives, special collections, and the humanities as a whole must advocate just as fervently as other fields to maintain funding and support. Additionally, we know our profession best including its benefits and its challenges; it is our duty to actively represent these realities to those outside our field. I believe this committee is essential to this advocacy.

Rachel Mandell
Bio:
Rachel Mandell graduated with her Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2012. She then pursued a personal goal to live abroad and also gained international experience as a visiting scholar at the Center for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany.  Rachel continued her exploration of central Europe as she was awarded a 2013-2014 Fulbright grant in Vienna, Austria. In addition to developing an appreciation for Viennese coffee houses, Rachel concentrated on audiovisual archiving by working in the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Phonogrammarchiv—the oldest sound archive in the world and the Austrian Film Museum, where she digitized and archived amateur films.  Since returning to her hometown of Los Angeles, Rachel began to transition into the next stage of her archival career by getting more involved with both the local archival community and also establish herself within the larger field of archivists. During her 12-month post as the LA as Subject Resident Archivist, Rachel completed short term archival projects at four member institutions of the LA as Subject organization—a network of institutions in Los Angeles that collect materials documenting the history of the city and its diverse population of residents. She was then offered the Digital Archivist position at California State University, Dominguez Hills, working on a large-scale collaboration called the California State University Japanese American Digitization Project. The goal of this project is to bring together disparate records, photographs, oral histories, and other archival materials relating to the incarceration of Japanese Americans in California during the World War II era. She is also the current Issues and Advocacy Intern. Together with the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable team, Rachel has contributed to the improvement of the Issues and Advocacy Toolkit and hopes to continue working with the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable in the future.

Statement of Interest:
I hope to be selected as the next Vice Chair of the Issues and Advocacy (I&A) Roundtable. This past March I became an active member of the Roundtable when I accepted the position of I&A Intern. I saw the internship as a unique opportunity to get involved with the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and expand my professional network beyond my local archival community. As I specified in my statement of interest, I hoped to contribute to the improvement of the Issues and Advocacy Toolkit by designing a survey that would target areas that need improvement. I believe I have accomplished this initial goal.  I designed and administered the nine question survey that we used to help identify layout and user interface issues as well as solicit advice from the community about how to improve the content of the toolkit. We received 31 responses total and nine of the respondents also agreed to participate in a future focus group. I am currently in the process of creating hypothetical scenarios for the focus group, which will hopefully exploit further weaknesses in the content of the toolkit.

Working with the I&A team has been a rewarding experience, which has inspired me to apply for the Vice Chair position.  If selected, I hope to continue working towards implementing changes to the toolkit. I would love to see the new and improved toolkit come to fruition! In addition to my experience as the I&A intern, I believe that my enthusiasm for collaboration and strong communication skills would make me an excellent candidate for this position. I look forward to the chance to serve the I&A Roundtable and to support fellow archivists advocate for our profession and increase dialogue and awareness of important archival issues.

Candidate Bios and Statements: Steering Committee Member (Two-Year Term) (vote for two)

Stephanie Bennett
Bio:
Stephanie Bennett is the Collections Archivist for Wake Forest University, which is also her alma mater. She holds an MSLIS with an Archives Management concentration from Simmons College and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivist. Bennett worked previously at Iowa State University, Boston College, and corporate research firms. She is an active member of the Society of American Archivists, the Society of North Carolina Archivists, where she was recently a Member at Large on the Executive Board, and the Midwest Archives Conference.

Statement of Interest:
Archivists often are affected by the reverberations of societal or political happenings. Gun laws affect reading room environments and policies, for example; activism causes us to rethink the nature of our work; environmental changes affect our storage conditions or the records we collect; this list could go on. I respect the work that I&ART does to help archivists think through political and personal issues and advocate for policies and changes that will benefit us, our communities, dare I even say humankind? And the recent changes to the website have been great! I would be thrilled to continue I&A’s good work and contribute to helping archivists navigate contentious issues, find allies, and ultimately act on our concerns.

Samantha Dodd
Bio:
Samantha Dodd is an archivist in Special Collections at the UT Arlington Library. Prior to joining UTA, she served as the archivist for the Dallas Historical Society. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in education from UT Arlington in 2009, a Master of Arts degree in History at UT Dallas in 2012, an Archival Administration Certificate from UT Arlington in 2013, and became a certified archivist in 2013. Fueled by a passion for higher education, and wanting to develop her skills and abilities as an archivist, Samantha attended the University of North Texas from 2013-2014 and earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree. In 2014 she was one of twenty-one candidates selected to participate in the American Association for State and Local History’s Seminar for Historical Administration.

Statement of Interest:
I would like to take a more active role in the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists. My passion in this profession is advocacy, whether it is advocating for awareness,  relevancy, rights, or any number of issues facing archivists. As SAA recently endorsed the History Relevancy Campaign, I would like to help continue the discussion and promote the efforts of this campaign as this issue of history’s relevancy can directly impact archives and archivists.  Furthermore, by joining the leadership of the roundtable, I hope to encourage increased participation by members, and to instill in our membership a passion for perspective. By looking ahead, and looking around us, we can see the issues and problems coming down the line, and formulate our responses before facing the issues head on.

Keith Phelan Gorman
Bio:
Keith Gorman is the Assistant Dean of Special Collections and University Archives at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).  During his past six years at UNCG, he has actively promoted the value of the department’s unique collections, instructional services, and digital projects to faculty, students, administrators, donors, and the general public.  As a result of Keith’s advocacy, his department has been able to acquire new positions, grow donations, and quintuple the number of class sessions being taught.  In addition, Keith has identified and cultivated local stakeholders through the development of off-campus programs that emphasize life-long learning.

Trained as a historian, Gorman received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  After a decade of teaching history at Simmons College, Keith decided to pursue a new career that brought together his deep interest in how individuals access information and his passion for empowering communities to understand and craft their own history.  He received a MLS (archives concentration) from Simmons College and has held positions at the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

Throughout his fourteen year career in archives, Gorman has actively engaged educators, service organizations, librarians, local businesses, elected officials, and funders to promote the social and cultural value of rare and unique collections.  For example, over the past academic year, Keith initiated a community engagement program that focused on digital information literacy and teaching with primary sources.  Teaching thirty-five class sessions at area middle school and high school students, Keith was able to stress the impact an academic library at a public university can have on a community.

Statement of Interest:
With my diverse professional background in archives, museums, and academia, I believe that I would be an effective and innovative contributor to the Issues and Advocacy (I &A) Roundtable.  In this challenging economic and political climate, it is critical for archivists to be able to effectively “tell their story” and forcefully address the issue of return on investment.  Drawing on my own experience of promoting archives as a cultural hub, I believe I could help contribute to the reframing of how archives are being represented in a community’s collective imagination and political discourse.

If elected to the position, one of my goals would be to consider new ways to broaden dialog between archivists and K-12 educators.  For archivists, local teachers and students have always had the potential to be collaborators and vocal supporters.  With rapid shifts in pedagogy, teaching standards, and learning tools, teachers are seeking new ways to effectively incorporate primary sources into curriculum design. Through targeted outreach to area educators, archivists could develop and scale programs to meet teacher needs and at the same time demonstrate their educational/cultural value to community leaders.

Lucinda Manning
Bio:
I (Lucinda Manning) have worked as both a professional archivist and librarian since 1980 in various historical societies, and in college and university libraries, including URI, NYU, Barnard, and Teachers College at Columbia University. For twelve years, I directed the UFT Archives & Records Center for the United Federation of Teachers labor union in NYC. More recently, I have worked on consulting projects, was the Curator of Archives for the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich and was also a Consulting Archivist for the National Office of the ACLU in NYC. I am also currently serving on three committees for the ALA United for Libraries division including their Newsletter Committee and their Intellectual Freedom Committee.

Statement of Interest:
My academic background includes an undergraduate degree in print journalism/graphic design; graduate study in U.S. history (with an emphasis on 19th and 20th C. social change movements, including civil rights, women’s studies & labor history); and an MLS in academic libraries and special collections from the University of Rhode Island. She has recently served on the NYC Archivist Round Table’s Advocacy Committee and on the SAA Diversity Committee, as well as participating in many local, activist, community and political activities in New York.

Our profession’s role in helping to preserve our cultural and historical history (and the many related and critically important archival/information issues – including privacy, records security, intellectual freedom, records management concerns, long-term preservation of our multi-cultural US history – that are shared, of course, with other similar professions such as librarianship, the historical profession and cultural museums) have all been a major focus throughout my archival and library career.  I would very much enjoy serving as a member of our SAA Issues & Advocacy Round table leadership with others who are also interested and passionate about helping to formulate effective responses to all of the increasingly important professional advocacy and information concerns outlined above.

Alessandro Meregaglia
Bio:
I work as an archivist/librarian at Boise State University’s Special Collections and Archives, where I manage our digital collections and respond to reference questions. I have a Master of Library Science (Archives & Records Management specialization) and a MA in History from Indiana University. Prior to joining Boise State, I worked as a project archivist at a non-profit organization.

Statement of Interest:
As an academic archivist and during my time with a small non-profit organization, I understand the vital need for advocacy in archives of all sizes and want to build on the efforts that the I&A Roundtable has already accomplished (the Advocacy Toolkit, the blog, etc.).

Earlier this year, I participated on Legislators Research Team for I&A, which gathered information about key legislators. That experience reiterated the need for advocacy in archives when I noticed that legislators on archival governing committees had little experience with archives. Maintaining awareness about public policy affecting archives directly (or indirectly through other cultural institutions) is key to strengthening the profession while also making sure archivists’ voices are heard. I look forward to the opportunity to serve SAA and the archival profession on the I&A Steering Committee.

Megan Miller
Bio:
Megan Miller is the Digital Imaging Technician for the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Beckman Legacy Project. Her academic training is in history: she received her MA from Temple University, where her coursework focused on public history and archival studies, and her AB from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of MARAC’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion.

Statement of Interest:
There are dramatic changes I would like to see (in society, in the profession), but incremental progress is still progress. I can’t wave a magic wand and suddenly provide funding for cash-strapped institutions, force stakeholders to realize the value of archives, or make the profession instantly welcoming and accessible to a diverse talent pool. I can help a bit with the grind: spotlighting new issues, keeping longstanding issues from being forgotten (or incorrectly deemed to be solved), and making sure that momentary gains are not allowed to disappear. I want to help the conversations and resources I&A fosters migrate throughout the profession.

Blake Relle
Bio:
Blake Relle received his Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science with a concentration in archive management from LSU in 2013.  Currently, he serves as an Archives Specialist at the Louisiana State Archives where he fulfills request for materials made by the public as well as state agencies. From 2013 to 2015, he served as a digitization intern at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.  Professionally, Relle has presented on “How to get new archival professionals involved in archival organizations?” and “Should archival professionals do continuing education?” At the upcoming SAA meeting in August, Relle will be on a panel that will discuss how archives and museums can provide access to their collections to people with disabilities. Relle serves as Website and Social Media Coordinator for the New England Archivist Early Professionals and Students Roundtable.  In this capacity, Relle manages and updates the Roundtable’s website and social media accounts.  He co-wrote a blog post for ProjectArc regarding how the Toronto City Archive reduced its energy consumption by 59%.

Statement of Interest:
This opportunity will provide a way for me to give back to my profession as
well as learn from others. I will have a chance to learn about the issues facing the archival community as well as help find solutions to these issues. We have to work together because we can do more as a whole than we can individually.

Alison Stankrauff
Bio:
I have served as the Campus Archivist at the Indiana University South Bend campus since 2004. I am a lone arranger, and inherited an archives that had not had an archivist for ten years. What draws me to be a leader in the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable is the strong draw that I feel to issues of social justice. What I think that this means for my participation in this roundtable is that I see it as an advocate for archivists as well as the publics that we serve. I would work to make sure that critical issues that are central to the concerns of archivists and preserving – and making accessible – the historical record are addressed. Previous to my current position, I served as a reference archivist at the American Jewish Archives, and previous to that, as a technician at the Reuther Labor Archives at Wayne State University. I interned at the Rabbi Franklin Archives at Temple Beth El in metropolitan Detroit. I graduated with my Masters in Library Science with Archival Administration concentration in 2002 from Wayne State University, and I have a Bachelors degree in history from Antioch College.

Statement of Interest:
I’m Alison Stankrauff, Archivist and Associate Librarian at Indiana University South Bend. I’m committed to being vigilant for the archival profession and the archival record that we collect, protect, make accessible. When either of those are in danger, I believe it’s my duty to do my part to personally advocate for what’s at stake – and motivate others to do the same – with a collective voice.

Candidate Bios and Statements: Steering Committee Member (One-Year Term) (vote for two)

Megan M. Atkinson
Bio:
Megan M. Atkinson is the University Archivist for Tennessee Technological University.  She has worked for over six years as an archivist.  Her primary goal is making as many collections as possible available for research to the users.  Her previous positions include the National Park Service, Louisiana State University, and Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities. She has a BA in History from West Chester University and an MLIS from Drexel University.

Statement of Interest:
I have always advocated for archives, but I recently took a position where few knew I existed or the importance of the archives.  Although this was not a novel idea-given most of my jobs were this way-this was the first time that I was in a position where it was my duty to advocate for myself and not the duty of my supervisor.  As a result, I feel that advocating for myself at the lower level, my university, will be greatly aided by my participation in Issues and Advocacy and advocating as a whole for the profession and archives nationally and internationally. I participated in the Legislator and Research Team pilot program and would like to participate and dedicate more time towards this effort, which aids all archives and archivists.

Hilary Barlow
Bio:
Hilary Barlow is a Preservation Staff Member at Penn State University and a Volunteer Archivist at the Centre County Historical Society in State College, PA. She completed her Master of Information degree in Archives & Records Management at the University of Toronto in 2015 and worked as an Archives Intern for Democracy Now! Productions in New York City. As an MI student, Hilary served as President of the Master of Information Student Council. She is an active member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference and has contributed to the I&AR blog.

Statement of Interest:
In my archives career thus far, I have tried to keep advocacy at the center of my practice. As President of my student union, I advocated for an information master’s program more open and accessible to students. As an Archives Intern at Democracy Now! Productions, I learned how archives can document social movements and a long history of independent reporting. I feel that the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable engages with the challenges our professional faces most urgently today. I want to be more involved in collaborating with other archivists and determining what issues to bring to light.

Laurel Bowen
Bio:
I am the University Archivist at Georgia State University, where I provide records and research services for university administrators, the academic community, and the public.  I have an M.A. from Cornell University.  To increase public awareness and appreciation of the value of archives and archivists, I enjoy demonstrating the powerful, practical, and sometimes unusual ways that records can be used to advocate for citizens in their local communities.

Statement of Interest:
I’ve served for one year on the Steering Committee and would like to be considered for a second year.
1. Our profession is enhancing its advocacy efforts to make a bigger impact on issues that affect the public interest. I’d like to be part of this effort as a member of the I&A Steering Committee.
2. The Steering Committee identifies, discusses, and recommends issues to be brought forward for action, and coordinates its work with other advocacy groups. I’d like to get a clearer view of what motivates our profession to take action and the forms that action takes, so our Roundtable can be increasingly successful in advocating for our members’ concerns.
3. I hope to see our Roundtable continue to offer opportunities for members to be actively involved in advocacy efforts.  See https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/
4. Engaging in advocacy issues on the Steering Committee also stimulates thought on larger challenges such as (a) How do we as a profession advocate effectively for citizens, records, and the public interest when public officials can be elected with mega-contributions from a few sources?  (b) What strategies can be employed to persuade officials to provide timely access to public records? I would appreciate your vote.

Tara Kelley
Bio:
Tara D. Kelley is a moving image Archivist / Librarian at New York Public Library. She became the Specialist for the Mikhail Baryshnikov Archive in 2012, and began work with the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division at the Schomburg Center in 2014. Kelley is a founding member of the AMIA Film Advocacy Task Force, promoting the continued use of film for archival preservation and creative work, and currently serves on the Steering Committee of the SAA Issues & Advocacy Roundtable. She earned her MLIS at Rutgers University and is a graduate of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman Museum.

Statement of Interest:
I am a moving image librarian and archivist at New York Public Library. I started with NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts as the project archivist for the Mikhail Baryshnikov Archive and now work in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound division at the Schomburg Center.

I currently serve as a member of the I & A Roundtable Steering Committee and seek an additional year-long term. This would allow for continuity with our current News Monitoring and Awareness Research Team and for the development of additional projects.

As a member of SAA and AMIA, I value partnerships with similar organizations, as we share common concerns and extend our reach by working together. As just one example: when the Cinemateca Brasileira moving image archive caught fire, the ability to share news from AMIA with the SAA community was helpful in generating attention and support for the archive. I hope to have the opportunity to advocate for our communities again this year.

Daria Labinsky
Bio:
I am an Archivist at the National Archives at St. Louis, where I have worked since 2010. Before coming to NARA, I worked for eight years as a Local History and Reference Librarian at the Rio Rancho Public Library in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. I earned a BS in Radio/TV/Film and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, and an MLS from Emporia State University. I am an active member of the Society of American Archivists (member of I&A Research Team, several roundtables, Government Records Section), the Regional Archival Associations Consortium (steering committee member and subcommittee chair), the Midwest Archives Conference (formerly public information officer), and the Association of St. Louis Area Archivists.

Statement of Interest:
As a former journalist I have always been especially conscious of attempts to curtail the free flow of information. The few months I have served on the Issues and Advocacy News Media Research Team have only increased my awareness in potential threats that archivists need to know about—because they may physically affect archives and archivists and/or may restrict access to, and openness of, public records.

In my current position I haven’t had much chance to advocate for archives on an institutional basis, other than to participate in promotional efforts such as the #ThisIsArchives Twitter event. When I was a public librarian in New Mexico, I participated in Librarian Legislation Day, during which librarians met with state Congresswomen and Congressmen and lobbied for budget increases. I would be interested in working with the I&A Roundtable on similar activities on a local, state, or even national level, or in participating in other initiatives that further the cause.

Rachel Seale
Bio:
In January I assumed my new position as outreach archivist for Iowa State University Special Collections & University Archives. I spent the last six years working in the Alaska & Polar Regions Collections & Archives (APR) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I spent two years working primarily in reference and processing collections, then moved on to cataloging manuscripts and rare maps, working with donors, and appraising potential donations. In addition I organized presentations and exhibits that highlighted the collections and services of APR. I received my MSLIS with an Archives concentration from Simmons College in January 2006.

Statement of Interest:
Issues & Advocacy is an exciting roundtable. I am interested in a leadership position within it because, now more than ever, I think there is a need for committed professionals to advocate for our profession and for the organizations we work in. I have just recently started getting involved with this roundtable, I am a member of one of the on-call research teams that monitors breaking news and provides a summary and then coverage of the relevant issue. I am eager to get more involved with this roundtable and do have leadership experience within SAA. I have spent the last 3 years in different leadership positions in the Security Roundtable (secretary, junior co-chair, and senior co-chair).

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Response from I&A Poll: Discriminatory Legislation & Annual Meetings

On April 5, 2016, in conjunction with an Archivists on the Issues Post, “A Case of Conscience,” we launched the I&A Poll : Discriminatory Legislation & Annual meetings. The poll remained open until 5pm PST April 8, 2016 and received 30 responses. Of those 30 responses, 70% identified themselves as a member of the I&A Roundtable, 10% as members of SAA, but not of the I&A Roundtable, 10% as archivists, but not members of SAA, and 10% as concerned citizens.

Respondents were asked whether discriminatory legislation in the state where the annual meeting is to be held would affect their decision to attend on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 not affecting the decision and 5 being a deciding factor for the decision, the results are as follows:

Poll Pic 1

Respondents were asked how they would like to see SAA Council react to the issue of discriminatory legislation in the state where the annual meeting is held. Respondents were permitted to choose more than one option. The options were:

  • Negotiate to have a clause that will allow SAA to break its contract and find another venue
  • Issue a statement against the legislation
  • I do not expect the SAA Council to take a stance on this issue
  • Other

The results are as follows:

Poll Pic 2

Respondents were asked what issues would be important enough to sway their decision as to whether or not to attend an annual meeting. Responses have been redacted to remove any potentially identifying information and have not been edited to fix any typos. The responses were:

  • Discrimination against classes of people; discrimination for religious reasons
  • Anything involving discrimination
  • discrimination towards POC/LGBTQ persons, unfair labor practices at venue or by vendors/sponsors
  • I don’t know that I have a good answer to this question because I have a hard time holding all the residents of a state responsible for bad legislation, and am especially sympathetic to the fact that not everyone can move because they don’t like the party in charge at any given moment.
  • Attendance is determined by my bosses. I would always attend if they would always pay.
  • Labor disputes [redacted]
  • Discriminatory practices, policies, and laws in the host city/state or venue, which create a climate dangerous or threatening to LGTB, PoC, or other non white non male non cis persons, members of SAA or not
  • The biggest factor that goes into my decision making is money & whether I can afford it, honestly.
  • They keep coming up with new ways to discriminate, so who’s to say? But the anti-LGBT laws make me furious. OTOH I don’t want SAA to lose money.
  • None politics need to stay out of or at least be consistent. Don’t just focus on issues that are hot points for the left. Why has Saad not issued a statement about the IRS record problem or the Clinton email issue. I’ve seen no statement from Saad about the lack of transparency by the current administration. Will they?
  • Civil rights of all kinds
  • race, police brutality, women’s rights, sexuality rights
  • None. I didn’t support breaking hotel contract when it was about unions and potential picket lines and I don’t care what the state’s legislate. You can never please everyone.
  • They decide to defund or close th State Archives.
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A Case of Conscience

Archivists on the Issues is a forum for archivists to discuss the issues we are facing today. Below is a post from Jeremy Brett addressing the issue of discriminatory legislation and SAA annual meetings. At the end of this post, please take a moment to partake in an I&A Poll on the issue. If you have an issue you would like to write about for this blog series or a previous post that you would like to respond to, please email archivesissues@gmail.com.

We’ve all seen the recent uptick across the nation in nauseatingly unjust legislation laughingly designed to protect “religious freedom” and “public safety” but which is clearly motivated to sanction prejudice against the LGBT community. The legislature of North Carolina just passed, and Governor Pat McCrory signed, a new law blocking transgender individuals from using public restrooms that match their gender identity and stops cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay and transgender people. The Georgia legislature just passed a law that would have allowed pastors to refuse to perform gay marriages and allow churches and faith-based groups, on the basis of religious belief, to refuse to hire or provide services to gays. The bill was vetoed by Governor Nathan Deal as discriminatory, and was met before the veto with a hail of protests from both LGBT groups and major corporations. Similar bills have been proposed over the last several years. In 2015 the Human Rights Campaign noted that more than 85 anti-LGBT bills had been filed in 28 states, though fortunately most of these have failed to pass or have been challenged in court.

Of course, such legislation is repugnant – or it should be – to any thinking human being who possesses any discernable degree of compassion or common sense. However, the question before us now is, what can we as a professional association do to challenge or protest these kinds of laws? This question loomed large recently because it did appear that the law in Georgia would pass, and that would leave SAA in a position where we would have to hold our 2016 Annual Meeting (site: Atlanta) in a state actively and vocally hostile to LGBT individuals. SAA members would be obliged to spend money in the economy of a state that would have enshrined fear and prejudice and ignorance into law. Fortunately, Governor Deal’s veto prevented this. However, I consider this sort of situation unjust and a violation of personal conscience.

We are archivists. We are information professionals and we are custodians of history. As such, we are agents of preserving and transmitting knowledge for the good of society, and I do not believe that we should be compromising that responsibility by providing money to governments and public officials who do not have society’s best interests at heart. Nor as a professional organization should we be tacitly granting second-class citizenship to our LGBT members, which we would be doing by giving our dollars and our time to a state or municipality that choses to wage war against a minority group. I think that one of the most effective things we can do is to cease holding Annual Meetings or any other significant SAA-sponsored activity in any state or municipality that enacts this kind of hateful legislation.

Of course there are objections that can be raised to this proposal.

  1. Contracts for Annual Meeting sites are negotiated years in advance, and it is difficult to not only break these contracts but to locate a new and appropriate venue in a reasonable amount of time.

True enough, but I would argue that, going forward, SAA could insist on a ‘conscience clause’ in its contracts with venues that would allow for us to break the contract should the host state or municipality enact noxious legislation. In addition, host selectors should be required to research potential sites for future meetings to see whether these kinds of laws are present and being enforced.

 I would also note that, yes, it’s not easy to turn on a dime and find a new venue on short notice, but it does and can happen. In 2011 the American Sociological Association (a group bigger than we are, by the way) was scheduled to have its Annual Meeting (held in August) in Chicago, but a short nine months before the meeting, the ASA decided to cancel its contracts because of a protracted labor dispute between Chicago hotels and the hotel workers’ union. Within one month they had negotiated a contract and moved the conference venue to Las Vegas, with minimal disruption.

  1. Conference venues are selected to ensure a variety of locations in order that more members, some of whom may have trouble attending far-distant events, may be able to attend.

That’s a fair point, and I realize that this could prove a hardship to members living in places like North Carolina or other states where these kinds of laws have been passed. I live in Texas, and am perfectly aware that there are reasonable objections to holding events in my own state and if SAA were to stop having events here it would make it more expensive and difficult for me to attend them elsewhere. But I believe that we owe it to ourselves and citizens and to our colleagues who are LGBT (or any other persecuted group) and are affected by these kinds of laws to take a stand and to make sacrifices when necessary. Perhaps this kind of policy I propose could motivate SAA to develop more effective ways for members to attend and participate in SAA events remotely, and make physical attendance less necessary.

Yes, this policy would mean a (hopefully temporary) end to holding our Annual Meetings in certain states, and as a result we would be favoring others. To which I say: Exactly. States with progressive legislation or that have the moral courage to stand against prejudice and injustice should be rewarded with our commerce; those who give in to hate and fear should be punished by the withdrawal from them of our dollars and our attention.

  1. “But where will this end? I can find objectionable laws in probably every state. Why should certain laws be declared more evil than others? Where do we draw the line? And who are we to judge?”

 I know there are people reading this that are thinking this very thing. And I confess that I’m not sure: this is a question that would benefit from consulting the membership at large. But I am optimistic that we can establish a baseline of common human decency where we can all agree that certain laws are unquestionably terrible and unworthy of a thinking society and our American ideals. Let’s have this debate, and at the end of it all, let’s stand up for what’s right and not support hate and fear and downright evil merely out of economic and logistical expedience.

Jeremy Brett is the Curator of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection at the Cushing Memorial Library & Archives at Texas A&M University. He is a past Chair and current Steering Committee member of the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable.

Now we’d like to know what you think. Please take a moment and go to our I&A Poll on Discriminatory Legislation and Annual Meetings. The poll will remain open until 5pm PST Friday, April 8.

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Archivists on the Issues Call for Content

This year the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable launched its blog series called Archivists on the Issues. We’ve already had some excellent posts and are and looking for more contributors.

Entries should discuss how a particular issue in the news affected or could potentially affect you as an archivist and/or your collections. We invite posts on topics such as education, parental leave, unions, donor relations, record retention policies, archivist culture, the public’s perceptions of archives, digitization challenges, or whatever issue you find yourself facing as an archivist (or aspiring one) today.

We ask that submissions are around 500 words. We encourage multiple entries on the same topic, as well as rebuttals, and hope to generate a rich conversation about the issues confronting our profession.

Please send your submissions to archivesissues@gmail.com. We are also happy to receive ideas for posts and provide feedback.

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