Please read the candidate biographical statements below, and then vote for one candidate for each position by July 7, 2015.
Statement: For the past two years, I have served as an IAART member-at-large and I'm looking forward to continuing my contributions to the roundtable's activities. As an archivist employed abroad, I believe I can provide a unique perspective on documenting massive political and social changes and human rights issues as well as more mundane, yet important, collecting areas. As chair, I plan to continue the great work Christian Kelleher and Natalie Bauer have accomplished in connecting the international archival community through my involvement with the International Council of Archives (ICA) and the American International Consortium of Academic Libraries (AMICAL). I would like to bring my involvement with international archival organizations to the roundtable to promote knowledge sharing, particularly though the Global Notes blog and through collaboration between the organizations.
Bio: Ryder Kouba is the Digital Collections Archivist at the American University in Cairo, a position he's held since March 2014. Prior to moving to Egypt, he worked at the University of Houston, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. He received both my MSIS and my BA from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently finishing my two-year term as a member-at-large in IAART, and also serves on the Digital Initiatives Committee of the American International Consortium of Academic Libraries, as well as being an active member of the International Council of Archives.
Statement of interest: The International Archival Affairs Roundtable (IAART) of the Society of American Archivists is our main avenue to discuss and incorporate international archival issues into our work. We have all benefitted from the meetings and discussions of the roundtable and I would like to contribute to its planning and organizational efforts. I can offer my professional experiences working in the US and other countries as well as my international viewpoints based on my Austrian background and years serving on the board of the international Section of University and Research Institution Archives (ICA-SUV) 2006-2014.
Among the many archival challenges we face at US academic archives, international matters play an important role, take for instance WIPO and copyright questions, international cooperation regarding digital preservation and human rights archives, sharing skills and knowledge across national borders so as to improve our work and services, and an increasing need to make our collections internationally accessible in an understandable and easy manner located as they are today within the possibilities of a networked globe and its user communities.
Statement: I would like to nominate myself for the International Affairs Roundtable (IAART) Steering Committee Member-at-large position. I am the Archivist and Head of the Office of Records Management Services at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I have been a Certified Archivist (ACA) since 2004 and a member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) since 2011. Although I have been a member of the SAA for four years, my participation has been limited to attending the Annual Meetings and would like and an opportunity to get more involved with the organization.
I do not currently work as an archivist abroad or manage international collections, but I have a deep interest in what my international colleagues are doing and the issues that confront archivists worldwide. Additionally, in 2001, I worked at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels to advocate for and assist in the establishment of the NATO Archives Program. I hope that as a steering committee member I could contribute my insights and energy in the service of IAART’s goals and I relish the opportunity to work with other passionate SAA members.
Statement: As Head of Special Collections and College Archives at the Fashion Institute of Technology|SUNY, I work with collections and researcher constituencies that are both truly international in scope; this is what attracted me to the job in the first place! I have also presented at international conferences since 2009. This has been a joy for me both personally and professionally and I look forward to my next opportunity to present in Paris this November.
My staff and I are dedicated to doing all we can to reach and relate to an international audience; this is made evident in part by our recent adoption of AtoM (Access to Memory) to publish our finding aids online and our ongoing adherence to ISAD(G) as a descriptive standard. I have also been a member of ICA in the past and plan to renew my membership very soon.
Bio: Brian C. Odom is currently a doctoral candidate at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and the archivist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He holds Master’s degrees from the University of Alabama in both Library and Information Science and History. He has worked in both public and university libraries, taught history at the college level, written on the topic of Indian Sepoy letters home from the Western Front during WWI, and is currently focusing on the construction of human rights archives around the world, particularly as related to Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Current projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center relate to the construction of community archival collections related to space exploration and the research related to NASA and the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Additional projects include increased access to NASA historical reference collections across the Agency.
Statement: I am interested in running for a position on the IAART steering committee because I have a passion for both the theoretical and practical aspects of community archives, both current and historical, and believe that I can contribute leadership, research, and writing skills in pursuit of the IAART roundtable’s mission as well as learn a great deal from my peers in the archival community. I believe that my position as a government archivist over the past years has provided me with insight into how increased access to government records can be improved not only in the United States, but in collections around the world. My own research has convinced me that it is possible to overcome the types of “historical silences” explored by Michel-Rolph Trouillot and build archives that are continually reactivated and open to additional narratives. Advocating for these goals is paramount in the archival world.