The Society of American Archivists' Women Archivists Section (WArS) addresses issues that affect the status of women within the archives profession
As part of our Women’s History Month celebration, the Women Archivists Section invite you to join us for “Self Care is Not Selfish,” a pop-up event for all who deem themselves worthy of self-care! This free event will feature special guest Cassandra Rowe, LPC-S, of Epiphany Counseling Services.
“Self Care is Not Selfish” will ‘pop-up’ March 31st, 12pm EST. Participants must pre-register at the following link: http://tiny.cc/WHMSAASELFCARE
We’ll see you March 31st!
Trying to answer a quick question, April Anderson-Zorn turned to the internet. On the phone and in a rush, she was looking for a quick biography on Debra Ham. Surely, this accomplished archivist and historian would have a Wikipedia page? Several frustrating clicks and unhelpful pages later, Anderson-Zorn found only some answers but no Wikipedia page for Ham. That got her thinking – who else in the archives profession is missing from Wikipedia? As it turned out, quite a few.
In 2019, as part of their Strategic Growth Grant program, the SAA Foundation approved a grant created by Anderson-Zorn and Eric Willey, both of Illinois State University, to create Wikipedia pages for underrepresented American archivists. The project aimed to fill a representation gap of black, female, LGBTQi+, and other archivists on the community-edited platform.
Anderson-Zorn hired Stephanie Collier, a then-graduate student in the Illinois State University Department of history. The project initially planned for Collier to create fifteen new entries on Wikipedia. However, Collier’s work wasn’t without difficulty. She received considerable push-back from Wikipedia editors and often found herself justifying the inclusion of new content. Collier connected with advocacy groups such as WikiWomenInRed to help get some of her contested pages approved. Thanks to her efforts, the project created forty new pages and seven edited pages.
For Women’s History Month, the Women Archivists Section invites you to explore these new pages highlighting our colleagues and invites you to contribute new content. With your help, we can increase representation for our underrepresented archivists and bring their considerable talents and achievements into the spotlight.
Check out some of Collier’s efforts in the links below:
Shonnie Finnegan
Debra Newman Ham
Wilda Logan
Deborra Richardson
Taronda Spencer
Helen Tibbo
Coming to SAA? Wish you were coming to SAA? Happy you’re not going to SAA but wanna follow along? You’ve come to the right place.
Inspired by the Students and New Archives Professionals Section (SNAP), WArS has the following advice on how to stay connected throughout SAA, no matter where you’re tuning in from.
Follow #saa17 on Twitter for general conference tweets, and tweet what’s happening using #saa17 throughout the conference
See what’s happening at the WArS-recommended sessions
Participate (show up, live tweet, follow along on your phone…) in our section meeting on Wednesday, July 26 from 2:45-3:30. We’ll be located in room B113, and digitally located via #SAAWArS
See what other WArS members and friends are tweeting throughout the conference Women Archivists Section Twitter list – your can add yourself, send a DM to @liney789 to be added to the list, and/or use the list to find new Twitter friends.
Keep up with posts from @WomenArchivists for their comments on the conference
The Women Archivists Section Salary Survey, created by the Women Archivists Section (WArS) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and funded by the SAA, inventories salary, employment, and leadership in the archives profession. The survey was developed in response to member interest in salary data about the archives profession and, in particular, in data about women archivists across intersectional identities. While the survey gathered data that gives context to employment in the archives profession by gender, it also sought to gather data on how identities such as age, race/ethnicity, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status interact to affect outcomes on salary, employment, leadership, and professional advancement in the field.
Survey responses were collected from April 17, 2017 to May 17, 2017. After the survey was closed Jodi Reeves Eyre and Robin Israel of Eyre & Israel, LLC, were hired to assist with initial data analysis of the employment survey in collaboration with WArS co-chairs Stacie Williams and Bethany Anderson and the WArS steering committee. This report summarizes demographic information revealed through the survey and the initial analysis of the survey data. This initial analysis explores how identities affect several aspects of employment within the archives field.
The raw data collected from the survey will become available when access and use policies are finalized. Our priority is protecting the privacy of our respondents.
Read the Salary Survey Report here: https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/WArS_Salary_Survey_Report.pdf.
We have a great slate of candidates for the 2017 election! Two candidates are running for co-chair and we have seven candidates for steering committee. Watch for the online election link from SAA to make your final selections.
Biography: Elizabeth began her career in museums and archives in Florida after earning BAs in History and Political Science and an MA in History with a graduate minor in Public Administration. She worked for a small historical society first, learning basic collections management and cataloging methods. She then went on to the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum as the Education and Oral History Director. She managed the oral history program, the oral history collection, the education program, and the non-accessioned education collection. She then moved to the National Archives and Records Administration at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum as an Education Specialist in 2013. She is the chair and founder of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Women’s Affinity Group (WAG) and is very active in archival outreach and education for all age groups.
Statement of Interest: There is an inexplicable gender wage gap in archives and museums, proven over and over in wage studies. While women dominate the fields of archives and museum, they are underrepresented in management and, sadly, historic interpretation of the collections. Many women across the country lose their jobs in museums and archives when they take time for maternity leave because there is a lack of FMLA protections in small institutions. This is unacceptable and one of the many factors preventing women from attaining higher salaries and management positions.
There are so many things to be disappointed about, but at the same time women have come so far. I believe we are on the cusp of great change for family leave and equal pay, but we need to keep pushing. I would be honored to serve the committee to continue fighting for better representation of women in historic interpretation, promotion of women in archives, equal pay, and fair family leave- even at institutions without FMLA protections. Together we can accomplish more and reach even further.
Biography: Danielle Russell is the Archives Assistant at the Southern Maryland Studies Center, an archival repository and research center that seeks to collect, preserve, and provide access to materials that document the history and culture of Southern Maryland. As one of the two professional archivists on staff, she is able to partake in a variety of projects that include ArchivesSpace implementation, reprocessing collections, and grant writing. She is also the Co-Founder of the Women’s March on Washington Archives Project, coordinating the physical materials and digital photography aspects. This project has further inspired her research in archival activism and intersectional feminist theory. She holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archival Management from Simmons College, and a B.A. in History and Archaeology from Lycoming College.
Statement of Interest: It is my passion to ensure the preservation of marginalized voices, especially regarding the politics, rhetoric, and legislation born of our intensely controversial contemporary political climate. I once read that the archive is a great historical laboratory where all theories and their results are played out, and I want to be a part of shaping that. Thanks to reading the work of Terry Cook in grad school, I possess a firm belief that archivists actively shape documentary heritage to reflect the broad spectrum of human experience, and that marginalized voices and experiences have been overlooked, both intentionally and unintentionally, in the archival record. We must work towards documentation efforts that present a comprehensive image of society that includes public hopes and dreams, frustrations and failures, and activities and movements, all preserved in their original voices.
As archivists, we are not lofty, impartial caretakers, but socially conditioned, subjective humans who must try to be very transparent in our work. I mention this because we, as archivists, leave our finger prints on the collections that we touch. Thus, in the spirit of full disclosure: I am a feminist. I aspire to embody intersectional feminism, and I am devouring books and articles on how to be a better activist and archivist for all of the issues– civil rights, disability rights, ending violence, environmental justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQIA rights, reproductive rights, worker’s rights, etc.– which are, in the end, women’s issues. I believe I can use this passion in a leadership role with the Women Archivists Section to advocate for our voices and our fingerprints in the profession, through expanding on the First Friday Feminism project and exploring the ways the section and its members can better advocate professionally for the missing views and histories in our collections. My experiences with the current co-chairs and steering committee have led me to value the insight of this section and its members both personally and professionally, and I hope that I can build on that foundation if chosen as Co-Chair.
Biography: Lori Dedeyan is a Processing Archivist at The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, where she works to increase access to collections across a variety of subject areas and formats and manages web archiving activities. She is an active member of Society of American Archivists and a current member of the Issues and Advocacy General News Media Research Team. Lori enjoys blending her background in art and writing with her archival work to create physical and online exhibits, written content, and to find other ways to creatively share and promote archival holdings and issues. She earned her MLIS from UCLA in 2014 and has previously worked as an archivist at UCLA Library Special Collections.
Statement of Interest: I am interested in serving on the Women Archivists Section Steering Committee because I would like to continue to learn from and contribute to the professional conversation around the experiences and needs of women archivists, and to support WArS in developing resources that further allow women archivists to advocate for themselves and their colleagues. To that end, I am appreciative of the work WArS has done and is doing to create a body of literature and evidence around these issues. I would also like to participate in the work of revisiting and critically examining some of the assumptions of archival practice. I consider this a great opportunity to meaningfully contribute to SAA and our profession and believe that my experience would help me accomplish that effectively in this position.
Biography: Mary Jo Fairchild is the Manager of Research Services in the Special Collections Department at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. Prior to arriving at the College of Charleston in 2015, Fairchild was the Director of Archives and Research at the South Carolina Historical Society for nearly five years. Fairchild holds master’s degrees in History and Library Science and is a Certified Archivist. She has served as President of the South Carolina Archival Association (SCAA) and the Charleston Council on Archives, Libraries, and Museums (CALM). A member of the Archives Leadership Institute’s 2014 cohort, Fairchild also contributes to the Society of American Archivist’s Regional Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC) and the Southern Association of Women Historians’ (SAWH) Professional Development Committee. A native of West Virginia, Fairchild enjoys weekend adventures outdoors with her two daughters.
Statement of Interest: My devotion to the archival profession extends beyond striving to uphold high standards for essential functions such as reference, access, outreach, arrangement, description, and ethics; I am committed to articulating and enhancing the values placed on the labors of women archivists in order to foster a thriving and inclusive professional landscape. As an archivist, I am dedicated to transparency and broad access to resources, diversifying the historic record, and disrupting institutional systems which privilege and oppress persons based on socio-cultural, racial, and gender identities. I am eager to join the WArS steering committee to serve and collaboratively bring to fruition the essential dialogues the section facilitates through programming, twitter chats, interviews, networking, surveys, and so much more.
Biography: Heather Fox is the Archivist for Manuscript Collections and the Co-Director for the Oral History Center in the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections. She has worked for several esteemed Kentucky archival institutions including the Kentucky Oral History Commission, The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, The Filson Historical Society and Appalshop, an internationally known a media arts center in Eastern Kentucky. Fox is one of the founding team members of the Louisville Underground Music Archive collection, a project documenting the punk, indie, hardcore scene in Louisville, Kentucky. She has recently become a cat person to the mild consternation of her dog.
Statement of Interest: I am a natural communicator and connector and would welcome this opportunity to use these skills to advance the initiatives of the WARS. I currently serve as chair of the Campus Climate Committee of the Commission on the Status of Women at the University of Louisville, a group appointed by the university president that monitors and advises him (yes, always a him so far) on ways the administration can improve work-life balance, create a safer work environment for all employees, and increase opportunities for women in leadership roles on campus. I would love the chance to bring the knowledge I have gained on COSW to WARS.
Biography: Erin Glasco is the Archives Intern at the Roosevelt University Archives in Chicago, IL. Erin will receive her MLIS with a concentration in Archives from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2017. Prior to her time at Roosevelt, Erin interned at the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College Chicago. While working at the CBMR, Erin became engaged with one of the Center’s most interesting holdings: the FBI files of noted artist and activist, Paul Robeson. Erin curated a small exhibit about the FBI’s surveillance of Robeson at the CBMR, and presented a poster on her research titled, “Paul Robeson and the Black Lives Matter Movement: Anti-Black Violence and Surveillance in the United States, Ca.1940-present” at SAA in July 2016. Erin is a 2016-2018 ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow, and an article she co-authored, “Black Music Literacy: Classic Edition” will be featured in the forthcoming anthology, “Information Literacy in Music: An Instructor’s Companion.”
Statement of Interest: I am attracted to a career in archives because I appreciate the power that archives hold in shaping history, fostering and facilitating community, strengthening personal identity, and, naturally, encouraging scholarship. I’m interested in serving on the steering committee because I would like to continue the work that WArS has done to encourage archives and archivists to be more intersectional in their praxis. Women make up the vast majority of our profession, and I believe we have the power to make lasting, needed changes to our field. I want women, regardless of race, class, sexuality, or ability, to feel welcome and supported in our field. I’m hopeful that my time on the steering committee will be spent working meaningfully towards that goal.
Biography: Gayle Schechter graduated from Simmons College in Boston this past May with her MS with a concentration in Archives Management. In addition to her current positions as Project Archivist at Fenway High School, Library Assistant at Bay State College, and Digital Projects Intern at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Gayle has been serving as the 2016-2017 intern for WArS, with her term ending in July. In her free time she enjoys reading, museums, seeing live music and comedy, and spending time outside with her dog.
Biography:
Education: B.S., Romance Languages and M.A. Liberal Studies, Georgetown University, M.L.I.S., University of South Florida Modern Archives Institute
Professional Experience: Literary Manuscripts Archivist in Special Collections at the University of Florida, 2005-present; Co-Instructor, Preserving History: An Internship in Historical Archives (HIS 4944) for History majors, 2006-present SAA Participation Reference, Access and Outreach (RAO) Section, 2005-Present, Primary Sources Working Group, 2011-present; presented on an RAO-endorsed panel on engagement and outreach assessment at 2011 SAA conference. Manuscript Repositories Section, 2005-present. Steering Committee, 2012-14. LAGAR (Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable), 2005-present, Co-Chair, 2011-2013, Steering Committee, 2009-present, Chair, LAGAR Taskforce on Bylaws Revision, 2009-10. Women Archivists (Roundtable) Section, 2005 – Present. Other Activities Society of Florida Archivists, Member, 2005-present, Vice-President, 2012-present, Director, 2009-2012, Chair, Nominating Committee, 2007-2008. Conference paper: “Selling Wholesomeness: Images of Women from the Florida Citrus Industry”. As part of a panel entitled “You’ve come a Long Way, Baby: Images of Women in Advertising”. Society of American Archivists, Cleveland, OH, August 21, 2015.
Statement of Interest: I have been interested in Women-identified archives and archivists since my career in archives started in 2005. I curate Women’s collections at the University of Florida,, including the literary manuscripts of Zora Neale Hurston and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, as well as the records of women’s groups such as the Florida National Organization of Women (Florida NOW), the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, Gainesville Women for Equal Rights (GWER), the League of Women Voters of Florida.
I believe that I can contribute to the mission of this Section in a meaningful way and would appreciate your support. Thank you.
Biography: My name is Ashlyn Velte I am currently the Archivist at the University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives. I received my MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2016 where I also received a Certificate in Digital Curation. In my current role at the University of Idaho I am building a born-digital collecting program involving acquisition, digital preservation, and access for born-digital materials received by our special collections and university archives. I also help the department host outreach events, answer reference questions, and teach instruction sessions. I first became interested in archives while I worked in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC’s Wilson Library during grad school. Working to acquire and promote collections documenting the experiences of historically under-represented groups, such as African Americans, Native Americans, and women, impressed on me the importance and power of archives.
Statement of Interest: I am interested in becoming a steering committee member for WAR because I want to support female professionals in this field. I want to take a more active role in WAR so that I can help further discussions about issues faced by women in archives. As a new professional myself, I want to support other women entering the field by facilitating dialogues about our experience and empower them to seek out leadership roles in the profession. The work WAR does is very important to SAA and to the archival profession. Since this roundtable supports many important initiatives, like the current salary survey, I’d be honored to be part of the leadership that contributes to these important initiatives.
Society of American Archivists, Women Archivists Section Salary Survey Project Assistant (paid)
Description: The Women Archivists Section (WArS) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) is in need of a short-term paid project assistant to assist with data analysis of a new employment survey of SAA members. The project assistant will help collect, sort, and perform preliminary analysis of survey data. The project assistant will work under the direct supervision of the WArS co-chairs and in collaboration with the WArS steering committee and the SAA staff.
Minimum Education and Experience: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of training and experience necessary to perform the work; experience with survey instruments (such as SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics), analyzing qualitative data, and preparing survey data reports; general knowledge and basic application and use of concepts, theories, and terminology in the social and behavioral sciences. Must be an SAA member.
Preferred Education and Experience: Master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences *or* equivalent combination of training and experience necessary to perform the work; experience designing, implementing, and analyzing qualitative surveys; advanced experience with data analytics.
Stipend: $1,800
Term: 60 hours maximum (to be completed by July 1)
Please forward a résumé and cover letter to women.archivists.roundtable@gmail.com by May 9, 2017. If you have any questions, please contact Stacie Williams at smariwilliams1979@gmail.com or Bethany Anderson at bgandrsn@gmail.com.
The Women Archivists Section is currently seeking nominations for one Co-chair and one Steering Committee member. Terms begin this July at the close of the annual meeting in Portland.
The Women Archivists Section (WArS) and the Society of American Archivists invite you to take part in a research survey about salary, employment, and leadership in the archives profession. The survey, created by WArS and funded by SAA, is being conducted in response to interest by members for more recent and comprehensive salary data about the archives profession, and seeks to explore the ways in which age, race, gender identity, and socioeconomic status interact to affect outcomes on salary, employment, leadership, and professional advancement in the field.
The survey period will begin on Monday, April 17, and end on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. It should take approximately 30 minutes to complete the survey online. We are not collecting or storing IP information, nor are we asking for personally identifiable contact information or the name of your place of employment. Taking part in this survey is completely voluntary. You can withdraw at any time if you do not wish to complete the survey. If you discontinue your participation, any information gathered up to that point will be discarded.
We hope this survey will provide useful and meaningful data about the profession that can be used to study and advocate for equitable application of labor and compensation throughout the field.
Thank you in advance for your participation!
You can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M62KKFH
Women’s March on Washington Archives Project
Danielle Russell, Southern Maryland Studies Center
Katrina Vandeven, MLIS candidate at University of Denver
About the collection
We are a group of archivists stemming from the SAA Women Archivists Section (formerly roundtable) who, having discussed the social and political importance of the January 21, 2017 Women’s Marches, wanted to ensure the preservation of women’s voices and responses to politics and legislation in wake of the intensely controversial 2016 elections. With time to plan and strategize, we intend to document this in a way that captures the movement’s use of new-wave grassroots activism unlike other more spontaneous events in recent protest history.
Each march is connected to a larger movement of not only the Women’s March on Washington D.C., but also the grassroots activism making it possible. This has become a large part of early 21st century political history that advocates for human rights, standing against minority adversity, and full equality for women. The significance of these marches is reminiscent of the 1995 Rally for Women’s Lives and the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, and this mass action expects at least 150,000 protesters in Washington D.C., and over 250,000 people total in other individual marches. To learn more about the marches’ mission and principles, please visit https://www.womensmarch.com/mission/
Currently, we are working on a two-pronged approach: one repository for oral histories, and then finding state or regional level repositories for people who attend the national and sister marches. We have gotten a Facebook group (link here) going to create action plans, outreach email templates, etc.
On the physical materials side of the operation, we are looking for willing repositories for physical materials from the sister marches— generally, we are hoping for one state or regional repository to take physical materials collected at their respective state sister march (i.e. Boston, Austin, Des Moines). We’re hoping to nail down a singular repository who would be willing to house physical materials from the national march in D.C., too. The physical materials will be collected by a point-person volunteer at the sister march, which can either be a volunteer we prepare with deeds of gift, etc. or someone of the repository’s own choosing.
We are also collecting oral histories in order to document the local and national grassroots movement “Women’s March on Washington” to show the scope of the movement, the range of reasons women are marching, and so that diverse women’s political resistance may be documented in their own words as they are so often silenced and lost to history. Oral history expectations and standards are currently being drafted, and volunteer oral historians will meet virtually to make sure everyone is on the same page.
The end goal is to have an aggregate digital platform that will allow cohesive research. This way we can connect the materials at these various repositories without requiring one institution to take on all of the appraisal, processing, metadata, etc. The platform will most likely connect the digital materials (photographs, oral histories, etc.) first, strictly out of ease. However, we are hoping that as finding aids are created and as materials, eventually, are digitized, the project will have preserved and made accessible a wide array of materials documenting this impressive raising of diverse women’s voices across the United States, and even abroad.
What about this project or collection has been most rewarding?
We are creating this documentation/collecting strategy from the ground up which is incredibly invigorating as an activist, and working with professional archivists and archives students of various experiences and backgrounds has been amazing. It is also fascinating to see how other professions fit into the framework of helping us collect these materials== we have documentary film makers, photographers, and historians that want to help any way that they can!
What about this project or collection has been most challenging?
This kind of national-level coordination is basically new to all of us involved, which makes things tricky. We’re doing a large portion of our organizing via Facebook and Google Docs, and it’s all a learning process.
What tools/software/methods are you using in this project or collection?
We are using Google Drive and Open Science Framework (OSF) for storing the born digital materials (oral histories and photographs). Going forwards, tools and software are to be determined. We are looking at a variety of things like Omeka and Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS).
In regards to outreach methods, we are using a lot of social media, as well as a wide variety of listservs. We are also using Google Docs and Sheets in this planning stage.
Interested in getting involved?
Please let us know if you have any further questions, or suggestions! We are still working out some of the finer details at rapid pace, and questions force us to work some of those out before we know they exist. Join our Facebook group if you are interested in participating, and you can contact Danielle and Katrina at wmwarchivesproject@gmail.com
We want to feature your collection on the SAA WAR blog! Tell us about your project here.
Women Archivists Section 