Dear ArchivesSpace members, As the new chair of the ArchivesSpace Governance Board, I am writing to report on the group’s 1st Quarter meeting, which was held September 1, 2021.
We were pleased to welcome two new board members * Natalie Adams, Systems Archivist from the University of Cambridge. Natalie was elected to represent the Very Large-sized member institutions. * Julia Novakovic, Archivist from The Strong National Museum of Play. Julia was elected to represent the Small-sized member institutions. Both are joining the board for three-year terms beginning this year. The operations report highlighted work with the new ArchivesSpace Diversity Partners program, the progress of the new online training program, and our expanded virtual content in 2020 and 2021, which has totaled over 140 hours of webinars, workshops, forum sessions, community discussions and meetups to meet community needs since the beginning of the pandemic-related shutdowns. We also discussed a recent accessibility audit of the application conducted by Deque and some planned development work.. Gordon Daines is now the board liaison to both the Technical and User Advisory Councils. He shared the work that the Council members have done, especially the newly implemented Chair/Vice Chair and sub-team Lead/Vice Lead model designed to help facilitate leadership and smoother transitions between terms. We heard updates on the antiracism and inclusion initiatives suggested by the community during the community discussions last year. We talked about the importance of the Board’s continuing engagement with those ideas even while it facilitates new conversations on this urgent topic in the wider ArchivesSpace community. We also discussed an effort to better understand the benefits and potential challenges with our Educational Program Membership, which is geared towards helping faculty and students in archives education programs gain greater understanding of ArchivesSpace. We will be conducting a survey of faculty in these programs later this year to learn more about the level of interest. The financial reports show that the program’s financial position continues to be strong. As always, the Board welcomes your feedback. Feel free to reach out directly to me or to your elected representative. On a personal note, I want to thank my fellow board members and all of you for ensuring ArchivesSpace’s resilience and vitality through the upheaval that has marked our lives these past two years. I have learned so much and look forward to continuing to do so. Sincerely, Sean Quimby Chair, ArchivesSpace Governance Board Associate University Librarian for Special Collections Director of the Jay I. Kislak Center University of Pennsylvania Libraries 3420 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
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