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February 1, 2021 - Comments Off on 2021 Candidate Bios for LAAC Leadership Positions

2021 Candidate Bios for LAAC Leadership Positions

Steering Committee, Programming Chair, Secretary, Treasurer

More info about positions and the election process can be found in our bylaws.

Voting ends 02/05/2021. Thank you for your participation!

 

Steering Committee (3-year term)

Jasmine Larkin

Jasmine Larkin is currently the Accessioning Archivist at UCLA Library Special Collections. In this role, she has primary responsibility for accessioning activities and is currently developing a retrospective accessioning project to address UCLA’s collections backlog. She received her MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA, and she previously held positions at the Getty Research Institute and New York University. She has been an active member of LAAC’s Programming Subcommittee since 2019 and recently served as the subcommittee’s co-chair in 2020.

Jasmine appreciates the accessible, supportive, and inclusive community that LAAC has built  over the years. 2020 has demonstrated that our communities are vital for providing the support, knowledge, and resources we need to take on the many challenges we encounter individually and collectively. If elected to the Steering Committee, Jasmine would endeavor to help LAAC continue to uphold and foster an equitable and egalitarian environment for its members, with particular advocacy for emerging professionals and underrepresented groups. Through these efforts to bring new, diverse professionals into the community, Jasmine believes that LAAC will be a stronger organization that is better equipped to support its members and their professional aspirations.

Programming Subcommittee Chair (1-year term)

Michael Sokol

My name is Michael Sokol (he/him). I am a first-year MLIS student at UCLA. Concentrating on Archival Studies, I am interested in community archiving, artist archives, Indigenous librarianship, audio preservation, and the intersection of archives and human rights. I am originally from western Massachusetts and am now based in L.A. I worked as a radio producer and DJ for many years, and I now (sporadically) produce a podcast where I have conversations with artists about the relationship between art and social transformation.

Secretary (2-year term)

Carolina Meneses

Carolina Quezada Meneses was most recently the Manuscripts Division Archival Resident at Princeton University Library where she focused on reviewing, researching, and assisting the Digital Archivist with updating digital processing guidelines. She received her MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA, and has previously worked at UC Irvine Special Collections and Archives and UCLA Library Special Collections. Carolina is interested in the preservation of dance and performing arts and by extension, audiovisual and digital preservation.

I’m really excited to self-nominate for the secretary position at LAAC. I’ve been involved with LAAC since I moved to Southern California to pursue my MLIS back in 2018. I’ve attended a few archives tours, as well as presented at the ArchiveNOW conference in 2018 and contributed to the Movement issue of Acid Free in 2019. Over the years, I’ve met and worked with other members of LAAC and as such feel very rooted in the community and can envision myself becoming a more integral part of the collective.

Treasurer (2-year term)

Lauren McDaniel

I have over fifteen years of collections experience and hold degrees in history, visual and material culture, and archival studies. Currently, I am a temporary Special Collections Archivist at the Getty Research Institute. Just prior, I was the temporary Visual Materials Processing Archivist at UCLA Library Special Collections. While at UCLA, my colleagues and I used our collective power to file a union grievance against UCLA Library regarding temporary appointments. Two years on, the grievance continues, as does our fight against the widespread problem of contingent labor in the cultural heritage and education fields. Since 2003, I have also been a self-employed information professional, managing my own business finances as well as clients’ accounts and expenses.

I have participated in and benefited from LAAC’s valuable network and activities over the past few years, including Acid Free featuring my article about UCLA’s Barbara and Willard Morgan papers in its movement-themed issue. I now want to step up my organizational involvement by running for the leadership position to which I could best contribute: Treasurer. Using my dual skills in organizing—information and labor—I would help make LAAC an even stronger resource and voice for our archival community.

January 4, 2021 - Comments Off on LAAC Call for Nominations – 2021

LAAC Call for Nominations – 2021

Team Meeting GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

 

 

The Los Angeles Archivists Collective (LAAC) is accepting nominations for the following positions, with terms beginning in 2021

  • Steering Committee member (3 years)
  • Secretary (2 years)
  • Treasurer (2 years)

These positions will provide LAAC members with an opportunity to lead and contribute to future programming efforts, as well as engage, collaborate, and build relationships with the other local archivists and professional organizations. For a complete description of the duties and responsibilities carried out by these positions, see the LAAC bylaws at https://www.laacollective.org/about/bylaws/

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee coordinates the organization’s meetings; presides at all meetings and seeks members to serve on subcommittees. The Steering Committee will also form ad-hoc groups as needed which include, but are not limited to, the Holiday Party/Fundraising committee; Nominating committee; and Scholarship committee.

Secretary & Treasurer

The LAAC secretary and treasurer are acting members of the leadership team. The secretary attends community and leadership meetings, in order to accurately record meeting minutes. They also may be asked to update website pages to reflect current resources. The treasurer manages LAAC finances, including bank accounts and programming funds.More information about each position can be found on the LAAC website.

The deadline for nominations is Friday, January 22nd, 2021 (self-nominations are encouraged).

To submit nominations, email hello@laacollective.org with the nominee name and position. Include a short biography and candidate statement detailing current work, professional interests, and ideas for the candidate's role in LAAC (approximately 200 words). The online ballot will open the week of January 25, 2021.

In addition, LAAC seeks the following subcommittee members:

  • Outreach, 3-5 members
  • Programming, Chair and 3-5 members
  • Publications, 1-2 members (preferably with web production and/or design knowledge)

Members are not elected--they volunteer to be active subcommittee members. Terms are for 1 year. Students are especially encouraged to participate in these positions - LAAC is interested in having local student representatives from UCLA, San Jose State, University of North Texas, and USC.

Each subcommittee will meet in-person or virtually three times a year, and check in with other local professional organizations to avoid duplicate efforts and/or identify potential collaborations for projects or events. For more information, see the Subcommittees section on our about page at https://www.laacollective.org/about/.

To sign up for a subcommittee member position, email hello@laacollective.org by Friday, January 22, 2021 and specify which subcommittee you are interested in. Please also include a few sentences about yourself.

We look forward to receiving your nominations and applications. Please feel free to email with any questions: hello@laacollective.org.

June 2, 2020 - Comments Off on BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Dear LAAC Community:

Police brutality in the United States is a systemic and longstanding issue that disproportionately affects Black communities, resulting in state-sanctioned terror and death. This is not something LAAC feels neutral about: Black lives matter.

We are a collective of individuals who are committed to pursuing anti-racist work in our professional and personal lives. We support activists and organizers who put their lives at risk and push forward the message that these injustices against the Black community are wrong. 

In addition to physically protesting there are a number of ways to support sustainable transformation of communities during this time. Donate funds, sign petitions, call your local politicians, engage in and develop anti-racist practices. We include here a list of just some resources, some of which are archives specific and some of which are not. 

If you are documenting protest activity we strongly implore you to rely on ethical guidelines such as those put forth by Witness and DocNow, and employ tools that blur faces and identifiable traits. Do not put others' lives in danger in your pursuit of documentation- not everything needs to be archived the moment it happens. Our commitment is to that of our Black colleagues and neighbors first. 

As a collective, we will continue to use our skills and resources to seek and promote social justice. LAAC is committed to dismantling systemic white privilege and to advocating for Black lives.

In solidarity,
Los Angeles Archivists Collective Leadership + Founders


RESOURCES

Organizations
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment: This grassroots organization aims to register voters and empower Californians to advocate and vote for economic, racial, and social justice.

Black Lives Matter- Los Angeles: Los Angeles Chapter “guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.”

Black Visions Collective: “Since 2017, Black Visions Collective, has been putting into practice the lessons learned from organizations before us in order to shape a political home for Black people across Minnesota.”

Tools
Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives: Content produced in Professor Michelle Caswell’s Archives, Records, and Memory class, Fall 2016, UCLA. Poster design by Gracen Brilmyer.

Image Scrubber: “This is a tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests.It will remove identifying metadata (Exif data) from photographs, and also allow you to selectively blur parts of the image to cover faces and other identifiable information.”

Activist Archivist Zine: Created by Kali Lawrie and Published by the LAAC Community Outreach & Advocacy Subcommittee, December 2016

Protest & Bail Funds Organizations 
The Bail Project: With locations in Compton, Van Nuys, and San Diego, as well as offices or partnerships in cities from coast to coast, the Bail Project is one of the largest and most established bail funds.

Los Angeles Bail Fund: Led by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and supported by White People 4 Black Lives. 100% of donations go to the bail fund.

Local Budget Funds/Organizations
People’s City Council Freedom Fund: The L.A. activist group Peoples City Council stages protest actions on a variety of issues around social and economic justice. Recently, the local group has been lobbying for a city budget that reduces the share of public funds used to pay for the LAPD.

People’s Budget Los Angeles: An “alternative to the Mayor’s proposed 2020-21 budget. Our document and data both reveal a clear referendum: invest in universal needs (e.g., housing security, public health/health care, mental health and wellness, etc.) and divest from traditional forms of policing.”

Ways to donate directly to the families of those who have recently been victimized by the police: 
Ahmaud Arbery (GoFundMe, I Run with Maud)
George Floyd (GoFundMe, Memorial Fund
Tony McDade (GoFundMe, Memorial Fund)
Sean Reed (GoFundMe, Memorial Fund)
Breonna Taylor (Change.org, Petition, Louisville Community Bail Fund)

March 16, 2020 - Comments Off on A Message To Our LAAC Community About COVID-19

A Message To Our LAAC Community About COVID-19

Dear LAAC Community:

First and foremost, we hope that everyone is staying safe and doing their best to practice self-care as we all attempt to navigate this stressful and confusing time.

We want to highlight community resources that are available for archivists and information professionals who find themselves impacted by COVID-19. Members of the LAAC community are invited to contribute to this list here: COVID-19 Community Resources for Archivists.

We also want to remind folks that the LAAC community is a valuable network of caring archivists. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the community if you find yourself in need of assistance. We are all in this together and we will get through it together!

Thank you to everyone who has already registered for the March 22 Community Planning Meeting, which will now be held online. Details for joining the Zoom meeting are included below—please note that you have the option to attend via phone or via computer. We will be introducing our new leadership and brainstorming potential remote activities which still bring LAAC community members together. 

Stay safe and take good care, everyone!

Sincerely,
The LAAC Steering Committee

January 21, 2020 - Comments Off on Call for Pitches – Acid Free

Call for Pitches – Acid Free

ISSUE 11: FICTIONS

Image via Universal Pictures

Acid Free, the online quarterly magazine of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective, welcomes contributions for its upcoming issue. Acid Free seeks to be a smart, complicated, non-academic forum for a variety of voices and issues in our field, to ground archivists locally and regionally while also keeping an eye toward larger conversations and landscapes.

The theme of our Winter 2020 issue will be FICTIONS, which can be broadly interpreted through an archival lens. Possible topics may include: literary archives, research, or other topics involving artistic production and genre; systemic issues and the stories we tell ourselves within the profession; myths, lies, truth-telling, and subterfuge; creative speculation and ways of imagining; or other takes on the theme. Articles can highlight documents, collections, or exhibitions; explore local landmarks; share projects and stories; or address other theme-related archival subjects and issues.

Pitch us your idea by telling us in a few sentences what your article is about and how it relates to FICTIONS and archives. Please keep in mind our submission guidelines and check out current and past issues of Acid Free for examples. We are a visual magazine, so make sure your topic lends itself to plenty of images!

Pitches will be accepted through February 3, 2020 at: acidfree@laacollective.org.

Responses will be sent out the week of February 10th.

Thanks from the Acid Free team.