Meredith Evans is an archivist, historian and scholar and the director of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta. [1] Her work focuses on the African-American experience in the United States, including the documentation of archival records from African-American churches in the Atlanta area, [2] and the preservation of social media from recent civil rights protests such as those of the Ferguson unrest in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Michael Brown.
Evans attended Friends Seminary in New York and received her high school diploma in 1990. [3]
She received a Bachelor's degree in History and a Master's degree in Library Science from Clark Atlanta University. [4] [5] She holds a Master's degree in Public History from North Carolina State University. [5] [3]
Her doctorate in Library and Information Science is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [6] Her dissertation focused on the records management and retention practices of African-American churches in the Southern United States. [2]
Dr. Evans has taught classes in library, archives and information sciences including Clark Atlanta University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. [5]
While a curator at Atlanta University Center, Evans was instrumental in obtaining an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for the digitization of the papers of Martin Luther King Jr. [1] As an archivist, she co-taught a workshop in archival preservation titled "The Lessons of Pilgrim Baptist Church: Preventing the Loss of Your Heritage," which addressed the care and preservation of church archives and records in the wake of a tragic fire that destroyed the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago in early 2006. [7]
At George Washington University, she served as the Director of Special Collections. [1]
Later, at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Evans held the title of Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Digital Programs. [8]
Meredith Evans was formerly the Associate University Librarian at Washington University in St. Louis. [9] During her tenure there, the WUSTL library was active in the creation of Documenting Ferguson, a community-curated digital repository documenting the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri after the murder of Michael Brown at the hands of police. [10] [11] She has written about the impact of new archival methods to "collect the now" as related to born-digital materials that are preserved by modern archives in a post-custodial era of archival science. [12] In 2014, WUSTL joined with the University of California at Riverside and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park, and later received a Mellon foundation grant to create Documenting the Now: Supporting the Scholarly Use and Preservation of Social Media Content, an initiative to ethically collect and preserve Twitter feeds around topics of social justice for future scholarly research. [13]
In November, 2015 Dr. Evans was named as the new director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta. [1]
In April, 2017 Evans was elected as Vice President/President Elect of the Society of American Archivists. [14]
Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellowship (2013) [15]
In the United States, the presidential library system is a nationwide network of 16 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every president of the United States since Herbert Hoover, the 31st president from 1929–1933. In addition to the library services, museum exhibitions concerning the presidency are displayed.
Library and Archives Canada is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. The LAC reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, houses U.S. President Jimmy Carter's papers and other material relating to the Carter administration and the Carter family's life. The library also hosts special exhibits, such as Carter's Nobel Peace Prize and a full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it was during the Carter Administration, including a reproduction of the Resolute desk.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings, photographs and various other materials in physical or digital formats.
The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relatively recent degree; an older and still common degree designation for librarians to acquire is the Master of Library Science (MLS), or Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) degree. According to the American Library Association (ALA), "The master’s degree in library and information studies is frequently referred to as the MLS; however, ALA-accredited degrees have various names such as Master of Information Studies, Master of Arts, Master of Librarianship, Master of Library and Information Studies, or Master of Science. The degree name is determined by the program. The [ALA] Committee for Accreditation evaluates programs based on their adherence to the Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies, not based on the name of the degree."
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to library and information science:
In conservation, library and archival science, preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible. Preservation activities vary widely and may include monitoring the condition of items, maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas, writing a plan in case of emergencies, digitizing items, writing relevant metadata, and increasing accessibility. Preservation, in this definition, is practiced in a library or an archive by a conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional when they perceive a collection or record is in need of maintenance.
Camila Alire is an American librarian and was president of the American Library Association from 2009 to 2010. She was the first Hispanic president of the ALA. She was previously the president of REFORMA, National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, in 1993-1994.
David Sean Ferriero is an American librarian and library administrator, who served as the 10th Archivist of the United States. He previously served as the Director of the New York Public Library and as the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University. Prior to his Duke position, he worked for 31 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library. Ferriero was the first librarian to serve as Archivist of the United States.
Music librarianship is the area of librarianship that pertains to music collections and their development, cataloging, preservation and maintenance, as well as reference issues connected with musical works and music literature. Music librarians often have degrees in both music and librarianship. Music librarians deal with standard librarianship duties such as cataloging and reference, which become more complicated when music scores and recordings are involved. Therefore, music librarians generally read music and have at least a basic understanding of both music theory and music history to aid in their duties.
The Progressive Librarians Guild(PLG) was founded in New York City in January 1990 by librarians concerned with the library profession's "rapid drift into dubious alliances with business and the information industry, and into complacent acceptance of service to an unquestioned political, economic and cultural status quo," according to the organization's statement of purpose. The initial three organizers were Elaine Harger, Mark Rosenzweig and Elliot Shore. The PLG addresses issues especially relating to librarianship and human rights.
James F. Williams II is a retired American librarian. He was the Dean of Libraries at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The Queensland State Archives is the lead agency for public recordkeeping in Queensland, Australia. It is the custodian of the largest and most significant documentary heritage collection about Queensland.
The University of Texas School of Information is a graduate school and undergraduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, offering master's and doctoral degrees in information studies, as well as certificates of advanced study and an undergraduate minor. In 2021, they began offering a bachelor's degree in informatics. UT iSchool graduates find careers in archival enterprise, information architecture, information policy, information systems design and management, information usability, librarianship, multimedia design, museum work, preservation and conservation, and records management.
E-Science librarianship refers to a role for librarians in e-Science.
Clara Stanton Jones was the first African-American president of the American Library Association, serving as its acting president from April 11 to July 22 in 1976 and then its president from July 22, 1976, to 1977. Also, in 1970 she became the first African American and the first woman to serve as director of a major library system in America, as director of the Detroit Public Library.
"More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing" is a 2005 archival science article written by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner that first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2005 issue of The American Archivist. The paper argues that traditional archival processing is too slow, and advocates for the use of minimal processing in order to reduce backlogs and provide access to archival collections as quickly as possible. The ideology presented in the article, abbreviated as MPLP, has since been widely adopted in modern archival theory with subsequent praise directed primarily towards the ability to increase user accessibility without prohibiting the option for future processing.
Trevor A. Dawes is a Jamaican-born American librarian and educator. He is the vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris University Librarian at the University of Delaware. Dawes served as the 76th president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).
Allie Carroll Hart was an American librarian, historian, archivist, and teacher who served as the director of the Georgia Department of Archives and History from 1964 to 1982. She was also instrumental in the founding of the Society of Georgia Archivists and the Georgia Genealogical Society, and assisted in the foundation of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.