Meredith Evans (archivist)

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Meredith Evans
Amending 827 (28243241406).jpg
Meredith Evans (right) with David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States.jpg
Alma mater Clark Atlanta University
North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
OccupationArchivist
TitleDirector of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

Meredith Rachelle 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.

Contents

Education

Evans attended Friends Seminary and received her high school diploma in 1990. At Friends, she founded the student organization Cultural Awareness Reaching Everyone (CARE) and advocated for Black authors to be included in the curriculum. [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] and a PhD in library science (archives concentration) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation focused on the records management and retention practices of African American churches in the Atlanta area. [2]

Dr. Evans has taught classes in library, archives and information sciences including Clark Atlanta University, Wayne State University, San José State University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. [5] [6]

Career

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]

Evans served as the Director of Special Collections at George Washington University (2008–2012), [1] Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Digital Programs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2012–2014), [8] and Associate University Librarian at Washington University in St. Louis (2012–2015). [9] She was instrumental in the creation of "Documenting Ferguson," a community-curated digital repository documenting the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer. [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 on 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] She continues to hold this office as of January 2025. [14]

In April 2017, Evans was elected as Vice President/President Elect of the Society of American Archivists. [15] She served as the 74th president of SAA from 2018 to 2020. [16]

Select bibliography

Awards

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "National Archives Selects Former Atlantan to Head Carter Presidential Library". National Archives. National Archives and Records Administration. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 Evans, Meredith Rachelle (2006). "Recordkeeping Practices In Selected Atlanta Area Black Churches". University of North Carolina. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Dr. Meredith Evans '90 I An Activist Archivist Committed to Representation". Friends Seminary. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  4. ↑ "Meredith Evans, Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect | Society of American Archivists". www2.archivists.org. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Poole, Shelia. "New Director at Carter Library". ajc. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Meredith Evans, Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect". Society of American Archivists . 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  7. ↑ Desutter, Solveig (2006). "Breaking New Ground with IT, Ethnographic, and Heritage Preservation Programs" (PDF). Archival Outlook. November/December: 14–15.
  8. ↑ "ARL Selects Leadership Fellows for 2013–2015 | Association of Research Libraries® | ARL®". www.arl.org. Association of Research Libraries. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "Meredith Evans | The Source | Washington University in St. Louis". The Source. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  10. ↑ Shannon, Davis; Rudolph, Clay; Meredith, Evans; Makiba, Foster; Chris, Freeland; Nadia, Ghasedi; Jennifer, Kirmer; Sonya, Rooney; Micah, Zeller (1 January 2015). "Documenting Ferguson: Building a community digital repository". Washington University Open Scholarship.
  11. ↑ "Documenting Ferguson". Process: a blog for American history. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  12. ↑ Evans, Meredith R. (4 May 2015). "Modern Special Collections: Embracing the Future While Taking Care of the Past". New Review of Academic Librarianship. 21 (2): 116–128. doi:10.1080/13614533.2015.1040926. ISSN   1361-4533. S2CID   62202780.
  13. ↑ "Documenting the Now Builds Social Media Archive". Library Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  14. ↑ Killion, Nikole (4 January 2025). "She wrote Jimmy Carter a letter when she was 4. Now, she's director of the Carter Presidential Library and Museum". CBS News . Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  15. ↑ "SAA 2017 Election Results | Society of American Archivists". archivists.org. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  16. ↑ "Presidents". Society of American Archivists . Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  17. ↑ "ARL Selects Leadership Fellows for 2013–2015 | Association of Research Libraries® | ARL®". www.arl.org. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  18. ↑ "Fellow: Meredith Evans". Society of American Archivists . 2024. Retrieved 15 January 2025.

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