Preservation Specialist
Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)
Andover, MA
March 2021-current
Provide training programs, assessments, consultations, and disaster assistance to libraries, archives, museums, universities, and historical societies nationwide.
To date, I have conducted eleven preservation assessments for academic libraries and archives, historical societies, public library history collections, and town clerks, including one digital preservation assessment for a federal archives. I provide guidance on preservation standards and collection management for archival, special collection, and museum materials including rare books, documents, photographic prints, cased photographs, film and glass negatives, microforms, audio and video media, moving image film, architectural plans, maps, posters, art on paper, art on canvas, textiles, and 3-D objects comprised of organic and inorganic materials.
I have taught over 70 hours of virtual and in-person workshops, webinars, and web courses on topics including physical collection preservation, digital preservation, audiovisual preservation, and emergency preparedness. See a full list under Instruction. I developed content for the webinar “10 Practical Steps for Getting Started with Digital Preservation,” and I have customized emergency preparedness workshops to include activities such as disaster plan review, collection wet salvage demonstrations, and disaster scenario tabletop exercises.
I represent NEDCC at conferences of local, regional, and national organizations, including the New England Archivists, Society of American Archivists, and the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums. I also served as a facilitator for NEDCC’s online digital preservation conference, Digital Directions, in November 2021 and February 2022.
Assistant Archivist
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston, MA
October 2017 – August 2020
Position at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives encompassing three years of progressively responsible archival work. Daily responsibilities include processing collections, providing reference and research services, digitizing on demand, maintaining digital assets in NetX DAMS and CONTENTdm, supervising interns and volunteers, managing projects as needed, and supporting the functions of the Archives Director and Associate Archivist for Digital Assets. Other activities include participating in triannual Archives Council meetings to report on user statistics and project progress and collaborating with the Archives team and Development Department to plan workflows, budgets, and timelines for grant-funded digitization projects.
Accession, arrange, describe, and process transfers of institutional records, donations of manuscript collections, and existing backlogs of archival collections. Enter DACS-compliant collection descriptions, box lists, and folder lists in InMagic db/Textworks. Assess preservation needs of collections and work with the Archives Director and Facilities Department to mitigate issues such as water damage, mold, and pests.
Provide reference and research services daily for staff, musicians, students, researchers, and the public. Train archives users in resource discovery including how to use the performance history search engine. Manage release forms and copyright information for documents, photographs, sounds recordings, and audiovisual media with Google Forms. Digitize on demand for internal and external requests. Monitor the security of materials while in use by in-house researchers.
Digitize documents, photographs, negatives, microfilm, and architectural plans. Upload digitized files to NetX digital asset management system and CONTENTdm content management system and create Dublin Core metadata. Train interns and volunteers in the use of databases and DAMS.
Supervise graduate student interns in semester-long processing and digitization projects, providing instructional documentation to help students achieve educational goals. Supervise volunteers in ongoing processing and digitization projects, providing instructional documentation to ensure the use of best practices in collections care, processing, scanning, and metadata creation.
Manage large-scale seasonal exhibits of archival materials at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood venues in collaboration with the Archives Director. Includes planning themes; designing layout; curating and researching materials; writing summaries, captions, and informational panels; and scanning materials for use in online companion exhibits.
Manage the transfer of 700+ boxes (1,000+ cubic feet) of materials from secondary archival storage to offsite storage at Iron Mountain over the course of three months in Fall 2019. Transfer involved surveying collections, determining the disposition of each collection, rehousing materials, updating box and folder lists as needed, deaccessioning records as necessary according to retention schedule, incorporating materials with immediate research value into the Archives on-site storage, and coordinating the transport of remaining boxes offsite.
Initiate project to implement ArchivesSpace archival management software in Spring 2020 to improve intellectual control of collections, improve ease of access, and increase visibility of collections online. Project involved exporting legacy collections information from InMagic DB/TextWorks database, normalizing data in Excel and Open Refine, and following a Yale University workflow to transform Excel XML to EAD in Oxygen XML Editor and import EAD into ArchivesSpace. Project put on hold due to Covid-19-related furloughs.
Skills: archival accessioning | archival appraisal | archival arrangement | archival deaccessioning | archival description | archival processing | collections management | customer service | digital exhibits | digital preservation | digitization | exhibit management | grant planning | metadata standards | outreach | preservation assessment | project management | reference services | research | supervising | technology support
Tools: ArchivesSpace | Audacity | Bulk Rename Utility | CONTENTdm | Google Forms | InMagic DB/TextWorks | iSkysoft Video Converter | NetX DAMS | OpenRefine | Orchestra Planning and Administration System (OPAS) | Oxygen XML Editor
Links: Leonard Bernstein Centennial Timeline | Example Photograph Metadata via CONTENTdm
Assistant Project Archivist
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston, MA
April 2017 – October 2017
June 2015 – August 2016
Grant-funded project position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives working on the Tanglewood Music Center audio digitization project. Initial duties (June 2015-August 2016) include preparing DATs and reel-to-reel tapes for transfer to third-party digitization vendor, conducting quality control of deliverables, parsing audio files with Audacity, importing metadata and 700+ audio files into CONTENTdm, and scanning concert programs for use online via Internet Archive. Duties in the second phase (April-October 2017) include remote work to enter performance information in the Orchestra Planning and Administration System (OPAS) database and link digitized audio and programs to database records for use in HENRY, the BSO Archives’ performance history search engine.
Skills: archival description | audio editing | data entry | digital preservation | digitization | exhibit management | metadata standards | project management | remote work | research
Tools: Audacity | CONTENTdm | Microsoft Excel | Orchestra Planning and Administration System (OPAS)
Links: Example Performance Metadata in HENRY via OPAS
Contract Archivist
City of Somerville
Somerville, MA
January 2017 – July 2017
Contract position with the City of Somerville Archives to arrange, describe, and rehouse 140 linear feet of municipal records as part of a Community Preservation Act Grant. Processed collections include Law Office closed case files, Somerville Redevelopment Authority records, Somerville Civil Defense records, and Board of Health records including records pertaining to administrative functions, public health initiatives, communicable disease control and prevention, health inspections, and social service Commissions. Duties include processing collections, addressing preservation concerns, deaccessioning records according to the records retention schedule, creating DACS-compliant finding aids with Archivists’ Toolkit archive management system, and editing EAD, HTML, XML, XSLT, and CSS in finding aid exports to present finding aids online.
Skills: archival arrangement | archival deaccessioning | archival description | archival processing | preservation assessment | project management | research
Tools: Archivists’ Toolkit | Oxygen XML Editor
Links: Somerville Civilian Defense Records Finding Aid
Project Archivist
Boston Carmelite Monastery
Boston, MA
January 2015 – August 2017
Project position to establish the Monastery’s Archives for its 125th anniversary by appraising, arranging, describing, and rehousing 100+ linear feet of institutional records including administrative records, personal papers, 10,000+ photographs and negatives, 1,300+ AV items, 2TB of digitized audio and video, born-digital records, and memorabilia. Activities include processing records, addressing preservation needs, creating a DACS-compliant finding aid for the collection, providing reference and research services for the Sisters, instructing the Sisters in archival best practices, creating instructional documentation for the continuation of the Archives.
Additional projects: managing an audio and video digitization project with George Blood Audio to reformat 2,000+ hours of audio and 30+ hours of video from audio cassette and VHS tape; installing and managing QNAP NAS device with RAID 5 redundancy for archival storage and daily use in the Monastery.
Skills: archival appraisal | archival arrangement | archival description | archival processing | collections management | digital preservation | outreach | preservation assessment | project management | reference services | research | technology support
Tools: BitCurator | QNAP NAS
Archives Intern
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Pittsburgh, PA
January 2014 – July 2014
Internship with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Archives to arrange, describe, and rehouse over 40 linear feet of audiovisual collections; create DACS-compliant finding aids with Archivists’ Toolkit archive management system; and conduct reference research.
Skills: archival arrangement | archival description | archival processing | research
Tools: Archivists’ Toolkit
Archives and Special Collections Assistant
Chatham University
Pittsburgh, PA
September 2013 – July 2014
Work study placement through UPitt’s Partners Program at the Chatham University Library. Archives projects: processing the Jerry L. Caplan papers (26.5 linear feet) a creating a DACS-compliant finding aid with Archon archive management system; reappraising and rehousing the University Newspaper collection; creating photographic image metadata with MODS standard; design, research, and implement exhibits of archival materials in the library. Special collections project: copy cataloging and editing 1,000+ MARC21 records in Millennium Integrated Library System using OCLC Connexion.
Skills: archival appraisal | archival arrangement | archival description | archival processing | copy cataloging | digital preservation | digitization | exhibit management | preservation assessment | project management | research | special collections cataloging
Tools: Archon | Millennium ILS | OCLC Connexion
Links: Jerry L. Caplan Papers Finding Aid
Media and Information Services Assistant Technician
Westford Public Schools
Westford, MA
Summers 2010 – 2013
Summer position (mid June – late August) working with the Westford Public Schools MIS team to receive and distribute deliveries of new computers and to prep computers for the new school year in September. Duties include inventorying and assembling new computers, printers, and other technologies; supervising other assistants in the transport, inventory, and assembly of computers; and installing and updating software on desktop and laptop computers with Mac and Windows dual boot operating systems.
Skills: inventory | project management | supervising | technology support
Tools: Adobe Reader | Chrome | Firefox | Macintosh OS | Microsoft Office | Safari | Windows OS
Library Assistant
Westwood High School
Westwood, MA
September 2012 – December 2012
School library position to manage circulation, provide reference services to students and faculty, create book displays, process new materials, repair damaged materials, and support technology use in the library.
Skills: customer service | library circulation management | library display management | library materials processing | reference services | technology support
Tools: Atriuum ILS
Library Assistant
Jacob Burns Law Library, The George Washington University
Washington, D.C.
October 2011 – May 2012
Law Library assistant position to organize and shelve materials, update legal volumes with pocket parts, and assist students and faculty at the security desk.
Skills: customer service | shelf reading | shelving | technology support
Conservation Intern
Underwater Archaeology Branch, U.S. Navy
Washington, D.C.
February 2011 – May 2011
Intern position with the Underwater Archaeology Branch to chemically and physically conserve artifacts recovered from underwater excavations. Duties include cleaning artifacts, using a pneumatic drill to remove mineral deposits from metal artifacts, and capturing digital images of artifacts using a 3-D scanner.
Skills: 3D scanning | conservation | research
Research Assistant
The George Washington University
Washington, D.C.
March 2009 – May 2010
Research assistant position in the GWU Anthropology Department. Duties include cataloging artifacts, managing artifact documentation, researching artifacts, and editing images with Photoshop as well as a one month summer internship in Oaxaca, Mexico to catalog and illustrate ceramic and stone artifacts from the pre-Columbian site, Etlatongo.
Skills: artifact management | cataloging | illustration | image editing | inventory | research
Tools: Adobe Photoshop | Microsoft Excel
Library Page
J.V. Fletcher Library
Westford, MA
April 2007 – August 2008
Public library position responsible for organizing and shelving books, periodicals, CDs, audiobooks, and audiovisual media and assisting patrons as needed.
Skills: customer service | shelf reading | shelving | technology support
Alison Fulmer 