Launching the Lighting the Way working meeting

The Lighting the Way project team is happy to announce the launch of the Working Meeting, a series of online meetings and facilitated activities held in April and May 2021. The Working Meeting focuses on convening small groups to develop a topic related to improving archival discovery and delivery into a written contribution of 5-10 pages to be published by the project this summer. Building on the work of the Lighting the Way Forum, the four sessions of the Working Meeting leverages the Liberating Structures framework and other proven techniques from human-centered design to provide a welcome and supportive environment for collaboration.

Our first session was held on Monday, April 19, 2021, and we are pleased to introduce you to the groups, participants, and facilitators that will be collaborating over the next six weeks and beyond. We will share more as our work progresses throughout and after the Working Meeting.

Group 1 - DIMES: human-centered relationships for archival discovery

• Hannah Sistrunk, Rockefeller Archive Center
• Renee Pappous, Rockefeller Archive Center

• Darren Young, Rockefeller Archive Center

Group 2 - Wikidata and archival description: giving users the agency to create descriptive metadata in a domain-agnostic environment

• Elizabeth Roke, Emory University
• Ruth Tillman, Penn State Libraries
• Kelli Babcock, University of Toronto Libraries
• Greta Kuriger Suiter, MIT
• Anna Björnsson McCormick, New York University
• Regine Heberlein, Princeton University

Group 3 - Virtual reading rooms: articulating commonalities/differences, sustainable equitable access, prioritizing cultural sensitivity

• Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, UC Irvine
• Heather Smedberg, UC San Diego Library
• Annalise Berdini, Princeton University
• Genevieve Preston, San Bernardino County Historical Archives
• Kathryn Gronsbell, Carnegie Hall
• Kate Lynch, Princeton University
• Shelly Black, North Carolina State University Libraries
• Greg Cram, The New York Public Library
• Nick Krabbenhoeft, The New York Public Library

Group 4 - Integrating digital content and context: making actionable dynamic, modular, context-aware presentations that are user driven

• Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Montana State University
• Maureen Cresci Callahan, Smith College
• Gretchen Gueguen, PALCI (Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc)
• Krystyna Matusiak, University of Denver
• John Kunze, California Digital Library, University of California Office of the President

Group 5 - Building pathways for user engagement in inclusive descriptive decisions

• Betts Coup, Houghton Library, Harvard University
• Zoe Hill, Harvard University
• Faith Charlton, Princeton University Library
• Christa Cleeton, Princeton University
• Jessica Tai, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University
• Alison Clemens, Yale University Library 

Group 6 - Facilitating seamless access through collaborative workflows and communication

• Katrina Windon, University of Arkansas Special Collections 
• Melanie Griffin, University of Arkansas
• Martha Anderson, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
• Deb Kulczak, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
• Olga Virakhovskaya, Bentley Historical Library, The University of Michigan
• Chris Powell, University of Michigan
• Caitlin Wells, University of Michigan Library
• Emiko Hastings, University of Michigan

Group 7 - Defining common challenges related to discovery and access that are unique to small, often under-resourced archives

• Stefana Breitwieser, Arthur H. Aufses Archives at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
• Amanda Demeter, Tacoma Community College
• Lori Myers-Steele, Berea College
• Kate Philipson, Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York
• Amanda Murray, Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York
• Sophie Glidden-Lyon, LaMama Experimental Theatre Club

Group 8 - Exploring user-generated contributions to advance collections access

• Diana Marsh, University of Maryland
• Victoria Van Hyning, University of Maryland
• Katrina Fenlon, University of Maryland
• Katherine Crowe, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
• Hannah Frisch, University of Maryland 

Group 9 - A shared stewardship model for archival collections where all labor is valued as a core function

• Stephanie Becker, Case Western Reserve University
• Anne Kumer, Case Western Reserve University
• Naomi Langer, Case Western Reserve University 

Facilitators

• Hillel Arnold, Rockefeller Archive Center
• Max Eckard, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
• Wendy Hagenmaier, Georgia Tech
• Dinah Handel, Stanford University
• Julie Hardesty, Indiana University
• Linda Hocking, CA, Litchfield Historical Society
• M.A. Matienzo, Stanford University
• Gregory Wiedeman, University at Albany, SUNY
• Audra Eagle Yun, UC Irvine

More information on the Lighting the Way Working Meeting can be found on the project website. If you have any questions or feedback about the process, please contact the project team at lighting-the-way-team@lists.stanford.edu, or M.A. Matienzo, Project Director, at matienzo@stanford.edu.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, through grant LG-35-19-0012-19. The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov.