Meredith Evans (archivist)
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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.
Education
[edit]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]
Career
[edit]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]
Selected bibliography
[edit]- Evans, Meredith Rachelle, MSLS, MA (2006) Recordkeeping Practices in Selected Atlanta Area Black Churches. University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill.
- Evans, Meredith R., PhD (2007) The Digitization of African American Publications, The Serials Librarian, 53:1-2, 203-210, DOI: 10.1300/J123v53n01_16
- Evans, Meredith R. (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
Awards
[edit]Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellowship (2013)[15]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "National Archives Selects Former Atlantan to Head Carter Presidential Library". National Archives. National Archives and Records Administration. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- ^ a b Evans, Meredith Rachelle (2006). "Recordkeeping Practices In Selected Atlanta Area Black Churches". University of North Carolina. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ a b "Dr. Meredith Evans '90 I An Activist Archivist Committed to Representation". Friends Seminary. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- ^ "Meredith Evans, Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect | Society of American Archivists". www2.archivists.org. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- ^ a b c Poole, Shelia. "New Director at Carter Library". ajc. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ "Meredith Evans, Director, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum". American Library Association. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ Desutter, Solveig (2006). "Breaking New Ground with IT, Ethnographic, and Heritage Preservation Programs" (PDF). Archival Outlook. November/December: 14–15.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Meredith Evans | The Source | Washington University in St. Louis". The Source. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Documenting Ferguson". Process: a blog for American history. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Documenting the Now Builds Social Media Archive". Library Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ "SAA 2017 Election Results | Society of American Archivists". archivists.org. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
- ^ "ARL Selects Leadership Fellows for 2013–2015 | Association of Research Libraries® | ARL®". www.arl.org. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
External links
[edit]- Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum official site
- Documenting Ferguson site
- Documenting the Now (DocNow) site
- Living people
- African-American archivists
- Women archivists
- American archivists
- American librarians
- American women librarians
- University of North Carolina alumni
- Clark University alumni
- African-American librarians
- Presidents of the Society of American Archivists
- North Carolina State University alumni
- Friends Seminary alumni
- 21st-century African-American people
- 21st-century African-American women
- George Washington University people
- Washington University in St. Louis staff