Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty (Source: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives)
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives recently welcomed Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty as our inaugural director. Join us as we get to know the new leader of our organization!
[Clip]
2.) Tell me about your background in your own words. What attracted you to the field of libraries and archives as a career?
The path to my career was a challenging process. My mother wanted me to be a successful Black woman which in her eyes was to have a respectful career in which I made lots of money. She wanted me to be a doctor, and then when it turned out I was no good at calculus she said, “Well, I guess you need to be a lawyer.” She never really embraced or wholly understood my library career.
However, when I was in high school and college I worked in libraries for extra money and started getting closer and closer to them. I always felt there were smart people in libraries, people who liked to read and were interested in different esoteric things like me – and then I learned about special collections. I realized from my Chicago Historical Society experience that there were curators in libraries. I eased into the profession by working odd and temporary LIS jobs, and then the jobs kept becoming more and more permanent with greater responsibilities. Working as a special collections assistant in Princeton University Library’s Rare Book and Manuscript reading room is what sealed the deal for me for library school. For a time, I did not reveal to my family what I was getting a master’s degree in.
[Clip]
4.) Why do you believe that libraries and archives are important to the Smithsonian?
We are the keepers of history for the entire organization. We have an important mission to provide resources for the research that curators, scholars, and scientists need. Every museum object has a story to tell, but that story may be documented within our archives or put into better context by our library research material. I also believe that we are called upon for a bigger, global mission to provide documentation to society. We have a lot in our collections that speaks to what it is to be America and American. I see us as playing a much bigger role more similar or parallel to the Library of Congress – on that top level. We are America’s library.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
The book mentioned below is available for purchase from the ALA Store. An open access edition (323 pages; PDF) is also available online. From ACRL Insider: ACRL announces the publication ...
From an EBSCO Announcement: EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has published the 2023 Serials Price Projection Report. This year’s report projects that the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic medical ...
EDGI Releases Report: How Data Gaps and Disparities in EPA Data Undermine Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tools How Nature Contributed to Science’s Discriminatory Legacy (via Nature) Libraries Play Important Role ...
From an ALA Statement: During the Summer and Fall of 2022, threats directed to public and school libraries and library workers escalated, including the forced temporary closure of five public ...
From a Plan S / cOAlition S Announcement: cOAlition S releases today the end-user portal of the Journal Comparison Service (JCS). This secure, free, online service aims to shed light on publishing ...
From the University of Victoria, Canada: Canada’s genocide is getting harder to deny. So too is the growing recognition that human rights and the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples offer solutions ...
Johns Hopkins Joins Center For Research Libraries (CRL) ORCID Announces 2023 Board Slate Stanford Libraries Creates New Division to Support Scholars’ Data Needs
From the American Library Association: With funding from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, the American Library Association (ALA) has published “Programming with Primary Sources: Women’s Suffrage,”a resource ...
From a PEN America News Release: James Patterson, the best-selling author, has donated $2 million to PEN America to build communications capacity and help the premier writers’ organization speak louder ...
From a Introductory Blog Post by Dylan Ruediger and Danielle Miriam Cooper: Today, Ithaka S+R releases findings from one of the largest in-depth studies of teaching practices across social science ...
From Stateline/Pew: There are more than 600 oral history recordings housed where Lina Ortega is an associate curator for the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma Libraries. Ortega speaks ...
From the University of Louisville: The current and former ownership of one of America’s most respected newspapers has made it possible for a treasure trove of an estimated 3 million ...
