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The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA) hosted the third ARL/SAA Mosaic Program Leadership Forum on August 10, 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia, in conjunction with the SAA Annual Meeting. Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program promotes much-needed diversification of the archives and special collections professional workforce.
The Leadership Forum featured numerous speakers from the archives and special collections field, including Danna Bell, educational resource specialist at the Library of Congress and former president of SAA; Josue Hurtado, coordinator of public services and outreach at the Temple University Special Collections Research Center; and Ricardo Punzalan, assistant professor of archival studies at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies. The event concluded with a mock interview facilitated by several career archivists and special collections professionals.
The six 2015–17 ARL/SAA Mosaic Program fellows, two of the three recently announced 2016–2017 Mosaic Program fellows, as well as two SAA Pinkett Award winners. The Mosaic Program fellows also attended the SAA Annual Meeting, which focused on issues of diversity and inclusion throughout. The SAA opening plenary featured a keynote by Chris Taylor, director of inclusion and community engagement at the Minnesota Historical Society, with comments by David Ferriero, archivist of the United States. At the conlusion of the Annual Meeting, the SAA presidential address by Dennis Meissner highlighted the need for archivists to develop as individuals and as a profession in the area of cultural competence.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
