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Please join us in welcoming Elizabeth Lhost to the position of program manager for the Modern Endangered Archives Program.
We asked her a few questions about her new role:
What goals/hopes do you have for this year as our new program manager for the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP)?
I’m excited to be part of the MEAP team and to contribute to its amazing, post-custodial collection-building work. As someone who loves digging into archives and collections, I’m excited by the ever-expanding possibilities of digital technologies to make rare and unique collections available and openly accessible to new audiences of scholars, researchers, students, and community members. My goal in this role is therefore to support the MEAP project teams and to make their projects a success.
I have a background in international and area studies, so I’m especially passionate about making sure non-English-language materials aren’t overlooked in the move toward digitization. As program manager, I’ll be putting these commitments into action to support MEAP-sponsored projects around the world.
How has your prior experience prepared you for this role at UCLA Library?
Before joining UCLA Library, I was South Asia Digital Librarian at the Center for Research Libraries where I was responsible for managing the South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) initiative. In that role, I supported the work of teams in South Asia that were digitizing rare and inaccessible materials for inclusion in SAOA’s online collection. That work (from project planning and administration to ingest and publication)—not to mention the project’s emphasis on collaborative, post-custodial, open access digital collection development—has so many overlaps with what I’ll be doing with MEAP that I’m excited to dig in!
What projects will you be tackling first?
The Modern Endangered Archives Program is in the process of funding its fifth cohort of planning and digitization projects, meaning the program is growing year after year. At present, there are roughly 90 teams located around the world that are about to start, currently working on, or reaching the final stages of their project and planning grants. My main goal this year is to make sure their work moves through the pipeline as smoothly and efficiently as possible. To that end, the first projects I’ll be tackling will be aimed at streamlining our on boarding processes for project teams, updating and expanding the documentation we provide to support their work, and removing as many bottlenecks as possible from the ingest and publication process.
What are you currently reading/watching/listening to? What do you like to do outside of work?
I’m currently reading Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places and Sarah Lamdan’s Data Cartels. Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, biking, and (very casual) gardening. I'm currently learning to row with the Hampton Roads Rowing Club.
What is your preferred name and what are your pronouns?
Elizabeth, she/her/hers