The two cornerstones of ArchivesSpace are software that meets user needs and strong community engagement. The continued robust backing of members and the support of the ArchivesSpace Governance Board have enabled us to shore up our staffing for development in recent years. With that side of our program in a stronger place than ever before, we are now able to turn attention to the other side of our team, and we are delighted to announce two recently approved changes related to our staffing for engagement.
Jessica Crouch has been an essential part of the ArchivesSpace team since 2019. In that time, she has led significant expansion in the depth and breadth of our engagement programming and important improvements in many of our activities that directly support ArchivesSpace’s users, including working with community groups to reconceive how we deliver our Help Center and our training model. In recognition of her skills, experience and valuable perspective, we are shifting and refocusing some of her responsibilities to enable her to get more involved in areas that directly impact the application itself. Going forward, in addition to continuing to provide leadership for our engagement programming, Jessica will take an active role in shepherding select projects related to making the ArchivesSpace application better meet user needs in some specific areas, including broadening its utility for multi-lingual users and those outside the U.S. Jessica will move into this role as of July 1 and her new title will be Community Engagement Lead.
To enable Jessica to give fuller attention to her new responsibilities, we are also adding a part-time Program Assistant to provide administrative support for activities that engage users across the ArchivesSpace community, with a particular focus on events management and communications. The person in this role will work under Christine Di Bella’s direct supervision but in close collaboration with Jessica and others at Lyrasis and in the larger ArchivesSpace community. More information about this new position will be posted soon.
Please join us in congratulating Jessica on her well-deserved promotion and in looking forward to the small increase in our ranks later this summer. Thank you to all ArchivesSpace members for all the support that you provide in making things like this possible so that we can better support you.