A busy year for Shelly Black

Digital Archivist Shelly Black has been very active in her field this past year—and she’s continuing this spring!

In January, Black participated in the Archivists Round Table (A.R.T.) of Metropolitan New York Symposium as a member of the panel “Path to Leadership: Reflecting on the National Forum on Advancing Asian and Pacific Islander American Librarianship: Perspectives from Asian American Archival Workers & Panel Discussion.”

The Forum—funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and supported by the Chinese American Librarians Association and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association—began meeting virtually in January 2022 to discuss, identify, and share the opportunities and barriers to leadership experienced by AAPI library and archival workers. Black and her co-panelists discussed how their participation in the forum expanded their thinking about the value and importance of community building for professional and personal growth.

In February, Black moderated a panel for the webinar ”Writing and Publishing for Archivists” for the Society of American Archivists sections for “Archivists and Archives of Color” and “Students and New Archives Professionals.” Participants talked about opportunities for archivists to write and publish, including publications like ARTchivist’s Notebook and up//root: a we here publication, as well as the SAA Publications Board.

Later this spring, Shelly will be participating as an invited panelist in the IMLS-supported forum “Building Radical Empathy in Archives and Special Collections: Highlighting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (BRE).”