We are delighted to present this new group of archivists and records managers who will be collaborating over this year on projects related to communications, advocacy and promotion of the profession.
We invite you to read their biographies to learn more about their professional experience and academic work.
Gina Chacon Vargas, Costa Rica
Gina Chacon Vargas is an archivist and records management professional with a Bachelor’s Degree in Archival Science from the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Since 2019 she works in the digital archive of an international organization as a Document Management Analyst in San Jose, Costa Rica. She manages electronic records, and also trains, advises, and collaborates on projects related to the modernization of the records management system. Academically, she is developing an archival model for UCR Research Centers.
As a college student, she was an archives assistant at the UCR, where she worked on records appraisal and processes standardization. Additionally, she was one of the founders and chairwoman for two years of the Archival Affairs Committee of the Students Association, focused on engaging the archival student community.
Her main interests are digital archives, metadata, digital assets management, archives of international organizations, and women’s empowerment and leadership. She believes records and information management is key to the success of projects and initiatives of Digital Transformation, therefore archivists and records management professionals must be involved in discussions related to that.
Janny Sjåholm, Norway
Janny Sjåholm is an advisor and project manager at the Intermunicipal Archive of Hordaland in Bergen, Norway. She is responsible for following up on several municipalities, advising and assisting them in all manners of archival and records management questions. She also leads a team working on the ongoing arrangement and registration projects and is the contact person for interns at her workplace.
Janny has previously worked at Hordaland County archives, where she arranged and registered archives. While there, she was also in charge of training new employees. In addition to her experience working in archives, she has also has some experience in the museum and cultural heritage sector. She has been employed at Dalane Folkmuseum, where she registered various museum artefacts. While on an exchange semester at Otago University in New Zealand, she interned at Heritage New Zealand. There she worked on research and outreach for various sites of cultural and historic importance.
Janny holds a postgraduate degree in History from the University of Bergen. She is currently undertaking a one-year programme in Records Management at Oslo Metropolitan University, part-time next to her job.
Susannah Tindall, Australia
Susannah Tindall works in Records Management at Monash University. She has a Graduate Diploma in Information and Knowledge Management at Monash University, specialising in archives and records, and has recently completed a Master of Information Studies (Data Management) at Charles Sturt University. Susannah has a keen interest in the areas of automation and integration, expanding current recordkeeping capabilities to the next generation of technologies. She strives for greater user experience and continual service improvement.
Susannah is heavily involved in her local professional associations, volunteering as Secretary for the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Council, as well as holding the same position for her local branch in Victoria. She also sits in the Young RIMPA (Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia) Board, which was recently established to influence, inform and provide a voice for young professionals.
Lerato Tshabalala, South Africa
Lerato Tshabalala lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently working for the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a Metadata and Photographs Archivist. Her role involves updating and maintaining information on software systems (ICA-Atom and Archivematica) and in archives to ensure that information in these systems is accurate, up to date and useable, and to ensure the assembling, cataloguing, and preserving of valuable collections in the Nelson Mandela archive. She’s serving as a treasurer for the South African Society of Archivist Gauteng Branch. She holds an Honours degree in Information and Management from the University of Johannesburg, a Higher Certificate in Archives and Records Management from the University of South Africa, and an Understanding and Using the Universal Declaration on Archives Certificate from ICA. Lerato is currently studying at the University of Cape Town for a Masters in Philosophy specialising in Digital Curation. She’s particularly interested in helping to give new professionals skills in digital curation and digital preservation.
Laura Yturbe Mori, Peru
Born on March 22, 1996 in Lima, she attended high school at the Trilce Los Olivos School. Currently, she holds first place in the Archival and Documentary Management studies program at Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae. Likewise, she has been a delegate of the third group of her program in 2019 – II to 2020 – I. After submitting an academic paper, in 2017, she obtained the first place at the level of evaluation of students of IV cycle of her faculty. In 2019, she began her professional career as administrative support in the Contraloría General de la República and today she continues to work there. In 2021, she published an article in the Revista del Archivo General de la Nación’s bicentennial edition called “Especificaciones ambientales y técnicas de seguridad para el diseño de la infraestructura física de un archivo central”.
Oscar Zamora Flores, USA
Oscar is a first-generation Mexican-American graduate student. At the end of 2020, while looking for ways to distract himself from the pandemic and engage with his community in New York City, Oscar found Queens Memory. He became an oral historian volunteer and quickly found that he enjoyed oral history. This enthusiasm led Oscar to pursue a Masters in Library Science and a certificate in Archives and Preservation of Cultural Materials at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College. Oscar’s interviews for Queens Memory are mainly about Latinx and Queer mutual aid volunteers’ experiences of the pandemic and their work within their communities. Through his oral history work, Oscar was able to attend and present at the first Spanish-language panel in AERI 2021: Una Mirada a la archivística desde Iberoamérica. He is also a member of the Oral History Association, Public Programming Committee. The Committee on Public Programming sponsors and hosts a yearly program of events, workshops, and other gatherings relating to oral history aligned with the needs and interests of the membership of the Association.
Oscar also volunteers for Mutual Aid New York City. As part of the Resources/Research team of MANYC, he maintains a master-dataset of community resources from across New York City, which are shared back to the community though their website, hotline and social media. Oscar’s interests lie in community archiving focusing on the LGBTQ+ community and Latinx communities, archives and human rights, oral history, and archiving and digital humanities. Oscar hopes that his work in oral history and archives can serve as evidence to write a more inclusive history.