Résumé/CV

Education   ·   Experience   ·   Research   ·    PUBLICATIONS   ·   SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS   ·    Professional Development  ·   Skills   ·   Honors

EDUCATION

Master of Science in Library Science, May 2021
Concentration in Archives and Records Management
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, May 2014
Major in History, Minor in Mathematics
Honors in History
University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA

GPA: 4.0 — Colgate W. Darden, Jr., Award for Scholastic Achievement

Me (Leah Tams) pictured next to UMW Provost Jonathan Levin, as I receive the Colgate W. Darden, Jr., Award for Scholastic Achievement at graduation in 2014.

EXPERIENCE

  • Accession incoming archival collections and additions
  • Process small archival collections and additions
  • Ingest, report on, and store born-digital records for long-term preservation
  • Assess collection material for preservation concerns
  • Create reparative descriptions for collection material
  • Supervise student employees
  • Serve as Rubenstein Library Technical Services blog editor
  • Provide support for UNC’s Community Histories Workshop’s Asylum in the Archive initiative:
    • Work with State Archives of North Carolina (SANC) to acquire public records
    • Process collection materials and create descriptive metadata
    • Develop pedagogical strategies for the use of records/data across curricula
    • Support the creation and publication of historical case studies
    • Supervise and develop workflows for student employees and projects
    • Manage CHW websites
    • Served as TA for AMST 715 graduate seminar
  • Provided reference services for Durham County Library patrons and NC Collection archival materials
  • Migrated accession records into ArchivesSpace
  • Created social media content to highlight collection material
  • Provided support for CLIR grant project to digitize Pan American Airways advertisements
    • Performed copyright sampling and assessments for digital publication of materials
    • Selected and created metadata for over 6,500 print advertisements for digitization
    • Rehoused selected materials and prepared for shipment to the digitization vendor
    • Documented image selection process and conservation concerns
    • Created a LibGuide for Pan American Airways Collections
    • Assisted with writing grant reports
    • Promoted the project through written contributions on social media
    • Wrote 3 blog posts for DUL (see Publications)
  • Contributed to the creation of DPLA’s Commercial Aviation Portal
  • COPLACDigital Program Associate
    • Provide administrative support to the Mellon Grant Principal Investigators
    • Assist PIs and faculty with student recruitment and retention
    • Assure grant compliance through class audits, syllabi review, website review, etc.
    • Webmaster of coplacdigital.org and all subdomains
      • Develop content and maintain main COPLACDigital site
      • Install and administer WordPress multisite networks in each subdomain
    • Provide technical support to COPLACDigital faculty, students, and instructional technologists
    • Assist in the planning, outreach, and execution of the 2016 COPLACDigital June Convening
    • Coordinate the planning, outreach, and execution of three workshops at the University of Mary Washington for COPLACDigital faculty pairs
  • Assistant to the Digital History Reviews Contributing Editor, Journal of American History
    • Evaluate digital history projects and identify suitable reviewers
    • Edit digital history project reviews
    • Identify digital history tools, resources, and projects
  • Assistant to the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Director and the President’s Chief of Staff
    • Office management and communication
    • Creation and management of 4 UMW websites in WordPress
    • Budget management and procurement
    • Develop 12 Canvas learning modules (written and digital content) for research, writing, and speaking skills
    • Assist with required assessment activities: compiling data and editing reports
    • Assist with the planning, outreach, and execution of workshops
    • Assist with the development, implementation, and support of EAB Guide app content
    • Provide some Canvas support to FSEM faculty
  • Compiled database of tenure and promotion guidelines at over 300 North American universities in relation to digital scholarship in history
  • Provided administrative support to the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Director and the Special Assistant to the Provost for Teaching, Technology, and Innovation (SAPTTI)
    • Office management and communication
    • Creation and management of 4 UMW websites in WordPress
    • Budget management and procurement
    • Developed 12 Canvas learning modules (written and digital content) for research, writing, and speaking skills
    • Assisted with required assessment activities: compiled data and edited reports
    • Assisted with the planning, outreach, and execution of workshops
    • Edited reports and digital project reviews; evaluated and/or located reviewers digital history projects; created bibliographies of digital history resources
    • Provided some Canvas support for FSEM professors
  • Transcribed over 1,000 documents written to and by James Monroe
  • Created a partial key for the Barlow cypher
  • Traveled to organizations and obtained digital/photocopies of manuscripts
  • Assisted with planning and outreach for the James Monroe Life & Legacy Symposium (2013)
  • Served as technical support, particularly with WordPress, for COPLAC-sponsored distance digital liberal arts courses
  • Set up coplacdigital.org domains
  • Assisted with planning, outreach, and execution of digital humanities workshops
  • Organizational duties and communication
  • Searched collections and documented the physical location of over 6,750 digitized items
  • Compiled error and usability reports for Collection Information Systems, finding aids, item records, and archival collections
  • Created NMAH’s Women in World War I online exhibit
    • Surveyed NMAH and Smithsonian collections for objects and compiled a list of over 800 items relevant to project
    • Created and updated object records in CMS
    • Coordinated with DAMS, EDAN, Registrar, and Collections Processing divisions to prepare objects for the web and public accessibility
    • Researched women’s roles in WWI and wrote 18 exhibit sections, each including text, digital media, and academic resources
      • Wrote web descriptions for each object, including background information and research on related topics, and cited sources; Updated Mimsy XG records; Assisted with object digitization
  • Accessioned a collection of 21 textiles and related materials
  • Assisted with digitization of archival materials related to the Colonial Dames Collection
    • Located and identified women’s WWI uniforms and related materials
  • Wrote 3 blog posts for NMAH (see Publications)
  • Assisted with COPLAC-sponsored Century America distance learning digital history course
    • Served as teaching assistant for the course
    • Served as technical support for the students regarding digital platforms and tools (e.g., WordPress)
    • Advised students on research process and digital project creation
  • Assisted with planning, outreach, and execution of COPLAC’s distance mentoring digital humanities workshop
  • Performed item-level cataloging in custom-built SQL CMS
    • Documented the physical location of digitized archival materials; created or modified item records
    • Catalogued over 300 architectural drawings and over 75 A/V assets
  • Assisted reference archivists with answering patron queries, pulling materials, and reference work
  • Created SIA’s Greetings from the Smithsonian: A Postcard History online postcard exhibit
    • Searched SIA’s collections for postcards
    • Digitized and cataloged over 200 postcards
    • Researched and wrote short histories and informational pieces about postcards
    • Created image galleries and webpages
  • Wrote 2 blog posts for SIA (see Publications)
  • Processed over 300 manuscripts for the Henry Howell Lewis Papers
  • Inventoried the research papers of historian Paula S. Felder
  • Inventoried collections and set up exhibitions
  • Digitized, organized, and updated collections and accessions records in CMS
  • Researched Marian Anderson gowns for the BHM and Smithsonian
  • Researched other objects in BHM collections
  • Close-captioned educational videos produced by the VHS
  • Transcribed World War II letters, World War II veteran interviews, and United States census records
  • Processed and transcribed the Longendyke letter collection and created its webapge
  • Created digital media for It Took A War website

RESEARCH

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Community Histories Workshop: February 2020 – October 2021; April 2022 – Present
Supervisor: Robert Allen

Duke University Libraries, Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History: August 2019 – October 2021
Supervisor: Joshua Larkin Rowley

National Museum of American History, Armed Forces History Division: September 2014 – March 2015
Supervisors: Margaret Vining and Patri O’Gan

  • Researched women’s roles in WWI (military, paramilitary, volunteer, home front, etc.)
  • Researched and wrote object histories and historical context
  • Products:

University of Mary Washington, Department of History and American Studies: Spring 2014 Semester
Supervisor: Dr. Claudine Ferrell

  • Conducted a cultural analysis of the first 6 seasons of M*A*S*H to better understand the social forces influencing the creation, evolution, and content of the show
  • Wrote a 45-page final research paper and presented  at the History and American Studies departmental symposium

Product: “The Korean War in the 1960s and 1970s: A Cultural Analysis of the First Six Seasons of M*A*S*H”
Abstract: This paper studies the first six seasons of the hit television show M*A*S*H (1972–1983) and examines how the sociocultural climate of the 1960s and 1970s in America influenced the show’s portrayal of the Korean War and how, in turn, the show reflects those cultural influences.  This study focuses on the influence of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, second-wave feminism, and the gay and sexual liberation movements.  It argues that each of these movements and events had a profound influence upon M*A*S*H, which is evident in its portrayal of the Korean War as a conflict infused with attitudes and issues of the sixties and seventies.  Ultimately, M*A*S*H provides an illuminating window through which to view the two dynamic, complex decades.

  • Awards:
    • Excellence in History 485: Historical Research
    • Joseph C. Vance Award for Excellence in Historical Research 2013–2014
    • Departmental Honors

University of Mary Washington, Department of History and American Studies: Spring 2014 Semester
Supervisors
: Dr. Jeffrey McClurken and Dr. Ellen Holmes Pearson (UNCA)

University of Mary Washington, Department of History and American Studies: Fall 2013 Semester
Supervisor: Dr. Will Mackintosh

  • Researched American consumption of geographical information from 1790-1860 through WorldCat: pulled information on over 375 geographical guidebooks
  • Compiled information into a spreadsheet and created graphs, charts, and word clouds from data
  • Presented at the History Department’s April 2014 Talking History lecture

Smithsonian Institution Archives: May 2013 – August 2013
Supervisors: Dr. Pamela Henson and Courtney Bellizzi

Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia: July 2012
Supervisor: Ms. Mary Lauderdale

  • Researched the history of Marian Anderson concert gowns in BHM and Smithsonian collections

University of Mary Washington, Department of History and American Studies: Fall 2011 Semester
Supervisor: Dr. Claudine Ferrell

  • Researched African American soldiers’ experiences in World War II and how these experiences influenced their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement
  • Product: “The Road to the Civil Rights Movement: African Americans and Experiences Abroad in World War II”
  • Award: Excellence in History 299, awarded by the Department of History

Historical Research and Technology, Clover Hill High School: September 2008 – June 2009
Supervisor: Mr. James Triesler

  • Conducted primary- and secondary-source research on the community in Trenton, NJ, ca. 1900
  • Product: “A Community Analysis of Trenton, NJ, in 1900”
  • Award: Bobby Chandler Outstanding Student Research Award, awarded by the Virginia Historical Society

PUBLICATIONS

Exhibits

Articles

  • With Gabriella Williams, Jacqueline Wachholz, Scott Williams, and Adriana J. Millares, “Shrinking the world: Digitising the ‘world’s most experienced airline’ and creating an aviation portal for the Digital Public Library of America,” Journal of Digital Media Management 11, no. 4 (Summer 2023): 341-354.
  • With Gabriella Williams, Jacqueline Wachholz, Scott Williams, and Adriana J. Millares, “Cleared for Takeoff: Digitizing the ‘World’s Most Experienced Airline’ and Creation of a Navigation Portal in DPLA,” in Learning from and Making Use of Digitized Hidden Collections: Proceedings from the 2022 Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium, October 12-13, 2022, ed. Nancy Adams (Alexandria, VA: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2022), 41-49.
  • “Flying High: The Pan American World Airways Digital Collection,” RL Magazine (Spring-Summer 2020), 12-13.

Theses

Other

Blog Posts

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & WORKSHOPS

  • With Dr. Robert Allen, “Psychiatry and the Legacy of Slavery: The Asylum and the Archive Initiative,” Universities Studying Slavery 2023 Spring Conference, March 16, 2023, Chapel Hill, NC.
  • With Gabriella Williams and Jacqueline Wachholz, “Shrinking the World: Digitizing the ‘World’s Most Experienced Airline’ and Creating an Aviation Portal in DPLA,” Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium, Council on Library and Information Resources, October 13, 2022, Baltimore, MD.
  • With Jacqueline Wachholz and Joshua Larkin Rowley, “Cleared for Takeoff: Launching Pan Am through a Commercial Aviation Portal in DPLA,” DPLA Webinar, January 26, 2022.
  • “Silver Linings: Reference and Instruction in Academic Archives during COVID-19,” NCPC Annual Conference, November 5, 2021.
  • With Dr. Robert Allen, “The Asylum in the Archive: Exploring the Emergence of Psychiatry in North Carolina through Historical Patient Records,” Cherry Hospital, May 6, 2021.
  • “Selling the Flights: Aviation in Historical Advertisements,” Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington, March 2, 2021.
  • “Legless, Wingless Animals Serving in WWI,” WWI Centennial News podcast, Episode 120, April 26, 2019.
  • With Martha Burtis, Instructional Technologist Track, COPLACDigital Convening, June 9–11, 2016, Asheville, NC.
  • With Dr. Jeffrey McClurken, Digital Humanities Workshop, UNC Asheville, June 6–7, 2016, Asheville, NC.
  • Century America: A Multi-Campus Digital History Collaboration,” AAC&U Centennial Annual Meeting, Association of American Colleges & Universities, January 22, 2015, Washington, DC.
  • “Multi-Campus Undergraduate Research in Digital Humanities,” CUR Conference 2014, Council on Undergraduate Research, June 29, 2014, Washington, DC.
  • Century America: Campus, Community, and The Great War,” COPLAC Annual Meeting, Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, June 20, 2014, Durango, CO.
  • “Representing the Print Culture of Geographical Knowledge in the Early American Republic: A Cliometric Odyssey,” Talking History, Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington, April 16, 2014, Fredericksburg, VA.
  • “James Monroe’s Dueling Pistols,” James Monroe: Life and Legacy, October 19, 2013, Fredericksburg, VA.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Society of American Archivists: Senior Blog Editor, Student and New Archives Professionals Section (2022 term)
  • Society of American Archivists: Junior Blog Editor, Student and New Archives Professionals Section (2021 term)

DIGITAL TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES

  • WordPress
  • Basic HTML and CSS
  • Google Apps
  • Social Media
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Microsoft Access 2003
  • Superior Typist

SPECIAL SKILLS

  • Organizational skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Time management skills
  • Ability to problem-solve and think analytically
  • Effective communication and interpersonal skills
  • Superior editing and research skills

HONORS

Colgate W. Darden, Jr., Award for Scholastic Achievement: Awarded May 10, 2014
President’s List: All Semesters
Departmental Honors in History
Joseph C. Vance Award for Excellence in Historical Research: 2013 – 2014
Phi Alpha Theta Award for Highest Academic Attainment among Graduating History Majors: 2014
Almont Lindsey Award for High Academic Achievement and Exemplary Service: 2013 – 2014
Excellence in History 485: Historical Research: Spring 2014
Teagle Foundation Scholar: Spring 2014
UMW 2013 Writing Contest Winner: 2013 Academic Year
Department Representative, History: 2013 – 2014
Phi Beta Kappa: Inducted Spring 2013
Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society: Inducted Spring 2013
Phi Alpha Theta: History Honor Society: Secretary, President: Inducted Spring 2012
Alpha Phi Sigma Honor Society: Inducted Spring 2012
Excellence in History 299: Introduction to the Study of History: Fall 2011
Bobby Chandler Student Research Award: 2008 – 2009 School Year