What do you do?
I lead a team of archivists responsible for providing records management services to Smithsonian staff, appraising records for their long-term value, and acquiring, processing, and describing new collections. I also specialize in creating policies and procedures for appraising, acquiring, and describing audiovisual, electronic, and "new media" records, such as social networking accounts.
Favorite spot in DC to recommend to visitors
If the weather is nice, I recommend the National Zoological Park or the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal. With its tropical climate, the mostly indoor United States Botanic Garden is the perfect place to visit on a cold winter day.
Collection Favorites
My favorite collection is the Marion P. McCrane Papers. McCrane headed the Information and Education Division at the National Zoological Park in the 1960s and once raised a baby sloth. Although this collection is only 0.5 cubic feet, it is packed with fun and interesting documents—staff newsletters with tongue-in-cheek stories and zoo-related cartoons, clippings about staff hand-rearing baby animals (see my blog post about this), menus from the Wild Game Lunches of the Anteaters Association, and lots of cute animal photographs.
