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Leah Loscutoff: Home

Head of Archives & Special Collections

Leah Loscutoff

Education

  • San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. Masters, Library and Information Science – December 2008
  • San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA. Bachelor of Arts, History – May 2000

Publications and Presentations

  • CHARTing Our Course: Digitizing Brooklyn’s Visual History, a Collaborative Project, MARAC spring conference, April 2013.
  • Collaborating for Discovery: Expanding Landscapes for Digital Collections through Joint Ventures, ARLIS annual conference, April 2013
  • CHARTing Our Course: Digitizing Brooklyn’s Visual History, a Collaborative Project, MARAC spring conference, April 2013
  • Community Connections: Unleashing the Potential of Programs and Services Aimed at Underserved Stakeholder Communities, SAA annual conference, August 2019

Technical Skills

  • Proficient with PC and Mac computers
  • Software knowledge includes: Microsoft Office Suite, FileMaker Pro, Access, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Archives Space, Past Perfect, and CONTENT dm
  • Training and knowledge of EAD, XML and HTML coding
  • Beginning Javascript, PHP, MySQL, and CSS

Experience

  • Stevens Institute of Technology, Samuel C. Williams Library, Hoboken, New Jersey. Head of Archives & Special Collections, June 1, 2016
  • Present Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, March 2013 – June 1, 2016
  • Manages and oversees all policies and workflows of the Archives and Special Collections department.
  • Manages preservation concerns in collaboration with the Historical Preservation Committee by identifying priority collection items in need of conservation, and overseeing the monitoring of the temperature/humidity of the collection rooms.
  • Provides reference support remotely and in person and manages reference services for the Archives & Special Collections.
  • Oversees all archival processing, accessioning and quality control of catalog records.
  • Implementation of databases to support and manage the intellectual and physical control of the Archives and Special Collection department, which include Archives Space, Omeka, and CONTENTdm.
  • Implementation of digital projects to provide online access to the collections, which includes creating standards and guidelines for cataloging and digitization.
  • Digital Collections Page Examples: https://stevensarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/ Outreach and education to the Stevens community in regards to using primary sources in alignment with coursework, by conducting document analysis activities with undergraduate classes.
  • Promotion of the collections by using social media (e.g. @stevensarchives Instagram), scheduling open houses, creating (physical and digital) exhibitions, providing historical walking tours, and hosting historical and artist talks.
  • Active collection development, which includes seeking archival collections/artifacts within our scope of collections, and reaching out to donors, student groups, and the local community.
  • Supervises the Archivist & Digital Projects Librarian and student workers/interns
  • Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn NY.
  • Digitization Archivist and Project Education Coordinator, IMLS grant, October 2010 – March 2013
  • Coordinated a large digitization project in collaboration with the Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Museum, which resulted in the Brooklyn Visual Heritage website, www.brooklynvisualheritage.org.
  • Created and wrote a digitization manual for the students and staff to use as a guideline for digitization and cataloging standards for photographs
  • Supervised and trained interns from Pratt’s Library and Information Science program
  • Organized and scheduled educational workshops for Pratt students
  • Planned a one day symposium on “Digital Collections and the User Experience”
  • Responsible for reference desk shifts, and answering reference questions remotely and in person.
  • Tracked the grant progress and managed the $1,000,000 budget, which included writing the annual reports to IMLS.
  • Columbia University, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, New York, NY.
  • Project Archivist (temporary), Feb. 2010 – October 2010
  • Responsible for managing and processing the Woodlawn Cemetery Archive project, which consisted of 900 linear feet of records.
  • Supervision of student interns to help process part of the Woodlawn collection
  • Appraisal of the remaining collection, and collaboration with Woodlawn staff to schedule the remaining deliveries.
  • Implementation of a project schedule and goals to be achieved based on priority and time estimate.
  • University of California, Irvine – Special Collections and Archives, Irvine, CA.
  • Project Archivist (temporary), Feb. 2009 – Jan. 2010
  • Processed the University Archives photograph collection and oversaw the migration into a digital assets management database (Canto Cumulus).
  • Successfully worked with the IT department to install Canto Cumulus, the digital assets management system.
  • Created a detailed manual on how to use Canto Cumulus, and documented the specifications and metadata standards to be used for digital files.
  • Supervised two student interns and student employees.
  • Provided effective reference services to patrons on the desk and via email.
  • Assisted with instruction and public outreach, which involved teaching a library/archives instruction course to undergraduate students.