Happy 2024, TARO Community!
The new year brings new members to the TARO Steering Committee. Congratulations and thanks to Katelin Dixon, Susannah Broyles, and Laney Chavez as they join TARO’s leadership team! Thanks also to Kristi Nedderman and Kathryn Slover as they rotate off Steering, and to Maristella Feustle, Rachael Zipperer, Molly Tepera, and Aaron Choate for their continued service. Finally, thanks to the other folks who threw their hats in the ring for the election, and to all the TARO community members who took time to vote.
2024 Steering Committee members:
- Chair: Matthew Richardson, Texas Medical Center Library, matt.richardson@library.tmc.edu
- Vice Chair: Katelin Dixon, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, katelin.dixon@ttu.edu
- Secretary (2023-2024): Rachael Zipperer, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, rachael.zipperer@tpwd.texas.gov
- At-Large Member (2023-2024, 2-year term): Molly Tepera, UT Dallas McDermott Library, molly.tepera@utdallas.edu
- At-Large Member (2024-2025, 2-year term): Susannah Broyles, The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, s_b623@txstate.edu
- At-large Member (2024-2025, 2-year term): Laney Chavez, Harris County Archives, laney.chavez@cco.hctx.net
- UT Libraries Representative: Aaron Choate, UT Libraries, achoate@austin.utexas.edu
- Immediate Past Chair: Maristella Feustle, University of North Texas Libraries Music Library, maristella.feustle@unt.edu
The TARO Steering Committee is currently reviewing the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan and will soon be sharing specific charges with the TARO Sub-Committees (Standards, WebTech, Education and Outreach, etc.). Stay tuned for details on upcoming initiatives to make TARO better for repositories and users alike!
We’re also working to make sure TARO has an up-to-date list of Repository Representatives and contact information for each participating repository. TARO representatives should expect an email soon confirming their information.
The annual TARO Brown Bag will be held during the Society of Southwest Archivists’ Annual Meeting, May 1-3, 2024. This virtual event will offer updates on TARO initiatives as well as an opportunity to give feedback and ask questions.
Continuing on the Outreach and Education front, two separate full-day, in-person TARO Workshops are being planned. The workshops will be in Northeast and Southeast Texas, though exact locations have not been finalized yet.
A few TARO ArchivesSpace users have been in contact with Lyrasis about developing a TARO Plug-in for ArchivesSpace. This should make it easier to get EAD exported from ArchivesSpace ready for import into TARO. More news coming soon.
Finally, you may have heard talk of a new version of the Encoded Archival Description standard, EAD 4.0 from the Society of American Archivists (SAA)’s Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS). An initial request for comment went out to “archival aggregators as well as software providers and developers,” and several members of TARO’s leadership team contributed comments. If/when a further call for public comment is opened, TARO will publicize this call and encourage more members to comment.
I think that’s more than enough for now. I’m looking forward to the year ahead and encourage anyone to reach out with questions, ideas, or offers to join Sub-Committees!
-Matt
