Meet the 2021 Executive Board Candidates: Ann McShane, Candidate for Treasurer

About the Candidate

Ann McShane is currently the Digital Asset Librarian at Pitts Theology Library. In their current position, Ann coordinates a digitization program for Special Collections, maintains legacy digital access projects, manages new digital collections projects, and writes grants. Their professional interests include digitization, open digital access, library labor issues, and empathy in the workplace. 

Ann has a BA in History from Earlham College, a Master’s in Archival Studies from Clayton State University, and is a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists. They currently serve on the VRA Awards Committee and the Atla Scholarly Communications and Digital Initiatives Committee.

Goals

My name is Ann McShane and I am running for Visual Resources Association (VRA) Board Treasurer. As a worker, I am an enthusiastic collaborator, a quick study, and a creative problem-solver. Prior to my current position, I gained a breadth of experience in the odd jobs that crop up in small libraries’ “other duties as assigned.” These duties included payroll, desktop IT support, web design, food service, and podcast production, among other things. Roles in professional organizations fill a similar niche of small teams splitting up odd jobs, and it is a kind of teamwork I find interesting and fulfilling.

More personally, I am a digital librarian nearing the end of what might charitably be called my early career. I have the time and the administrative support to give back to organizations that supported me during my paraprofessional and early professional work. VRA is an organization that provides services well beyond its member base. It is an organization I benefited from before I could become a member, and one I continue to benefit from now. I want to help however I can. 

My own interests and goals aside, there is an ongoing global pandemic during my candidacy for Treasurer. The future is always uncertain, but this moment seems to bring reminders of that uncertainty daily. Listing the ways our profession, our coworkers, and our neighbors have been affected by the past two years would be a list of individual entries. I want to avoid an uncritical tendency towards “going back to normal” for its own sake and be mindful of what makes sense for VRA going forward.

Thank you for your consideration.