About me
As the Head of Preservation Programs for the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA) in Washington, DC, Alison oversees preservation and conservation activities, which include collection need and risk assessment, preventive conservation tasks (such as environmental and pest management) and interventive treatments, budgeting and procurement, and long-term preservation strategies and initiatives.
Since coming to the Archives (now SLA) in 2015, Alison has led a pan-institutional audiovisual survey and an audiovisual preservation readiness assessment for eleven participating Smithsonian units. She now directs the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI) to catalog, digitize, and share SI's audio, video, and film collections. Alison also serves as a member of the Smithsonian's Preparedness and Response in Collections Emergencies (PRICE) team, focusing on logistic-related needs across SI, and she is supporting efforts to survey and assess nitrate film to develop a framework for long-term storage and access solutions for the Smithsonian. In 2020, Alison was the recipient of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Alan Stark Award.