About Tamara Gaydos

Tamara Gaydos is a certified archivist with expertise in arrangement, description, and preservation of archival materials and cataloging. She has more than 20 years of experience including staff management; budgeting; strategic planning; archival appraisal and cataloging; research; preservation; and public speaking.

Professional Experience

Archival Processing & Description

Collection Development & Appraisal

Digital Archives & Systems

Project, Grant & Program Management

Leadership, Training & Outreach

Research & Public Services

Professional Experience (Selected)

Arrangement and description of manuscript and archival collections
Creation of finding aids (DACS-compliant), accession records, and catalog records
Encoding and customization of EAD finding aids
Appraisal, re-housing, and preservation of physical collections
Deaccessioning assessment and documentation

Donor relations and acquisition negotiations
On-site appraisal of personal and organizational records
Development of collection development policies
Evaluation of collections for relevance, scope, and long-term stewardship
Purchasing archival materials through auctions and dealers

Implementation and administration of ArchivesSpace
MARC cataloging and OCLC Connexion workflows
CONTENTdm configuration and XML uploads
PastPerfect records creation for online access
Evaluation and onboarding of NetX and Aeon systems
Post-migration data cleanup and standards alignment

NHPRC grant writing, budgeting, and reporting
Development of work plans, timelines, and deliverables
Supervision of grant-funded staff and project teams
Completion of multi-year projects on time and under budget
Planning and execution of large-scale collection moves

Supervision of full-time staff, interns, volunteers, and part-time employees
Development of processing manuals, policies, and workflows
Delivery of workshops and consultations on archival best practices
Public speaking and professional conference presentations
Advisory role to library and institutional leadership

Reference services in special collections reading rooms
Research assistance for patrons and institutional stakeholders
Assessment of programming and institutional records
Collaboration with scholars, donors, and community groups

Outreach Archivist – New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
October 2023–Present
Archival Consultant – Independent Practice
April 2022–Present
Archivist (Term) – Haverhill Public Library, Special Collections
December 2020–December 2021
Manuscript Librarian – Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum
June 2007–June 2020
NHPRC Grant Project Manager – Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum
October 2011–September 2013
Processing Assistant – Northeastern University
January 2007–July 2007

Education & Expertise

- M.S. in Library and Information Science, May 2004
  - Concentration in Archives
  - Simmons College, Boston, MA
- B.S. in Languages
  - Major: Russian
  - Minor: Business
  - Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
- New England Archivists, member since 2004
- Society of American Archivists, member since 2004
- Society of American Archivists, Museum Archives section, Recording Secretary, 2015-2017
- Academy of Certified Archivists, member since 2012
- “Ghosts of Careers Past” presented at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Fall Conference, November 2013, Philadelphia, PA
- “Ask an Archivist” panelist at Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2015, Cleveland, OH
- “Moving, Moving, Moving” panelist at Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2016, Atlanta, GA
- Experienced with ArchivesSpace, Voyager, MARC, OCLC Connexion, CONTENTdm, oXygen, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPress, Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, PastPerfect
- Knowledge of EAD, DACS, RDA, XML, LCSH, DCRM(MSS), and AAT
- Good reading knowledge of Russian and Spanish

Get in touch.

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