ALLISON J. CYWIN: Biography
Allison J. Cywin received, in 2006, her M.L.S. in Library and Information Science, with an emphasis in digital asset management and curation, at Simmons College, Boston, MA. and her B.A. in Historic Preservation and American Culture, with a concentration in architectural and art history, at Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI . She has acquired additional photographic and digital instruction at George Eastman House and the Rochester Institute of Technology seminar Preserving Photographs in a Digital World, Northeast Document Conservation Center School of Scanning: Creating, Managing and Preserving Digital Assets, Denver Public Library - Planning for Digitization Colorado and numerous library and archive conferences and workshops on digital curation. She also completed a one-year apprenticeship with paper conservator, David Dudley of David Dudley, Art Conservation Resource Center, Boston, MA.
In 2004, Cywin accepted a position at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as Director of the Visual Resource Center (VRC). During her tenure Cywin transition the art and architectural slide library to the largest digital image and multimedia repository on campus. Cywin is responsible for the administration, development, and operation of the Visual Resource Center (VRC) including instituting policies, plans, and procedures specific to best practices of digital asset management. As Director, she analyses digital asset management trends and takes appropriate actions to acquire, manage, maintain, and preserve assets to support instruction and learning; ensures compliance with all relevant requirements in the digital asset management field; manages existing database systems including subscription databases, initiates digital programs to assist faculty and students with image and multimedia resources for instruction and learning; serves as the liaison for digital image and multimedia resources for CVPA; oversees a website for the VRC that includes database portals; chairs or serves on professional and/or university committees.
From 2000-2004, Cywin served as Associate Library Director at the Rhode Island Historical Society. Her position included the operations of the Society's library division that served more than 16,000 users annually. She was responsible for the development, implementation of policies, and procedures related to Library's mission, including public access and management of historic collections and archives. She was responsible for the Library's operating budget ($400,000) including automating the entire budgetary system; supervise and implement personnel policies and procedures (12 FTP and 6 PTP) and work extensively with volunteers. Served on a number of professional library committees including, CRIAL – Digital Archive Task Force Committee and OLIS Rhode Island Digital Image Task Force. Implemented the Library's first disaster plan, and developed a library building program (a 121,000 square feet facility) at Heritage Harbor. In addition, Cywin employed major fundraising events raising more than $75,000 for a single event. She has received numerous external funding from private and public foundations including, IMLS Museums for America ($74,999) for the Rhode Island Family Heritage Project, an on-line public access catalog system that incorporated museum, archive, and library collections under a single interface system.
In the early 1990’s, Cywin accepted the Graphics Curator position at the Rhode Island Historical Society’s research library. The graphics collection represents three-centuries of iconographic materials that included photography, prints, drawings, architectural drawings, cartography, ephemeral materials, and 16mm newsfilms. She received, supervised, and participated in numerous grant projects including a grant from WJAR to catalog the newsfilm collection and conservation condition and treatment grants from IMLS, NARA, and NEH. Just before leaving the Society, she received two IMLS grants for $25,000, to conduct a conservation condition survey of the Society's nineteenth-century glass plate, nitrate and acetate negative collections and to establish a in-house digital lab to digitize these film-based collections in preparation of long term cold storage. During her twelve years with the Society, she automated the rights and reproduction services and developed a in-house collection database system. She wrote and received numerous public and private grants to support visual anthropology projects like the Rhode Island Dairy Project with photographer David Witbeck, and Central Falls a Community of Diversity with photographer, UMASSD alumni, Christian Corrigan and develop a project to convert nineteenth-century stereo views to 3D technology for a public exhibition and educational program in 2000. She instituted two major catalog projects that include materials from the cartographic collection and WJAR newsfilm archive.
Cywin began her career as the curator of the Newport Art Museum. During her ten-year tenure, she curated numerous contemporary exhibitions featuring works by renowned artists: Dale Chihuly, Andy Warhol, Howard Ben Tre, Thomas Patti, Stephan Brigidi, Chris Van Allsburg, Joseph Norman, among others. Cywin organized two international traveling exhibitions to Canada and Australia. She served as staff liaison that oversaw the daily operation of a two-million dollar museum building program that included new climate-control galleries, permanent and temporary storage facilities, as well as registration, shipping, and receiving areas. She established the Museum's first catalog system along with an institutional archive.
Cywin has presented and conducted training sessions for Rhode Island College, New England Museum Association, and New England Archivists related to the care, and the collection management of iconographic materials, and digitization of photographic collections.
She has served on CRIAL - Digital Archive Task Force Committee, and OLIS Rhode Island Image Digital Task Force (1999) and continues to serve on committees specifically related to archives, museums and digital professions including Rhode Island Historic Record Advisory Board, NEDCC Advisory Committee, New England Archivist, and American Association of Museums. Cywin also serves as a grant reviewer for Institute of Museum and Library Services and National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
