Lotus Norton-Wisla Named Interim MASC Head

Lotus Norton-Wisla was recently named interim head of WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC), taking over the role held by Trevor Bond, now WSU Libraries’ interim dean.

Norton-Wisla said her goals for the first few months will be to learn more about MASC from a new perspective, take on new administrative responsibilities, and seek a deeper understanding of the MASC’s resources, as well as learning about fundraising and collection development and focusing on internal and external relationships. Longer-term goals are to maintain MASC services to the public, including research access, reference assistance, class visits and education, and digitization.

“I’m excited to lead MASC in this interim period,” she said. “I’m grateful for our dedicated team at MASC, as well as colleagues throughout the libraries and other departments who are advocates for the amazing collections at MASC that tell the stories of WSU and history in the Pacific Northwest.

“I hope to support the MASC team to balance all the many hats they wear as a small staff working together to provide access to collections,” she added. “I’m interested in supporting relationships—maintaining existing relationships and building new ones—that allow our community to explore the rich diversity of our region’s history. I’m also interested in highlighting all the important behind-the-scenes work that occurs in our team and in collaboration with others.”

“Lotus is an amazing collaborator, and I am delighted that she agreed to serve as the interim head of MASC,” Bond said. “She brings to the role extensive experience in outreach and community engagement.”

Norton-Wisla came to WSU and the libraries in January 2015 as tribal digital archives curriculum coordinator at the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation (CDSC). There, she coordinated and provided instruction for the Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program (TDSCP), a hybrid, cohort-based educational program providing training in the life cycle of digital stewardship for staff at tribal archives, libraries, and museums. She led collaborative digital projects and workshops and supervised undergraduates and graduate assistants at the CDSC, as well as working with information professionals at Indigenous nations in the region. She supported initiatives including the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal (PPWP), the Sustainable Heritage Network (SHN), and the Mukurtu content management system.

In October 2017, as the CDSC’s digital and community outreach archivist, Norton-Wisla continued to provide consultation and support to campus and community users. She coordinated and taught the TDSCP curriculum; implemented assessment; coordinated grant reports; and served as the subject-matter expert to the Digital Collections Stewardship Training, collaborating with a team from OCLC WebJunction to adapt the TDSCP curriculum to an online, self-paced training. She provided Mukurtu user support and troubleshooting; taught SHN workshops on digital archives and created educational resources; provided support for the Culturally Responsive Indigenous Science project; contributed workshop instruction to WSU summer youth camps; and continued collaborative digitization projects. She worked with MASC staff in revising workflows for outreach, digitization, and digital processing.

Since January 2022, Norton-Wisla has served as the community outreach archivist for MASC and CDSC, where she oversaw MASC collections relating to Native American communities; provided reference and research support; conducted outreach to WSU campus and community groups; supervised student employees; contributed to CDSC grants and projects; taught classes and workshops; supported digital projects; volunteered as an organizer and instructor for the Indigenizing Archival Training program through the Society of American Archivists Native American Archives Section; and co-founded the WSU Queer Archives with the LGBTQ+ Center’s student life and community coordinator, Josie Cohen-Rodriguez.