CV

JA Pryse

Lead Archivist III, Instructor
japryse@harcsm.org
Notre Dame, Indiana

Professional Summary

Results-oriented digital archivist specialist with 14 years of progressive responsibility designing and managing large-scale congressional and cultural-heritage repositories. Smithsonian-trained fellow and forthcoming Ph.D. (Information Science), whose research advances adaptive, AI-enabled archival workflows. Adept in policy creation, born-digital acquisition, metadata standards (DACS, EAD, PREMIS, Dublin Core), and preservation platforms (Preservica, ArchivesSpace, AWS). Recognized mentor and coalition-builder committed to non-partisan service and hands-on staff development.

Core Competencies

• Digital Preservation Strategy & Tool Selection
• Workflow Automation (AI/NLP, Python, AWS Textract)
• AV & Legacy-Media Reformatting, Repair, Preservation
• Electronic Records Management & Policy Development
• Email, Social-Media & Web Archives Processing
• Metadata Modeling & Controlled Vocabularies
• User Training, Outreach & Documentation
• Grant & Budget Stewardship (>$4 M secured)
• Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Risk Assessment & Emerging-Tech Monitoring

Professional Experience

Heritage and Research Center at Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana

Lead Archivist III and Curator (2025–Present)
Instructor of Information Science (2018–Present)

Founding archivist for a collaborative archive uniting ten congregations of Catholic women religious and their sponsored ministries. Responsible for establishing all archival infrastructure, policies, and digital systems from the ground up to preserve and provide access to the rich documentary heritage of women religious in the United States.

• Design and implement comprehensive archival policies, processing workflows, and access protocols for a multi-repository collaborative serving diverse congregational partners
• Lead the consolidation and integration of archival collections from multiple women’s religious congregations into a unified preservation and access framework
• Develop and deploy digital repository infrastructure and web-based discovery platforms to support research, education, and congregational engagement
• Create and manage digital preservation systems ensuring long-term stewardship of born-digital and digitized materials, including photographs, correspondence, administrative records, and artifacts
• Write and administer grant proposals to federal agencies, private foundations, and religious funding bodies to support collection processing, digitization, and public programming
• Build and maintain collaborative relationships with congregational leadership, archivists, and sponsored ministry representatives across partner organizations
• Establish descriptive standards and controlled vocabularies tailored to the documentation of women’s religious life and Catholic institutional history
• Supervise archival staff and coordinate with Saint Mary’s College faculty and students on research initiatives and experiential learning opportunities

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma

Senior Archivist III and Curator, Carl Albert Congressional Research Archives (2018–Present)
Instructor of Information Science (2018–Present)

• Direct end-to-end stewardship of 175.5 TB digital congressional assets, including email, social-media exports, and legislative multimedia
• Designed the Center’s Electronic Records Management (ERM) framework and Digital Collection policies, integrating appraisal, fixity verification, PREMIS event logging, and automated ingest to Preservica
• Led a $1 M migration of all legacy digital collections from ArchivesSpace to Preservica Cloud Edition: authored SOPs and video tutorials adopted across five partner repositories
• Produce concise guidance for House chiefs of staff, committee aides, and researchers on transfer standards, naming conventions, and encryption practices
• Co-Principal Investigator on the American Congress Digital Archives Portal (NEH, $349 K)—expanding federated access to 100,000+ congressional files and developing K-12 civics modules
• Pilot-tested AWS Textract on 20,000 handwritten letters; reduced descriptive backlogs by 60%
• Supervise 6 FTEs, 10–15 students, and rotating interns; implement competency-based training and weekend digitization rotations to meet grant deadlines

Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Director of Digital Archives / Archivist III (2016–2018)
Digital Archivist III (2015–2016)

• Managed statewide digital preservation program covering 13 M legislative journal pages, 118,000 maps, and 3,000 oral-history tapes; drafted the Society’s first born-digital transfer policy
• Deployed Islandora and BagIt workflows, ensuring NARA-level checksum validation and automated derivatives for public portal delivery
• Collaborated with state IT and records-management offices to align retention schedules with digital-preservation best practices

Archivist I–III / Projects Archivist (2011–2016)

• Progressively promoted while accessing and describing photographic, audiovisual, and textual materials dating from the Territorial era to the present; instituted triage workflows for at-risk magnetic media

Education

• Ph.D. (Forthcoming 2026), Information Science (Large-Scale Digital Asset Management) – University of North Texas
• M.L.I.S. (2015), Library & Information Science (Digital Content Management) – University of North Texas
• M.S. (2011), Museum Science (Digital Asset Management) – University of North Texas
• B.S. (2007), Criminal Justice – University of Central Oklahoma

Relevant Training and Certifications

• Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow: Electronic Records Management & Digital Archives (2014)
• Data Curation Network Workshops – Specialized Data Types (2019, 2023)
• Archival Education & Research Institute, Louisiana State University (LSU), 2023

Technical and Media Engineering Expertise

• Legacy-to-Digital Media Preservation: Handling various media formats like wax cylinders, wire recorders, open-reel audio (¼”, ½”, 1”), lacquer discs, shellac 78s, 1” Type C, and 2” Quad video decks (Ampex VPR-80/820, RCA TR-600/800, Sony BVH-2000). Includes rebuilding tape heads, calibrating electronics, correcting errors, and designing custom A-D capture chains with TBCs, waveform monitors, and frame scanners like the Filmfabriek HDS+.
• Studio Design & Training: Planned and built multi-format AV preservation suites that integrate legacy gear with broadcast-grade digitization hardware; coached archivists and students on safe handling, signal flow, and troubleshooting best practices.
• Cloud Storage & Secure Transfer: Advanced use of AWS (S3, Glacier, Storage Gateway) and Google Cloud (Storage, Transfer, server-side encryption, gsutil) for scalable ingest, fixity, and disaster-recovery workflows.
• Programming & Markup Expertise: Python, JavaScript, Java, R, PHP; XML, MARCXML, XHTML, SVG, LaTeX/TeX, DFXML, shell scripting. Proven record of automation, linked-open-data integration, and semantic-web applications.
• Digital Forensics & Acquisition: Proficient with FRED workstations, Tableau/UltraBlock bridges, FTK, Sleuth Kit, EnCase, DataAccessioner, Brunnhilde for bit-level capture, triage, and integrity validation of born-digital collections.
• Repository & CMS Platforms: Preservica, ArchivesSpace, Cuadra STAR, Archivists’ Toolkit, Archon, PastPerfect, Omeka—complete lifecycle configuration, metadata mapping, and public-access deployment.
• Standards & Models: Deep knowledge of Dublin Core, EAD, METS, PREMIS, PBCore, MARC, EBUCore, WARC; adheres to OAIS/TDR, ISO 16363, IASA, AES31 guidelines; creator of the CAC+ extended-metadata model.

Publications

Peer Reviewed

• Breuer, A., Dietrich, B.J., Crespin, M.H., Pryse, J.A., Butler, M., Imai, K. Using AI to Summarize US Presidential Campaign TV Advertisement Videos, 1952–2012. Sci Data 12, 1552 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05558-9
• Pryse, J.A. Adaptive learning models for efficient and standardized archival processes. Arch Sci 25, 24 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-025-09488-8
• Pryse, J.A. (2022). Practical Remote Workflow Solutions for Complex Digital Projects: Opportunities in a Pandemic. Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, 18(2), 258-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052720
• “Changing Guard,” JA Pryse, Public Libraries Journal (2017), 78(1): 118-137.

Other Publications and Datasets

• Pryse, J.A.; Harp, Matthew; Mannheimer, Sara; Marsolek, Wanda; and Cowles, Wind. (2020). Oral History Interviews Data Curation Primer. Data Curation Network GitHub Repository.
• “Carl Albert Center COVID-19 Curation Project.” JA Pryse, Southwestern Archivist (2020) 43(2): 18-24.
• “Audiovisual data curation primer.” Grace M. Jerrild, Lauren Phegley. Data Curation Network (2023).
• “Carl Albert Center Human Rights Digital Archive,” JA Pryse, Southwestern Archivist 43(1): 23-25.
• “The Carl Albert Photo Collection.” JA Pryse, Southwestern Archivist 42(3): 24-26.
• “Audio, Film, and Video Preservation and Access at the Oklahoma Historical Society,” Rachel Mosman, JA Pryse. Recorded Sound Journal, Summer: 6-8.
• “Journey of Big Bertha Webster,” JA Pryse, IASA Journal (46): 67-68.
• “Journey Back to Life,” JA Pryse, Archival Outlook (May-June) p23.
• “Clara Luper Collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society: Community Description Project,” JA Pryse, IASA Journal (43): 70-74.

Working Papers

• “Encoding Knowledge: Training Internal AI Models to Recognize and Support Indigenous Languages in Visual Media” – JA Pryse
• “Coded Words: Adaptive AI Models for Detecting Indigenous Languages in Textual Artifacts” – JA Pryse

Recent Conference Papers (2023–2025)

• Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC) – National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
  “AI and Python for Efficient and Standardized Archival Processes.” Paper presented.
• Society of American Archivists (SAA) – Chicago, Illinois
  “Archival Chaos and the Exhaustive Layers of Order: The Story of Kanter’s Political Ads.” Paper presented.
• Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI) – Louisiana State University
  “Julian P. Kanter Collection: Chaos and Order.” Data Presented.

Select Projects and Grants (PI/co-PI)

• The James R. Jones Carl Albert Center Digital Archive (PI): Ambassador James R. Jones donated $1 million to facilitate the migration of all digital collections from ArchivesSpace to the Preservica digital content management platform (Gift received on 2021-08-19).
• The American Congress Digital Archives Portal Project, National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Collections and Reference Resources, CoPI $349,580 ($27,304 OU portion). PI West Virginia Libraries. Partner institutions include the Dirksen Congressional Center, the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia, and the University of Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection.
• Collaborative Research: Understanding the Evolution of Political Campaign Advertisements over the Last Century, National Science Foundation, Accountable Institutions and Behavior Program, EPSCoR, SES-2147635. 2022-2025, PI (with Kosuke Imai and Bryce Dietrich) $538,484 total ($300,519 OU portion)
• Congressional Correspondence Handwriting Textract Pilot Project (PI): A pilot project by the Data Institute for Societal Challenges (DISC) to evaluate the AWS Textract platform for optical character recognition (OCR) on handwritten letters in archival holdings, funded with $2,500 (Awarded on 2022-05-19).

• Oklahoma City Redlining: A Community Analysis Project, Oklahoma Humanities Council

  NP-OHC, 2020-2022, PI, $5,000

• Google Cloud Computing Credits, 2020-2021, CoPI, $5,000
• The Independent Student Voice: Access to the University of Oklahoma’s Historic Newspaper. Inasmuch Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Program. 2020-22, PI, $25,000, https://gateway.okhistory.org/explore/collections/OUSN/
• Indian Self-Determination and the People’s Voice: APSA Special Projects Fund Seed Grant 2019-20, PI, $5,000
• Carl Albert Platform of Interactive Discovery (PI): This project, funded with $3,000 from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Oklahoma Historical Records Advisory Board, aims to digitize, preserve, and host the Carl Albert Photograph Series and related textual passages.
• Improving Access to Collections: Grants for Archival Collections Representing Oklahoma: Providing Access to the Digital Materials of the Carl Albert Collection (PI): This project was funded with $2,859.00 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) through the Oklahoma Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB) and Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL) grant.
• Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center Native American Politics Archival Workshop (co-PI): This project, funded with $5,000 from the Special Projects Fund of The American Political Science Association’s Centennial Center (SA), provides funding for non-OU scholars to access the Center’s archival collections and hosts a weeklong workshop to explore unexplored segments.
• The Gateway to Oklahoma History: This project, supported by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, involved digitizing Oklahoma newspapers before 1923. Three awards were received in 2009, 2011, and 2013.
• Oklahoma Commissioners of the Land Office Digitization and Preservation Project (PI): This project was funded with $98,000 from the Oklahoma Land Commissioners. It transferred and preserved over 20,000 pages of historical records dating from before Oklahoma Statehood (1905-1907) to enable remote access.
• The Oklahoma State Legislature Preservation and Digitization Program – Oklahoma Senate: Resulted in 13 million searchable pages of Oklahoma State Senate Journals from statehood (1907) through the present, funded in FY2015.
• Oklahoma State Tourism and Recreation Digitization Project (PI): This project was funded with $90,000 from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and the State of Oklahoma. It resulted in over 118,000 preserved and digitized maps, ledgers, photographs, and blueprints accessible within the State’s networked platform.
• The Living Legends Oral History Project (PI): This project was supported by a $3,000 grant to digitize, preserve, and conserve 3,000 magnetic tape reel-to-reel recordings of individual oral histories from prominent Oklahoma citizens (Awarded in FY2014).

Professional Service

• Executive Board Member, National Association of Government Archives & Records Administrators (NAGARA), 2021–present
• Advisory Board, American Congress Digital Archives Portal, 2023–present
• Data Curation Network Mentorship Program, 2023-2024
• National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators: Mentorship Program, 2024-2025
• Executive Board Member, Oklahoma Museums Association (OMA), 2019-2022
• Staff Initiatives Committee, University of Oklahoma Staff Senate (OUSS) (2020–present)
• Native American Studies, Tribal Collaboration Committee Member, University of Oklahoma (2018–present)
• Reference, Access & Outreach Section Steering Committee, Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA) (2018–2019)
• Oklahoma Representative, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) (2014–2016)

Awards and Fellowships

• Dean’s Outstanding Staff Award - College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, 2022
• Award of recognition for outreach and community work - Oklahoma Museums Association, 2019
• Award and recognition for community outreach - Pioneer Library System East, August 2019
• Fellowship: Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow, Electronic Records Management and Digital Archives, 2014
• Nomination: Emerging Leader Award with the Society of American Archivists, February 2017