Picture of Polina Ilieva
Polina Ilieva
Polina is Associate University Librarian for Collections and UCSF Archivist.

Welcome Lisa Nguyen, Digital Archivist

Lisa Nguyen standing in front of a bookshelf

I am pleased to announce that Lisa Nguyen has been appointed to the UCSF Archives and Special Collections digital archivist position. Lisa is a seasoned archivist with experience in collection development and curation. She is specialized in multilingual content and driving digital transformation initiatives. At the core of her work, Lisa harmonizes ethical considerations with technological advancements in research, aiming to connect people to the diverse narratives found within the boxes and bytes of universities and local community collections.

As the digital archivist, Lisa is responsible for the continued development and leadership of our digital archives program. This program includes managing, preserving and developing workflows for born-digital and digitized holdings. She will also facilitate appraisal, acquisition, and transfer of born-digital materials to the UCSF Archives in support of our wider collecting initiatives, and lead preservation, arrangement, description, and access workflows.

We look forward to having Lisa facilitate outreach and education initiatives to connect our community to our digital records.

More about Lisa

Lisa holds degrees in Chinese literature and library and information science from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

During her 19-year tenure at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University, she guided strategic planning, team-based capacity building, and infrastructure development of a digital repository and large-scale digitization processes, all designed to responsibly steward digital archives while also enhancing the user experience. Some of her other notable achievements include curating award-winning exhibitions like “China: A Century of Change” (recipient of the Katherine Keyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Catalogue Awards) and “We Shot the War: Overseas Weekly in Vietnam.

As a member of professional groups such as the American Libraries Association (ALA), International Council of Archives (ICA), Association for Asian Studies (AAS), and Society of American Archivists (SAA), Lisa is an active contributor to diversity, equity, and inclusion endeavors within the field. Her service activities include co-chair of the SAA Archives & Archivist Roundtable, chair of the SAA Harold T. Pinkett Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award Committee, member of the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program Fellowship Selection Committee, member of the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association (APALA) Scholarship Committee, member of the SAA Cultural Property Working Group, member of the Stanford University Libraries Digital Accessibility Steering Committee, and advisor for Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC).

Outside of her professional pursuits, Lisa embraces life’s simple pleasures. She finds joy in spending a day at the beach or in the hills, reading biographies, exploring new eateries, and taking leisurely walks with her spirited Pekingese dog. Please join us in welcoming Lisa to UCSF!