About the Archivists
Meaghan O’Riordan began as the Archivist for the Southern Province on August 15, 2022. Previously, she was the Accessioning Archivist at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library since 2016. While at Emory, she was responsible for shepherding special collections material from the point of acquisition until made available for research in the Reading Room. Meaghan managed the collections for the Rose Library, which totaled more than 35,000 linear feet of archives and manuscript collections and 130,000 rare books and serials. She was a key member of the implementation team for Emory’s instance of the collection management software, ArchivesSpace, and wrote a section of the processing manual for her unit.
Apart from her work at Emory, Meaghan is also active in the Archives profession. She is the chair of the national Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group for the Society of American Archivists; the founder and chair of the Airtable for Archives Community of Practice. She has given more than 15 professional presentations and has authored or coauthored 11 professional publications. Most recently, she coauthored the definition for archival accessioning with her research partner, Rosemary K.J. Davis, for The Hand Book for Archival Practice (2021). With Rosemary, Meaghan was also awarded a National Library Forum grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for nearly $250,000 for their work on best practices for archival accessioning.
Meaghan simultaneously earned two bachelors degrees at North Carolina State University, one in English with a focus on creative writing and one in religious studies, graduating summa cum laude. She holds two masters degrees, one in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and one in theological studies from Emory University (with transferring credits from Duke University). While in library school, Meaghan began her career as a Library Associate for the Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University.
A native of Welcome North Carolina, Meaghan is very familiar with the Moravian Church and its history, and she has some training in reading German. She and her husband, Simon, were married in St. Philips Moravian Church. She currently resides in Winston-Salem with Simon and their dog, Oliver.
Sabrina Garity began as the Assistant Archivist for the Southern Province on May 22, 2023. Previously, she was a Law Library Assistant for Boston College’s Law Library while she completed her masters in Library and Information Science at Simmons University. Sabrina is completing the dual degree program at Simmons, earning a masters in history, as well, anticipating graduation from both programs in December 2023. She will complete the remainder of her coursework remotely from Winston-Salem. Sabrina’s research in history has centered on post-war Germany, and she has taken several courses in the language.
In her position at Boston College’s Law Library, Sabrina worked with the IT department to migrate the digital repository from one platform to another, ensuring the successful transfer of dozens of collections and thousands of items, as well as coordinating a new workflow for faculty publications. She also increased the Law Library’s social media presence. Since starting that initiative the Law Library’s Instagram profile engagement regularly exceeds 25% and reaches 5 time as many accounts as it has followers. She also designed a scavenger hunt that connected the online outreach with in-person engagement.
Prior to Boston College, Sabrina had a career in education, teaching English as a Second Language, English Composition, and English Literature at Fisher College and South College. She was also the Resource Center Coordinator for South College.
She previously earned a masters in creative non-fiction writing from the New School and a bachelors degree in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Sabrina is originally from Midway, North Carolina, and has been fascinated by the history of Old Salem since her elementary school field trips. She currently resides in Winston-Salem with her dog, Henry.