VMS LEADERSHIP — Get to Know Sabrina Gorse (2024)

Hello! My name is Sabrina Gorse, and I am happy to be serving as your Communications Coordinator for VMS.

Currently, I work for Heritage Werks as an Archivist, helping install and process new archival collections that come in from Heritage Werks’ clients. Ultimately, my work supports Heritage Werks’ role as a custodian, ensuring that our clients (from corporations to non-profit cultural institutions) can continue to access and use their archival assets for years to come. These collections incorporate a wide variety of materials, including textual, visual, and audiovisual materials as well as objects. My favorite formats to work with, of course, are visual materials; it’s especially fascinating to have such a unique first-hand look at not only our clients’ histories but also their employees, operations, and connections to the community over the years, visually recorded in their photographs, negatives, and artwork.

I started my archival career at the Missouri Historical Society’s Photographs and Prints Department, developing my experience and familiarity with visual materials as a cataloger, inventory specialist, and processing archivist, respectively. Some major – and fascinating – collections I got the special opportunity to care for included a police department’s rogues gallery, embodied tintypes and ambrotypes, and a 20th-century commercial photography studio’s lifework. I later joined The Ohio State University’s Archival Technical Services as its Intake and Accessioning Archivist. My work there included not only processing but also accessioning a wide variety of materials. However, I was still able to work with my first love, helping bring access to such visual materials as a mid-nineteenth century Ukiyo-e triptych and an illustrator’s preliminary sketches for a science-fiction narrative poem.

I have an MLIS specializing in Archives and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA double-majoring in English and Classics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. I am a Certified Archivist (CA) through the Academy of Certified Archivists.

In my free time, I enjoy reading (right now I’m on a personal finance and Gothic literature binge!), baking sweets and treats, and making earrings.

I have enjoyed serving the VMS community this past year, and I hope to continue keeping you all abreast of future big events in the coming months!

Sabrina Gorse, MLIS, CA, VMS Communications Coordinator (2024-2026), Archivist, Heritage Werks