About Me
My name is Eira Tansey. In case you’re wondering how to say my name (and yup, it’s the one I was born with), it rhymes with ‘Sara’. I was born in Toledo and grew up in Cincinnati. I am an archivist and researcher who specializes in the impacts of climate change on archives and cultural heritage.
I am the founder and manager of Memory Rising, which provides research, consulting, and archival services with expertise in climate change, environmental and labor movements, and Ohio Valley regional history. Prior to starting Memory Rising I worked in academic libraries for 15 years, at the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library (2013-2023) and at Tulane University Library’s Louisiana Research Collection (2008-2013). I received my MLIS from San José State University’s School of Library and Information Science.
I try to make much of my climate change work publicly available, and I would be delighted to hear from you.
In my personal life, I am a Quaker, a feminist, and a socialist. In the warm months I spend a lot of time puttering around my front yard which is primarily native and pollinator plants. I am trying to read more books and sew more quilts.
[…] Eira Tansey is an archivist from Cincinnati. She has lived in Ohio her whole life except for a delightful five-year detour in New […]
[…] really proud of it. I’m really pleased that it– building on Michelle Caswell, building on Eira Tansey, building on Myron Groover, building on a lot of brilliant archivists and librarians–can be a […]
[…] I’m really proud of it. I’m really pleased that it– building on Michelle Caswell, building on Eira Tansey, building on Myron Groover, building on a lot of brilliant archivists and librarians–can be a […]
[…] Archive and current I&A Blog Coordinator. Eira Tansey is a researcher and archivist who focuses on climate change impacts on cultural heritage and archives. She also founded Memory Rising, in […]
[…] of Archives having their Congress in Abu Dhabi. A post coming later this month will interview Eira Tansey, a researcher, archivist, feminist, Quaker, socialist, and founder of Memory Rising, who recently […]
[…] Then, Davis spoke about a growing focus on sustainable stewardship. In short, the idea is for archives to not collect more than they can responsibly handle. However, as Davis explained, this raises a lot of questions and competing interests. To whom are archives responsible? What does “responsibly handle” mean? How does it work in practice when funding may be allocated for acquisition, but that acquisition strains the ability to “handle responsibly”? This line of thinking clearly reflects the Sustainable Stewardship of Yale Special Collections, but also in a larger sense follows the Total Cost of Stewardship framework. When I asked if this extended to environmental sustainability, she said it is an expansive idea including environment and people with questions like the costs of transportation and ethics of preserving things with climate control when people are living in a world with uncontrolled climate change. She further recommended that I look into the work by Eira Tansey. […]