Heather Briston

Heather Briston is the Director of the Scholarship Tools and Methods program which includes the digital library, scholarly communications, reformatting services, GIS and maps, and data services at the UC San Diego Library. Previously she was the Head of Curators and Collections, with responsibility to lead collection development activities, interim curator for performing arts (film, theater, television, music), and UCLA University Archivist in the UCLA Library Special Collections. Prior to that she was the Head of Public Services for UCLA Library Special Collections, the Corrigan Solari University Historian and Archivist at the University of Oregon, and also an archivist at the University of California, Berkeley Environmental Design Archives. She received her MSI (Archives and Records Management) from the University of Michigan, a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, focusing on intellectual property law, and a BA in International Relations from Michigan State University. She is a member and past chair of the Society of American Archivists’ Working Group on Intellectual Property, and the former Secretary of the International Council on Archives Section on Archives in Universities and Research Institutes. She taught over twenty workshops for the Society of American Archivists focusing on legal issues in archives. She is the author of “Understanding Copyright Law” in Trends in Archives Practice: Rights in the Digital Era, and several book chapters addressing legal issues in archival collections.