Ugoma Smoke

BIO

Ugoma Smoke is a metadata specialist, archival researcher, and digital preservation professional with over nine years of experience in archives, metadata, genealogy, and more than a decade in libraries. She holds an MLIS from Kent State University with specializations in Digital Preservation, Archives and Special Collections, and Museum Studies, and a BA in Art History from the University of Akron.

Ugoma’s work focuses on linked data, Indigenous archives, ethical description, and community-centered metadata practices. She has collaborated with Indigenous communities through projects such as IndigenizeSNAC, where she served as an Archival Consultant and later as interim Project Manager, and has contributed to the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR), the Linking Anthropology’s Data in Archives (LADA) project, and the Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) cooperative. She serves as Chair of the SNAC Editorial Standards and Policy Working Group, on the Steering Committees of the SAA Native American Archives Section and SNAC Metadata and Digital Objects Section, and supports Wiki and SNAC Edit-a-thons to improve authority data and representation.