Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Shelly Black

Shelly Black, the Cyma Rubin Library Fellow at North Carolina State University, is a 2021 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals of color who are employed in archives and who manifest an interest in becoming active members of SAA.

Black holds a master of arts in library and information science with a certificate in archival studies and a bachelor of fine arts in photography from the University of Arizona. During her graduate studies, she pursued internships that allowed her to work with diverse records and communities in the archives and was a member of the SAA student chapter at the university. Black has authored two peer-reviewed articles (in Archival Science and Social Media for Communication and Instruction in Academic Libraries) and presented at a number of conferences. She was named an American Libraries Association Emerging Leader in 2020 and is active in the SAA Privacy and Confidentiality Section Steering Committee.

In her nomination essay, Black noted the feeling of rootedness and belonging she felt when she eventually found collections that documented the stories of people who look like her, which inspired her to become an archivist. As the Cyma Rubin Library Fellow, in addition to supporting digital preservation efforts, Black continues to collaborate on projects that collect and preserve the records and stories of underrepresented groups.