The Society of American Archivists (SAA) will honor the accomplishments and innovations of twenty-six outstanding individuals and organizations at the Council of State Archivists and SAA Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans, August 11–17, 2013. Award categories include outstanding contributions to the archives profession, advocacy and public awareness, writing and publishing excellence, and scholarships and travel awards.
The APT (Augmented Processing Table) Research Team is the first recipient of the Archival Innovator Award. Established in 2012, the Archival Innovator Award recognizes archivists, repositories, or organizations that show creativity in approaching professional challenges or the ability to think outside the professional norm or that have an extraordinary impact on a community through archives programs or outreach.
The APT project is an ongoing and collaborative effort at The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information led by researchers in archives (Dr. Ciaran B. Trace) and human-computer interaction (Dr. Luis Francisco-Revilla). The main objective of APT is to enhance and accelerate archival curation, and in the process, enhance online access to reliable, accurate, and trustworthy collections of information. The APT research team is focusing on devising a working solution to clear the backlog of hidden collections residing in archival repositories and set up infrastructure for managing ongoing accessions of born-digital, digitized, and paper-based materials. The team’s work has included the development of two prototype large-scale surface computing devices for processing and making accessible collections of digitized material.
The Award Committee noted that the team’s work is “groundbreaking, overcoming professional and philosophical boundaries, embracing innovative ideas and emerging technology, and rethinking current standards and commonly-used models for arrangement and description in modern archives.”
The Princeton University Library Archival Description Working Group is being awarded the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for its new finding aids interface.
The C.F.W. Coker Award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. To merit consideration for the award, nominees must set national standards, represent a model for archives description, or otherwise have a substantial impact on national descriptive practice.
Princeton’s finding aids interface was released in September 2012. The system describes every archival collection held within the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton. The site includes a number of innovations, including direct access to digital content, sortable inventories, and user commenting at every descriptive level.
The Award Committee noted that the team at Princeton “created a complete user experience of the Princeton University collections that is elegant in its outward simplicity and robust in its search capabilities. . . . The site is, in short, a triumph of innovative descriptive practice.” Maureen Callahan, John Delaney, Shaun Ellis, Regine Heberlein, Dan Santamaria (chair), Jon Stroop, and Don Thornbury serve on the Princeton Working Group. The site also builds on descriptive data created by many staff involved with aggressive processing and data conversion projects over the last seven years.
Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.
The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1964, the award recognizes an archives institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or governmental organization that has given outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archival profession.
Founded in 2005, the BMRC is a consortium of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions in the Chicago area; its mission is to provide access to unprocessed or underprocessed African American collections housed in area repositories. The organization is now engaged in the Color Curtain processing project, an initiative to process more than 100 collections (10,000 linear feet of material). In addition, the BMRC will further its objective to recruit new archives professionals by hiring undergraduate students to assist in processing collections.
The Award Committee noted that the BMRC has provided “important contributions to archival theory and practice, fostered collaborative relationships between member institutions, and shown ingenuity in its service to the community.”
The Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute at New York University (NYU) is a 2013 recipient of the Diversity Award for their work in building archives documenting Asian/Pacific American (A/PA) histories in New York and on the East Coast. The award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.
The A/P/A Institute offers graduate fellowships, public programming, exhibitions, and publications that promote the long-term development of diversity within the archives and the archives profession. The Institute also completes archives-building initiatives that center on conducting archival surveys of A/PA-related collections. Through the surveys, which bring graduate scholars into contact with community-based organizations and individuals, the Institute has been able to map and create a record of the documentation available on East Coast A/PA history, share information about A/PA-related collections on its project website, and facilitate the donation of A/PA collections to archival repositories. Visit http://dlibdev.nyu.edu/tamimentapa/ to view the results of the surveys.
One recommender noted that A/P/A “has truly transformed activists into archivists and archivists into activists. It views the archive not as an isolated space ensconced in an academic institution, but rather as a living site of memory that must contribute to the community.”
Joan Krizack is a 2013 recipient of the Diversity Award. The award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.
Krizack has worked tirelessly to advance diversity throughout her lengthy career. As Northeastern University’s first professional archivist, she focused on documenting underrepresented social justice organizations and activists in Boston’s African American, Chinese, Latino, and GLBTQ communities. When Krizack came to Northeastern, the University Archives held just one collection documenting a social justice organization; eighteen years later, that number has increased to about 120 collections, of which 95 have been processed with collection guides available online.
Currently working as a consulting archivist, Krizack recently appraised and accessioned for Northeastern the records of the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation (HOPE), a community-based organization that provides educational, health and human services, and community development programs for the Hispanic/Latino community of Massachusetts.
A colleague described Krizack as an “agent of empowerment and positive social change,” and as a person who has worked tirelessly to ensure that underrepresented communities might be remembered, in their own words, for their aspirations, achievements, and struggles.
Karen Underhill, head of Special Collections and Archives at Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library, is a 2013 recipient of the Diversity Award. The award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.
For the past twenty years, Underhill has been committed to helping African American, Hispanic American, and Native American cultures of the Colorado Plateau capture, preserve, and make accessible their histories for future generations. Her tireless advocacy, exceptional abilities to acquire funding, and skillful project management have enriched the archival record with more than two hundred oral history interviews from a wide range of cultural perspectives.
Underhill’s leadership in drafting the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials contributed greatly to fostering discussion and increasing awareness on the topic. Underhill collaborated with a team of Native American and non–Native American archivists to draft the Protocols, which work to identify best practices for culturally responsive care and use of American Indian archival material held by non-tribal organizations.
One recommender noted that Underhill has advocated for diversity in the archival record “without wanting any fanfare or acknowledgement; she merely wants to instill empathy across the archival profession to ensure that all perspectives are heard and, more importantly, to make the world a better place.”
Samantha Norling, a student at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is the 2013 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award. Established in 2005, the award supports students and recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The goal of the scholarship is to stimulate greater participation in the activities of the organization, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable.
Norling is a joint-degree student pursing master of library science and master of arts in history degrees. Norling will be sharing her perspectives as a dual-degree student at the CoSA/SAA Joint Annual Meeting during the session “Archival Education from the Student Perspective."
One recommender noted that Norling is “on her way to becoming a leader in the profession” and “is an active participant in furthering the understanding of our profession.”
The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award was established in 2005 and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson.
Vermont State Archivist Tanya Marshall is the 2013 recipient of the Emerging Leader Award. Created in 2011, the Emerging Leader Award celebrates and encourages early career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, performed commendable service to the archives profession, or have accomplished a combination of these requirements.
Marshall joined the staff of the Vermont State Archives in 2005 and was appointed the Vermont state archivist last year. The Award Committee noted Marshall’s impressive contributions to core archives and records management work. Most notably, Marshall developed a groundbreaking classification system that focuses on functional analysis and macroappraisal. The implementation of the system has led Marshall to forge strong ties with members of the Vermont state government, technologists, legal experts, and others. Her adoption of this collaborative approach has resulted in unprecedented support for the archives in her state.
The Award Committee noted that Marshall brings a “unique combination of vision and in-depth knowledge of the archival enterprise, along with a collaborative spirit that clearly marks her as an emerging leader.”
Catherine L. Miller, a graduate student in the Master of Archival Studies program at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, is the 2013 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham Scholarship. The award offers $7,500 in financial support to a graduate student in his or her second year of archival studies at a U.S. university. Scholarship selection criteria include the applicant’s past performance in his or her graduate program in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessment of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession.
In awarding the scholarship to Miller, the Award Committee was impressed by the quality of her writing and the critical thinking behind it. In her well-reasoned paper “Archival Appraisal—How Memories Are Made,” Miller analyzed the importance and challenges of archival appraisal, endorsing this function as the “heart” of the archival endeavor.
The committee also was impressed with the remarks from Miller’s references, who characterized her as creative, intellectually curious, enthusiastic, and willing to go beyond the assigned task. One reference noted that Miller “truly is one of the finest professionals I have been associated with.”
The award was created in 1998 by SAA Fellow, past president, and longtime member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie.
Deborra A. Richardson, chair of the Archives Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Richardson received a bachelor of music degree from Howard University and a master of library science degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Richardson has worked at NMAH for twenty-three years, previously serving as the assistant chair of the Archives Center and archives specialist for the Duke Ellington Collection. During her time at NMAH, Richardson has implemented projects to educate young adults about the profession through internships and volunteer opportunities. She also has worked with Archives Center colleagues who teach an “Archival Practises” class, introducing students in the Museum Studies Program at George Washington University to the profession and to archival theory and practice using hands-on experience with archival materials.
Richardson has served the profession in a variety of leadership positions; she was a member of the SAA Council from 2009 to 2012 and she helped bridge the gap between affiliated professional organizations as a representative and then chair on the American Library Association / SAA / Association of American Museums Joint Committee on Archives, Libraries, and Museums from 2004 to 2008. Richardson continues her supervisory and management training; recently, she attended the Archives Leadership Institute, which instilled the knowledge that in-reach is all important, and the Institute for Cultural Entrepreneurship, which drilled home the need for nonprofit units to become self-sustaining.
Richardson began her career at the Moorland Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, which sparked her passion to provide archival community service to individuals and organizations. For her most recent work, she contributed to the New York metropolitan area hip hop symposium “Documenting History in Your Own Backyard” held at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, for which she and colleagues introduced participants to new issues in documenting and preserving the history of hip hop culture.
In 2011, she published Treasures at the Museum, a children’s book targeting students in grades K–4 that encourages intergenerational interaction among family members as they learn together about archives and museums. The book also has been used as a basis for in-school and after-school activities as well as museum visits for students in grades K–6 in the Philadelphia and Washington, DC metropolitan areas.
One recommender noted that Richardson is “a fine exemplar of the importance of diversity in the field of archives and a strong advocate for a more participatory and outreach-oriented profession.”
Richardson is one of four new Fellows named in 2013. There are currently 175 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.
Ellen Swain, associate professor of library administration and archivist for student life and culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Swain earned a bachelor of arts degree from Earlham College; a master of arts degree in American history from Indiana University, Bloomington; and a master of science degree in library and information science from U. of I. She began her career as a professional archivist in 1996, working first as a project archivist and then assistant archivist for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives. She moved on to serve as archivist for student life and culture at U. of I. and continues to serve as the leader of this specialized archives program. U. of I. University Archivist William Maher wrote in his nomination letter, “She has moved the program from nascent effort to a vibrant and expanding program with growing national credibility among both archival researchers and the creators of records of enduring value.”
Swain’s progressive commitment to educational programming has had a profound impact on professional archives organizations, particularly SAA and the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC). Her work as chair of MAC’s Education Task Force is helping to establish a Speakers Bureau pilot project that will provide members of the profession with a mechanism to connect lone arrangers and new archivists directly with leaders across the archives discipline to address both theoretical and practical questions that arise. One nominator wrote that Swain’s work in building collaborative partnerships is “integral to the overall continued success of the archival profession in the twenty-first century.” Swain also served as president of MAC from 2011 to 2013.
Swain has been a member of SAA since 2000 and has served on the Education Committee, Student Program Subcommittee, and Program Committee. She served as chair of the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section, vice chair of the College/University Archives Section, and co-chair of the Women’s Collections Roundtable. Swain also has published on numerous topics, including documentation strategies, oral history, and teaching with primary sources.
Lynn Holdzkom, who recently retired from her position as head of the Technical Services Department of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC–Chapel Hill), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Holdzkom, who holds a master of library science degree from UNC–Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, began her archives career in 1987 as technical services archivist in the Manuscript Department at UNC–Chapel Hill. Between 1987 and 1996, she processed 468 manuscript collections, the most of anyone working at UNC–Chapel Hill to date. She assumed the position of head of the Technical Services Department in 2008.
Holdzkom played a critical role in the Canadian-U.S. Task Force on Archival Description (CUSTARD) that attempted to develop an archival descriptive standard. When CUSTARD disintegrated, Holdzkom refused to accept defeat, pulling together American colleagues to create Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), a set of rules for describing archives, personal papers, and manuscript collections. Holdzkom worked tirelessly to champion DACS, collaborating on a 2006 SAA Annual Meeting session and a highly important article published in The American Archivist, SAA’s journal, in 2008.
One recommender wrote: “While DACS was definitely a group effort produced by like-minded individuals, Lynn . . . was the heart and soul of the rules. . . . DACS has had an enormous impact on archival description—not just in the U.S.—and much of that impact is due to Lynn’s promulgation and ongoing support of the standard.”
Holdzkom also influenced the next generation of archivists as a mentor and as an instructor for the SAA workshops “Archival Cataloging as a Component of Description” and “MARC According to DACS.” As another nominator noted, “Lynn is a gifted teacher—approachable, patient with questions, always willing to share her experiences or help work out a thorny descriptive problem.”
Margery Sly, director of special collections at Temple University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Sly earned a master of arts in American history and a master of library science from Case Western Reserve University in 1981. One supporter noted that Sly made a “commitment to archives as her profession at a time when the majority of archivists still received on-the-job training.”
Throughout her career, Sly has worked with the papers of government officials, senatorial records, women’s history, institutional archives and manuscript collections, and religious archives, and has worked at the National Archives, Western Historical Manuscripts Collection at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Smith College, the Presbyterian Historical Society, and now Temple University's Special Collections Research Center.
More impressive than her work history, Sly’s service to the profession is exemplary. New England Archivists, Midwest Archives Conference, Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Society of Georgia Archivists, and Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries have all benefitted from Sly’s energetic leadership. A Certified Archivist, Sly is the president-elect of the Academy of Certified Archivists. Sly also has enriched SAA; she has been an active member for thirty years, serving multiple leadership positions in SAA, most recently on the Council where she was elected to the Executive Committee and liaison to the Standards Committee; as a member of the Publications Board; and on the SAA Foundation Board of Directors.
One recommender wrote: “Deeply versed in archives, history and literature, Margery is one of the rare individuals who can work with anyone. She fearlessly takes on even the most volatile situations and expertly diffuses them with humor and good sense.”
Sly generously shares all she has learned, through her years of teaching seminars and workshops and her participation as an instructor/mentor for the rigorous internships that are part of all archival studies programs.
Scott Cline, city archivist and director of the Seattle Municipal Archives and Records Management Program, is the 2013 recipient of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 1982, the award recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology that was published during the preceding year in SAA’s journal, The American Archivist. Cline was honored for his article “‘Dust Clouds of Camels Shall Cover You’: Covenant and the Archival Endeavor,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 75, no. 2).
The stated goal of Cline’s essay was to analyze “meaning in our individual lives and how we transmit personal value to our archival work and create value through our actions.” The article demonstrates how the concept of the covenant—which, Cline writes, “binds people together in relationships that allow the individual to remain and live freely, but correspondingly fosters mutual respect and natural duty to community, polity, and civil society”—can and should be applied to the archives profession.
The Award Committee noted that the article provides “a fresh and useful perspective for reviewing our moral responsibilities as professional archivists” and “engages both the heart and the mind.”
“‘Dust Clouds of Camels Shall Cover You’” is a companion piece to Cline’s previous article “To the Limit of Our Integrity: Reflections on Archival Being,” which was published in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 72, no. 2) and won the 2010 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award.
The award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president as well as a distinguished author.
Lori E. Harris, a graduate student in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the 2013 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority graduate students of African, Asian, Latino, or Native American descent who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.
Harris, who works part time as a library associate at North Carolina State University’s Special Collections Research Center, is pursuing a master of library and information science degree with a concentration in archives and records management. Harris’s passion for building partnerships between communities of color and archival institutions is apparent through her involvement with Project RIGHT Now–Carolinas!, an organization dedicated to preserving local African American history in North and South Carolina. Her involvement with the organization has involved collaborating with individuals and community organizations to facilitate workshops, exhibitions, and project consultations that helped to preserve and promote resources related to African American history.
One recommender noted that Harris “takes an interest in every aspect of our work and is developing the skills and abilities needed to become an excellent archivist and a leader in her chosen profession.”
Maria Angel Diaz, a graduate student specializing in archival studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2013 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority graduate students of African, Asian, Latino, or Native American descent who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.
Diaz is pursuing a master of library and information science degree. Throughout her graduate studies, Diaz has been involved with several archival community service initiatives that document and preserve the Mexican American experience, including the establishment of the forthcoming Cesar Chavez Archives at the National Chavez Center in Keene, California.
A former middle and high school educator, Diaz also has conducted research on the significance of engaging and teaching minorities with primary sources in K–12 education, noting that archival materials “can be used as tools to support critical thinking and analytical skills, and possibly language development for English language learners.”
One recommender noted that Diaz is “exactly the kind of individual who we need to attract into and retain within the archival field.”
AARP Virginia and Dr. Warren Stewart received the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives.
AARP Virginia and Stewart, its past president, provided support for Desegregation of Virginia Education (DOVE), a history preservation project. DOVE, hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries, is a collaboration of archives and libraries that finds, locates, and encourages the preservation of material related to school desegregation in Virginia. In 2012, AARP formed a partnership with DOVE and civil rights groups to promote public awareness of the importance of preserving this history. The partners held “School Desegregation: Learn, Preserve, and Empower” events throughout Virginia, which featured an exhibit on the history of school desegregation, documentaries, and workshops.
The nominator noted that Stewart has a “lifelong belief in the importance of diversity in society [and] has shown tremendous dedication to preserving what he calls ‘the sad and glad stories’ of how schools became integrated.”
Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson.
Kimberly Springer is the 2013 recipient of the Josephine Forman Scholarship. The $10,000 scholarship provides financial support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, encourages students to pursue careers as archivists, and promotes the diversification of the American archives profession.
Springer, who is now pursuing a master of science in information degree at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, previously spent seven years as a senior lecturer in American studies at King’s College London, teaching intersections of U.S. and U.K. culture in the media. While there, Springer also served on the advisory board for the Black Cultural Archives Black Women’s Oral History Project.
One recommender noted that Springer will take the skills she’s learning at the School of Information and “translate them in new organizational contexts. She’s been thoughtful about how to bring technology to work in nonprofit organizations, and she’s set to be a leader in the area.” Springer expressed her gratitude after learning that she received the award.
The Josephine Forman Scholarship was established in 2010 by the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church and is named for Josephine Forman, who served as archivist for eighteen years at the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Barrye Brown, a master’s student in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC–CH), is a 2013 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship. The Mosaic Scholarship provides funding to students who demonstrate potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.
Brown, who is enrolled in the UNC–CH Archives and Records Management Program, holds a BA in American history from Dillard University and a MA in Atlantic world history from Rice University. She has immersed herself in the archives profession, is active as a volunteer, and is currently working as a Carolina Academic Library Associate (CALA) with a dual appointment in the Southern Historical Collection and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center Library. One recommender noted that Brown “take[s] advantage of every professional development opportunity she is able to.”
In her scholarship essay, Brown wrote, “As servants of the public, I feel that archivists need to be ever mindful of the diverse perspectives within their holdings. Along with promoting diversity within collections, I also hope to inspire and encourage diversity within the archival profession.”
First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership to the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2013 CoSA and SAA Joint Annual Meeting.
Rhonda Jones, who will enter the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC–CH) this fall, is a 2013 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship. The Mosaic Scholarship provides funding to students who demonstrate potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it. Jones serves as an assistant professor and the director of public history at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), which offers an archives track in conjunction with the university’s School of Library and Information Sciences. Prior to NCCU, Jones managed the Behind the Veil oral history collection at the Center for Documentary Studies.
Obtaining a graduate education in archival studies is just another step in Jones’s already impressive professional career. One recommender wrote that Jones is a “person who loves facilitating information to wider groups of people.”
First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership to the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2013 CoSA and SAA Joint Annual Meeting.
Weimei Pan, a first-year doctoral student in the Archives Studies PhD Program at the University of British Columbia, is the 2013 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award. The award enables overseas archivists who are already in the United States or Canada for training to augment their experience by traveling to the Joint Annual Meeting.
In addition to pursuing her doctorate degree, Pan works as a research assistant for the Records in the Cloud project and is a valued team member for her ability to find and analyze sources as well as her tendency to compare the perspectives, approaches, and ideas that she discovers in the Western world with her understanding of her own Asian culture. The Award Committee praised Pan’s high capacity for critical analysis, broad knowledge of international literature, and deep understanding of archival science and diplomatics, as well as digital technologies.
The committee noted that Pan is an “avid learner and an enthusiastic researcher, driven by unending curiosity and humility.”
Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes.
“Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project,” led by Executive Director Tom Ikeda, is the recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.
The Award Committee noted that Densho’s mission, to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II, is realized in “rich and wonderful detail” on the Densho website. In addition to more than fourteen hundred hours of video testimonies, Densho created a digital archive of more than ten thousand historical images documenting Japanese American history. Further, the project includes multidisciplinary lesson plans that are made available for elementary through undergraduate students, as well as workshops that educate teachers in the use of these primary resources.
The committee expressed high regard for the “invaluable firsthand accounts of the Japanese American experience [that] document a dark period in our nation’s history that deserves to receive the thorough, compelling examination that Densho provides.”
The Hamer-Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.
Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation, edited by Dr. Nancy Y. McGovern (the volume editor) and Dr. Katherine Skinner (the series editor), is the recipient of the Preservation Publication Award, which recognizes outstanding work related to archives preservation.
Published by Educopia Institute in 2012, Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation provides a comprehensive synthesis of current thinking in the field of digital preservation and proposed methods of action and cooperation that “support the preservation of our collective cultural memory.” The publication, which is available freely as a PDF, contains a collection of peer-reviewed essays that were developed by conference panels and attendees of the 2011 “Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation” (ANADP) conference in Tallinn, Estonia. The ANADP community will convene again this fall in Barcelona for ANADP II.
The nominator noted that this publication “provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of practice that has breadth and depth . . . as well as providing recommendations for moving forward toward an international community of practice.”
Established in 1993, past recipients of the Preservation Publication Award include McGovern and Anne Kenney for their web-based tutorial Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems.
Audrey Newcomer, the former director of archives and records at the Archdiocese of St. Louis, is the 2013 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. The award honors an individual archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Sadly, Newcomer passed away in December 2012, but not before leaving her mark on the archives profession. Newcomer had been active in the library and archives field since 1981 and joined the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 2001 as the director of archives and records. In addition to her leadership within the archdiocese, Newcomer served in a variety of leadership positions, including positions with the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists, St. Louis Area Religious Archivists, and SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section. She taught records management workshops and served as the director of education for the St. Louis Chapter of ARMA International. She also contributed to the forthcoming second edition of Managing Diocesan Archives and Records: A Guide for Bishops, Chancellors, and Archivists.
Newcomer’s nominator noted that as the director of archives and records, she “made that office highly respected and admired not only in the St. Louis area but throughout the country and is held up as a model for archdiocesan archives. . . . Audrey’s passion and commitment to the archival profession was admired by all who knew her.”
Created in 1974, the award is funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists and honors Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., a Dominican nun who was the first professionally trained archivist at the Catholic Archives of Texas in Austin.
Terry Brown, volunteer archivist for the Houston Symphony and an archives volunteer for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is the 2013 recipient of the Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition. Brown led the effort to establish an archives for the Houston Symphony after seeing the devastation Tropical Storm Allison wrought on the group’s historic records in 2001 and to salvage records damaged in the storm. Volunteering on an almost-daily basis, Brown has cultivated donations from the Symphony’s supporters and musicians, created an institutional records management program, and designed the archives’ website. Brown also was instrumental in obtaining a $200,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to digitize the Symphony’s recordings held at the University of Texas at Austin.
On the one weekday that she is not at the Symphony archives, she can be found at the MFAH Archives, where she has volunteered for more than two decades.
Brown’s recommender from the Houston Symphony noted that Brown “is not only a unique asset to the Houston Symphony, but is an exemplary contributor to the archivists’ profession.”
Alex H. Poole, a PhD student in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC–CH), is the recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award. The award recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies.
Dr. Helen R. Tibbo, Alumni Distinguished Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, UNC–CH, nominated Poole’s paper “The Strange Career of Jim Crow Archives.” In submitting the nomination, Tibbo noted that the paper “will become an important piece on social justice and how archivists handled their ethical responsibilities in light of a very challenging political landscape. . . . While this paper is historical, it holds immediate relevance for archivists and records managers today, exploring issues of open and equal access and viewing archival policies and practices from the user’s perspective.”
The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 77, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2014). Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of The American Archivist.
Astrid M. Eckert, an associate professor at Emory University, is the 2013 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award for her book, The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War, published by Cambridge University Press. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.
The Struggle for the Files provides a rich and engaging narrative of the role of archival records in politics, world affairs, and diplomacy. Eckert focuses on the events surrounding the Allies’ capture and repatriation of German records after World War II, as well as the interactions between numerous government agencies spread across multiple nations.
The Award Committee noted that the book is “fascinating detective work, filled with detail, and supported by examples. While a historical topic, The Struggle for the Files contains lessons and scenarios that archivists, historians, politicians, and others can utilize in their work.”
Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.