The Society of American Archivists (SAA) will honor the accomplishments and innovations of twenty-two outstanding individuals and organizations at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6, 2016. Award categories include outstanding contributions to the archives profession, advocacy and public awareness, writing and publishing excellence, and scholarships and travel awards.
Below is a list of the 2016 recipients.
Rebecca Hankins, associate professor and archivist/curator/librarian of Africana Studies at Texas A&M University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Hankins has dedicated her scholarly and archival career to the preservation and documentation of America’s marginalized citizens whose legacies are underrepresented in the holdings of archives and special collections. Her numerous scholarly publications and presentations are emblematic of her determination to document overlooked individuals and include Where are all the Librarians of Color? The Experiences of People of Color in Academia (2016), “The Case for Fictional Islam” in Critical Muslim (2015), “Hamza Walker” in African American National Biography (2015), "Art in Special Collections: Latino and African American Fine Art and Photography in Academic Institutions" in Art Documentation (2010), and “Influence of Muslims and Islam in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Comics” in Muslims and American Popular Culture (2014).
Hankins’s service over the years to SAA has consistently reflected her devotion to the diversification of both the country’s archival record as well as the broader national archives profession. As an elected member of the Council, as liaison to the Publications Board, as chair of the Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable, and as newsletter editor of the Oral History Section, Hankins has provided a gentle and steadfast voice of tolerance for different social and cultural points of view.
Her nominators uniformly stated that anyone who has been fortunate enough to work with her knows that she brings an expansive life experience to national and international discussions relating to the preservation and documentation of the unsung stories of overlooked cultural communities. As one of her supporters noted, “Rebecca has woven a career in which she fills in the missing squares with a scholarly record that analyzes the literary and visual narratives of race, gender, religion, and subculture to develop a more inclusive tapestry” to preserve the divergent narratives of America’s unrepresented communities.
Herbert J. Hartsook, Director of South Carolina Political Collections at the University of South Carolina Libraries, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
At the University of South Carolina, Hartsook has created a model repository for congressional and other collections documenting modern government, politics and society. Over one hundred and twenty collections include the papers of members of Congress, governors, leaders in the state legislature, and organizations including the Democratic and Republican state parties and the League of Women Voters.
In addition to being an innovative manager of manuscript collections and a prolific fundraiser, Hartsook lectures on archival management, development, and donor relations, and co-developed and presented a popular workshop with Cynthia Pease Miller titled, “The Acquisition, Processing, and Reference of Legislative Collections.”
Hartsook’s students have become leaders in archival repositories and professional associations. He has also contributed to the archival literature. He participated in the group that created the NHPRC-funded book, Managing Congressional Collections, which was published by SAA in 2008. His 2001 Archival Issues article, “By Fair Means If You Can: A Case Study for Raising Private Monies to Support Archival Programs,” is considered a classic.
Within SAA he has held various leadership positions in the Government Affairs Working Group, the Congressional Papers Roundtable, the Oral History Section, the Manuscript Repositories Section, and on two Appointment Committees.
As his supporters noted, Hartsook “stands tall as a teacher and mentor. . . . In his quiet and unassuming manner, he leads us to think deeply, analyze more rigorously, understand more perceptively, and question more astutely.”
Tom Hyry, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library and Director of Arts and Special Collections of the Harvard College Library, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Hyry, who joined Harvard University in 2014, has distinguished himself as an inspirational leader. His nominators describe him as a “thinking pioneer” and someone who “while holding archival ethics and values dear, takes a fresh look at our realities and creatively finds ways to make improvements.” Hyry previously served as director of Library Special Collections at University of California-Los Angeles and prior to that at Yale University successively as head of Arrangement and Description in Manuscripts and Archives in the university library and then as head of the Manuscript Unit at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Hyry is active professionally, speaking at conferences and publishing widely. In 2015 he was invited to deliver a homecoming address on "Diverging Trends in Archives and Research Libraries" at his alma mater, the University of Michigan School of Information, where he earned a master of information and library studies with a concentration in archives and records management in 1996. He earned a BA in history from Carleton College in 1993. He has served SAA in a variety of capacities: as an elected member of the Council, co-chair of the Program Committee, a member of the Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct, and currently on The American Archivist Editorial Board. In 2008 he was selected to be in the first cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute.
While serving on the SAA Council, Hyry helped establish the Mosaic Scholarship, which provides financial and mentoring support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, and shepherded the revision of the Code of Ethics for Archivists. As another supporter noted, “Both are about people: being inclusive, creating opportunities, and guiding colleagues to be responsible, admirable professionals.”
Hyry is one of five new Fellows named in 2016. There are currently 185 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.
Barbara Teague, recently retired Kentucky State Archivist, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Teague is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kentucky and holds a master of arts in public administration from the University of Virginia. She joined the staff of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA) as a field archivist in 1983 and for the next 32 years indefatigably served the Archives and Records Management Division and the Commonwealth of Kentucky in a series of management positions, before being named Kentucky State Archivist and Records Administrator in 2008 and leading in that capacity until 2015. She also served as Coordinator or Deputy Coordinator of the Kentucky State Historical Records Advisory Board for over twenty years, working with repositories throughout Kentucky, and is the recipient of the Kentucky SHRAB’s highest honor, the Thomas D. Clark Archives Month Award.
As one of her supporters noted: “Barbara has been there to do what needs to be done for her colleagues in state government, whether it was slogging through the details of developing the first archival descriptive standards for state government records or confronting the challenges of managing electronic records.”
Her commitment to professional activities across her career is equally tireless. She is a past president of the Council of State Archivists, where she helped oversee two major multi-year programmatic initiatives: the FEMA-funded Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records project and the inauguration of the State Electronic Records Initiative, which has now entered its fifth year of working to improve electronic records and digital preservation in state archives. She serves on CoSA’s Advocacy Committee, and is one of CoSA’s two representatives on the CoSA-NAGARA-SAA Joint Working Group for Advocacy and Awareness.
For SAA, she has most recently volunteered her time to the Committee on Public Policy, where she is incoming vice-chair, and is co-chair of the CoSA/SAA Joint Annual Meeting Program Committee this year. She previously served on the Government Affairs Working Group, the Standards Board, the Committee on Archival Information Exchange, the Committee on Regional Archival Activity, and as chair and steering committee member for the Description Section.
Teague is one of five new Fellows named in 2016. There are currently 185 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.
Helen Wong Smith, executive director of the Kaua’i Historical Society in Lihue, Hawai’i, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA and the Council of State Archivists in Atlanta, July 31–August 6. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.
Since earning her bachelor’s in Hawaiian studies and a master’s in library and information studies from University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Wong Smith has held numerous positions throughout the Hawaiian Islands including librarian of the Hawaiian Collection at the University of Hawai’i Hilo, lead archivist for the Pacific Island Network of the National Park Service, and archivist at the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
She has served as an ambassador of Hawaiian and Pacific archives, bringing little-known collections to the forefront through her research and presentations. She has written extensively on Hawaiian cultural resources and is a strong advocate for cultural competencies in the archival profession. At SAA’s 2015 Annual Meeting in Cleveland she delivered a plenary address on “Adopting Cultural Diversity Competence.”
Wong Smith has generously shared her time and expertise throughout her career, providing free workshops to help promote the care of family papers and being a constant advocate for archives. She has been the president of the Association of Hawaiian Archivists twice, the Hawaiian Library Association, and the Hawaiian Historical Society. She has been active on the national level, too, serving SAA in a variety of leadership capacities, including on the Council, the Committee on Education, and the Nominating Committee. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.
As one of her nominators noted: “She understands how to generate enthusiasm for archives, demonstrating resourcefulness, initiative, and commitment to the archival profession.”
Dr. Foy Scalf, head of the Research Archives and Integrated Database Project Team at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Archival Innovator Award. Established in 2012, the 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 and outreach.
Prior to the work of the Integrated Database Project, the Oriental Institute faced challenges with the matter of information sharing about its collections, both internally and externally. The development of the Integrated Database, led by Dr. Scalf, brings together scholars, researchers, and internal and external staff and allows them unprecedented access to collections. Under Dr. Scalf’s leadership, approximately 15 student workers and volunteers have assisted in putting more than 850,000 records online pertaining to museum collections, research archives, museum archives, and photo archives. From troubleshooting technical issues to managing the content of the database and the interdepartmental staff to extending a vision for the project’s long-term goals, Dr. Scalf has developed an organizational culture around the project that makes it a core element of the Oriental Institute’s mission.
One supporter wrote that “Dr. Scalf and his team work tirelessly to maintain [the database] as a dynamic tool that is not only valuable for researchers and staff . . . but also for the ethos of stewardship, information sharing, and community building that the Oriental Institute upholds through its mission.”
The SAA Business Archives Section is a 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Council Exemplary Service Award. The award recognizes a special contribution to the archives profession—and especially to SAA—and is given at the discretion of the SAA Council.
The Business Archives Section is being honored for its long commitment to supporting and advocating for business archives. Since 1980, the section has promoted the interests of business archivists and others concerned with the preservation and use of business records, and to encourage the establishment and growth of business archives in both profit-making and non-profit organizations in the United States and Canada.
The Business Archives Section has been a model of robust engagement by its members and has created a number of tools to enhance advocacy and outreach, including the Business Archives Advocacy Toolkit and the Directory of Corporate Archives. In addition, the Business Archives Section has coordinated the Business Archives Colloquium held during the SAA annual meeting since 1992 and has enhanced SAA’s educational offerings by creating and implementing a Business Archives workshop.
The SAA Council noted that the Business Archives Section “has consistently and proactively provided feedback to the Council on matters that are unique to business archives and archivists” and thanked the section for its “outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession.”
The SAA Oral History Section is a 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Council Exemplary Service Award. The award recognizes a special contribution to the archives profession—and especially to SAA—and is given at the discretion of the SAA Council.
The Oral History Section is being honored for actively engaging its members in a rich variety of activities related to oral history interviews and methodology. For nearly a half-century, the Oral History Section has provided fertile ground for discourse and development in the archival profession and contributed to the intellectual life of SAA.
In 2010, the Oral History Section began an all-encompassing project conducting oral histories of SAA leaders to mark SAA’s 75th Anniversary. During a three-year period, members of the Oral History Section conducted twenty interviews with SAA leaders who were nominated by component groups and individual members, and whose early interests and achievements in the archives field, historical moments in SAA, and thoughts about future directions of the profession are now successfully documented in “This Archival Life: Celebrating 75 Years of SAA Stories.” Thirty-seven volunteers donated their time and expertise to the project, creating and reviewing transcripts and doing post-processing wrap-up so that the interviews can be integrated in the SAA Archives.
The Council noted that “these enthusiastic members and leaders of the Oral History Section have made an astounding contribution to the history of this association.”
William J. Maher, university archivist and professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, is a 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Council Exemplary Service Award. The award recognizes a special contribution to the archives profession—and especially to SAA—and is given at the discretion of the SAA Council.
Across his lengthy and outstanding career, Maher has provided significant and continuous leadership to SAA, including serving as its 53rd president in 1997–1998, authoring the seminal text The Management of College and University Archives (1992), and being an active member of the Intellectual Property Working Group since its inception in 2001.
Maher’s ongoing commitment to copyright issues on behalf of the documentary record, archives, archivists, and researchers throughout the world is impressive. He has effectively represented SAA at eight week-long meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, the global forum for intellectual property policy development and cooperation. Through drafting presentations, attending numerous meetings and strategy sessions with non-governmental organizations, and putting in countless hours of travel, Maher has advocated to allow archivists to share rare and vital resources across international borders—without the concern of violating a patchwork of national laws—and thereby to increase access to important information.
The Council noted that “through his persistent and thoughtful contributions, [Maher] has succeeded in educating international policymakers about the value of archives and ensuring that the unique needs of archives users are voiced.”
The Georgia Archives Institute (GAI) is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Distinguished Service Award. Created in 1964, the award recognizes an archives institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or government organization that has given outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archives profession.
For 49 years, GAI has provided an intensive training course in the practical and theoretical foundation for archival enterprise, enabling 775 archivists from thirty-six states and nine countries to understand and implement best practices in the management of archives. GAI’s far-reaching impact has led to the development of professional standards, diverse and inclusive collections, institutional partnerships, the education of archivists as managers and advocates, and a better awareness of the fundamental importance of historical records.
One supporter wrote that GAI has “filled a significant gap in archival education for many individuals at small to medium institutions who may shoulder archival responsibilities along with numerous other roles, who may have gained these roles in mid-career, or who may not have access to archival education courses.”
The Latin American and Cultural Heritage Archives Roundtable webinar series, “Desmantelando Fronteras/Breaking Down Borders,” is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Diversity Award. Established in 2011, the award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.
“Desmantelando Fronteras/Breaking Down Borders” was co-founded by George Apodaca, affiliate assistant librarian at the University of Delaware Library; Natalie Baur, most recently the archivist for the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami; and Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, curator of Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections at the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. The webinar series provides a collaborative space for archivists of the Latin American and Caribbean diaspora to share their projects and experiences, facilitating an open exchange of ideas among professionals throughout the Americas. The series, in collaboration with the Digital Library of the Caribbean and the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries, has provided an exemplary model of cooperative outreach. Topics include digital and documentation projects in Colombia, Curaçao, Ecuador, Florida, Guyana, Honduras, and Puerto Rico, and webinars feature both English and Spanish speakers.
According to one colleague, “This one-of-a-kind project has expanded beyond geographical, language, and theoretical barriers and provides an example of how SAA and American archivists can connect with international professionals.”
Alessandro Meregaglia, a 2015 graduate of Indiana University Bloomington with dual master’s degrees in history and library science with a specialization in archives and records management, is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Donald Peterson Student Travel Award. Established in 2005, the award supports attendance at SAA’s conference by a student and/or recent graduate from a graduate archival program within North America in order to stimulate greater participation in the activities of SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable.
Now an archivist and assistant professor at Boise State University, Meregaglia will share his experience of navigating graduate school and finding a job with his peers in the Students and New Archives Professionals Roundtable during the 2016 conference. Meregaglia, a member of the Legislators Research Team for SAA’s Issues and Advocacy Roundtable, will also participate in the roundtable’s meeting to discuss ideas for improving outreach for archives and raising awareness about public policy affecting archives.
Matt Gorzalski, university archivist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU), is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Emerging Leader Award. Established in 2011, the 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.
At SIU, Gorzalski has been dedicated to raising awareness of archives and the use of historic records in classroom instruction, teaching critical skills through hands-on digitization exercises. He is also an active member of SAA’s Collection Management Tools Roundtable and Career Development Subcommittee, both of which he currently chairs, as well as the ArchivesSpace Technical Advisory Council and its Migration Working Group, which provides testing, support, documentation, and enhancement prioritization for developers and users. Gorzalski’s work on a standard archival management system has led him to partner with systems teams, LYRASIS, and other archivists in Illinois and across the country.
The Award Committee also commended Gorzalski’s strong record of scholarship. His research, writings, and presentations on better descriptive practices have been published in The American Archivist, Archival Issues, and Journal of Archival Organization. In 2014, Gorzalski received the David B. Gracy II Award for the best article in Provenance for “Reimaging Record Groups: A Case Study and Considerations for Record Group Revision.”
As one supporter noted: “Matt’s passion for archives and user experience is a solid foundation underlying his energy, expertise, innovation, creativity, and leadership. . . . He represents the best of an archivist—always finding ways to increase awareness and use of our collections.”
Katherine Madison, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at the University of Pittsburgh, is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship. Established in 1998, the $10,000 scholarship supports the graduate archival education of a student who is studying at a United States university program. 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.
Madison’s historical training combined with technical expertise in archives will position her to play important roles in advocacy, preservation, and education. In addition to her strong academic record, Madison impressed the Awards Committee with her excellent writing skills. Her outstanding research paper, “The Archival Captive Revisited: Native American Archival Materials and Self-Determination in the Archive,” placed the literature of Native American archives in context of the restoration era of Native American sovereignty and later “the complex, interdisciplinary, international debate over the control of Indigenous cultural expressions and traditional knowledge.” Madison hopes to work with museum or university archives and the digital humanities, using her historical knowledge in service of advocacy and outreach.
One recommender commented that Madison is “an exceptional student . . . a leader among students and will have a great career in our profession.”
Wendy Duff, professor of archives and records management at the University of Toronto, and Jessica Haskell, a graduate of the Master of Information Program at the University of Toronto, are the 2016 recipients of the Society of American Archivists' Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award.
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. Duff and Haskell were honored for their article “New Uses for Old Records: A Rhizomatic Approach to Archival Access,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2015 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 78, no. 1).
In their article, Duff and Haskell explore a more radical approach to user engagement by drawing on the concept of the rhizome, an open, nonhierarchical, and acentric system. Born-digital records and social media have created an archival universe that no longer follows traditional hierarchical approaches to description and has altered the world of access. Citing examples of collaborative projects and techniques, Duff and Haskell encourage a reworking of the traditional model and raise important questions regarding the implications of such projects and the need for professional guidelines for dealing with ethical issues and privacy.
The Award Committee noted that their research convincingly “bridges archival and non-archival sources” and the article provides a “different conceptual lens through which to view the changing world of access.”
Gailyn Lehuanani Bopp, a graduate student at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, is a 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. Established in 1993, 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.
Bopp serves as the president of the SAA student chapter of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and on executive board of the Nā Hawai’i ‘Imi Loa, which aims to strengthen native Hawaiian presence in the library and information services profession and raise cultural awareness concerning indigenous collections. She also works as a library research para-professional at the Joseph F. Smith Library at Brigham Young University–Hawaii and volunteers at the Hawaiian Historical Society and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i Tokioka Heritage Resource Center.
Bopp writes that, “cultural diversity in the archival profession is actually an asset, a gift, one that has power to connect people on so many levels.” In her work, Bopp is committed to making connections between local archives and historical societies, the community, and library and archives students in order to engage the community with its history and to advocate for the value of indigenous cultures and archive practices.
Karen Li-Lun Hwang, a graduate student at Pratt Institute in New York, is a 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. Established in 1993, 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.
As a student, Hwang has focused on making minority narratives more accessible to the public through linked open data and through her work with community archives. She has worked with the Asian American Arts Centre in New York City to create a digital archive to advance Asian American art and with community archives in Brooklyn, such as Interference Archive. She believes that “without the ability to apply methods for discovery on the internet, mainstream histories would promulgate and advance at the expense of specific narratives told from within community archives.” Her work with the Linked Jazz team at the Pratt Institute and the “We Won’t Move”: NYC Tenant Movements Exhibition at Interference Archive in 2015 has established a practice of bringing together resource materials from heterogeneous collections to offer more nuanced portraits of history.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ron Chernow are the 2016 recipients of the Society of American Archivists' J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. Established in 1989, the award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Hamilton has raised significant public awareness of the importance of archives, and its extraordinary success promotes a sophisticated understanding of archives directly to the American people. With Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow as historical consultant, Hamilton explores how processes of record creation, preservation, and destruction affect our understanding of history. The character of Eliza Hamilton, in particular, deliberately manipulates the written record for posterity, using the words “I’m erasing myself from the narrative” while burning her letters. The extraordinary success of the musical on Broadway and as a number one rap album has provided endless opportunities for educators and archivists across the country to develop educational programs and exhibits. Hamilton demonstrates that history has a place in the contemporary cultural record, and in so doing provides a unique illustration of archives' impact on "the narrative" and their critical value for the historical record.
Desiree Alaniz is the 2016 recipient of the Josephine Forman Scholarship sponsored by the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church, in cooperation with the Society of American Archivists. 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.
Alaniz, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in library and information science and history at Simmons College in Boston, has been an active leader in several student-activist organizations and with Quist, a volunteer-run app that documents the history of LGBT communities. Her dedication to engaging issues of social justice within archival practice is evident in her collaborative work with other students and in her recently published article, “Diversity in Archives,” in the New England Archivists Newsletter.
Noting Alaniz’s achievements both in and outside of the classroom, one supporter wrote that Alaniz “is a person of action and is a natural leader in the community at large,” and that she was impressed with Alaniz’s “sincere interest in how archival theory connects with the reality of the profession.”
Jimmy Zavala, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Mosaic Scholarship. The Mosaic Scholarship provides $5,000 to a student who demonstrates potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifests a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.
In addition to a strong academic record, Zavala has demonstrated a commitment to engage with community-based archives. Zavala joined the Ralph Bunche Youth Leadership Academy in high school, where he first worked with archives and was exposed to the positive history of the community in which he grew up. He also conducted interviews at the Southern California Library to examine the role the library played in promoting community access, representation and empowerment. His current research at UCLA is centered on how community archives provide a platform for disenfranchised and marginalized communities to tell their stories and see themselves represented in archives.
"Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, most of the statements about my community related to gang violence, poverty, and crime,” said Zavala. “I want to uncover the positive history of the place I grew up in. After all, this is the place that created me."
One of his supporters noted that Zavala has an “acute awareness of the challenges and nuances of the kinds of community-based work that he wishes to pursue as an archival professional.”
First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership in SAA and a complimentary registration to the SAA conference.
Tristan Triponez, a doctoral student in the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award. Established in 1979, the award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by traveling to the SAA Annual Meeting.
Triponez, a Swiss citizen from Biel/Bienne, has demonstrated a high level of comfort in a multidisciplinary environment and among many accomplished scholars from several countries. Having received his master’s in information science from the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur in Switzerland, Triponez has worked as an archives and records management consultant for several years. Since his arrival in Canada in September 2015, Triponez has worked on research for the InterPARES Trust Project as well as research on the preservation of original recordings in popular music, an important topic in documenting cultural heritage for which there has been little to no formal research.
The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award. Established in 1973, the award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.
SAADA’s mission to give voice to South Asian Americans by documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their diverse experiences has resulted in a community-based archive that is a great resource for research as well as an educational tool for teaching the public about the importance of archives. Compiled from family collections, community organizations, and established archives, SAADA provides digital access to a variety of primary source materials and includes K-12 lesson plans and related resources that draw upon the archive.
In addition, SAADA’s outreach efforts, such as the popular First Days Project and forthcoming publication Our Stories, provide unique platforms for users to share their immigrant experiences and have inspired other organizations and archives to develop similar projects.
“By building community trust and encouraging dialogue, SAADA serves as a model for archivists and others dedicated to documenting ethnic and underrepresented communities that more traditional archives often ignore,” the Awards Committee wrote.
Preserving Our Heritage: Perspectives from Antiquity to the Digital Age by Michele V. Cloonan (ALA Neal-Schuman/Facet) is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Preservation Publication Award. Established in 1993, the award recognizes and acknowledges the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation and, through this acknowledgment, encourages outstanding achievement by others.
Preserving Our Heritage ties together a variety of groundbreaking historical texts to lay both a theoretical and practical foundation for the field of preservation. With insightful and engaging prose, Cloonan offers students, researchers, librarians, archivists, and museum specialists an overview of longevity, reversibility, enduring value, and authenticity of preservation. Divided into eleven themes, each section combines historical works from international contributors and hard-to-find publications with well-rounded commentary to provide a global view of contemporary thinking and practices.
“Preserving Our Heritage is undeniably a monumental achievement and a welcome contribution to the bookshelves of preservation professionals everywhere,” the SAA Awards Committee noted.
Denise “Dee” Gallo, Provincial Archivist of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is the 2016 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists.
Created in 1974, the award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Gallo has provided exceptional leadership to the archivists affiliated with the Sisters of Charity Federation. In 2013, Gallo convened a meeting of the thirteen federation archivists, sparking a commitment to collaboration. Gallo has also begun to create a Variorum edition of versions of the American translations of the Rule of St. Vincent de Paul as adopted by the federation congregations. This project will enable interpretation and understanding of the common roots of the Federation congregations. Gallo served as president of the Archivists of Congregations of Women Religious and is incoming chair of SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section.
One supporter wrote, “Without Gallo’s guiding leadership, we are not certain that there would be a Charity Federation Archivists consortium today, much less a consortium that has demonstrated the value of archival collaboration to both the archivists of the federation community and the Sisters of Charity Federation.” Another supporter noted, “Dee possesses the aplomb necessary to lead when the way forward is not always clear . . . Her kindness and lively sense of humor are also greatly appreciated by her colleagues.”
Marie Lascu, archivist for Crowing Rooster Arts in New York City and co-founder of Activist Archivists (2011–2015), is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Spotlight Award. Established in 2015, the award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archival collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition.
Despite limited resources and staff in her role at Crowing Rooster Arts, a non-profit organization documenting the stories of Haiti’s struggle for democracy since 1980, Lascu has implemented infrastructure to digitize the organization’s physical media with the help of a wide network of like-minded professionals and open skill-sharing. She was selected for the Spotlight Award not only for these achievements but also for her commitment to community, activism, and advocacy for the archives. As a member of the XFR Collective, Lascu continues to support artists, non-profits, and individuals with limited resources in preservation efforts. Lascu also co-organized the 2015 Personal Digital Archiving conference, coordinated a series of education webinars hosted by the Association for Moving Image Archivists, and managed the planning of five workshops as part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services funded initiative, “Training for Moving Image Specialists in Libraries.” Her creative approaches to collection management, access, research, and technological innovation are a model for non-profit arts organizations, one that she has documented and shared openly with colleagues.
One supporter wrote, “For Marie, archives are not about things, not about what’s culturally important to a nation, but about people and relationships, about connection, about understanding one another through the sharing of words and images, and understanding ourselves by looking into the past to discover what we’ve accomplished.”
Rachel Walton, digital archivist and record management coordinator at Rollins College and master’s student in the Archival Studies Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Theodore Calvin Pease Award. The award recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.
Walton’s paper, “Looking for Answers: A Usability Study of Online Finding Aid Navigation,” presents a usability study on the finding aid interface created by Princeton University Library and analyzed ten use cases to determine how users interact with a particular online finding aid system. She concludes with ten pragmatic guidelines for archival professions designing online archival finding aids with a high degree of usability.
Walton's paper was nominated by Dr. Helen R. Tibbo, Alumni Distinguished Professor at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC. In her nomination, Tibbo wrote, “The methodology is sound and the writing is clear. [Walton] did an excellent job researching the literature around finding aids and extended what we know about how online finding aids might be better designed and presented.”
The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 80, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2017). Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of The American Archivist.
Sonja Luehrmann, associate professor of anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, and the 2015-2016 EURIAS fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Waldo Gifford Leland Award for her book, Religion in Secular Archives: Soviet Atheism and Historical Knowledge, published by Oxford University Press.
Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. In Religion in Secular Archives, Luehrmann offers a thoughtful approach to the study of religious practice in 1950s–1970s Soviet Russia. Based on research in locations as diverse as the multi-religious Volga region, Moscow, and Texas, Luehrmann focuses on archival documents generated by militantly atheist institutions and urges us to consider how these sources were produced, exchanged, and read. Acknowledging that documentation practices sustain systems of power, Luehrmann closely examines archival research when available sources are produced by people different than or in conflict with those being described. She combines official archival documents with oral history, published sources, and alternative counter-archives, creating a thorough narrative of modern Soviet religiosity.
The Award Committee noted that Luehrmann’s “consideration of the UK-based Keston Institute’s counter-archive and its filing systems will further cement archivists’ recognition of the power at stake when we arrange and describe our holdings.”