Archival Innovator Award: Indigenous Archival Training Program

The Indigenous Archival Training Program, a program aimed at centering Indigenous stewardship practices in archives, is the 2024 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The Archival Innovator Award recognizes an archivist, a group of archivists, a repository, or an organization that demonstrates the greatest overall current impact on the profession or their communities.

The Indigenous Archival Training program developed a series of free, educational "Indigenizing Archival Practices" workshops aimed at Tribal archivists. Initially conceived by SAA’s Native American Archives Section, the idea went from a $30k to $100k proposal with support from the Mellon Foundation. The workshops enabled archival training for archivists who often lack access to formalized professional training; embodied principles and best practices driven by Indigenous values and traditional stewardship practices of communities; and built a network of Tribal archivists and Indigenous knowledge experts to support each other in this work.

The pilot for the program took place in the fall of 2023. Success was immediately evident in the number of people who worked to make this program a reality, adding on-site and live-streaming workshop units. This team of experts iteratively developed and tested the structure and content of indigenized archival training with the goal of developing a formal certificate program in the future.

Since all workshop participants work on building collections and archives from the ground up in their community, many shared how the workshops provided a safe place to learn, build new skills, and provide networking support. The program structure and the multiple modalities (in-person and virtual) allowed them to engage in different ways. Many participants are excited to share this information with their communities and Tribal Councils.

This important work was completed with a large number of collaborators, including PI Rana Salzmann; Co-PIs Selena Ortega-Chiolero and Diana Marsh; Instruction Lead Vina Begay; SAA Native American Archives Section core team Eric Hung, Lotus Norton-Wisla, Gena Peone, Liza Posas, Jonathan Pringle, and Melissa Stoner; additional NAAS member planners Rose Buchanan, River Freemont, and Rachel Menyuk; student evaluators Brionna Badoni and Kelley Klor; Regional Coordinator Sibel Melik; On-site Host Ryan Flahive; and Instructors Vina Begay, Dawn Randozzo, Gena Peone, Denise Redbird, Jerrid Miller, Lotus Norton-Wisla, Trevor Reed, Jaime Arsenault, Sandy Littletree, and Jennifer O’Neal.

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Janine Smith

Janine Smith, university archivist and special collections registrar at Loyola University New Orleans, is the 2024 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Created in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Brenda S. Banks, who co-founded the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Section. The award, which recognizes individuals of color who are employed in archives and show interest in becoming active members of SAA, provides attendance to the 2024 SAA Annual Meeting, as well as a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

A Cheyenne River Lakota and an enrolled citizen in the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, Smith holds an MLIS and graduate certificates in archives and special collections from the University of Southern Mississippi. She is also a certified archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists. As the university archivist, her primary tasks include creating and organizing all records and documentation relating to the collections, acquisitions, reference, emergency preparedness and planning, teaching, and serving as a liaison to departments and on the DEI Committee. She has recently given presentations at the New Orleans Information Literacy Collective Forum, The Louisiana Library Network Users Conference, and the Society of Southwest Archivists Annual Meeting on the topic of land acknowledgments and how to make them actionable and impactful to Indigenous peoples instead of performative. Additionally, Smith is currently the editor and publications committee chair for The Southwestern Archivist, a publication of the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Of her work giving presentations, she writes, “I am most proud of this work as it is important to garner support for Native communities and one of the ways in which I can give back to my people.” The SAA Awards Committee was impressed by Smith’s enthusiasm for involvement with SAA and her ongoing pursuit of knowledge and desire to reciprocate it.

C.F.W. Coker Award: Susan P. Waide

Susan P. Waide, from Special Collections Processing at the New York Public Library, is the 2024 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her work on the Abraham Yates Jr. Papers finding aid. The award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative developments 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.

The Abraham Yates Jr. Papers, acquired by The New York Public Library in 1919 and held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division, represent a large volume of work from Abraham Yates Jr. (1724–1796), an Albany politician whose political career spanned the colonial, revolutionary, constitutional, and early national periods in United States and New York State history. While the collection’s series of correspondence was described in the twentieth century and digitized in 2016, Yates’s journals, writings, research materials, and later transcripts still carried box-level descriptions. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Waide initiated the creation of a new finding aid for the collection, specifically applying Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Manuscripts), or DCRM(MSS). This descriptive standard provides guidelines for individual manuscript volumes and other items contained within a legacy archival collection. The use of DCRM(MSS) standards in this finding aid resulted in enhanced access to the materials, which were acquired over one hundred years prior. Not only did the project allow researchers to better understand the collection's contents, but it also maintained continuity with existing digital access and scholarly citations.

This project is a notable example of using DCRM(MSS) to describe the individuality of physical materials. Increasingly, there is an overlap within the world of special collections between archivists and librarians. While Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) is focused on manuscript collections, DCRM(MSS) provides guidance for the cataloguing of individual manuscripts. This project illustrates a novel approach to applying the guidelines to multiple individual manuscripts within a finding aid. It serves as a strong example for other repositories seeking to complete similar projects.

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Council Exemplary Service Award: lndigenizing Archival Training team

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

INDIGENIZING ARCHIVAL TRAINING TEAM

Council Exemplary Service Award: Archives Gig and INALJ (I Need a Library Job)

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

ARCHIVES GIG AND INALJ (I NEED A LIBRARY JOB)

 

 

WHEREAS, Archives Gig (founded by Meredith Lowe in 2010) and INALJ (I Need a Library Job—founded by Naomi House in 2010) have been invaluable professionally-curated resources for job-seekers, hiring organizations, and researchers in the archives, libraries, and museums fields; and

WHEREAS, their passion and dedication to showcasing facets of the profession by creating job profiles, interviews, and blog posts are strongly evident and provide unique contributions to the profession; and

WHEREAS, the Archives Gig and INALJ sites are testimonies to their founders’ dedication and commitment to supporting and uplifting colleagues in their professional aspirations;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Archives Gig (Meredith Lowe) and INALJ (I Need a Library Job—Naomi House) be honored with a 2024 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their service for supporting job-seekers and career growth in the profession.

 Presented August 17, 2024

 

Council Exemplary Service Award: Digital Library Federation’s Born-Digital Access Working Group

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

DIGITAL LIBRARY FEDERATION'S BORN-DIGITAL ACCESS WORKING GROUP

 

  

WHEREAS the Digital Library Federation’s Born-Digital Access Working Group has worked since its formation in 2017 to advance the practice of providing access to born-digital collections; and

WHEREAS the Working Group has created invaluable practical, ethical, and legal resources on providing access to born-digital cultural heritage material, including its educational offerings, its Levels of Born Digital Access, and its Legal and Ethical Considerations for Born-Digital Access; and

WHEREAS the Working Group has created and sustained a robust, forward-looking community of practice focused on ensuring that cultural heritage institutions are equipped and able to provide access to the born-digital materials in their care;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the DLF Born-Digital Access Working Group be honored with a 2024 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their exemplary work in improving access to cultural heritage materials.

Presented August 17, 2024

Council Exemplary Service Award: Librarians and Archivists with Palestine

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

LIBRARIANS AND ARCHIVISTS WITH PALESTINE

 

WHEREAS Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP), founded in 2013, is an all-volunteer network of self-defined librarians, archivists, and information workers in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination; and

WHEREAS LAP researches, generates educational resources, and is an advocacy organization for concerns of archives and broader cultural heritage organizations and workers in Palestine through the creation of zines, repository profiles, syllabi, and issue statements and reports, such as “Israeli Damage to Archives, Libraries, and Museums in Gaza, October 2023–January 2024”; and

WHEREAS LAP has continued to provide support and solidarity with Palestinian repositories and workers by fundraising initiatives; almost 10 years of  “One Book, Many Communities” campaigns; book drives; and other initiatives to support libraries and refugees; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Librarians and Archivists with Palestine be honored with a 2024 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their ongoing advocacy work supporting archives and cultural heritage in Palestine.

Presented August 17, 2024

Council Exemplary Service Award: National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

NATIONAL BEST PRACTICES FOR ARCHIVAL ACCESSIONING WORKING GROUP

 

WHEREAS the National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group (NBPAAWG)—comprised of Mohamed Haian Abdirahman, Christine Bethke, Bree’ya Brown, Regina Carra, Jennifer Coggins, Maureen Cresci Callahan, Rosemary K.J. Davis, Kate Dundon, Audra Eagle Yun, Kit Fluker, Matt Francis, Rosalie Gartner, Jaime Henderson, Emily Higgs Kopin, Jesse Hocking, Dawne Howard Lucas, Emily Hughes Dominick, Jordan Jancosek, Tammi Kim, Juliana Kuipers, Jasmine Larkin, Kit Messick, Brittan Nannenga, Eve Neiger, Rose Oliveira-Abbey, Meaghan O’Riordan, Margo Padilla, Cate Putirskis, Rachel Searcy, Nikki Lynn Thomas, Julia Welby, Katrina Windon, and Kelli Yakabu—was established in 2021 to develop a body of best practices for archival accessioning and to create a robust, visible community of practice; and

WHEREAS NBPAAWG was awarded funding by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grants for Libraries program and has succeeded both in raising professional awareness of archival accessioning and in developing human-centered, actionable best practices for all types of accessioning labor; and

WHEREAS NBPAAWG redefined accessioning as systemic work directly connected to core archival functions and built the best practices on the foundation of Audra Eagle Yun’s seminal work, Archival Accessioning; and

WHEREAS as NBPAAWG describes, “Accessioning best practices will provide recognition, resources, and validation for individuals and organizations performing this work and allow for more efficient and effective accessioning work throughout the profession”;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group be honored with a 2024 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their innovative professional standards development and accompanying community-building for the archival profession.

Presented August 17, 2024

Council Resolution Award: Astoria Edwards

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution Award
Honoring

ASTORIA EDWARDS

 

Council Resolution Award: Cherie Newell

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution Award
Honoring

CHERIE NEWELL

 

Distinguished Service Award: FRASER Team of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER) team of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is the 2024 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

FRASER is a historical digital library made available by the Federal Reserve Digital History and Archives team at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER serves as both a subject repository with a focus on US economic history and an institutional repository of the Federal Reserve System. For more than twenty years, the FRASER team has worked to provide a holistic view of the history of the US economy and financial system by building a free digital repository and providing superior reference and outreach services. They take pride in their careful collections development, detailed metadata organization, and individualized reference assistance. In an online post, Peter Conti-Brown, associate professor of financial regulation at the University of Pennsylvania, refers to FRASER as “such a shining jewel for economic and financial historians that gets shinier every day."

The FRASER team excels at establishing collaborative relationships that benefit both the institutions involved and the general public through the resulting additions to the digital repository. As one supporter notes, “As a part-time archivist, I don’t have resources for extensive planning. I consider FRASER a ‘best practices’ model for what I am trying to accomplish in terms of organization and metadata.”

The selection committee was impressed with the FRASER team’s commitment to the archival profession over several years and their commitment to discoverability through the development of excellent tools and processes that serve their audiences at no cost.

Diversity Award: Christopher E. Haley

Christopher E. Haley, director of research, education, and outreach at the Maryland State Archives and founder of the Legacy of Slavery Program in Maryland, is the 2024 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. 

With over thirty years of experience working with the historical records of African Americans in Maryland and beyond, Haley has made a profound impact on access to these records. As the founder and director of the Legacy of Slavery Program, he supervised the creation of a public database with over half a million fields of searchable metadata from census records, newspapers, court documents, manumissions, certificates of freedom, pardon papers, jail and penitentiary records, and cadastral maps. This database provides one location for researchers, scholars, genealogists, and more to locate primary sources on Black Marylanders that were previously inaccessible. Not only did Haley oversee the digitization of thousands of records and newspapers, as well as 111 original and microfilm volumes of manumissions and certificates of freedom, but he and his program also published resource guides for public use. Researching African American Families at The Maryland State Archives and the Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland serve as important tools for researchers seeking to make the best use of archival resources to reveal diverse stories. 

One of Haley’s nominators notes that he has made lasting contributions outside of the archives by meeting researchers, scholars, students, and more where they are. He worked extensively in education by partnering with administrative boards to develop course curricula and team-taught courses at the University of Maryland, and he partnered with the iSchool master’s program and the University of Maryland to make data about enslavement fully accessible and available for analysis by archivists and researchers. He is the longstanding director of the Utopia Film Festival and is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker for his work on Unmarked about African American cemeteries. His impact on future generations will last beyond his career. Another nominator states, “Chris always uses his voice to speak for diversity and inclusion, not just to call for it, but also to provide guidance and leadership allowing others to do the same.”

The Diversity Award was established in 2011. Previous recipients include Julie Varee, Gregory Hinton, and SAA Fellow Rebecca Hankins. 

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Sandy Yang

Sandy Yang, who is pursuing an MLIS with a major concentration in archival studies at the University of Alabama, is the 2024 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 2005, 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 SAA events, such as presenting research or joining a committee or section.

Yang is also a SJ4A fellow in the IMLS-funded Training of Community-Embedded Social Justice Archivists, also known as the Archival Studies Social Justice Master’s Scholarship Program. She holds leadership positions in student chapters through SAA, ALA, and ASIS&T at the University of Alabama. In her paraprofessional archives position at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, Yang is actively involved in RAND's resource group for employees from Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. She helped improve documentation and awareness of underrepresented communities in RAND’s history, conducting extensive research in their archives that has been used in various outreach activities. One supporter stated, “Ms. Yang evidences the best of our profession’s aspirational values, with her conduct reflecting a general concern with supporting others in achieving their goals.”

Yang’s overarching research as a student focuses on gender representation in archival collections. Her current research explores the representation and service gaps within archival practices, with particular focus on enhancing women’s representation, utilization, and access within the Hauser RAND Archives. She recently presented a lightning talk on this topic at the 2024 SAA Research Forum. Yang will also co-present a poster with her cohort from the Archival Studies Social Justice Master’s Scholarship Program, showcasing the program’s distinctive curriculum, community-based practicums, and how their mentors have helped the students succeed.

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson. Recent past recipients include Erika Alfieri (Florida State University), Katherine Schlesinger (University of Arizona), and Sidney Louie (University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa).

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship Award: Ashley Rockenbach

Ashley Rockenbach, who is enrolled in the MSLS program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a specialization in archives and records management, is the 2024 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 their graduate program in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessments of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession.

Prior to her archival graduate work, Rockenbach earned graduate degrees in African History at the University of Michigan. Starting in 2011 and continuing for three subsequent assignments, she joined teams of American and Ugandan graduate students working with the Ugandan National Archives to improve access to national and regional government records in the country. Rockenbach focused on oral histories in particular, believing in their power to change dominant historical narratives. From 2013 to 2015, she conducted eighty interviews with elderly members of the Rwandan diaspora in Uganda, providing pre- and post-interview consultations and delivering written transcripts and audio recordings to every participant. Of her archival and academic experience, she writes that it provides her with “a unique vantage point for thinking critically about the promises and pitfalls of the archives profession in the twenty-first century…and being part of challenging conversations about what reparative archival work might look like, both at home in the US and abroad.”

Rockenbach’s faculty nominator shared their belief that she “will make big contributions to our field, knows how to publish and circulate new knowledge, and will have a global perspective on archives.” 

Fellow: Audra Eagle Yun

Audra Eagle Yun, head of special collections and archives and university archivist at the University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) Libraries, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Eagle Yun, who holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, began her career as a local history librarian and archivist in North Carolina, later serving as an archivist and then head of special collections and archives and university archivist at UC Irvine. Throughout her career, Eagle Yun has dedicated herself to the work of community-centered archives practice, advancements in archival collection management, and nurturing leadership in the field.

She co-led a research grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) establishing quantitative and qualitative findings that articulated how participatory, student-centered approaches in building archives can transform engagement between ethnic studies, community-based archives, and academic libraries. She currently co-leads a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to cultivate commitment among higher education institutions to community-centered archives approaches, solidifying the ability and responsibility of academic libraries to engage critically and contribute to social justice-focused scholarship, training, pedagogy, and partnerships in their communities. Her collaborative work has made UC Irvine a leader in furthering community-centered archives practice.

Eagle Yun’s writing stands out for its massive contributions to the archival profession. She has written widely on community archives practice, archival description, reducing backlogs, and ethical collection building. In 2021, SAA published Eagle Yun’s Archival Accessioning, a seminal work on a core component of archival processing. As editor, she provides a clear introduction to the practices and use of accessioning and brings together ten other voices to provide new perspectives and exercises. Eagle Yun is also a coauthor of “Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing in the University of California Libraries” (2012; 2020) as well as a contributor to the 2019 Statement of Principles for SAA’s Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS). She is currently co-editing the third edition of Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, part of SAA’s Fundamentals Series.

Eagle Yun’s committed and compassionate leadership is evident in the many projects she has undertaken. She participated in the 2013 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute and currently serves as part of the Steering Committee for the 2024–2026 iteration of the program. Eagle Yun is also an active member of SAA. She has served on numerous committees and, in 2016, was elected to SAA Council. During the third year of her Council term, she served on the Executive Committee as well as the Working Group on Section Assessment and the A*CENSUS II Working Group. Presently, Eagle Yun is an active member of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award Subcommittee and numerous SAA sections. She often speaks at both national and regional archival meetings, providing insights into community-institutional partnerships, archival debt, and management of teams.

One supporter noted, “Audra is a talented archivist, a generous colleague, and a skilled theorist. She has an excellent grounding in archival theory and practice which has served to allow her to lead the call for evolution in the profession.” Another wrote, “Audra often serves as a guiding light in our profession. She is a person who truly lives her values, and it is inspiring to all of us around her to see her ethics and principles ignite her ambition.”

Fellow: Christina Zamon

Christina Zamon, head of Special Collections and Archives at Georgia State University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA)  during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

 A multi-hyphenate archival practitioner who has held many roles—including solo archivist, department head, educator, fundraiser, author, and mentor—Zamon earned her MA and MLIS from the University of Maryland. To solidify her professional trajectory in archives, she became a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists in 2005. In 2013, she demonstrated her trailblazing mentality by becoming one of the first Digital Archives Specialists through SAA.

Alongside these qualifications, Zamon has spent more than twenty years as a professional archivist, over the course of which she has served in increasingly responsible and challenging positions. She dove into all aspects of the profession as a solo archivist at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC. In this role, she largely established the archives as an institution adhering to best practices as defined by SAA and other professional organizations. Notably, she was instrumental in finding and acquiring a suitable space to house the NPC's archival records. Following her successful tenure at NPC, Zamon took on the role of head of Archives and Special Collections at Emerson College in Boston. No longer a solo act, she supervised the work of two full-time staff members as well as student workers and interns. Her work on the American Comedy Archives was pivotal in the establishment of Emerson's new Comedic Arts Major and Comedy Center. Since 2016, Zamon has led the Special Collections and Archives (SCA) team at Georgia State University. Most recently, Zamon successfully sought and acquired nearly $350,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a new 9,800 sq. ft. media preservation facility, significantly improving the library's ability to preserve fragile formats. In the past five years, Zamon has helped to secure over $1 million in grant funds for the department, increasing accessibility and preservation of important cultural heritage records.

Zamon’s success is not just limited to these places. Many archivists were introduced to her and her care and concern for archivists and archival work through her seminal work, The Lone Arranger: Succeeding in a Small Repository, published in 2012 by SAA. Created to help archivists working in small, underfunded repositories succeed, the guidance and support articulated in the text transcends institution types and has been used to build and sustain archival programs across the country, thus making it one of the most impactful SAA publications. It’s been so well received that Zamon was asked for a completely revised and new edition that is now re-written, expanded, and retitled. Alone in the Stacks: Succeeding as a Solo Archivist was released in May 2024.

Since joining SAA in 2001, Zamon helped formalize the Lone Arrangers Section, now the Solo Archivists Section. Additionally, she has served as the College and University Archives Section’s vice-chair and chair and co-chair/chair of the Awards Committee. Through these positions, she worked to have the section be responsible for the “Campus Case Studies” peer review process. More recently, Zamon has served on the steering committee and is currently the co-chair/chair of the Archives Management Section. In the past, she founded the Boston Area Archives and Records Consortium, bringing together archivists to support and share resources. She is also an active member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and has served in a variety of capacities with the Society of Georgia Archivists (SGA). Zamon served as the president of SGA in 2023. During her term, she helped move their strategic plan forward and restructured the organization to improve efficiency.

Her high degree of initiative, resourcefulness, commitment, and service to the field and SAA is best described by one supporter who wrote, “Christina is an absolute powerhouse who gives her all for this amazing profession.” Another added: “It would be easy to list Christina’s many professional accomplishments, but it would not do justice to the outstanding and long-lasting impacts that Christina continues to make on the archives profession.”

Fellow: Elizabeth Joffrion

Elizabeth “Beth” Joffrion, director of archives and special collections at Western Washington University Libraries, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Joffrion has been active in the archival profession since 1989. She holds an MLS with an archives focus from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MA in American history and archives and records management from the University of New Orleans. Joffrion has held professional positions at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art; the National Portrait Gallery; North Carolina State Archives; and the Historic New Orleans Collection. She has taught graduate courses on archives and special collections at Catholic University and Western Washington University. In 1998, Joffrion accepted a position as head archivist at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at Western Washington University. Here, her leadership efforts resulted in the launch of the Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) website, which became a key resource of the Orbis Cascade Alliance (now known as Archives West). At the time, it was only the second regional finding-aid database. She also forged key partnerships with other regional institutions and engaged in significant collections management, collections development, outreach, and community documentation projects.

In 2006, Joffrion became a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Senior Program Officer in the Division of Preservation and Access, where she was responsible for the administration of multiple national funding programs that addressed critical problems in preservation and access to humanities resources found in library, archival, and museum collections. Joffrion then became director of Archives and Special Collections and associate professor at Western Libraries at Western Washington University. In this role, she supervised the libraries’ Special Collections, the University Archives and Records Center, and the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies.

Joffrion has served in leadership roles at national, regional, state, university, and community levels for more than two decades. She has served on conference planning committees, scholarship committees, and working groups for various organizations, including the executive committee for the American Library Association’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. She currently sits on the SAA Foundation Board of Directors. Joffrion has worked consistently with Native communities to promote and fund Indigenous-centered archival practices and projects, including advocating for the use of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials and co-authoring the piece “Broken Promises: A Case Study in Reconciliation,” which received an honorable mention for the Margaret Cross Norton Award. Joffrion also co-authored the recent SAA Fundamentals book Advancing Preservation for Archives and Manuscripts, which delves into a broad variety of preservation topics, including social, cultural, political, and policy issues. Through her work at NEH and the SAA Foundation, Joffrion has been a key figure in diversifying methods for funding archivists.

In the multiple teaching positions Joffrion has held throughout her career, she is widely regarded as a generous and enthusiastic mentor. One supporter noted: “She both modeled effective and inclusive leadership as well as encouraging and guiding my own leadership skills. ... Beth has contributed so much to the archival world. At the center of that work is a collaborative spirit and the desire to increase opportunities for others.” Another supporter praised Joffrion for her dedication and devotion to the archival profession, stating that she is “consistent as a visionary and advocate for archives and special collections.”

Fellow: Jennifer Meehan

Jennifer Meehan, director of the Library of Congress’ Special Collections Directorate, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Meehan, who holds a master of archival studies degree from the School of Library, Archival, and Information Science at the University of British Columbia, has been an advocate for increased accessibility and inclusion in the archives throughout her career. She has worked as a professional archivist in six different institutions over the past twenty years, beginning as a manuscript archivist at Virginia Tech. Meehan moved from there to a project archivist position at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. She assumed her first supervisory role at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she began as accessioning archivist and later took on the role of head of processing. From Yale, Meehan became associate director of the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, directly overseeing the processing and cataloging, reference and instruction, born-digital archives, digitization, university archives, and records management operations of the unit. She made the move to repository leadership in 2019, becoming the head of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University, where she provided leadership and strategic direction for all of Penn State's archives and special collections activities. In 2022, Meehan joined the Library of Congress, where she continues to provide leadership for its six special collections divisions.

During her time as an archivist and administrator, Meehan has been an active contributor in many organizations, such as the Association of Research Libraries, the Big Ten Academic Alliance Heads of Special Collections, the Archives Council of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. 

Meehan’s impact is best demonstrated through her leadership, scholarship, and commitment. She has had a profound intellectual effect on the field through the quality, quantity, and breadth of her writing, and her work has been highly cited throughout the literature of archives and related fields. She has published five peer-reviewed articles in American Archivist, Archivaria, and Archival Science, and two essays in edited monographs. Perhaps her most important piece of professional writing is “Making the Leap from Parts to Whole: Evidence and Inference in Archival Arrangement and Description.” This American Archivist article has been a staple on the syllabi of archival education courses since its publication in 2009. Meehan’s work also pushes the profession to examine and understand the broader meaning of the archival endeavor, particularly evidenced in her article “Towards an Archival Concept of Evidence” (Archivaria, 2006) and her essay “Archival Intangibles: Empowerment Through Story and Meaning” (Archival Values: Essays in Honor of Mark A. Greene, 2019).

In addition to her writing, Meehan’s contributions to the profession are evident in her leadership in SAA. She was one of the instructors of the SAA workshop “Implementing More Product, Less Process,” which was offered nine times from 2010–2012. This workshop provided archivists with a new intellectual framework for assessing backlogs and processing projects, along with techniques for appraising, arranging, describing, and preserving archives. Meehan also served on the American Archivist Editorial Board for eight years and was elected to leadership roles as vice chair/chair for both the Description Section and the Research Libraries Roundtable. Meehan has been a part of many other committees including the 2017 Annual Meeting Program Committee, the Calvin Pease Award Subcommittee, the Description Section Steering Committee, the Leland Award Subcommittee, and the Membership Committee. As co-chair for ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2020, a fully virtual conference due to COVID-19, Meehan and the rest of the committee seized the opportunity to create a program that allowed the Society to convene productively online, addressing new issues related to working in a pandemic and confronting racial injustice as a much greater imperative for the field. Her leadership in this area represents another significant demonstration of Meehan's commitment to change and action in seeing archives help create a more just world. 

As one supporter noted: “The breadth and depth of Jennifer’s contributions to the field are truly impressive, and she has an admirable track record of active, engaged, innovative, and visionary professionalism.” Another added: “Like many archivists, she thinks deeply about the work she is engaged in; what sets Jennifer apart, however, is her ability to articulate her ideas in accessible ways and her commitment to sharing her ideas widely through writing, teaching, and presenting.”

Fellow: Meredith Evans

Meredith Evans, director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Evans, who holds PhD in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has over twenty-five years of management and leadership experience. In addition to her doctorate, Evans earned a master of arts in public history from North Carolina State University and a master of arts in public history from Clark Atlanta University. She began her professional career as curator of printed materials in archives and special collections at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, where she collaborated with Boston University and the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center on a Mellon grant to process and digitize the papers and books of Morehouse College’s Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Evans then became the director of the special collections research center at the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library at George Washington University and later worked as the associate university librarian for special collections and digital programs at the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In 2015, Evans became the director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, where she collaborates with numerous stakeholders to create successful, engaging programming.

Evans’s dedicated and innovative leadership has shaped many careers and archival projects. Her work on advancing digital preservation, web archiving, and racial justice in the archives profession has been particularly influential. She was instrumental in the creation of Documenting Ferguson, a collaborative project from Washington University Libraries in St. Louis that aims to preserve the local and national history around the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. This project, as well as the Documenting the Now project, have been foundational for the establishment of similar endeavors to ensure activism around racial justice is represented in the archives. Evans has also provided her expertise on numerous advisory boards. Throughout her career, she has served on the DocNow Advisory Board at Washington University, the RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage board, the Board of Visitors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and many others. More recently, Evans served as an inclusivity consultant to the newly developed robotics archives at Carnegie Mellon University. Her invaluable insights led the team to a more collaborative and pragmatic approach managing the complexities of a multimodal robotics collection.

Within SAA, Evans has had a profound impact. She has served on the SAA Foundation Board of Directors, the A*CENSUS II Working Group, and the Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows. In 2018, Evans became the 74th president of SAA. While terms typically last a single year, Evans stepped up to fill the role for a second term when the vice president/president-elect had to resign for professional reasons. Under her leadership, SAA facilitated numerous open conversations around archivists for Black Lives, instituted the practice of writing a DEIA statement for those seeking SAA Positions, implemented the A*CENSUS II, and much more. These diverse initiatives continue to have an impact, and many of them have been integrated into the Society’s DEIA work plan.

Evans has also been a guide for many other members of the archival profession. She has served as a mentor through SAA’s Mentoring Program and provided encouragement to other members seeking to serve in leadership capacities. As one supporter noted, “I would not be where I am today, were it not for the wise counsel, support, and friendship of Dr. Evans. I have no doubt that there are other archivists who would say the same thing.” Another supporter added, “She demonstrated genuine care and dedication, offering thoughtful advice tailored to my professional growth. Dr. Evans has consistently gone above and beyond to assist me, always making herself available despite her busy schedule.”

Fellow: Polina E. Ilieva

Polina E. Ilieva, associate university librarian for collections and university archivist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Ilieva, who is a Certified Archivist with over twenty–five years of archival experience, received her MA in international relations and the international equivalent of a doctoral degree in history at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). She began her career as a research fellow for international research at MGIMO, and after immigrating to the United States, she accepted a position as a research associate at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000, she became an archival specialist at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University, where her work focused on documenting the Russian diaspora and later arranging and processing materials of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty collection. Six years later, Ilieva accepted a position with Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (TTID, formerly known as Legacy Tobacco Documents Library) at UCSF. Since then, she has demonstrated a keen ability to take on complex and increasing responsibility. In 2021, Ilieva was appointed the associate university librarian for collections and university archivist. Her work at UCSF has resulted in an impressive expansion of the archives program and the continued growth of the UCSF Industry Documents Library (IDL). Initially focused on the tobacco industry’s impact on public policy and the lives and health of generations of Americans, that digital library has since expanded and now contains archives of other industries which influence public health, including the opioid, chemical, food, drug, and fossil fuel industries.

Ilieva’s commitment to diversity and accessibility is readily apparent in her mentorship and teaching work. From 2018 to 2020, she initiated and led two internship taskforces at the UCSF Library to provide equitable and paid opportunities for student workers. The taskforces created guidelines and best practices for the program, advocating for and securing permanent funding. As she strives to increase the diversity of archival collections, Ilieva is committed to including the voices of everyone affected by healthcare and institutional inequities. She developed a robust exhibition program at UCSF and launched a public lecture series that has researchers discuss their experiences with the University’s collections. In 2019, Ilieva initiated an Artist in Residence program to promote health humanities by exposing and repurposing historical materials. The first project from the residency, "The City is a Body: System Vulnerabilities in the time of COVID-19,” was presented by artist Farah Hamade in 2020. The program will host five artists beginning in July 2024. A successful grant writer, Ilieva obtained a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to unite three San Francisco institutions—UCSF, San Francisco Public Library, and the GLBT Historical Society—to more fully document the biomedical, social, cultural, and economic legacy of the AIDS epidemic. Most recently, Ilieva initiated the UCSF Digital Health Humanities program with the goal of providing educational resources to encourage and develop researcher capabilities using data science and techniques to analyze “archives as data.” She also collaborated with the UCSF faculty to develop and teach the ”Anatomy of an Archive” course to build competency in archival science and understanding of historic records for graduate students.

Within SAA, Ilieva has had a profound impact. She served on numerous committees and sections, and she received an appointment to the Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct in 2020, first as a member and then as co-chair. During that time, the committee reviewed and revised SAA’s Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics. Ilieva is also active in the Society of California Archivists and has made significant contributions to the Medical Heritage Library (MHL). During her tenure as president of Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of Health Sciences (LAMPHSS), Ilieva convened two significant committees: one to develop guidelines for handling hazardous materials in collections, and the second to focus on the ethical management of historical human remains in archives, libraries, and museums dedicated to the history of health sciences.

Speaking about Ilieva’s approach to her work, one supporter noted that she has “a fundamentally humanistic outlook and empathy that has prompted her to take on some complex projects that many might have tried to avoid.” Another supporter remarked, “Polina was a supportive and encouraging mentor who taught me many valuable lessons in leadership. She helped me develop skills that have been invaluable in my professional development, and she illustrated to me the importance of building community within the field and participating in professional organizations and community outreach.”

Fellow: Tawny Ryan Nelb

Tawny Ryan Nelb, president of Nelb Archival Consulting, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Annual Meeting of SAA in Chicago, IL. The distinction of fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Nelb earned a BA in American Studies in 1975 from the University of Notre Dame in one of the first classes that included women. In 1983, she obtained an MA in American history. After serving as an archives and museum assistant at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library from 1975–1976, Nelb spent the next decade holding increasing positions of responsibility at Yale University Library’s Manuscript and Archives department. Beginning as a public services assistant, she became a project coordinator of National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant-funded projects. Nelb eventually served as the head of the Yale Architectural Archives Project. In 1986, she became an independent archivist/historian. As president of Nelb Archival Consulting, she has provided collection needs assessment analyses, archives designs, processing plans, archives policies and procedures, disaster plans, oral history projects, and book and grant writing for clients including the Michigan History Center; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; UCLA; Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia; and the new Indiana State Archives building design currently under construction. She also provides archival services for families and individuals.

Nelb's commitment to the profession and service to others reaches from the local to the national level. She is a past president of the Historical Society of Michigan and served for eight years on the governor's Michigan State Historical Records Advisory Board in Lansing, Michigan. She is a past member of the executive board for the Midland Center for the Arts and served on the advisory board of the Midland County Historical Society (MCHS) for eleven years before rejoining the advisory council in 2021. During the same year, Nelb received the “History Hero” award from the Historical Society of Michigan for her “extraordinary dedication to community service and contributions to Michigan history.” In 2023, she was one of the finalists for the Citizen of the Year award for her volunteer work in Midland, Michigan. Within SAA, Nelb has had a profound impact. She co-founded the Architectural Records Roundtable (now the Design Records Section), co-taught numerous architectural workshops for the Society, lectured at many conferences, and served for eight years on SAA’s Publications Board. Nelb has also mentored many archivists, helping to build the next generation of SAA professional leaders, and is recognized by her peers and her students as an excellent and creative lecturer.

Nelb is nationally recognized for having co-authored Architectural Records: Managing Design and Construction Records, which won the SAA Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2007 for "writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice." Her writings have largely focused on promoting local history and advocating for the importance of archives in community preservation. She has authored 8 books or booklets, including The Tittabawassee Boom Company: A Mixed Blessing of the Lumbering Industry (2023), and over forty articles on local history or archival management.

One supporter wrote that Nelb’s “efforts to ensure the continued preservation, use and promotion of our local community's historical record has been tireless." Another complimented her work in May 2020 when MCSH's history center and archives flooded due to a dam breaking, stating that Nelb’s tireless volunteer work was instrumental in both immediate emergency recovery efforts and the long-term securing of a consultant to guide them through the creation of a new archive facility: "It is difficult to put into words the impact Tawny has had on her local community as a professional archivist and as a mentor. She has been an inspiration for what an archivist means to the community, advancing and advocating for the importance of archives in preserving a community's history and memory.”

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award: Dana Reijerkerk and Caterina M. Reed

Dana Reijerkerk, freelance data consultant, and Caterina M. Reed, academic engagement librarian at Stony Brook University Libraries, are the 2024 recipients of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published during the preceding year in SAA’s journal, American Archivist.

Their article, “Archives, Decolonization, and the Politics of Tribal Sovereignty: An Examination of Accessibility Barriers to Indigenous Federal Recognition Research in the United States,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2023 issue of American Archivist (vol. 86, no. 2), discusses the difficulties that Native American/Indigenous/Tribal Communities have in obtaining tribal recognition from the federal government because of limited access to records. By laying out and explaining the complexities in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the federal government, this article presents a cautionary tale for archivists whose collections contain Indigenous materials. It points out that although well-meaning, the practices and policies around these collections may do more harm than good by potentially distorting the record and hindering access. The authors explore a variety of practices and policies, including Traditional Knowledge Labels, digital repatriation, costs of research, reference interactions, slow archives, and cultural patrimony, successfully forming one consistent analysis of how archives can be complicit in Indigenous erasure.

The article offers excellent and thoughtful advice on how this situation can be ameliorated. The SAA Awards Committee hopes that this article can serve as a wake-up call to repositories working with records documenting Native American/Indigenous/Tribal Communities and encourages them to implement the practical suggestions made in this article.

Established in 1982, the award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and past president as well as a distinguished author. Recent recipients include Eliot Wilczek for “Archival Engagements with Wicked Problems” and Alston Brake Cobourn, Jen Corrine Brown, Edward Warga, and Lisa Louis for “Toward Metaliteracy and Transliteracy in the History Classroom: A Case Study Among Underserved Students.”

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award: Shira Greer

Shira Greer, who is currently enrolled in the MSLS program at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, is the 2024 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The Pinkett Award was established in 1993 to encourage students of color to consider careers in the archival profession and to promote participation by people of color in SAA. The award honors archival pioneer Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, a dedicated SAA member who was the first African American to be appointed archivist at the National Archives, where he worked for more than 35 years.

At the University of Richmond, where she worked as a Race & Racism Project fellow in 2019, Greer conducted five oral histories with alumni of color. This work taught her the potential that archives offer in building intergenerational community, community collaboration, and empowerment. Her work with these individuals inspired her to become a campus activist and organizer and has helped her realize the potential that archives work has in helping marginalized groups understand and shape their own historical narratives. Now, as a graduate assistant for the Southern Historical Collection, Greer has helped to grow the On These Grounds database and public interface to share UNC’s history of enslavement. She has also processed the physical and digital materials of the Community-Driven Archives collection to provide access to information about the Southern Historical Collection’s community-driven archives work.

Greer has an outstanding academic record, and she is well on her way to making significant contributions to the profession and her community. As she wrote in her application letter, she looks forward "to meeting and learning from other archival professionals who are interested in creating and continuing projects that cultivate community and promote access to and engagement with archival materials."

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Dr. Elaine Carey

Dr. Elaine Carey, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University, is the recipient of this year’s J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 1989, this award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

Much of Carey’s work has supported archival collections, research projects, and teaching collaborations. She helped develop the workshop “Family, Immigration, and History: Grade 10 Citizen Archivists in the Digital Age.” Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the workshop was a collaboration with archivists, historians, and librarians offered to New York City teachers to create curricula and resources around the use of open digital archives. Her efforts have highlighted archives and their importance, especially in the context of social activism and justice, on both a regional and national level.

In 2011, Carey became the American Historical Association’s (AHA) Vice President for the Teaching Division, where she advocated for teaching and engagement with primary sources at the national level. She worked on AHA’s Tuning Project, an initiative that aims to clarify the importance of the study of history for students, employers, and the broader community. The project continues to shape history programs nationally by hosting deep conversations across institutions and education levels about enhancing historical thinking and research skills.

In 2001, she assisted Latin American solidarity groups in housing a collection of materials documenting social movements in Latin America; this collection became the James Guadalupe Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA)

Carey’s active collaborations around and support of archival activities and programs have enduring and wide-reaching impact. As one supporter noted, “Carey’s long-term impact continues to be felt across interdisciplinary researchers with a focus on teaching social justice...Her ability to communicate with the general public about archival research and projects through different channels makes her a unique advocate that has had a long impact in raising awareness of the importance of archives with the general public, K-12 school spaces, and higher education.”

SAA's J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award was established in 1989. Previous recipients include The West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection (WVFAC) Advisory Team; Brad Pomerance, CJ Eastman, and the Council of Independent Colleges' Humanities Research for the Public Good Program; and Tempestt Hazel and The Kitchen Sisters.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Federica Alesiani

Federica Alesiani, who is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of Washington, is the 2024 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 (SAA). The $10,000 scholarship provides financial support to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival science, encourages students to pursue careers as archivists, and promotes the diversification of the American archives profession.

Through her work, Alesiani has demonstrated an unwavering dedication to accessibility and diversity in archives. In 2021, she participated in a six-month Climate Exchange Program at the Federal University of Mato Grosso Do Sul in Brazil, where she submitted a data report on climate resources that were unavailable to students with disabilities in marginalized communities in São Paulo, Brazil. Alesiani then created a well-crafted video translating the report into American Sign Language (ASL). Their work as an ASL interpreter is also evident at the Jacobus tenBroek Library, where they provide access to archival records for individuals with hearing impairments.

Ultimately, Alesiani aspires to become a Digital Archives Specialist. She plans on pursuing a graduate internship at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, where she aims to refine digital design patterns for the collections. As one supporter notes, “Federica has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion within digital archival spaces to serve disabled students and youth.” Another supporter adds, “Federica’s methods of quick learning are significant, but their research acumen and practical contributions to the archives profession promise to inject innovation into the field while enriching their own learning journey.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Sage Innerarity

Sage Innerarity, who is pursuing a graduate degree at Simmons University’s School of Library and Information Science with a concentration in cultural heritage informatics, is the 2024 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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.

Innerarity is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, spending her time in the program processing archival materials, developing curriculum for K-12 classrooms, and conducting oral history interviews with elders of the Miwok Indians at the Miwok Heritage Center in Ione, California. Innerarity subsequently used her experience working on these oral histories to craft her senior honors thesis, using a literary and historical approach to reframe California history from the Miwok perspective. After graduating, she was selected as the Post Baccalaureate Fellow in Native American Literature in the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College. In that role, Innerarity creates exhibits, designs website prototypes, and collaborates with local Tribal leaders to better describe, care for, and create access to archival collections. She is also heavily involved in campus and cohort communities at Simmons, acting as the ALA Student Chapter Coordinator and an SLIS Student Advisory board member. In these roles, she advocates for student needs, collaborates to develop programming, connects students with library professionals, and provides opportunities for students to build relationships with their cohort members.

One supporter wrote of Innerarity, “she is highly motivated to pursue community engaged research and develop culturally informed archival collections, and holds a remarkable capacity for creative, collaborative thinking.” Another adds, “It would be difficult to overstate Sage’s commitment to the concerns of Native communities.”

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Jiarui Sun

Jiarui Sun, who is completing doctoral studies in information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2024 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by attending the SAA Annual Meeting.

Through ongoing research and collaborative projects, Sun has immersed himself in both the theory and practice of archival studies. His research background includes involvement in multiple projects related to digital recordkeeping, government records, and other archival work on both the municipal and national levels. Portions of Sun’s research have already been published in archival studies journals in China. His current research focuses on archives and migration. This interdisciplinary inquiry is further enriched by his roles as a graduate student researcher at the UCLA Asia Pacific Center and as a graduate assistant at the UCLA East Asian Library. His research on archives and migration has been featured in peer-reviewed publications, presented at conferences, and supported by myriad professional organizations, including the Society of California Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society for Library and Information Science, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

Sun’s engagement with the archival field is manifest not only in his academic accomplishments, but also through his support of emerging professionals in the archival community as a mentor and educator. Sun worked as a teaching assistant for a foundational archival studies course at UCLA, a reviewer for the international journal Archival Science, and contributed to the Archival Education and Research Initiative (AERI), a collaborative effort among academic institutions to support the next generation of archival studies scholars. Support from the Holmes Award to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting will allow Sun to, as he wrote, “gain valuable knowledge and perspectives from fellow archivists, scholars, and community members, thereby enhancing my understanding of diverse approaches within the field.”

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and past president Oliver Wendell Holmes, who served in many capacities at the National Archives. Previous award recipients include Samuel Njovana (Zimbabwe), Ricardo L. Punzalan (Philippines), Gerald Chaudron (New Zealand), and Patrick Ansah (Ghana) and Umi Asma’ Mokhtar (Malaysia).

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center

The Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center is the 2024 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). This award recognizes an individual, institution, or organization that has increased public awareness of archives documents.

The AUC Woodruff Library partners with member academic institutions, the largest consortium of historically Black colleges and universities worldwide, to preserve Black history through collaborative teaching and scholarship. In 2021, the family of the late civil rights icons Rev. Dr. Joseph and Mrs. Evelyn Lowery donated the couple’s archives to AUC member institution Morehouse College, with the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library as its custodian.

“Working with the Lowery Institute and family members, we were able to fulfill the wishes of the late Dr. Joseph Lowery, who wanted his life’s work available to global scholars and students,” said Loretta Parham, CEO and Library Director at the AUC Woodruff Library. The Joseph Echols and Evelyn Gibson Lowery Collection encompasses more than 500 boxes of official and personal papers, photographs, documents, writings, speeches, notes, travel diaries, audio and video recordings, and mementos that chronicle the Lowerys’ impactful work alongside civil and human rights leaders. Processing the collection took two years of detailed preservation and description, including adding over 20,000 digitized items to the Woodruff Library’s public digital collection platform. To publicize the collection and make the Lowerys’ groundbreaking legacies known as widely as possible, the Woodruff Library team embarked on a publicity campaign of social media posts, promotional videos, articles, and presentations. These efforts culminated in 2023 in Lowery Community Day, a family-friendly event at the library featuring unique parts of the collection and community reflections from civil rights leaders that commemorated the opening of the archival collection.

This collection addresses a gap in the archival record and highlights an expansion of the archival record related to civil rights leadership and efforts after the 1960s. The AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library’s extensive digitization of the collection and robust outreach efforts ensure that this collection reaches well beyond AUC and illuminates the work of civil rights leaders, their profound sacrifices, and the enduring legacy of the Lowerys’ for years to come.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Thomas J. McCullough

Thomas J. McCullough, assistant archivist for the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has been awarded the 2024 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

McCullough obtained his BA and MA from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and his MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has devoted countless volunteer hours to the SAA Archivists of Religious Collections Section (ARCS) as a member of the Models and Resources Committee, which plans and delivers Lunch and Learn webinars and Archival Chat sessions. He also maintains the ARCS microsite. McCullough has served as volunteer editor of the Archival Spirit newsletter since 2016 and as editorial assistant for the Journal of Moravian History, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Pennsylvania State University Press. He is also a member of the Lehigh Valley Historical Maps Consortium and the Greater Lehigh Valley Museums and Libraries Alliance. His additional professional activities include serving as an adjunct instructor and contributing scholarly articles to peer-reviewed publications.

As Mary Grace Kosta, the chair of the ARCS Models and Resources Committee and a member of the ARCS Steering Committee notes, "We could not accomplish what we have over the past year and into the new year without Thomas. We absolutely rely on him to ensure the microsite is updated and that the Archival Spirit newsletter, our link with the entire section membership, is published throughout the year. Besides these critical tasks, he has gone the extra mile by volunteering more than any other committee member to serve as a webinar moderator and presenter. I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for Thomas and his commitment to religious archives." This sentiment is echoed by all the members of the ARCS Steering Committee.

Created in 1974, this award 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. Past recipients include Russell Gasero, retired archivist for the Reformed Church in America, and Carol W. Smith, archivist for Christ Church Preservation Trust.

Spotlight Award: Heidi Steed

Heidi Steed, local government records specialist for the State of Utah Division of Archives and Records Service, is the 2024 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 2005, the award recognizes contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archival collections and whose work may not typically receive public recognition.

A graduate of the University of Utah, Steed has worked with the Utah Division of Archives and Records Service since 2017. She is passionate about community and exemplifies excellence in service, leadership, and commitment to supporting archives throughout Utah. Her supporters cite her outstanding organization and graphic design skills, ability to streamline processes, and service to her community in archives and beyond.

Steed was instrumental in planning the successful 2021 Best Practices Exchange Conference when COVID-19 forced a pivot to a virtual meeting. Her team’s territory includes all of Utah’s 29 counties and 254 municipalities; it is a large state with a small population, and the state archives handles a comprehensive range of practices that are generally handled by regions or counties in larger states. As Steed’s nominator writes, “She has worked hard to develop trust in the state of Utah's archival services among local governments...and performs extraordinary acts of service...literally going the extra miles to meet with people in person.”

Steed has researched and written local history stories based on Utah’s government records, including stories that highlight marginalized communities. She has created training curricula, guides, a flowchart illustrating the request process outlined in GRAMA (Utah’s sunshine law), and an Oregon Trail video game-themed blog post on how to start the records management journey. As a liaison between the State Archives and local governments, she undertook a General Records Retention Schedule Improvement project which aims to provide a more logical classification of records and a more intuitive approach for records managers. In policy discussions, she ensures that the needs of local governments are heard.

A team leader notes that Steed is “an ongoing advocate of practical iterative improvement in the way the Archives operates.” Her nominator agrees: “Heidi regularly undertakes these unglamorous and painstakingly meticulous policy projects because these invisible, behind-the-scenes improvements make the work for records officers across the state tremendously easier.”

Established in 2015, past recipients of the Spotlight Award include Georgina Tom (‘Iolani School), Lee Price (fundraising professional for cultural institutions), and Michelle Ganz (McDonough Innovation).

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Eira Tansey

Eira Tansey, founder and manager of Memory Rising, is the 2024 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her work A Green New Deal for Archives, published by the Council on Library and Information Resources in 2023. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

For over a decade, Tansey has been a leading voice among American archivists on the topic of climate change, raising awareness of its impact on archives and archivists through her research and advocacy. A Green New Deal for Archives is the culmination of these intellectual contributions. The book provides a framework for encouraging policymakers and funders to support archival institutions as core elements of public infrastructure. This carefully researched treatise sets forth an ambitious, expansive, and actionable vision for addressing chronic understaffing and climate change in the archives field.

A Green New Deal for Archives, as one nominator stated, is “an exceptional contribution to the professional literature that interweaves recent urgent professional discourse about equity, justice, labor, funding, and climate change.” It is a timely, compelling, and intellectually rigorous work that applies to archives and archival workers of all kinds, envisioning a path forward during tumultuous times. Tansey’s public policy manifesto is a “generous gift to our field” that shows promise which will resonate for years to come as “one of our most important pieces of professional literature.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president. Past recipients include James Lowry for Disputed Archival Heritage (Routledge, 2022); Jason Lustig for A Time to Gather: Archives and the Control of Jewish Culture (Oxford University Press, 2021); and Cheryl Oestreicher for Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts (Society of American Archivists, 2020).

Archival Innovator Award: Opioid Industry Documents Archive

The UCSF-JHU Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA), a digital archives of litigation documents relating to the opioid epidemic, is the 2023 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The Archival Innovator Award recognizes an archivist, a group of archivists, a repository, or an organization that demonstrates the greatest overall current impact on the profession or their communities.

An expansive collaboration between libraries and health programs at the University of California, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University, OIDA is a key resource that advances the public’s understanding of the causes of the opioid epidemic to prevent future harm. From managing sensitive information to facilitating ease of research and connecting the collection with users, OIDA’s development has continually showcased innovative thinking and practice. The team’s impressive management of data privacy for more than 3.1 million documents holding personally identifiable information and protected health information serves as a model for other public health archives. OIDA’s advanced research tools allow users to efficiently search and track specialized data. With the assistance of seed grants, OIDA has increased the involvement of university faculty in the project and addressed challenges like creating robust metadata and redaction protocols through evolving automated processes.

The success of OIDA’s development is due in part to the collection’s wide engagement outside of academia. The OIDA project team and their national advisory committee represent a range of professions, including archivists, activists, attorneys, writers, educators, medical professionals, historians, computer scientists, and anthropologists. This network of professionals, led by Kate Tasker, UCSF Industry Documents Library managing archivist, and Caleb Alexander, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and founding director of its Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, has informed the sustainability of the archives and its user experience. The OIDA team has actively promoted the archives to journalists, policymakers, community members, and other stakeholders, and it has supported presentations, guest lectures, training sessions, labs, practicum experience, and independent research projects for more than 1,700 students, faculty, and researchers since its launch in March 2021. The SAA Awards Committee commended the repository’s team for “developing exceptional tools and practices that will have long-term benefits to the archival profession.”

“The OIDA team thanks all those who have worked so hard to support document disclosure in opioid litigation, including individuals and families impacted by the opioid crisis, community organizations, public health professionals, attorneys and legal staff, historians, and many other advocates,” Tasker said. “We are proud for our work on OIDA to be recognized by fellow archivists who know the value of archives as sources for truth. OIDA builds on the strong foundation of the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library, and we look forward to continuing to innovate as we work to make these critically important documents accessible to the public.”

SAA’s Archival Innovator Award was established in 2012. Previous recipients include Laura Gottlieb and Robbie Terman of the Center for Michigan Jewish History and the Community-Driven Archives at Arizona State University Library.

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Marisa Ramirez

Marisa Ramirez, processing archivist at the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University, is the 2023 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, which recognizes individuals of color who are employed in archives and show interest in becoming active members of SAA, provides attendance to the 2023 Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA, as well as a complimentary one-year membership in SAA.

Ramirez holds a master of library science and graduate certificates in archival management and digital content management from the University of North Texas. As a processing archivist, her primary interests include responsible and reparative archival description that incorporates and honors historically marginalized groups in archival collections. She recently co-presented the sessions “Working Together to Mentor BIPOC Archivists” at the 2022 Society of California Archivists conference and “Documenting the Forces of Social Justice: Communities and Archives” at the 2021 CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice Symposium. Additionally, Ramirez was a part of two teams that were awarded an Inclusive Excellence Grant in 2017–2018 and again in 2022–2023 from Loyola Marymount University for their work in collection assessment through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens and library-wide de-escalation training.

Ramirez participated in the inaugural SAA BIPOC mentoring cohort and currently serves as a steering committee member for the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Section. In her personal essay, Ramirez states: “Knowing that others like me are capable of leadership and innovation is of the utmost importance for my professional development.” The SAA Awards Committee was impressed by Ramirez’s strong commitment to SAA and ongoing development as a leader in the profession.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Teaching with Primary Sources Collective

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES COLLECTIVE

 

WHEREAS the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Collective has made archives and other primary sources more accessible by providing a space for archival workers and those in allied fields to share best practices and tools for engaging the public in meaningful instruction methods;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective has met the increasing need for archives and other institutions to create active learning opportunities with primary sources for a wide range of audiences, including K-12 students and teachers, undergraduates, and members of the general public;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, shared ways that the Teaching with Primary Sources community could offer solidarity and support to each other and learn innovative methods for teaching online;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective has helped improve the pedagogical skills of those who teach with primary sources through tool and software demonstrations, sandbox sessions, and workshops;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective has been effective in many formats, including in-person unconferences, Zoom meetings and workshops, and hosting an online library of instruction ideas, lessons, and other resources;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective’s work helps to demonstrate the importance of archives in society;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective employs ethics of care to nurture and create an inclusive community, understanding that everyone brings unique and valuable experiences;

WHEREAS the TPS Collective is a loosely structured community of people who contribute their knowledge and time to the Collective when and as they are able. Thus, singling out individuals runs counter to the purpose and spirit of the Collective;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the TPS Collective be honored with a 2023 Council Exemplary Service Award for fostering a culture of inclusiveness and participation while enhancing the professional growth of those teaching with primary sources.

 

Presented July 29, 2023

Distinguished Service Award: BitCurator Consortium

The BitCurator Consortium (BCC), a community-led membership association that supports archival practitioners working with born-digital materials, is the 2023 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Launched in 2014, BCC provides supportive learning spaces, develops practical resources, and supports research to meet the needs of archivists working with historically significant born-digital records. The consortium benefits archivists and digital archives programs at all levels of expertise and needs, advocates for free and open-source tools, and demonstrates a successful model for shared leadership. Since its inception, BCC has engaged in projects that have significantly impacted digital curation practices, including the IMLS-funded projects “Sustaining Digital Curation and Preservation”; “Investigating, Synchronizing, and Modeling a Range of Archival Workflows for Born-Digital Content (OSSArcFlow)”; and BitCuratorEdu. BCC’s inclusive and accessible practices include offering a sliding scale (free to low cost) for its annual BitCurator Forum to early-career archivists and those at institutions with little funding.

Many supporters have praised BCC’s decentralized knowledge-sharing and thoughtful community building. The SAA Awards Committee commends the consortium for its impressive impact in building a practitioner-led learning community that offers practical support for sustainable digital curation. One participant stated: “At every step of my professional career, BCC has been there to help me grow. I do not believe that I would be the digital archivist that I am without the BCC community.”

SAA’s Distinguished Service Award was established in 1964. Previous recipients include ChromaDiverse, Inc., the Knox County Archives in Tennessee; and the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida.

Diversity Award: Gregory Hinton

Gregory Hinton, author, historian, and creator of the acclaimed Out West program, is the 2023 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Many western-born LGBTQ+ individuals leave the rural conservative towns that reared them to seek out community, companionship, and safety in other places. Much of Hinton’s creative and scholarly endeavors are in response to this evacuation, in an effort to make visible queer history and presence in the American West. In 2009, Hinton created the Out West national program series for archives and museums to offer lectures, films, plays, gallery exhibitions, and collection acquisitions dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture in the American West. A noted filmmaker and playwright, Hinton’s plays Beyond Brokeback, Diversity Day, and A Sissy in Wyoming, performed across the country, are written from archival records relating to the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2015, Hinton cofounded “Out West in the Rockies” (OWIR), the first regional One City One Pride Western archives at the American Heritage Center (AHC) of the University of Wyoming. Focused on the eight Rocky Mountain states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho, OWIR highlights LGBTQ+ history and culture in the American West by collecting, processing, and safeguarding queer histories for the benefit of students and scholars everywhere.

Hinton’s commitment in all his creative pursuits to preserving and telling the stories of the LGBTQ+ community in the United States has touched the lives of thousands of Americans and has created dedicated places to hold their histories. As noted by one of his nominators, “Gregory has been an invaluable partner of the AHC, assisting with acquisitions and public programming related to the LGBTQ+ experience in our region.” Another nominator commented, “He has taken his research and archival work to a whole new level by creating programs that thoughtfully impact communities. Gregory makes his research and archival work readily available as evidenced by the hundreds of presentations he has conducted in the West and beyond.” 

The Diversity Award was established in 2011. Previous recipients include Julie Varee, Judy Tyrus, and SAA Fellow Rebecca Hankins.

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Erika Alfieri

Erika Alfieri, who is pursuing a master’s degree in information science at Florida State University, is the 2023 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 2005, 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 SAA events, such as presenting research or joining a committee or section.

While a full-time student, Alfieri completed SAA’s Arrangement and Description Certificate and participated in SAA’s Mentoring Program. Their internship and consultant experiences include accessioning archival plans for Florida’s Palm Beach Preservation Foundation and creating a collection-level inventory and processing plan with The Langley School in Virginia. They are currently collecting narratives from the LGBTQIA+ community in Jacksonville, Florida, for an oral history project entitled “River Stories.” Creating this archives is a significant first step in preserving and serving the community’s history. Alfieri’s mentor remarked on this labor of love, noting that “they demonstrate again and again their tireless determination to create an important repository of personal narratives for their community.”

As an early career archivist, Alfieri recognizes the value of both internships for learning new skills and networking with other archivists to achieve career goals. At the 2023 Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA, Alfieri will present “Applied, Interviewed, Rejected: Learning From Failure and Making the Most of Graduate Student Internships,” covering best practices for graduate students searching and applying for internships. Alfieri’s poster “Using Word 365's Auto Transcription Feature for Oral Histories,” which outlines workflow processes from an internship in 2022, will also be on display.

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship Award: Olivija Liepa

Olivija Liepa, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in archives and public history from New York University and in library and information science from Long Island University, is the 2023 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship Award. Thanks to the generosity of past SAA President Jerry Ham and his wife, Elsie, Liepa will receive $10,000 to support her graduate archival studies.

In addition to her scholastic achievement in two master’s programs, Liepa has taken an active role in local archival work. She is a member of the Archivists’ Roundtable of Metropolitan New York, and she participated in a grant-funded project to digitize and describe Long Island’s historical materials. As part of this project, Liepa digitized materials and created inclusive metadata for Long Island-based historical societies, prominently the Cherry Grove Archives Collection, which preserves materials from the historically significant resort and safe haven for LGBTQ+ communities in Fire Island, New York.

In her insightful application essay, Liepa describes archival thinking using three frameworks: “the ability to think like a time traveler”; “the ability to communicate the essence of a record and think critically about it”; and “the ability to prioritize and be flexible.” The SAA Awards Committee was impressed with Liepa’s nuanced understanding of archival theory and practice demonstrated by each framework.

SAA's F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship Award was established in 1998. Previous recipients include aems emswiler, the founder of the Inside Books Project (IBP); librarian Alexandra M. Wilder; and film and media curator Andy Uhrich.

Fellow: Derek Mosley

Derek Mosley, archivist and division manager at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, a special library of the Fulton County Library System, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, DC. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Mosley, who holds an MS in archives management from Simmons University, has dedicated his career to identifying, preserving, and increasing awareness of and access to the documentation of Black history and culture. He began as director and archivist for the recently established Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he arranged and described the center's foundational collection, developed its website, secured grant funding, and created programming for students and community groups. Mosley then served as assistant head of Atlanta University Center's Archives Research Center, overseeing collections that document the African American experience. In 2016, Mosley became the archivist/division manager for the Auburn Avenue Research Library. He was instrumental in convincing the Georgia Public Library Service to prioritize a collaborative project to digitize African American funeral home programs, a project which provided critical information for the Black genealogical community. He was also key in the library’s participation in the IMLS grant-funded project “Archiving the Black Web.” This project, which establishes equitable and accessible web archiving practices, is significant not only because of the primary sources about Black life that it makes available, but also because it has increased the number of Black practitioners in web archiving who understand the diverse ways Black people participate online. 

Mosley’s enthusiastic and engaged leadership has shaped the archival profession on local and national levels. He has served on conference planning committees, election committees, and scholarship committees for several organizations, including SAA and the American Library Association. At SAA, he also served as a Council member and on its Executive Committee, during which time he contributed to the challenging and essential work of reviewing SAA’s bylaws. He has also served on the Diversity Committee, Committee on Education, Archivists and Archives of Color Section, and the Public Library and Special Collections Section. He is a founding member of the Atlanta Black Archives Alliance, a group that strives to educate Black communities on the importance of documenting their stories, and he was a member of the 2019 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute. In 2021, he received the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board Award for Excellence in Documenting Georgia's History.

Mosley has written on access and service for multicultural patrons and presents regularly on the African American historical record to colleagues, researchers, and community organizations. He has also championed students and early-career archivists of color. His role with the ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program, for example, extended beyond evaluating scholarship applicants to co-creating the Mosaic Leadership Forum’s curriculum, recruiting speakers, and facilitating mock interview sessions.

 

As one supporter noted: “Mosley has demonstrated through his professional activities and his mentorship and generosity to colleagues that he has a steadfast commitment to the diversification of the historical record and diversity and inclusion among archivists. His energy and passion reflect the best characteristics one could hope for in the archival profession.” Another supporter praised Mosley’s active community presence and considerable dedication to not only an institutional scope but a national need for collection of and access to essential evidence of African American experiences and contributions, remarking that “the historical record is and will be far richer because of his efforts.”

Fellow: Jodi Allison-Bunnell

Jodi Allison-Bunnell, head of archives and special collections at the Montana State University Library, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, DC. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Throughout her nearly thirty-year career, Allison-Bunnell has been a champion for the discovery and use of archival collections. Her work is undergirded by inclusive and collaborative partnerships, a solid foundation in descriptive standards, and a focus on pragmatic solutions that have assisted archives of all types. After receiving a master of library science and a master of arts in American history from the University of Maryland at College Park (where her advisor was SAA past president and Fellow Frank Burke), Allison-Bunnell worked as an archivist, research assistant, and grant project administrator at the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Montana. In 2007, she became a program manager at the Orbis Cascade Alliance, where she sustained and led a regional finding aid and digital collections aggregation program for archives and other cultural heritage institutions in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Utah, and Idaho. The program, initially named Northwest Digital Archives and eventually becoming Archives West, is now one of the largest US-based finding aid networks, representing more than 50 contributors and 35,000 finding aids. It is completely supported with member and participant funding and receives no federal, state, or continuing grant support for normal operations, and serves as an impressive model for other regional, consortia-based archival description work.

In 2002, Allison-Bunnell launched AB Consulting, where she assisted clients in designing and implementing archival systems, conducting needs assessments, and facilitating stakeholder collaborations. Her clients included the California Digital Library, LYRASIS, and the Montana State Historical Records Advisory Board. She now works at Montana State University Library, where she manages an academic special collections repository and its staff.

Strengthening the design and deployment of encoded archival standards has been a throughline in Allison-Bunnell’s leadership roles. She has held leadership positions on the SAA Standards Committee and its Technical Subcommittees on Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Context for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF). Her work seeks to connect broad-based national and international standards initiatives to local practice, centering implementation on the needs of archivists and end users. She played a substantial role in organizing the revision of EAD Version 2002, an initiative that began as a grassroots effort and formalized under her leadership. This work catalyzed profession-wide conversations about the EAD3 standard and provided important feedback for honing the new version.

Her scholarship continues the theme of broad-based and user-centered archival discovery. She presents frequently at SAA and Northwest Archivists conferences, among other venues, and has published multiple case studies on Archives West and the impact of finding aid aggregations more broadly. Her recent article in American Archivist proposes a robust future of aggregations of finding aids, digital content, and metadata. One nominator noted: “She is adept at translating complex ideas into understandable concepts to ensure that people buy into work based on mutual understanding of a project's goals. She builds connections, understanding that archivists and the communities that use them are not involved in discrete transactions but in relationship building.” Another supporter stated: "She can communicate with a clarity and enthusiasm that generates support from those outside the profession. She is a sort of Neil deGrasse Tyson of archives: powerful knowledge plus an unsurpassed ability to communicate."

Fellow: Ricardo "Ricky" Punzalan

Ricardo "Ricky"  Punzalan, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, DC. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

A prolific scholar, educator, mentor, and advocate, Punzalan earned his master in library science from the University of the Philippines Diliman and his PhD in information, with certificates in museum studies and science, technology, and society, from the University of Michigan. Punzalan began as a museum archivist at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center in 2002, and then became the archivist and curator for the Culion Leprosy Museum and Archives, also in the Philippines, until 2006. He has served as an archival educator at the University of the Philippines, the University of Maryland, and the University of Michigan (UM). At UM, he led an initiative to restructure the curriculum to add courses in current and emerging issues, such as archives assessment, ethics, and scholarly communication, and has been a thoughtful proponent of decolonizing the curriculum. His diverse experience and his work as both a professional archivist and an educator enables him to look at archival issues in new ways, question theories, posit ideas on how to move forward, and lead collaborators, colleagues, and students to new insights.

In addition to mentoring students, Punzalan’s commitment to archival education is demonstrated in his service on the International Council on Archives Section on Archival Education (ICA-SAE), the advisory boards for UM’s Research Initiative for Master's Students, BitCurator.edu: Advancing Digital Forensics Education for Libraries and Archives, and Exploring New Frontiers in 21st Archival Education. In 2015 at the University of Maryland, College Park, he led the summer institute for the Archival Education and Research Initiative (AERI), a gathering of more than one hundred archival educators and PhD students from around the world. In 2020, he organized and chaired the International Conference of the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA).

Punzalan’s contributions to archival scholarship are equally impressive. His applied research on archival diaspora, digitization and access, and repatriation and reciprocity is community-engaged and offers tangible actions that impact practice. His current project, ReConnect/ReCollect: Reparative Connections to Philippine Collections project at UM, has brought together staff from the Bentley Historical Library, the Special Collections Research Center, the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, and members of the Filipino diaspora to discuss access needs, reparative description, and authority over these collections.

These themes are a throughline in Punzalan’s leadership in SAA as well. As chair of the Native American Archives Section (NAAS), Punzalan was a key advocate for SAA’s long-awaited endorsement of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, and he widely promoted the new standard as well as educated colleagues on respectful Indigenous archival stewardship. As a Council member, he contributed to expanding SAA’s DEIA policies and work plans in conjunction with its Strategic Plan. As co-chair of the Archival Repatriation Committee, Punzalan is leading the charge to develop guidance and training about archival repatriation, serve as subject matter experts and points of contact for other researchers, and engage in reparative and reciprocal actions that lead to better community and institutional relationships both in the United States and internationally.

As one supporter noted: "Punzalan is not simply knowledgeable about the work of our profession; he understands the importance of our work and encourages all of us to collaborate to bring about the societal change of which we are capable. He is always ready to contribute his substantial talent to making this happen." 

Fellow: Rosemary Pleva Flynn

Rosemary Pleva Flynn, principal librarian and archivist at the University of North Dakota, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, DC. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Throughout Flynn’s career, first as a project archivist at Indiana University and then as the librarian and archivist at the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center, Flynn has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to providing access to archival collections, expanding and defining an archival lexicon, teaching project and financial management to colleagues, and shaping the profession through her strong leadership in several archival organizations. Flynn earned a master's degree in library science from Indiana University, a master's degree in social science from Ball State University, a graduate certificate in UX from University of Wisconsin–Madison, and holds multiple certifications from the Association for Intelligent Information Management. She was part of the 2008 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute and the 2021 cohort of the Women’s Fund Leadership Academy. Flynn first became a Certified Archivist in 2006 and recertified for the third time in 2023.

As an SAA leader, Flynn has served in multiple capacities, including on the Membership Committee, Standards Committee, and the Electronic Records Section, and as an instructor in SAA’s continuing education courses. Most notable is her work as chair of the Dictionary Working Group, which in 2012 began revising the publication, A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology by Richard Pearce-Moses (SAA, 2005), and created the new Dictionary of Archives Terminology. This open-access, authoritative, online resource receives more than ten percent of the SAA website’s visitors and includes hundreds of new terms and thousands of citations from more than 600 sources. For this valuable publication and their ongoing work on it, Flynn and the Dictionary Working Group received a Council Exemplary Service Award in 2020.

Paralleling her work and impact in SAA, Flynn has contributed her time and expertise to create professional guidelines and streamline workflows. As the Academy of Certified Archivists’ Regent for Exam Administration, she transitioned the ACA exam to a virtual test, increasing the number of exam takers, and she served as ACA’s representative to the Nexus LAB: Leading Across Boundaries project advisory board. She led ARMA International’s Website Records Management Working Group, which created Website Records Management guidelines, and was a member of the group that produced the Glossary of Records and Information Management, 3rd edition. In addition, Flynn was co-editor for the archival management column in the Journal of Archival Organization and has been a member of the Midwest Archives Conference, the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, the North Dakota Library Association, and the Mountain Plains Library Association.

One supporter noted: “Flynn represents the best of what an archivist should be, always finding ways to improve the public understanding of the archives profession. With resourcefulness and initiative, she articulates what archives offer the public and generates enthusiasm for archives as a profession.”

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award: Alston Brake Cobourn, Jen Corrinne Brown, Edward Warga, and Lisa Louis

Alston Brake Cobourn, university archivist at East Carolina University; Jen Corrinne Brown, associate professor of history at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi; Edward Warga, library systems and discovery specialist at the St. Cloud State University Library; and Lisa Louis, director of user and research services at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi's Bell Library, are the 2023 recipients of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist.

Their article, “Toward Metaliteracy and Transliteracy in the History Classroom: A Case Study Among Underserved Students,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2022 issue of American Archivist (vol. 85, no. 2), addresses the increasing importance of transliteracy and metaliteracy within the digital humanities, particularly for underserved students lacking college readiness. For their study, the authors used a class project from an “Introduction to Public History” undergraduate course at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, a regional university with a comparatively large population of historically underserved students. The students established a digital home for the ongoing South Texas Stories oral history project, and they learned about primary source literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, and digital literacy. The authors believe that such projects are feasible at all kinds of institutions, even those with largely historically underserved populations.

The SAA Awards Committee commended Cobourn, Brown, Warga, and Louis for “offering practical tools and excellent advice for working with communities to put them on a path to digital literacy.” The Committee found that the case study presents useful approaches to teaching student populations with little or no understanding of digital literacy. As such, it is a “widely applicable outreach approach and a model that others could use in the development of programs to support underserved communities and to help students understand the importance of preserving their digital footprints.”

Established in 1982, the award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and past president as well as a distinguished author. Recent recipients include Eliot Wilczek for “Archival Engagements with Wicked Problems” and Katherine Fisher for “Copyright and Preservation of Born-digital Materials: Persistent Challenges and Selected Strategies.”

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award: Zoe Hume

Zoe Hume, a PhD student in the Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Curation program at Florida State University, is the 2023 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes graduate students of color who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.

Before pursuing her doctorate, Hume received both a bachelor of arts in English and a master of science in information from Florida State University. In addition to her academic achievements, she has held a number of professional roles in which she’s worked to create a more inclusive and comprehensive historical record. As an undergraduate student, she worked in an on-campus archives dedicated to World War II materials. As the Reparative and Inclusive Description Survey Scholar at the University of San Francisco (USF) Gleeson Library | Geschke Center, Hume developed recommendations to bring the library's descriptive practices into alignment with other antiracist initiatives at USF. In another role as a Buchanan Burnham Summer Scholar at the Newport Historical Society, she helped launch a database of enslaved, indentured, and manumitted populations in colonial Rhode Island. She rejoined the Newport Historical Society in 2023 as a Van Buren Research Fellow to work on its BIPOC biographies initiative. Hume hopes in her career "to break down the informational silos among libraries, archives, and museums so that all aspects of memory work and cultural heritage may learn from and teach one another."

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection Advisory Team

The West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection (WVFAC) Advisory Team is the 2023 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). This award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

Inspired to honor the activism by and for women in their home state of West Virginia, Christine Weiss Daugherty, Susan Kelley, Dr. Judith Stitzel, and Carroll Wilkinson formed the WVFAC Advisory Team in 2017. The group initiated the acquisition of important feminist records, including the papers of West Virginia Free, a state-wide reproductive rights organization, and the papers of Lisa Diehl, a West Virginia women's rights advocate. Through their efforts, WVFAC has played a pivotal role in preserving records that tell the story of feminist activism in West Virginia and demonstrating the connection between archives and historical narratives. The team has gone on to raise awareness through public events and virtual presentations demystifying archives and increasing their accessibility to the public. Their events frequently speak to the history of intersectional feminism in the state of West Virginia. As one supporter remarked, the WFAC Advisory team members "have worked to create a more inclusive archival record and educate the public, especially women and activists, to value and preserve their own history."

SAA's J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award was established in 1989. Previous recipients include Brad Pomerance, CJ Eastman, and the Council of Independent Colleges' Humanities Research for the Public Good Program; Tempestt Hazel and The Kitchen Sisters; and Yvonne Lewis Holley and Brad Meltzer.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Hannah Gershone

Hannah Gershone, who will begin pursuing a master of library and information science at Simmons University in the fall, is the 2023 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 (SAA). The $10,000 scholarship provides financial support to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival science, encourages students to pursue careers as archivists, and promotes the diversification of the American archives profession.

Gershone’s scholarly work focuses on social and environmental justice, digital storytelling, and archives. She holds a master of science in environmental studies from the University of Oregon, and she plans to use her knowledge in this area to pursue ways at Simmons University for archival institutions to advocate for robust documentation and preservation of governmental response to climate change. Environmental justice and recordkeeping are particularly important to Gershone because, as she noted in her application essay, “Black, Indigenous, and communities of color are often on the frontlines of climate change, bearing the brunt of environmental oppression.” She applied these interests during her tenure as a 2022 Yale Environmental Fellow, when she developed three interactive maps of environmental justice grantmaking in Latin America from 1999 to 2022 to visualize philanthropic trends. For this project, she interviewed environmental grantmakers on resource “extractivism” and created a StoryMap on Colombian Indigenous-led movements to showcase their experiences. Moving forward, she hopes to continue to create strong community partnerships and digital storytelling projects around environmental justice issues as an outreach archivist or digital curator.

The SAA Awards Committee found Gershone’s work at the intersection of community memory, environmental justice, and ethnic studies commendable and forward-looking. As one supporter noted, “Gershone has been a joy to learn from and mentor on what it takes to develop and manage a digital collection and move into the professional direction of becoming an archives curator who supports postcustodial approaches to building and maintaining memory spaces.”

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Catheryne Popovitch

Catheryne Popovitch, deputy director at the Illinois State Archives, is the 2023 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

During her nine years at the Illinois State Archives, Popovitch’s strong leadership has advanced professional education and resources for other archivists. In the past two years, she managed a federal grant at the State Archives to digitize 40,000 photographs from Eddie Winifred “Doc” Helm, one of the state’s leading African American photographers. She also serves as deputy coordinator for the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board’s (ISHRAB) grant program, which, under her leadership, received the 2020 Council of State Archivists (CoSA)–National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Award of Merit. Each year, the ISHRAB grant program provides grants to small archival institutions in Illinois and gives scholarships to nearly one hundred Illinois archivists.

In addition to her work with ISHRAB and the State Archives, Popovitch is also an active member of CoSA, where she sits on the Board of Directors and is a member of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Committee and the SERI Steering Committee. She serves as co-chair of CoSA’s Education and Training Committee, which provides continuing education to hundreds of archivists nationwide. In 2019, Popovitch served on the program committee for SAA and CoSA’s Joint Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, and received CoSA’s President’s Award for her significant contribution.

As one recommender writes, “In her service to the state of Illinois and CoSA, Popovitch looks for more efficient and innovative ways to complete assignments and projects, promoting the organization’s mission. Her professionalism has earned her the respect of her colleagues and other professionals.” Another adds, “She is an outstanding leader in our profession, and a credit to every project she has been involved in.”

Established in 2011 and renamed in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Mark A. Greene. 

Mosaic Scholarship: Dharani Persaud

Dharani Persaud, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in archival studies and library and information science from the University of British Columbia, is the 2023 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Persaud co-created Ro(u)ted By Our Stories, an oral history archives for Indo-Caribbean women and gender-expansive individuals. Working on this project inspired her to pursue academic training in archives. At the University of British Columbia, Persaud co-leads IDEAS, a student group that aims to provide a safe and productive community for Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC) students on campus. In this role, she plans programming featuring archives and library professionals and creates workshops to assist students with professional development. In addition to her academic and leadership work, Persaud works as an archival catalog and research assistant at the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive at the University of Fraser Valley, where she is assisting in the early stages of creating an LGBTQIA+ collection and an Indo-Caribbean collection. In her work and education, Persaud seeks to make archives more accessible and representative of people who historically have been excluded or marginalized.

One of Persaud's supporters notes that she "possesses an inquiring and sharp intellect, and compassionate interest in social justice and archival silences. She is consistently thoughtful and generous with her knowledge in support of her peers' learning." Another remarked, "Her work is always thorough and thoughtful, demonstrating excellent critical analysis and a deeply ethical orientation."

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Matthew Yang

Matthew Yang, who is pursuing a master of arts degree in moving image archiving and preservation at New York University, is the 2023 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by attending the SAA Annual Meeting

In all his archival work, Yang seeks to find creative solutions and advocate for archives, particularly for audiovisual preservation. He received a bachelor of communication studies in cinema and art history from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. While there, Yang organized talks on audiovisual preservation and film restoration for film students. In 2017, he joined the Asian Film Archive as an archives officer. In that role, Yang managed numerous film restoration projects that premiered at international film festivals, such as Cannes and Rotterdam. He also designed a new canister carrier bag to assist archives employees in transporting film collections between their offices and the vault, which were several blocks apart. Yang's goal after completing his studies is to develop a digital preservation and literacy program in Southeast Asia. Attendance at the 2023 Joint Annual Meeting will enable Yang to connect with international colleagues. Yang wrote in his application, "I hope to use the conference to get feedback and suggestions to improve my ideas to achieve the digital preservation curriculum I envision."

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and past president Oliver Wendell Holmes. Past recipients include Chaeyeon Kim (South Korea), Jiarui Sun (China), Klavier Jie Ying Wang (China), and Tianjiao Qi (China).

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Dr. William Fliss

Dr. William Fliss, curator of the J. R. R. Tolkien manuscript collection at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the 2023 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). This award recognizes an individual, institution, or organization that has increased public awareness of archives documents.

Fliss is being honored for his significant work in improving access to and awareness of the J. R. R. Tolkien manuscript collection housed in Marquette’s Special Collections and University Archives. The collection, which was established in the 1950s and added to in the 1980s, has been very challenging to use for decades, requiring scholars to travel to the institution with limited access to original documents. Beginning in 2013, Fliss digitized the collection and reprocessed the digital surrogates, mapping out how the component pieces fit together. He envisioned and implemented the Anduin^TM system, which allows onsite researchers to digitally view and sort the collection in multifaceted ways while maintaining decades of scholarly citations. In collaboration with the Haggerty Museum of Art and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, Fliss curated the exhibition, J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript, in 2022. The exhibition appeared at the Haggerty Museum, received more than 12,000 visitors, and included fifty Tolkien manuscripts never exhibited before as well as twenty-eight educational programs. With so many attendees, Fliss used the opportunity to record 302 submissions to the J. R. R. Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection, which highlights contemporary views of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. His work with the exhibition also sparked interest in the collection among younger generations as it brought new educational opportunities to campus classes and local K–12 programs.

One supporter praised Fliss’s work as exemplary because of his “impressive and persistent commitment to understand and organize the material, all conducted with careful and responsible concern with its long-term preservation.” Another supporter described Fliss as a visionary archivist who “revitalized a collection that, in many respects, needs no introduction.”

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Russell Gasero

Russell Gasero, archivist for the Reformed Church in America for forty-two years, is the 2023 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

Recently retired, Gasero’s archival career of nearly fifty years has significantly shaped the landscape of religious archives and the Society of American Archivists. A graduate of Hope College and Rutgers University, Gasero began his career at the United Nations Archives, before establishing the Reformed Church in American Archives in 1978. He was among the first class of members in the Academy of Certified Archivists. Within SAA, Russell cofounded and served on the steering committee of the Archivists of Religious Institutions (ARI) group, which set the stage for other regional religious archives groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1991, he presented the new name for the Archivists of Religious Collections Section (ARCS) and was elected vice-chair/chair-elect that same year. More recently, Russell served on the ARCS Models and Resources Committee, which develops guidelines and sample policies relating to the administration of religious collections. Gasero also was instrumental in the founding of SAA’s Lone Arrangers Section in 2003 and served as its chair for several years.

Russell has frequently presented and chaired sessions at SAA’s and ARI’s annual meetings, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, and the American Association for State and Local History, and has embraced the form of video blogging to share resources and guidance for archivists. In addition, he has authored and contributed to several publications, including the chapter “The Story of the Archives of the Reformed Church in America,” in Tools for Understanding: Essays in Honor of Donald J. Bruggink (Reformed Church Press, 2009); the memoir A Historical Footprint: Reflections on a Life in the Archives (Wit & Intellect Publishing LLC, 2021); and Why Do We Have Archives? (Reformed Church Press, 2022).

His supporter noted: “Because of his enduring dedication to archives, his support of archivists of all ages, his advocacy for the profession, and his ongoing commitment to participating in professional endeavors and volunteerism, Gasero truly has exhibited the spirit that we celebrate through the Sister M. Claude Lane, OP Memorial Award.”

Created in 1974, this award 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. Past recipients include Carol W. Smith, archivist for Christ Church Preservation Trust, and Mary Grace Kosta, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada.

Spotlight Award: Emily Pfotenhauer

Emily Pfotenhauer, former digital strategist and grants manager at Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS), is the 2023 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Pfotenhauer has had an enormous influence on the archival community in Wisconsin. She began her career in 2006 working with the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Chipstone Foundation on the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database, which married her love of material culture to digital curation. In 2009, she joined WiLS, where she contributed to several digital cultural heritage projects, including shepherding Wisconsin Heritage Online—now known as Recollection Wisconsin—a project aimed at making Wisconsin’s cultural heritage widely accessible online. Pfotenhauer guided that project until 2023, leading it through several evolutions including a shift in 2016 when it became the state’s pathway to the Digital Public Library of America. As her nominator noted, “Pfotenhauer’s stewardship of Recollection Wisconsin has made it an unmatched national model in terms of organization, governance, and success working across a statewide network of diverse cultural heritage organizations.”

Pfotenhauer’s advocacy extends beyond WiLS into her work with Wisconsin’s Indigenous communities. Beginning with the creation of the Mukurtu Midwest hub in 2017, she has led efforts to support Indigenous communities in their initiatives to digitize and make accessible their cultural heritage materials. Pfotenhauer has also partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Information School to mentor students in responsible contribution to Indigenous digital collections work. Additionally, she spearheaded Curating Community Digital Collections, an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant-funded project to provide library school students with practical experience in digital stewardship. She has often provided opportunities for practicum students from UW–Madison iSchool and supports them as they consider a professional path in archives.

Established in 2015, past recipients of the Spotlight Award include Georgina Tom (‘Iolani School), Lee Price (fundraising professional for cultural institutions), and Michelle Ganz (McDonough Innovation).

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Sony Prosper

Sony Prosper, who is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Michigan School of Information, is the 2023 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes superior writing achievement by a student of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.

Prosper’s paper, “Conceptualizing Records: Black Bottom Archives, Detroit Sound Conservancy, Faulkner Morgan Archive, Hula Preservation Society, and History Project,” explores conceptualizations of archival records in the context of community archives. Prosper provides evidence of how definitions of the record, as understood by community members, can inform ongoing work with those records as well as broader archival practice.

The paper was nominated by Dr. Ricardo Punzalan, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, who noted: “The paper presents new qualitative data that explains how community members conceptualize records and how these conceptualizations inform community archives’ programs and practices. This is an important contribution as the archival field continues to work with community archives and develop community-based programs.”

The Awards Committee found Prosper’s approach to the definition of the archival record illuminating and appreciated Prosper’s engagement with grassroots organizations through interviews. The article speaks to a critical, profession-wide goal of diversifying the archival record and asks readers to engage with intellectually challenging concepts relating to memory, agency, and power.

Prosper’s paper will be published in American Archivist Volume 87, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2024). Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of American Archivist. Recent recipients include Ferris Evans of the University of Toronto and Rachel Walton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: James Lowry

James Lowry, associate professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies and director of the Archival Technologies Lab at Queens College, City University of New York, is the 2023 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for the edited collection Disputed Archival Heritage, published by Routledge in 2022. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

Disputed Archival Heritage is a landmark work useful for scholars and practitioners working within the fraught terrains of archival displacement, dispossession, repatriation, or shared heritage. Highlighting diverse cultures known on the map by geopolitical entities like Suriname or Namibia, as well as archives of places whose memory-keepers resist imposed toponyms, Lowry and nineteen contributors make clear why the physical, linguistic, and cultural placement of archives matters.

With excellent writing that is both readable and inclusive of personal experience, Disputed Archival Heritage is an engrossing book with a compelling set of messages on global archival cultures and the politics of place. One reviewer celebrated how this book “engages with international archival values in the spirit of mitigating harm, caring for collections ethically, and envisioning a new future of access, discovery, preservation, and care that is inclusive and equitable.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president. Past recipients include Jason Lustig for A Time to Gather: Archives and the Control of Jewish Culture, Cheryl Oestreicher for Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts, and Jean-Christophe Cloutier for Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature.

Archival Innovator Award: Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage

Laura Gottlieb, director of Cultural Resources at the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives at Temple Beth El, and Robbie Terman, director of the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, are the 2022 recipients of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their work on the Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. 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.

Gottlieb and Terman, who work at similar institutions with similar histories, collections, and donor bases, realized the benefits of collaboration, and so the pair developed an innovative approach that increased access to their collections while keeping them legally separate. Under the umbrella of the Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage, Gottlieb and Terman have partnered on programs, joined their social media accounts, and, in 2021, combined their digital databases into one catalog of Michigan Jewish history. In Fall 2022, they will be combining into one physical space.

The collaborative model developed by Gottlieb and Terman demonstrates how two determined solo arrangers can navigate the sensitive waters of archival ownership by placing the collections and their impact on history first, while still respecting notions of ownership and stewardship in their respective organizations. The SAA Awards Committee was impressed by their perseverance and commitment to the shared work. In particular, Gottlieb and Terman have shown that innovation is not necessarily synonymous with a broad institutional scope and can succeed on a number of levels.

SAA’s Archival Innovator Award was established in 2012. This year, the Community-Driven Archives at Arizona State University is also a recipient of the Archival Innovator Award.

Archival Innovator Award: Community-Driven Archives Initiative at ASU

The Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative at Arizona State University Library (ASU Library) is a 2022 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

The CDA is the result of a concerted effort to broaden and deepen ASU’s engagement with its communities. The CDA initiative team, consisting of Nancy Godoy (Director of Community-Driven Archives [CDA] Initiative and Associate Archivist, ASU Library), Lorrie McAllister (Associate University Librarian for Collections Services and Analysis, ASU Library), Kenia Menchaca Lozano (Specialist, Community-Driven Archives [CDA] Initiative, ASU Library), Jessica Salow (Assistant Archivist of Black Collections, ASU Library), Alexander Soto (Director of Labriola National American Indian Data Center, ASU Library), and Alana Varner (Project Coordinator, Digital Borderlands Initiative, University of Arizona), is working to center the knowledge of community archivists who can preserve stories that otherwise would not be represented in the archives. The results of this initiative have created additional partnerships with marginalized communities, a greater focus on preserving BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices, and three permanently funded positions in the archives, including an archivist of Black collections. It has also empowered ASU Library’s Labriola National American Indian Data Center to adopt and Indigenize CDA approaches for engagement with Tribal communities.

The CDA initiative team has accelerated meaningful change within ASU Library and continues to contribute to national social justice movements. This has occurred through a documentation strategy that centers historically marginalized communities and cultivates intersectionality in a way that not only enhances and diversifies the historical record, but also encourages members of these communities to create their own stories. The CDA’s impactful work provides a model to other organizations seeking to accomplish similar goals.

SAA’s Archival Innovator Award was established in 2012. This year, Laura Gottlieb and Robbie Terman are also recipients of the Archival Innovator Award for their work on the Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage.

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Polly Peralta

Polly Peralta, who has just completed a nine-month internship at the Museum of Pop Culture, is the 2022 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, which recognizes individuals of color who are employed in archives and who manifest an interest in becoming active members of SAA, provides assistance to attend the 2022 SAA Annual Meeting, held virtually and in-person in Boston on August 25–27. 

Peralta holds a master of science in library and information science from San Jose State University and a bachelor of arts in music from San Francisco State University. She earned a certificate of advanced studies in archives and records administration from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 2021. Since her graduate studies, Peralta has been a digital projects manager at the V.E. Petrucci Library at California State University and an adjunct librarian at Clovis Community College. She has presented and written about viticulture and “grey literature collections,”—literature produced outside of traditional publishing and distribution channels—including a co-authored article in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Information.

In her personal statement, Peralta noted the importance of cultural representation in history and archives, saying it “helps us feel connected and not alone despite what other voices may say. ”At this year’s conference, Peralta will attend sessions and engage with colleagues on topics ranging from digital collections to cataloging. Peralta’s professional goals are to better serve researchers through inclusive descriptive practices and collection-building with communities that have been excluded from the broader historical record.

Created in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Brenda S. Banks, who co-founded the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Section. Past recipients include Shelly Black (Cyma Rubin Library Fellow at North Carolina State University), Victor Betts (North Carolina State University's Special Collections Research Center), and Tracy Drake (Chicago Public Library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Center).

C.F.W. Coker Award: "In Her Own Right" Project

The “In Her Own Right” project, conducted by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries, Inc. (PACSCL), is the 2022 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The 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.

The “In Her Own Right” project, completed in 2021, involved twenty-four partner institutions digitizing and describing manuscript and print materials from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries leading up to the ratification of national women’s suffrage in 1920. The project included creating minimum metadata guidelines to support discovery while accommodating individual repositories’ systems and local practices. The metadata is set up so that if one institution contributes expanded metadata, other institutions may reuse or draw upon metadata for their contributions. Metadata can also be used through an API endpoint and via the Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The “In Her Own Right” website hosting this metadata includes digitized primary sources, contextualizing essays, and digital exhibits about the history of women working for their and others’ rights leading up to suffrage in Philadelphia and beyond, and resources for K–12 students and teachers, including primary source sets. In addition to topically uniting a range of archival materials from disparate institutions, the project engaged more than 100 volunteers at metadata enhancement events.

This project is a notable example of innovative development in archival description. The website allows users to explore and learn about archival sources from several repositories, which was particularly beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic when on-site access was limited. The project also serves as a model for other consortial projects wanting to develop metadata minimums that still allow for richer metadata when an institution has the resources to provide it.

Partner institutions involved in the “In Her Own Right” project include the African American Museum in Philadelphia; Alice Paul Institute; The Athenaeum of Philadelphia; Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Bryn Mawr College; Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Chester County Archives and Record Services; Chester County History Center; College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center; German Society of Pennsylvania; Germantown Historical Society; Haverford College; Heritage Center of the Union League of Philadelphia; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Library Company of Philadelphia; Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; National Archives at Philadelphia; Presbyterian Historical Society; Swarthmore College Friends Historical Library; Swarthmore College Peace Collection; Temple University Libraries; United Lutheran Seminary; and the University of Delaware.

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Barbara Teague

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

BARBARA TEAGUE

 

WHEREAS Barbara Teague retired as Executive Director of the Council of State Archivists in June 2022 after four years of stewarding CoSA and working to bring SAA and CoSA together on issues of mutual concern; and

WHEREAS she retired as Kentucky State Archivist and Records Administrator in 2015 after serving the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and the people of Kentucky for 32 years; and

WHEREAS she has been an active member of the archives profession for almost 40 years serving on numerous SAA and CoSA committees, working groups, boards, and initiatives; and

WHEREAS she has been a tireless advocate for archives including testifying before Congress in 2010 in support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, championing the 2018 “Archives on the Hill” effort that empowered 70 archivists from around the US to engage in advocacy with members of the US Senate and House, and supporting the never-ending effort to increase federal funding for archives; and

WHEREAS she has been the most gracious of colleagues, offering up her time, knowledge, and experience in support of archival professionals across the country;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Barbara Teague be honored with a 2022 Council Exemplary Service Award for being a dedicated and passionate archivist who has committed herself to our profession and advocated for government archives and records and the researchers who make use of them.

 

Present August 27, 2022.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Bryan Whitledge

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

BRYAN WHITLEDGE

 

WHEREAS Bryan Whitledge has served SAA as a member and now Chair of the Committee on Public Policy from 2018–2022; and

WHEREAS Bryan also serves as an ex-officio member of the Committee on Public Awareness; and

WHEREAS Bryan also serves as a member of the CoSA/NAGARA/RAAC/SAA Joint Working Group on Issues and Awareness; and

WHEREAS Bryan also serves SAA and its members as a liaison to the Policy Board of the National Coalition for History; and

WHEREAS Bryan actively encourages advocacy for archives and archivists through organized events such as National Humanities Advocacy Day; and

WHEREAS Bryan actively seeks out opportunities to raise SAA’s profile as an expert and essential organization to comment on national policy issues that impact archives and archivists; and

WHEREAS Bryan tirelessly educates SAA elected leadership on the nuances of advocating to elected officials, government agencies, and the public;

NOW, THEREFORE IT BE RESOLVED that Bryan Whitledge be honored with a 2022 Council Exemplary Service Award for his long-standing and passionate commitment to advocating for a better world for archives, archivists, and the public.

 

Present August 27, 2022.

Council Exemplary Service Award: The Intellectual Property Working Group

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WORKING GROUP

 

WHEREAS the Intellectual Property Working Group (IPWG) represents SAA on key litigation and resolutions related to intellectual property and copyright, as well as responding in a timely fashion to requests from SAA Council for background information and recommendations on these specific matters; and

WHEREAS they track intellectual property issues and news that could impact the archives profession and SAA membership. By staying informed, they provide expert advice and draft issue briefs and policy positions for SAA Council approval on possible papers, statements, and other documents relating to intellectual property; and

WHEREAS they bring to the attention of SAA Council the possible areas of fruitful collaboration with other organizations that are interested in intellectual property and, under SAA Council direction or with its approval, cooperate with such organizations to further SAA’s interests; and

WHEREAS members of IPWG regularly represent SAA at the World Intellectual Property Organization meetings, educating global policymakers about the vital role of archives and the need for special copyright exceptions for librarians and archives, ensuring that the profession’s perspectives are heard; and

WHEREAS the Intellectual Property Working Group has promoted intellectual property education among archivists; members of IPWG have in their individual capacity taught SAA workshops, authored SAA-published books, and assembled regularly to provide interesting panels and discussion at SAA Annual Meetings;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Intellectual Property Working Group be honored with a 2022 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their outstanding contributions and representation to the Society’s involvement with intellectual property matters.

 

Present August 27, 2022.

Council Resolution: Career Development Subcommittee of the SAA Membership Committee

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution
Honoring

CAREER DEVELOPMENT SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

SAA MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

 

WHEREAS the Career Development Subcommittee of the SAA Membership Committee under the stewardship of Maggie Hoffman, Jenifer Monger, Brittany Newberry, and Samuel Alexander have created and maintained the SAA Career Services Commons; and

WHEREAS this group drafted and implemented a permanent online career portal for SAA members. Throughout the planning process for the 2020 Career Center, subcommittee members discussed whether the online Career Center might pave the way for a permanent resource for SAA members. Surveys sent to participants at the close of the 2020 Annual Meeting confirmed the subcommittee’s belief that a permanent, online version of the SAA Career Center would be a valuable resource for SAA’s membership; and

WHEREAS the SAA Commons offers the same services traditionally offered in person at the SAA Career Center but online throughout the year. Participants can choose from Career Advising sessions, Mock Interviews, or Resume Review sessions; and

WHEREAS rather than relying on the volunteer model used at the SAA Career Center, subcommittee members solicited a call for SAA Career Counselors who would commit to offering three hours per month for a one-year period;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Career Development Subcommittee of the SAA Membership Committee be honored with a 2022 SAA Council Resolution for their effort in developing and sustaining the SAA Career Services Commons.

 

Presented August 27, 2022.

Council Resolution: Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution
Honoring

SAVING UKRAINIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE ONLINE

 

WHEREAS the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online initiative was established in March 2022 by founders Quinn Dombrowski, Sebastian Majstorovic, and Anna Kijas, drawing together a global team of over 1,000 volunteer archivists, librarians, digital humanists, IT professionals, and others in partnership with Internet Archive, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, and the University of Alberta to rapidly archive Ukrainian cultural heritage on the internet during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and

WHEREAS this group self-assembled into a nimble yet skilled and robust team of experts in using web crawlers, curating metadata, conducting quality control, and leading outreach efforts; and

WHEREAS since the launch of this initiative, more than 5,000 websites and 50TB of data have been archived from Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions with the goal of digital repatriation after the war; and

WHEREAS this group established partnerships with the NFDI4Culture, National Library of Sweden, Society of Archives and Records Management in Sweden, and many more organizations to fund and supply digitization equipment directly to Ukrainian institutions; and

WHEREAS their work is exemplar of rapid disaster response archival action during the invasion of a sovereign country by an aggressor;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online be honored with a 2022 SAA Council Resolution for their decisive and dedicated effort in saving the online cultural heritage of Ukraine.

 

Presented August 27, 2022.

Council Resolution: The Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution
Honoring

THE COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH, DATA, AND ASSESSMENT

 

WHEREAS the Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment was established in 2019 and principally charged to “provide access to significant and useful data and research about SAA, American archives, and their users that evidence the value of archives for society and help us improve our services to SAA members and to our consumers;” and

WHEREAS the Committee has published the Facts + Figure microsite which provides a conduit to data, resources, and tools to support archival advocacy efforts, assessment of archival impact, and research and innovation in the Society and archival profession; and

WHEREAS, in 2021, the Committee developed and launched the SAA Dataverse Repository for data created by the SAA community and allied organizations and individuals, in support of the “reuse of datasets for purposes of fostering knowledge, insights, and a deeper understanding of archival organizations, the status of archivists, and the impact of archives and archival work on the broader society;” and

WHEREAS the Committee has developed educational and outreach offerings and established collaborative relationships and initiatives to build and ensure sustainability of data, research, and assessment in the Society and archival profession; and

WHEREAS, in 2022, the Committee will embark on incorporating and managing the SAA Research Forum, that just celebrated its 16^th year; and

WHEREAS the Committee, in support of Goal 3: Advancing the Field in the SAA Strategic Plan, has embarked upon producing a Research and Innovation Roadmap that will frame and inform future archival research, work, and scholarship;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment be honored with a 2022 SAA Council Resolution for their work to advance research, innovation, data, and assessment in the Society.

 

Presented August 27, 2022.

Council Resolution: The Native American Archives Section

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution
Honoring

THE NATIVE AMERICAN ARCHIVES SECTION

 

WHEREAS the Native American Archives section “serves as a forum to educate archivists on the complexities and beauty of Native American archives of the Western Hemisphere and as a source of communication and inspiration for archivists working with Native American collections;” and

WHEREAS this section was formed by member petition and approved by a unanimous vote of the Council on August 13, 2005; and

WHEREAS they work to keep their membership and the wider archives community informed of news, standards, resources, and issues related to Native American archives, archivists, and collections; and

WHEREAS in 2020 the section granted five scholarships to Native American and tribal archivists which provided both a one-year membership to SAA and registration at the 2020 Annual Meeting; and

WHEREAS in 2021 the steering committee (Diana Marsh, Selena Ortega-Chiolero, Rose Buchanan, Brian Carpenter, Samantha Meier, Rachel Menyuk, Lotus Norton-Wisla, Katherine Satriano, and Nathan Sowry) and volunteers (Vina Begay, Eric Hung, Liza Posas, Jonathan Pringle, Melissa Stoner) submitted extensive and thoughtful comments and feedback on the draft of the SAA Work Plan on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility; and

WHEREAS they recommended to Council the creation of an Archival Repatriation Committee charged with ensuring "that the organization’s services, activities, policies, communications, and products support archivists in repatriating and receiving archival materials,” which was approved by a unanimous vote of the Council on May 18, 2022;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Native American Archives Section be honored with a 2022 SAA Council Resolution for their work toward advocating for and supporting archivists working with Native American collections. 

 

Presented August 27, 2022.

Distinguished Service Award: ChromaDiverse, Inc.

ChromaDiverse, Inc., is the 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

ChromaDiverse is a nonprofit that offers software as a service to help performing arts organizations preserve, protect, and monetize their archival materials, including photos, videos, films, documents, press, posters, music, and playbills. Through their Smart Capture program, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), meta-data can be accurately harvested from printed performance programs—a task that is notoriously time-and labor-intensive. The data can then populate their Digital Vault, another offering by ChromaDiverse, making access to information seamless and powerful.

ChromaDiverse is singularly pioneering this technology, making it faster, better, and less expensive for all dance companies to create a living archive.

The SAA Awards Committee was impressed by ChromaDiverse’s outstanding service to the performance arts community by providing cost-effective solutions. The Company’s dedication to diversity protects multicultural arts groups from social and artistic erasure.

As Imogen Smith, director of Archiving and Preservation at Dance/USA, writes in her letter of support, “ChromaDiverse deserves recognition for their innovative approach to assisting dance and cultural organizations with preserving, organizing, and accessing their digital archives, and for their commitment to increasing equity by lowering barriers for access to archiving services and resources.”

ChromaDiverse’s cofounder and CEO, Judy Tyrus, received SAA’s 2021 Diversity Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. In 2022, she was appointed to serve on SAA’s Diversity Committee.

SAA’s Distinguished Service Award was established in 1964. Previous recipients include the Knox County Archives; Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida; the New England Archivists Mentoring Program; and the Council of State Archivists.

Diversity Award: Julie Varee

Julie Varee, the community outreach archivist at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, is the 2022 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

With more than thirty years of experience working with Alaskan community members, Varee brings a wealth of knowledge to her archival work. Varee has taken on a leadership role in the Anchorage Museum's diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) and anti-racism training programs. She spearheaded the creation of the new Black Lives in Alaska exhibition, which showcases the richness and resilience of Black lives in Alaska through archival photos and collected materials. In the past year, she has developed and supported programs with Filipino, LBGTQ+, Pacific Islander, and refugee/immigrant communities. She has also advocated for the inclusion of and emphasis on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) voices and stories within the archives, in exhibits, and on the museum’s social media. Having recognized the need to address the lack of diversity in the museum’s patrons, Varee undertook an assessment and analysis to improve visitor experiences. She acknowledged the need to create a space that can be used by everyone, not just academic researchers.

Varee also developed and promoted relationships with HistoryMakers, which collects oral histories of African American individuals from all fifty states. The Anchorage Museum became the first institution to acquire the physical archives of each of the eighteen Alaskan HistoryMakers. As noted by one of her nominators, “Julie is committed to surfacing, preserving, and highlighting stories that have too often been overlooked or marginalized. Her continued commitment to exploring a more robust, rich, and complicated history of who we are as a people, as a country, and as Alaskans is commendable and necessary work.”

The Diversity Award was established in 2011. Previous recipients include Judy Tyrus, SAA Fellow Rebecca Hankins, and the Puerto Rico Citizenship Archives Project.

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Katherine Schlesinger

Katherine Schlesinger, who is pursuing a master’s in library and information science at the University of Arizona, is the 2022 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee or section.

Schlesinger previously worked as a translator for human rights organizations in Latin America, where she heard stories of victims of violent regimes. This work inspired the focus of her studies on trauma-related archival labor with the intention of bringing awareness through advocacy and research to the importance of recognizing emotional responses in archival work. Schlesinger has also examined archival trauma beyond the range of traditional “sensitive collections,” considering how collecting records from the COVID-19 pandemic presents potential risks of trauma to archivists, donors, and survivors.

One supporter writes: “Her contributions reveal an ability to examine issues with the potential for long-term impacts in our field of practice and in a larger social context.” At the 2022 SAA Annual Meeting, Schlesinger will be a co-participant in the session “Learning to Count and Code: Quantitative and Qualitative Research Needs for Archival Practitioners,” where she will present preliminary findings from her graduate independent research project, “Trauma-Informed Archival Labor and MLIS Curricula.”

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award was established in 2005 and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson. Past recipients include Sidney Loui (University of Hawai’i at Manoa), Jeanie Pai (Queens College), and Alexis Recto (University of California, Los Angeles).

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Sarah Shepherd

Sarah Shepherd, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in archives management and history at Simmons University in Boston, is the 2022 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 their graduate program in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessment of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession.

In her application essay, “Building Partnerships and Reckoning with Historic Oppression: The Radical Potential of a Small Rural Archives,” Shepherd discusses her time working at the Greenbrier Historical Society in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The historical society manages the North House Museum, as well as a small archives, but both museum and archives privileged the history of wealthy white men. During Shepherd’s tenure, she made the archives more searchable and vastly increased the number of Black voices in the different collections, telling a more complex story about the area’s history. She built relationships with local Black communities, engaging them in building collections, programs, and exhibitions, and making space for them to tell their stories. In her essay, she also examines her white privilege and initial reluctance to talk about race and her culpability in racial oppression. She argues that white archivists must find the strength to address and take responsibility for all our history.

In addition to her work with the Greenbrier Historical Society, Shepherd’s faculty nominator noted that she is an outstanding student. Her goal is to become a reference archivist and continue to utilize her leadership to build trust and partnerships with historically underserved populations by “pursuing change one interaction at a time.”

This scholarship was created in 1998 by SAA Fellow, past president, and longtime member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie.

Fellow: Dr. Emilie Gagnet Leumas

Dr. Emilie Gagnet Leumas, archives/records management consultant with EGL Consultants, LLC and adjunct instructor at Louisiana State University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

An influential leader in religious archives, disaster preparedness, and the international archival community, Gagnet Leumas earned a doctorate in French studies from Louisiana State University and began her archival career as an assistant archivist and researcher at the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After three years, she was promoted to archivist and began managing the overall archives program and establishing a records management program, including setting up an electronic document management system. In 2007, Gagnet Leumas became director of archives and records at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, where she built a best-in-class archives and records program, coordinated a major move to a new archives facility, and curated six significant exhibits before retiring in 2021 to consult and teach. Currently, Gagnet Leumas consults with smaller Catholic dioceses and nonprofit organizations, helping them establish and improve their records management and archives programs.

Gagnet Leumas has also shared her expertise through many publications and professional service. She has written extensively on managing religious archives, archival preservation in disaster situations, and Louisiana French culture, among other topics. She coauthored the essential text Managing Diocesan Archives and Records: A Guide for Bishops, Chancellors and Archivists. Within SAA, Gagnet Leumas has been an active participant and leader in several SAA component groups, including the Records Management Section, International Archival Affairs Section, Preservation Section, Women Archivists Section, the Awards Committee, and the Host Committee for the SAA Annual Meeting in New Orleans in 2013. She currently serves as chair of the International Council on Archives’ (ICA) Section on Faith Traditions, and as chair ICA’s Expert Group on Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness.

In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction in New Orleans, Gagnet Leumas stepped up to gather the necessary resources and volunteers, working diligently to help the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other archival institutions in the city respond and recover. She quickly became an expert in the field of disaster recovery, and in 2006 SAA recognized her outstanding work during Katrina recovery efforts with the Spotlight Award.

One of Gagnet Leumas’s supporters writes, “Emilie continues to provide a fount of knowledge and a whirlwind of support for archivists across the Louisiana region and beyond.” Another supporter notes that, in regards to her contributions to the Katrina recovery, “it is without question that her ability to garner resources, her managerial skills, her professionalism, and her love of New Orleans saved much of New Orleans’s historical primary sources.” In speaking of Gagnet Leumas’s role in the archives profession, one recommender writes: “She is a powerful advocate for, and example of, the strengths and achievements of the American profession in general (and of SAA in particular) in the international archives and records management field.”

Gagnet Leumas is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Edward “Ted” Ryan

Edward “Ted” Ryan, archives and heritage brand manager for the Ford Motor Company, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

An innovative and resourceful thinker, Ryan earned his bachelor’s from Emory University and did extensive archival and historical classwork towards a master’s degree at Georgia State University before beginning his career at the Atlanta History Center. As manager of special projects, Ryan proposed a public/nonprofit collaboration between WPBA and the Atlanta History Center, resulting in the Emmy award-winning documentary Southern Bases. From there, Ryan established the Atlanta Braves Museum at Turner Field, curated the Bobby Jones Golf Collection, and created the Atlanta History Center’s first website. In 1997, Ryan began a twenty-one-year career with The Coca-Cola Company, culminating in his appointment as the archives director. There, he continued to pursue outside-the-box solutions and collaborations. He spearheaded efforts to donate the company’s body of advertising materials—consisting of more than 25,000 historical ads—to the Library of Congress. This program was so successful that he expanded it to the United Kingdom to donate materials to the British Film Institute. Ryan also launched a large art installation in 2015 at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta entitled “The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100,” as well as established two traveling exhibits which toured more than fifteen countries and were visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors. After twenty-one years with The Coca-Cola Company, Ryan became the archives and heritage brand manager for the Ford Motor Company, where he continues to use his resourceful thinking to position Ford’s heritage in modern and engaging ways.

As a corporate archivist, Ryan has contributed extensively to the archives profession through writing, leadership, and advocacy for business archives. He has written numerous articles for scholarly publications such as Provenance, the Journal of Digital Asset Management, and Business Archives: An International Comparison, as well as presented widely at events like the SAA Annual Meeting, the SAA Business Archives Section Colloquium, and the International Council on Archives Section for Business Archives meeting. In 2019, Ryan became the only archivist on the Darden Leadership Communication Council at the University of Virginia. He has served as a media liaison for The Coca-Cola Company and the Ford Motor Company, where he was the inspiration for the archivist character in the mockumentary John Bronco.

As a member of SAA since the early 1990s, Ryan has also helped to shape the Society and its members. He has attended nearly every SAA Annual Meeting since 1998, where he’s given a number of well-received presentations. He has chaired the Business Archives Section while simultaneously serving the larger SAA community as the liaison to the Association for Intelligent Information Management from 2005 to 2006. He began mentoring with SAA in 2017 and has worked with four mentees to date. One of his mentees writes how “Ryan helped me regain my confidence . . . to promote my team, my collection, and myself in this new world.” 

Of Ryan, former archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero writes, “His research, writing, teaching, and speaking demonstrate his commitment to the profession—sharing his experience and expertise in the development of the next generation of corporate archivists. And Ryan’s media ‘performances’ shed new light on the role of archivists to the general public.” In reference to his dedication to SAA, another recommender adds, “Ryan’s work demonstrates not only commitment but also passion for the work of SAA. His stewardship, teaching, and celebration of corporate archives are unsurpassed and have served as a model for those coming into the profession, especially those in corporate archives and libraries.”

Ryan is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Elizabeth Myers

Elizabeth “Beth” Myers, director of Special Collections at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

A dedicated archival advocate, collaborator, and mentor, Myers has held expanding leadership roles throughout her career. After earning an MA and PhD in United States history from Loyola University, Chicago, Myers became the director of the university’s Women and Leadership Archives in 2006. She provided archival services, oversaw graduate assistants and volunteers, and made significant technological improvements to the archives. In 2012, Myers moved to the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University, where she directed a staff of eighteen, oversaw the administrative integration of the archives into the libraries, and raised $140,000 through grants and gifts. In 2014, Myers became director of Special Collections at Smith College. She oversaw the merger of three special collections repositories, and individually and as part of a team raised more than $4 million to support operations, including a three-year Access to Collections project to make special collections materials more accessible.

In addition, Myers has a long history of mentorship and advocacy for her colleagues. For six years she served on the Archives Leadership Institute Steering Committee, where she mentored hundreds of participants with her unique combination of intelligence and humor. A sought-after presenter and educator, Myers has given dozens of presentations on archival management, collection development, women’s archival collections, and equitable hiring practices and compensation in the profession. Her talks demonstrate the depth of her thinking about archives and push archivists to take steps to make more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces.

Within SAA, Myers chairs the working group for A*CENSUS II, a critical and nationwide survey, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services that will establish a baseline of information about archivists’ demographics, education, and professional development needs. The survey will inform decision making in the profession for years to come. In addition, Myers serves on the Board of the SAA Foundation, which provides funding to enhance the work of the archival profession, and works with the Development Committee to create new avenues of support for the Foundation. She previously served on the Steering Committee for the Women Archivists Roundtable and is a contributor the book Perspectives on Women’s Archives, edited by Tanya Zanish-Belcher and Anke Voss (SAA, 2013).

One of Myers’s supporters writes: “Her leadership of collections that focus on historically under-documented groups speaks to her commitment to social justice, as well as a rigorous dedication to the quality, depth, and variety of historical materials available, and a respect for the construction of a multidimensional and inclusive community memory.” Another adds: “Her contributions to our profession show initiative, resourcefulness, and commitment, and this is because she is a leader in our profession—a person who takes care of others and of the larger world.” 

Myers is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Kathryn M. Neal

Kathryn M. Neal, associate university archivist for The Bancroft Library at University of California (UC), Berkeley, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

An advocate for diversity and inclusion in archival work, Neal has held archival positions primarily at universities. She received BA from Carleton College, a master of information and library studies from the University of Michigan, and an MA in journalism from the University of Minnesota. In 1995, Neal became the assistant archivist at the University of Iowa. There, she directed the African American Women in Iowa Project in the Iowa Women’s Archives, collecting the personal papers and organizational records of African American women with connections to Iowa. She then became the curator for the Givens Collection of African American Literature, based in Special Collections and Rare Books at the University of Minnesota, where she once more ensured a richer, more inclusive historical record by collecting and publicizing rare materials related to African American literary culture. Neal then moved to California for a position at San Diego State University. In 2005, she assumed her current role at UC Berkeley, where she has collected institutional records and faculty papers, assisted a broad spectrum of researchers, and co-curated several educational exhibitions.

In 1996, Neal wrote one of the first contemporary articles on diversity in archives, ”The Importance of Being Diverse: The Archival Profession and Minority Recruitment,” for the journal Archival Issues. The essay earned her the New Authors Award from the Midwest Archives Conference in 1999. Her scholarship not only elevates diversity but also demonstrates how to do the work of expanding documentation of underrepresented groups. She continued her advocacy for diverse representation when she co-edited with Mary Caldera the influential book Through the Looking Glass: A Reader on Diversity and Inclusion (SAA, 2014). The book was the 2017–2018 selection for SAA’s One Book, One Profession reading initiative and remains critical to conversations on diversifying the historical record, bringing archives to diverse communities, and supporting potential users. As one critic notes, “This seminal publication is still vitally important, and its impact will be seen long into the future.”

The first recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student Award in 1994, Neal has taken on responsibilities in a variety of component groups and committees within SAA, including chairing the Appointments Committee, Archivists and Archives of Color Section, Manuscript Repositories Section, Nominating and Brenda S. Banks Travel Award Committees; editing the Archivists and Archives of Color Section newsletter; and serving on Annual Meeting Program Committees. She served on the SAA Council from 2003 to 2006 and on the Editorial Board for American Archivist. Of their time together on the Council, one supporter writes, “Her contributions to the archival profession both inside and outside of SAA are extremely powerful, profound, and impact the Society to the current day.” Another recommender adds, “She not only is an expert in archival theory and practice but is also deeply aware of the societal and professional trends that impact our work.” Her co-editor Mary Caldera writes of working with Neal on Through the Looking Glass, “Neal was a wonderful collaborator. She worked to understand the vision for the publication and guide authors to better articulate their arguments.”

Neal is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin

L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, manuscripts librarian and curator of the Joseph R. Biden, Jr., senatorial papers at the University of Delaware, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

An insightful educator, advocate for archival employees, and leader in the realm of congressional papers, Johnson Melvin’s work has crossed many boundaries, from archives to political science to library management. After completing a master of information and library studies from the University of Michigan, she began working in Special Collections at the University of Delaware, where she has held a variety of roles. For more than two decades, she has curated many exhibits, written widely on subjects within archives, and presented about archives multiple times a year. She was also co-editor with Karen D. Paul and Glenn R. Gray of An American Political Archives Reader, which received the SAA Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2010.

Johnson Melvin’s continual mentorship and instruction has supported many members of the archival community and archives users. Johnson Melvin has made between six and nineteen visits to University of Delaware classes every year since 2006 and has taught on topics ranging from conservation in photographic works to gender studies to environmental politics. Her instruction is not limited to college students—she has also visited elementary and middle school classrooms to teach on primary sources and engage younger students with archives.

Her leadership is particularly evident in her work to elevate women’s history and role in archives. One notable effort was her recent collaboration with University of Delaware historian Anne Boylan to develop “Votes for Delaware Women,” an extensive online exploration of suffrage in the state. This collaboration earned Johnson Melvin and Boylan the prestigious Leab Exhibition Award from the American Libraries Association’s Rare Books and Manuscript Section in 2021. Within SAA, Johnson Melvin was selected as one of ten leaders to plan and moderate “Women’s Archives: What Does the Future Hold?”, which took place just prior to and in conjunction with the 2013 SAA Annual Meeting and for which she advocated for financial support to increase accessibility to the event. Additionally, she has been active in local historical and genealogical societies, serving as president of the Association of American University Women, Newark Branch, from 2008 to 2010.

Johnson Melvin has been an influential leader in SAA’s Congressional Papers Section. She has also been active in the Description Section, Manuscript Repositories Section, and Women’s Collections Section, serving on steering committees for all these groups. She designed SAA’s continuing education course “Managing Literary Manuscripts: Identification, Description, Preservation” in collaboration with Sue Hamburger. They taught the course in New Orleans, Texas A&M, and New York Public Library. When Johnson Melvin could not attend the course at the University of Utah, she provided extensive notes of best practices for keeping attendees engaged and learning.

In addition, after noticing the proliferation of temporary appointments for archivists in recent years, Johnson Melvin worked with fellow SAA members Sheridan Sayles and Amy Vo to design and conduct two comparative surveys: one for employees and one for employers of archival project positions. The team reported on their findings during the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) and SAA’s Research Forum in 2019. Johnson Melvin has persisted in her research past this initial survey, continuing to advocate for archivists in the workplace.

One of her supporters says, “At both the individual and collective levels, Johnson Melvin’s work has always been creative, generous, genuine, and humble.” Of Johnson Melvin’s expertise in congressional papers, one of her recommenders writes: “She has successfully expanded the universe of research use of congressional collections through outreach. It is not an exaggeration to say that, before her involvement, this was a community with little use for these wonderful and significant materials.” Another adds: “Johnson Melvin’s expertise is so highly regarded that most institutions that initiate a congressional papers collecting program typically begin the process by consulting her for advice and guidance.”

Johnson Melvin is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Steven De’Juan Booth

Steven De’Juan Booth, archivist for the Johnson Publishing Company Archive, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Booth’s varied archival career reflects his ongoing engagement of the public with archives, celebration of Black cultural heritage and community archives, and care for archivists and records creators. While earning his MS at Simmons College, he became a project archivist with the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in Boston, where he processed the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers. In 2009, Booth began working in the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) Presidential Materials Division, where he processed the vice-presidential records of Al Gore and Dick Cheney, assisted with the mandatory declassification review of the Harry S. Truman presidential records, and created and served as the lead content editor for Archives.gov vice presidential records webpage. In 2017, he joined the archival staff of the Barack Obama Presidential Library, where he established and managed the archival program for the Obama audiovisual collection, which consists of 3.2 million born-digital photographs and more than 650 cubic feet of analog and digital video and audio recordings. Booth actively engaged the public with archives by contributing content to NARA blogs and social media and serving on the Library’s Electronic Records Working Group, Social Media Committee, and the Continuity of Operations Program team. In 2021, Booth became archivist/project manager for the Johnson Publishing Company Archive at the Getty Research Institute, where he oversees the archives of the publishing company, which published the popular magazines Ebony and Jet, as well as created the television show Ebony/Jet Showcase.

In addition, Booth is a cofounder and organizer of Blackivists, a collective of Black archivists who prioritize the preservation of Black cultural heritage in the Chicagoland area. He has presented widely on topics of importance to community-based archives for both archivists and the public. In 2020, in response to protests against police brutality and systemic racism, as well as documentation efforts around the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blackivists published “Five Tips for Organizers, Protestors, and Anyone Documenting Movements” and “Five Tips for Donating Your Materials,” with recommendations that prioritize the safety and agency of the people and communities involved.

An influential member of SAA, Booth has served on the SAA Council (2017-2020) as well as the Black Lives Matter Forum Planning Committee, the Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Review Committee, Appointments Committee, Nominating Committee, and Awards Committee, and in the Mentoring Program. In all these roles, he has shaped how the organization welcomes new members; advances diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and responds holistically to archivists’ needs. His contributions to the development and operation of the Archival Workers Emergency Fund (AWEF) provided support to 188 archival workers experiencing acute financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Booth was acknowledged for his work both with AWEF and The Blackivists in two Council Resolutions in 2020.

One of his supporters writes that Booth “recognizes the powerful role that those who capture and preserve the history of communities that often go unnoticed can play. He equally challenges and inspires his colleagues to learn, collaborate, and excel in this noble mission.” In discussing the founding of Blackivists, one recommender remarks, “Booth demonstrates his ongoing commitment to an inclusive future for archives, archivists, and the people who benefit from them. In this and so much of his work, Booth has done so without a desire for the spotlight, quietly and persistently pursuing justice, equity, and transparency.”

Booth is one of six new Fellows named in 2022. There are currently 195 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award: Eliot Wilczek

Eliot Wilczek, records and knowledge management engineer, is the 2022 recipient of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist.

Wilczek is being honored for “Archival Engagements with Wicked Problems,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2021 issue of American Archivist (vol. 84, no. 2). His article confronts the idea of “wicked problems” and examines the role of archives in them. Although the notion of wicked problems is not new, even in the archival profession, this article inspires broad thinking about the wicked problems archivists face as we engage with societal challenges. Documenting policing of underserved communities, refugees, child welfare, and climate change are just a few of the ideas the author explores while examining community engagement, records and recordkeeping systems, and archival theory and practice in the framework of wicked problems. Although archivists’ efforts are often modest, the author encourages archivists to "persistently strive to make the archival profession and surrounding communities better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today."

Established in 1982, the award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president as well as a distinguished author.

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award: Erin Castillo

Erin Castillo, a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University (SJSU), is the 2022 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes BIPOC graduate students who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.

Castillo’s passion for documenting and preserving the histories of communities of color starts with her own family and a personal archival project called La Casa de los Abuelos (Our Grandparent’s House). La Casa de los Abuelos documents her family narrative of immigration to the United States and their roots in El Colomo, Mexico. Castillo notes that her interest in archives began with visits to her grandparents in El Colomo where she would find family relics and ask her aunts about their origins. Castillo writes: “With every visit to El Colomo, my love, admiration, and gratitude for my family and our humble origins grew.”

Castillo’s goal as an archivist is to expand La Casa de los Abuelos into a multigenerational library program and resource center for communities of color. She hopes to create a dedicated community archives where patrons can build, digitize, and maintain their family archives. One supporter commented on Castillo’s “passion and dedication to learn about archives.” Castillo says: “I hope to inspire communities of color to dive deeper into archives and feel love, admiration, and gratitude for their own histories.”

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Elias Larralde

Elias Larralde is the 2022 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 (SAA). The $10,000 scholarship provides financial support to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival science, encourages students to pursue careers as archivists, and promotes the diversification of the American archives profession.

Larralde is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science with a certificate in archival studies at the University of Arizona, where he works as a student archivist at the university’s Center for Creative Photography. He received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University (FSU). He previously interned at FSU’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Missouri Botanical Garden. In both internships, he worked with collections in curatorial roles, as well as explored how the greater public engages with archival materials. He also worked on FSU’s LGBT Oral History Project of North Florida (OHP), for which he developed contacts with and interviewed drag performers.

Larralde is passionate about increasing diverse and respectful representation of different communities and using metadata to ensure many entry points to an archives. His continued work with oral history participants after the end of his time at OHP demonstrates dedication to and an appreciation for his contributors. As one of his recommenders wrote, “To put his work in context, most students struggled to recruit the minimum number of oral history narrator-volunteers during a season of COVID-19 and contentious national politics. Elias excelled in recruiting more than the minimum, developing a social network among drag performers from the region who were interested in OHP, and fostering the enthusiastic participation of these performers.” The SAA Awards Committee was especially impressed by Larralde’s commitment to go above and beyond and look forward to future contributions.

The Josephine Forman Scholarship was established in 2010 and is named for Josephine Forman, who served as archivist for eighteen years at the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Sara Davis

Sara Davis, state archivist at Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne, is the 2022 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

Since her initial position as an archives intern at the Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site to her current role at the Wyoming State Archives, Davis has been a strong advocate for archival collections, users, and colleagues. At the State Archives, she successfully applied for a National Historic Public Records Commission grant to support a traveling archivist program to build a network connecting the state’s numerous cultural institutions. She effectively uses her role as a spokesperson for "people's history" for the state to preserve the voices of those not traditionally represented by the archives. For example, she established a community speakers’ bureau to communicate with members from underrepresented communities about the crucial role their records play in documenting Wyoming state history. With the institution’s recent acquisition of the Latin American Federation’s papers, these efforts are already bringing positive results.

Davis’s leadership is also evident in her previous work as a university archivist for the University of Wyoming at the American Heritage Center. Davis played an essential role in founding the institution’s Diversity Committee, as well as curating a digital and physical exhibit to commemorate Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who was murdered in 1998. Within SAA, she has led continuing archival education efforts as an active member, vice chair, and then chair of the Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) Education Subcommittee, where she reviews curriculum to ensure courses meet the needs of a growing number of archivists seeking to learn more about digital archives.

As her nominator writes, Davis’s “rapid growth from consultant to state archivist demonstrates her increasing responsibility, proven track record, and potential in the profession.” One former mentor writes that they “[look] to her as a guide and role model where we were once in opposite roles. I have watched Davis become an expert at whatever she takes on while leading with compassion and grace. She is clearly dedicated to and passionate about her work as an archivist.” A former supervisor adds that “Davis creates programs from scratch, sees projects successfully to completion, and ensures that every product is of high quality.”

Established in 2011 and renamed in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Mark A. Greene.

Mosaic Scholarship: Sean Payne

Sean Payne, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at Syracuse University in New York, is the 2022 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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.

Payne’s commitment to diversity in archives is evident in his desire to restructure how archives represent communities from non-Anglo-Saxon/Eurocentric populations and combat white supremacy and injustices in the archival profession. He strives to make visible the relationship between the stories and voices found in an archives and the values and ideologies of the community or organization that created it. He is an active member of the Association of Black Museums, whose mission is to advance the visibility of African American professionals within archives and museums. Payne’s archival work includes conducting oral histories and supporting projects that highlight the histories of women in air and space industries, African American music, and other underrepresented communities. He is an archival assistant at the Baldwin Wallace University Archive in Berea, Ohio, and he has interned at the International Women’s Air and Space Museum and at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.

One of Payne’s supporters notes: “His dedication and mature professionalism, as well as his interest in diversification of the archival profession and his interest in promoting access to archival materials that represent African American perspectives, make him an excellent candidate for the Mosaic Scholarship.” Another supporter writes that Payne is “on track to become an outstanding archivist and a true advocate for the greater diversity of our profession.”

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Chaeyeon Kim

Chaeyeon Kim, who is working on a certificate of advanced study in data science from Syracuse University in New York, is the 2022 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by attending the SAA Annual Meeting.

Kim is a digital initiatives archivist at the Health Sciences Library at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. She earned a master’s degree in library and information science with a concentration in archival management from Simmons University and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Soongsil University in South Korea. Kim has earned numerous awards for academic excellence and has conducted research on library website usability and accessibility. Currently, she is developing a web archiving program for Upstate Medical University as well as conducting research on the impact of continuing education on the performance of academic archivists.

Attendance at SAA’s Annual Meeting will enable Kim to connect with other digital archivists and further her research. Kim writes, “I am excited to share what I have learned and experienced at the Annual Meeting with aspiring international students who wish to work in the States as an archivist just like I did.”

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes. Past recipients include Jiarui Sun (China), Klavier Jie Ying Wang (China), Tianjiao Qi (China), and Tristan Triponez (Switzerland).

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: San Diego Air and Space Museum

The San Diego Air and Space Museum is the 2022 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents. 

The San Diego Air and Space Museum houses one of the largest collections of images relating to aerospace history, including content about the space program, women in aviation, and nearly every aircraft built. In order to preserve the materials, increase their use and accessibility, and engage the community, the Museum digitized more than 320,000 images and uploaded them to Flickr.com. To date, the Museum’s Flickr collection has had more than 350 million views. In addition to increasing awareness of the Museum’s vast collection, this project engaged the community through crowdsourced tagging and commenting, which also enhanced the collection’s metadata. The success of the Flickr account has resulted in a grant-funded project to import the metadata into the Museum’s digital asset management system for long-term preservation and to feature the collection in the University of California’s online portal Calisphere. 

The online images have been used by historians, environmentalists, lawyers, family historians, hobbyists, and many others. One community member was particularly appreciative of the documentation of Chinese Americans in the aviation field. Others were thrilled to see photographs of family members. The San Diego Air and Space Museum’s digitization effort has significantly increased public awareness and access to these images and has had a broad and positive impact on the diverse communities it serves.

The Hamer-Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents. Past recipients include the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections for the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center and the eScholarship Research Centre of the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

Preservation Publication Award Special Commendation: Amanda Oliver

Amanda Oliver, head of archives and special collections at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, received a Preservation Publication Award Special Commendation from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her article, “The Impact of Climate Change on Canadian Archives.” The commendation recognizes excellence in a published work on archival preservation.

The article, published in volume 31 of Records Management Journal, presents an innovative and important exploration as it investigates issues of critical importance to the archives community, specifically in a region that has not yet received in-depth study. Oliver provides a beneficial starting point for guiding conversations and decisions among Canadian archival institutions. Her work analyzes the geographic locations of Canadian repositories, climate projections, and the results of a survey of professionals working in Canadian archival institutions. Although much has been written about climate change and cultural and documentary heritage in Europe and the United States, very little research has been completed on the impact of climate change on Canadian archives.

The SAA Awards Committee commends the author for the significance of this work to the archival profession. One supporter writes, “Oliver’s recommendations and conclusions underscore the importance of developing climate adaptation strategies, considering the sustainability of records management and archival professional practice, increasing the resilience of facilities and records, and strengthening disaster planning and recovery methods.”

The award was established by SAA in 1993. This year, the recipients of SAA’s 2022 Preservation Publication Award are Monique Lassere and Jess Whyte for their article, “Balancing Care and Authenticity in Digital Collections: A Radical Empathy Approach To Working With Disk Images” (Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 2021).

Preservation Publication Award: Monique Lassere and Jess Whyte

Monique Lassere, digital archivist at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and Jess Whyte, digital assets librarian at the University of Toronto, are the 2022 recipients of the Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their article, “Balancing Care and Authenticity in Digital Collections: A Radical Empathy Approach To Working With Disk Images.” The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

In their article, which appeared in volume 3 (2021) of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, Lassere and Whyte investigate the implications on labor and privacy of the common practice to “take and keep it all” when working with digital collections. In particular, they examine and challenge the practice of taking and keeping disk images in digital preservation.

“Balancing Care” introduces a framework likely relatively new to archival practice and preservation, and constructively offers ways to implement the approaches they suggest. As with many emerging topics, there isn't a perfect solution or seamless route to address all the issues they raise, but they do map out potential mechanisms. By introducing a radical empathy approach to digital preservation, the authors encourage practitioners to associate digital preservation with inclusion and access issues that are critical to address in the field.

One committee member stated, “The article does a fantastic job of contextualizing current practice within history, not only within digital preservation itself but wisely calling out pre-digital conservation approaches and ethics as well. It not only codifies but analyzes and confronts these principles and practices through a new lens.”

The Preservation Publication Award was established in 1993. This year, the Awards Committee awarded a Special Commendation to Amanda Oliver for her article, “The Impact of Climate Change on Canadian Archives,” published in volume 31 of Records Management Journal.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Carol W. Smith

Carol W. Smith, archivist for Christ Church Preservation Trust, is the 2022 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

During her years working as a religious archivist, Smith spearheaded the Philadelphia Historic Congregations Project and received funding from CLIR, the Council for Libraries and Information Research (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), as well as the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission and the Connelly Foundation to digitize or harvest more than 85,000 documents across seventeen Philadelphia congregations. More records will continue to be uploaded. The resulting portal provides insight into the relationship between religion and politics while also providing greater access to invaluable documents. Many of these “hidden” documents have not had sufficient description, and this project significantly improves accessibility.

Smith has been an outstanding member of the archival profession. As one supporter has written, Smith “is a dedicated person who works with several other organizations to make sure that their archives are kept in pristine condition for future generations.” In addition, the supporter notes that because of Smith’s dedication, the Philadelphia Historic Congregations Project is “collaboration at its finest—among congregations and among constituencies. To say these records are a treasure trove for future scholars is scarcely adequate.”

Created in 1974, the award 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. Past recipients include Mary Grace Kosta (Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada), Ellen Pierce (Dominican Sisters and other religious congregations), and Jillian Ewalt (University of Dayton).

Spotlight Award: Georgina Tom

Georgina Tom, archivist at the 'Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, is the 2022 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Serving as archivist since 2014, Tom’s advocacy has transformed the Archives of 'Iolani School, a K–12 boarding and day school. Under her leadership, the archivist position increased to a full-time role. She implemented a content management system, established organization based on archival principles and standards, and expanded digital access to collections. Tom also advocated for the integration of archival materials into the school’s curriculum and now partners with faculty to provide classroom-based primary source instruction. Her nominator notes: “She sees the potential of memory and heritage collections as agents of social change by providing meaningful primary source experiences during the critical character and values building years of childhood.” Writing to 'Iolani faculty, Tom commented, “Primary source documents can be powerful partners as we educate young minds not to dismiss, minimize, or justify issues as being the way things are/were, but to identify and critique inequality and injustice.”   

Tom’s advocacy work extends beyond 'Iolani School and is making a difference within SAA and in the professional development of her archival colleagues in Hawai‘i. Due to their remote location, archivists in Hawai‘i are often challenged to find and afford professional development opportunities. Responding to this need, Tom became a SAA Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) instructor for course offerings in Hawai‘i. As a member of the SAA DAS Subcommittee, Tom successfully advocated for the removal of an in-person course requirement for DAS certification. The SAA Awards Committee was impressed by Tom’s dedication to both 'Iolani School and her colleagues in Hawai’i and other remote locations.

Established in 2015, past recipients of the Spotlight Award include Lee Price (fundraising professional for cultural institutions), Michelle Ganz (McDonough Innovation), Kelli Luchs (Las Vegas News Bureau), and Ilana Short (Nevada State Museum).

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Jason Lustig

Jason Lustig, former lecturer and Israel Institute Teaching Fellow at the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, is the 2022 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book A Time to Gather, published by Oxford University Press in 2021. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

In his book, Lustig presents a well-written, richly detailed, and superbly researched transnational study of the development of Jewish community archives in Germany, the United States, and Israel in the twentieth century. The book examines archival practices on a global scale, as well as a local one, examining archives in specific locales like Worms and Hamburg (Germany), Cincinnati (the US), and Jerusalem (Israel). The combination of a global and regional approach brings together a wide range of histories and historical contexts to tell a broad story about how community archives shape history.

A Time to Gather excels at making the case for why archives of all kinds, including community-based archives, can be and remain contentious. Lustig’s detailed study of the development of archives in modern Jewish culture in the twentieth century demonstrates how archives are not neutral and how archivists control the historical narrative. The book uncovers new ways to regard the work of many twentieth century archivists, offering “a new nuance to our understanding of archival history in the context of Jewish history.” One reviewer writes, “Lustig is an engrossing story-teller, and his book is well-written and compelling.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president. Past recipients include Cheryl Oestreicher for Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts, Jean-Christophe Cloutier for Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature, and Trevor Owens for The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation.

Archival Innovator Award: NARA’s History Hub

The National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) History Hub is the 2021 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.  

History Hub is a crowdsourcing platform that offers tools, such as discussion boards, blogs, and community pages, to bring together experts and researchers interested in American history. History Hub’s team—comprised of NARA community managers Kelly Osborn and Darren Cole, and NARA archivist Rebecca Collier—adapted an online, community-based customer service model that not only better meets the needs of NARA’s customers but also makes historical research more accessible to everyone.

A History Hub supporter wrote: “The team demonstrated the ability to think outside of archival and NARA norms in deploying an emerging information technology and required great ability to translate their creativity, innovation, and new thinking into acquiring and deploying a platform, training reference staff on its use and community management best practices, and promoting the platform to the public.”

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.

C.F.W. Coker Award: Indigenous Digital Archive Treaties Explorer (DigiTreaties.org)

The Indigenous Digital Archive Treaties Explorer, created by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Indigenous Digital Archive, in partnership with the National Archives Office of Innovation and Conservation Department and Digirati, is the 2021 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The 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.

The Treaties Explorer (DigiTreaties.org) makes accessible and provides context for 374 ratified Indian Treaties held by the National Archives. The finding aid aggregates documents from a number of repositories and agencies and allows the public to explore treaties related to a place, date, and Native nation. A user-friendly website design that includes multiple visual elements and a timeline of the treaties helps people understand these archival documents and the shared histories of the United States and Native nations.

The Treaties Explorer is an innovative development in archival description as it prioritizes Native voices. From initial planning stages to the website launch, team members have collaborated with Native communities. As one nominator wrote, “Native experts have been integrally involved in the project design, research, website user experience and art direction, usability testing, additional refinements, and companion training videos and slides.” 

The team behind the Treaties Explorer includes: Anna Naruta-Moya, Della Warrior (Otoe-Missouria), Matthew Martinez (Ohkay Owingeh), Donovan Pete (Diné), Sherri Thomas (Taos Pueblo and Black), Ben Calabaza (Kewa), and Lee Francis IV (Laguna Pueblo) from the Indigenous Digital Archives and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Pamela Wright, Ben Petersen, Carol Lagundo, Jason Clingerman, and the Conservation Department and Digitization staff of the National Archives and Records Administration Office of Innovation; and Matt McGrattan, Kelsie Caldwell, Ville Vartiainen, and Ian Farquhar from Digirati. The Treaties Explorer was made possible by an anonymous donor to the National Archives Foundation.  

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Dorothy Berry

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

DOROTHY BERRY

 

WHEREAS Dorothy Berry has been actively involved in advocating for the increased visibility of records documenting African American life and culture, and

WHEREAS while serving as the Digital Collections Program Manager at Houghton Library, Harvard University, and in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed, she advocated for that institution to commit to a year of digitizing only African American materials, and

WHEREAS she secured support for that commitment from administrators and colleagues as a clear demonstration of how archivists can advocate for Black lives by applying their influence within their own scope of work, and

WHEREAS she continues to encourage all archivists to understand and consider their own power and apply it to correcting past injustices within the already existing operations of an archival institution,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Dorothy Berry be honored with a 2021 Council Exemplary Service Award for her commitment to the preservation of and access to African American archival materials and setting an example for how all archivists can influence our own institutions to honor the legacy of marginalized communities.

 

Present August 3, 2021.

Council Exemplary Service Award: SAA Diversity Committee

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

THE SAA DIVERSITY COMMITTEE

 

WHEREAS the past year has seen an increase in race-based violence throughout the country, which which led the Society to discuss and begin addressing the impact of institutional racism in archives; and

WHEREAS the SAA Diversity Committee facilitated two public programs to discuss and solicit feedback on the Black Lives and Archives statement issued by the Council on June 2, 2020; and

WHEREAS the SAA Diversity Committee, through the leadership and coordination of Kelly Wooten and Teresa Mora and with significant support from Committee members, has performed notable service to SAA by reviewing and compiling the copious feedback and insights captured during the Black Lives and Archives sessions; and

WHEREAS the Diversity Committee has analyzed and consolidated the listening session data into four overarching and interconnected themes: 1) Recruitment and Retention, 2) Structural Barriers within SAA, 3) Participation in and/or Offering of DEI Training, and 4) Archival Practices; and has written and submitted a comprehensive report entitled “Feedback and Recommendations Following Black Lives and Archives Forums”; and

WHEREAS in its report, the Diversity Committee recommended specific actions and strategies that lay the groundwork for the Society’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) and cultural competency work plans;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Diversity Committee, be honored with a 2021 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their outstanding contributions to the Society’s ongoing DEIA/cultural competency efforts.

 

Presented on August 3, 2021.

Council Exemplary Service Award: SAA Staff

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

THE SAA STAFF

(Nancy Beaumont, Matthew Black, Teresa Brinati, Peter Carlson, Abigail Christian, Felicia Owens, Akila Ruffin, Carlos R. Salgado, Rana Hutchinson Salzmann, Michael Santiago, and Lakesha Thaddis)

 

WHEREAS the SAA Staff transitioned to working from home seamlessly while providing stellar service to SAA leaders and members during the COVID-19 pandemic; and

WHEREAS the SAA Staff successfully switched from a physical to a virtual annual meeting, including managing the technology and logistics prior to, during, and after the event; and

WHEREAS the SAA Staff provided professional, friendly assistance to Council and component group leaders in planning, scheduling, and running virtual webinars, forums, and meetings;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA staff -- Nancy Beaumont, Matthew Black, Teresa Brinati, Peter Carlson, Abigail Christian, Felicia Owens, Akila Ruffin, Carlos R. Salgado, Rana Hutchinson Salzmann, Michael Santiago, and Lakesha Thaddis -- be honored with a 2021 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their outstanding work towards maintaining an efficient and productive association during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Presented August 3, 2021.

Council Exemplary Service Award: The Blackivists

Society of American Archivists
Council Exemplary Service Award
Honoring

THE BLACKIVISTS

(Steven D. Booth, Tracy Drake, Raquel Flores-Clemons,
Erin Glasco, Skyla S. Hearn, and Stacie Williams)

 

WHEREAS the Blackivists, a collective of Black archivists organized to prioritize Black cultural heritage preservation and memory work; and

WHEREAS this collective, founded by Steven D. Booth, Tracy Drake, Raquel Flores Clemons, Erin Glasco, Skyla S. Hearn, and Stacie Williams, provides training and consultation on archival projects, both digital and analog; and

WHEREAS they collaborate with organizations and individuals on archiving initiatives that inventory, document, digitize, and preserve the histories of communities of color, queer communities, working-class and under-resourced communities; religious minorities, and people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS the Blackivists speak, write, create, and provide expertise on a wide variety of topics of importance to community-based archives, take a people-first approach to their work, and prioritize projects that aim to more fully document marginalized and under-documented communities; and

WHEREAS in 2020 they published “Five Tips for Documenting Protests” and “Five Tips for Donating Your Materials” in response to protests against police brutality and systemic racism and documentation efforts around the COVID-19 pandemic. These recommendations prioritize the safety and agency of people and communities who are involved and affected;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Blackivists--Steven D. Booth, Tracy Drake, Raquel Flores-Clemons, Erin Glasco, Skyla S. Hearn, and Stacie Williams--be honored with a 2021 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their work toward a more inclusive historical record.

 

Presented on August 3, 2021.

Council Resolution: Peter D. Carlson

Society of American Archivists
Council Resolution
Honoring

PETER D. CARLSON

 

WHEREAS Peter D. Carlson has worked as the SAA Director of Finance and Administration since April 2014; and

WHEREAS Peter represented the SAA staff to the Executive Committee on the process of the 2021 search for a new SAA Executive Director; and

WHEREAS Peter organized the first steps and coached the Executive Committee in selecting an executive search firm; and

WHEREAS Peter screened a number of firms, reporting back to the Executive Committee with his impressions and advice; and

WHEREAS Peter centered the values of the SAA Council, in particular a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, in this process;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Peter D. Carlson be honored with a 2021 SAA Council Resolution for informing, educating, and empowering the Executive Committee; for representing his team of coworkers with the professionalism, regard, and care for which SAA staff are known; for seamlessly embracing these additional responsibilities while also expertly managing SAA’s finances and the turbulence of the coronavirus epidemic; and for modeling strong ethics and values in his contributions to the search for SAA’s Executive Director.

 

Presented August 3, 2021.

Distinguished Service Award: Knox County Archives and Doris Rivers Martinson

View Knox County Archives video.

The Knox County Archives in Tennessee and its former manager, the late Doris Rivers Martinson, are the 2021 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.  

The Knox County Archives has taken many steps to preserve and make accessible its records to residents since the government’s early beginnings in the eighteenth century. After shifting from various residents' homes and courthouse basements, professional management of the archives began in 1933, leading to a formal establishment of an Old Records Department in 1941. Then, in 1963, Knox County’s Public Records Commission was formed “to eliminate useless records not required to be kept under the present statutes," requiring significant remodeling of the facility and updated technology.In 1972, administration of the archives was transferred to Knox County Public Library and, in 1984, the archives was physically moved into Knoxville’s 1874 US Custom House, which had been designated by the library as a “history center” for both the archives and the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection. The archives’ most recent transition was in 2004, when the East Tennessee History Center was expanded to house all of the county’s permanent, historical records and to create more extensive public access via the Knox County Archives Reading Room.

These last two transitions were overseen by Doris Rivers Martinson, county archivist and archives manager for thirty-three years until her retirement in February 2020. During her influential tenure, Martinson codrafted a National Historical Publications and Record Commission grant proposal to establish the formal County Records Management program in 1989—for the first time making life-cycle management of official records in all media types a standard component of county administrative operations. Martinson’s significant contributions have preserved the history of the county’s government and created ways for the public to meaningfully engage with it. Her legacy will be remembered during the Knox County Public Library’s celebration of the archives’ Golden Anniversary, which continues into 2022. Martinson passed away on January 27, 2021. The Knox County Archives Reading Room is named in her honor.

One supporter wrote, “Honoring the Knox County Archives with this award recognizes the dedication of public servants like Martinson as well as rewards the resourcefulness, ingenuity, and vision of institutions that continually find new ways to serve the public through their archival missions.”

Diversity Award: Judy Tyrus

Judy Tyrus, cofounder and CEO of ChromaDiverse, Inc., is a 2021 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Formerly a principal ballet dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) for twenty-two years, Tyrus is passionate about protecting the heritage of diverse dance organizations. She is the archivist and curator for DTH’s materials in Taking the Stage at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She served in the same capacity for several successful exhibitions including Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts, and a series of digital exhibits on the Google Arts and Culture platform.

In 2019, Tyrus cofounded the nonprofit ChromaDiverse, Inc. that works with diverse dance organizations, many of which lack financial resources or archival knowledge. Her company provides digital archives management services at low cost and offers a flexible Cloud-based “Digital Vault” with a scalable taxonomy for performing arts content. In addition, Tyrus is coauthor with Paul Novosel of a new book, Dance Theater of Harlem: A History, A Movement, A Celebration, forthcoming in November 2021 from Dafina, an imprint of Kensington Publishing. The book highlights the famous ballet company’s fifty-two-year history and its promotion of multicultural dance artists.  

As noted by one supporter, Tyrus has a passion for “protecting the accomplishments of diverse dance organizations and keeping them from being erased from history. Every step of the way, Tyrus translates her passions into concrete and pragmatic steps to accomplish her goals.”

The Diversity Award was established by SAA in 2011. 

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Sidney Louie

Sidney Louie, a graduate student in the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Library and Information Science Program, is the 2021 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee or section.

After working for thirty years in event and media marketing, Louie transitioned to archival studies. She works part time as a project assistant at ’Ulu’ulu: The Henry Ku’ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai’i at the University of Hawai’i – West O’ahu where she processes, describes, catalogs, and preserves several television programs containing Hawaiian cultural content. During the virtual Annual Meeting, Louie will participate in events hosted by the Committee on Public Awareness and Diversity Committee to connect and build networks with archivists outside Hawai’i. 

Louie possesses intelligence, creativity, and a passion for preserving archives. Her supporter notes that they are “impressed by Louie’s passion for film and audiovisual media and her deep respect for the archival Hawaiian and Pacific cultural materials.”

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award was established in 2005 and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson.

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: aems emswiler

aems emswiler, a doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Arizona, is the 2021 recipient of the  F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 their graduate program in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessment of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession.

emswiler holds dual master’s degrees in information studies and women’s and gender studies from the University of Texas, Austin, where they were active in their SAA student chapter and received the Trailblazer Award by the Texas Digital Library for their work preserving and digitizing materials through Omeka. In their insightful application essay, they describe their developing awareness of the importance of archives and archivists to protect controversial resources and the rights of others. emswiler was an Archival Fellow for the Texas After Violence Project (TAVP), and from 2012 to 2020, they documented the impacts of carceral state violence on incarcerated peoples in Texas and worked to provide information access for people on death row. Their interest in the intersection of community archives, critical archival studies, and narratives of incarceration led to founding the Inside Books Project (IBP) Archive. IBP is a nonprofit books-to-prisons collective, and its archives preserves and makes public the writings and art sent by incarcerated patrons as well as evidences of IBP's history, such as newsletters, event fliers, and photographs.

emswiler impressed the SAA Awards Committee with their drive to explore both theory and practice as it relates to ignored and underdocumented communities and the potential of their future contributions to the archival profession. One of emswiler’s faculty nominators noted: “Talented, dedicated, generous, and incredibly smart, emswiler demonstrates a commitment and remarkable ability to approach their archival work, community commitments, and pedagogical pursuits with integrity and in a way that is cohesive and includes meaningful outreach.”

Fellow: Katherine Wisser

Katherine Wisser, associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science and director of the Archives Concentration and Archives Certificate programs at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on August 4 during a virtual ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

An enthusiastic educator and indefatigable leader in archival standards development, Wisser holds a master’s degree in American history from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree and PhD in information and library science from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Since 2002, Wisser has held a number of leadership positions within SAA’s sections on metadata and description, and led or contributed to two major revisions of foundational technical standards for archival metadata. From 2006 to 2011, she served as chair of SAA’s Encoded Archival Context Working Group, shepherding Encoded Archival Context–Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC–CPF) through approval and publication. She then served as co-chair of the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Context and the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards, working to revise the Encoded Archival Description, Version 3 (EAD3) standard. Her work on EAC-CPF and EAD3 cemented SAA's status as a cooperative partner in the international archival standards community, advanced the technological underpinnings of archival metadata, and promoted a new networked model of archival description.

In addition, Wisser has written, presented, and taught extensively on these standards, enabling their practical and widespread application. She is anecdotally credited with teaching EAD to the entire state of North Carolina via her “Introduction to EAD” workshop, which she taught between 2002 and 2007. She had a similar impact within SAA as co-instructor of “MARC According to DACS,” which was crucial to propagating Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) following its publication in 2004, and as instructor of “New Standard: Encoded Archival Context – Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF),” both of which she taught more than a dozen times. In 2015, she guest edited with Anila Angjeli a special issue, “Identity Matters: Describing and Interconnecting Entities with EAC-CPF,” for the Journal of Archival Organization.

One of Wisser’s supporters notes that her work has made “critically important contributions to understanding hidden biases that may be embedded in both past and emergent archival description practices.” Another wrote that she “infuses her standards development work at the national and international level with a deep understanding of the people working on the ground.”

Wisser is one of two new Fellows named in 2021. There are currently 196 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Tamar Chute

 

Tamar Chute, university archivist and head of archives at Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on August 4 during a virtual ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

 Chute, who earned a BS from the University of Michigan and an MLS from the University of Maryland, has distinguished herself as a leading expert and strategic thinker on records management in higher education. She significantly raised the profile of OSU’s archives during the university’s sesquicentennial celebrations. A long-time member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s University Archivists Group, Chute led the creation of the online exhibit “Beanies of the Big Ten,” which highlighted student traditions in Big Ten universities and strengthened ties among the universities. Partnering with primary founder Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, Chute was also instrumental in the development of Project STAND, the national initiative documenting underrepresented communities’ engagement in social justice activism. In 2019, she and her colleagues received an SAA Council Resolution for their work on Project STAND.

Chute has written extensively on archival management, data curation, archival instruction, and archives terminology. She coauthored two modules in Teaching with Primary Sources, which became the inaugural selection in SAA’s One Book, One Profession initiative in 2016. Within the SAA College and University Archives Section, she served as chair of the Guidelines Review Committee to identify best practices for university archivists and their employers. A member of SAA’s Dictionary Working Group since 2013, Chute and her colleagues launched the Dictionary of Archives Terminology (DAT) in 2020. The online resource, which required hours of research over the course of nearly a decade, now accounts for ten percent of visitors to the SAA website. The SAA Council honored the Dictionary Working Group with an Exemplary Service Award in 2020. 

Chute’s nominators uniformly reference the value of her scholarship to the profession, her commitment to inclusiveness, and her advocacy of archives. One nominator noted: “She exhibits a collaborative spirit, an intrinsic dedication to outreach, and a commitment to promoting the value and accessibility of the archival record that make her the admired leader, expert, and mentor that she is.”   

Chute is one of two new Fellows named in 2021. There are currently 196 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award: Katherine Fisher

Katherine Fisher, head of digital archives at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, is the 2021 recipient of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist.

Fisher is being honored for “Copyright and Preservation of Born-digital Materials: Persistent Challenges and Selected Strategies,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of American Archivist (vol. 83, no. 2). Her article addresses the complex topic of US copyright law as it relates to long-term preservation of born-digital records, an area of broad interest and concern in the archival profession. Fisher provides clear, concise explanations of preservation-inhibiting constraints in current copyright law, including outdated understandings of copying, murky publication statuses, multilayered rights, and barriers imposed by Digital Rights Management technologies. Fisher offers advocacy and procedural strategies that are relevant for organizations and repositories of all sizes. 

The SAA Awards Committee commends Katherine Fisher for compiling “so much information, some of it quite recent, in such a cogent and approachable fashion” and noted that this article is “an important tool that can be used by a wide variety of professionals” in understanding the challenging, evolving copyright issues relevant to preserving born-digital records.

Established in 1982, the award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president as well as a distinguished author.

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award: Aparna Subramanian

Aparna Subramanian, a graduate student in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University (NYU), is a 2021 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes BIPOC graduate students who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.

Subramanian’s passion for preserving audiovisual materials is evident in the evolving focus of her career. Noting a lack of archival training for media preservation in India and South Asia, she enrolled at NYU and became an active member of SAA and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). Subramanian has received a number of grants and scholarships focusing on the preservation of audiovisual materials. Her work experiences include internships at the Smithsonian Design Museum, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the National Film Archive of India. She also worked on the NYU’s Regional Media Legacies Project, where she spearheaded renewed outreach to small historical organizations with hidden audiovisual collections; and served as a graduate assistant for the Digital Preservation and Outreach Education Network for Pratt Institute and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

One supporter commended Subramanian’s “big picture understanding of media archiving needs and possibilities both locally and internationally.” These experiences—especially in associations—have informed her vision to bolster archival education opportunities and create strong archival professional networks in India and South Asia.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Hinaikawaihiʻilei Keala

 

Hinaikawaihiʻilei Keala is the 2021 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 (SAA). 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.

Keala is pursuing dual master’s degrees in Hawaiian studies and library and information science with an Archives Certification at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is a graduate research assistant for Native Hawaiian Student Services at the university, a student service office under the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge that offers culture-based and experiential learning opportunities for Native Hawaiian students. Keala oversees the officeʻs Kekaulike internship program and assists with programming. Her passion for preserving Hawaiian culture and history led her to pursue a career in archives. Seeing a need for the Hawaiian language to be present in archival access points, she is focused on preserving and providing access to Hawaiian-language archival materials for the Indigenous community.

Keala has devoted her career to serving her community and Hawaiian people. As one of her recommenders wrote, “She engages in the work she does because she cares about issues of justice and humanity and wants to see positive changes made in our community. As such, an investment in Keala is an investment in the larger communities of Hawaiʻi that she is committed to and will continue to work in service for.”

The Josephine Forman Scholarship was established in 2010 and is named for Josephine Forman, who served as archivist for eighteen years at the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Dorothy Berry

Dorothy Berry, Digital Collections program manager at Harvard University’s Houghton Library, is the 2021 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

Berry’s work at Houghton Library has transformed the way the institution’s materials relating to Black Americans and their history are presented and accessed. In the last two years, she has surveyed the Harvard Theatre Collection’s minstrel materials for inaccurate and problematic description and developed a proposal for a more just, accurate, and contextualized description. In 2020, Berry developed and oversaw a unique project: to digitize African American history materials and create a research dataset and collections site where these materials can be freely accessed.

Berry’s exemplary leadership and service is evident in her work with SAA, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Council on Library and Information Research, Digital Library Federation, Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia, and Lighting the Way National Forum. She is a sought-after speaker on social justice, culturally diverse digital collections, and the intersection of issues of race and ethnicity with archival work. In 2020, Berry gave presentations to audiences of hundreds for regional organizations and humanities institutions, including SAA’s “Community Reflection on Black Lives and Archives.” She speaks openly, honestly, and compellingly about the most challenging aspects of archival work, presenting with kindness and empathy to help archivists better comprehend what it means to be anti-racist and how to take appropriate action.

Berry’s supporters cite her strong leadership, intellectual curiosity, and dedication to the archives profession and her peers. One nominator wrote, “Her overall brilliance, work ethic, courage, and dedication create a potent leadership package, one she is using to help the profession improve and reinvent ourselves.”

Established in 2011 and renamed in 2017, the award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Mark A. Greene.

Mosaic Scholarship: Christopher Castro

Christopher Castro, who is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science with a specialization in media archival studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2021 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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, Castro has a passion for audiovisual preservation and community history. He previously interned at the Palo Alto City Library, where he was instrumental in training staff for and launching the library’s Vintage Media Lab. Currently, he is the audiovisual preservation specialist with the Palo Alto Historical Association, where he works with at-risk materials, and a library page with the Alameda County Library, where he is an active member of its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. A Filipino-American, he also served on the executive board of the Pilipino Transfer Student Partnership at UCLA.

Castro hopes to become a mentor to other aspiring archivists of color and to increase representation of people of color both within the profession and in traditional and community archival collections. He writes, “I believe that wider access to Filipino-American archival collections can actively recontextualize Filipinos' own sense of self and affirm their belonging within the American narrative.”

One of his supporters wrote: “From the very beginning, Castro’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the work set him apart from his predecessors.” Another celebrated “his keen awareness of social justice issues, wealth of knowledge, approachable nature, and passion to further diversity initiatives within the workplace.”

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Jiarui Sun

Jiarui Sun, a PhD student in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2021 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by attending the SAA Annual Meeting.

Sun has impressive research experience and publication history and has received numerous awards, including the 2020 James V. Mink Scholarship from the Society of California Archivists. Before enrolling at UCLA, he earned a master’s degree in archival studies from Renmin University of China and a bachelor's degree in archival studies from Shandong University. His research interests include archival informatics, community-based archives, and qualitative research methods and design. At UCLA, Sun is researching ethical considerations triggered by new technology applications in archives, under the supervision of Professor Anne Gilliland, which he will present at the International Council on Archives’s 2021 conference in Abu Dhabi. The knowledge and experience from his education and professional conferences have become a precious asset to his understanding of history and technologies associated with archives and recordkeeping.

Attendance at SAA’s 2021 Annual Meeting will allow Sun to gain additional knowledge and skills for augmenting his PhD research, as well as network with colleagues he would otherwise never meet. Sun writes that “attending this conference will enable me to establish friendships and long-term cooperative relationships with many other archivists who share the same interests with me.”

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: California State University Japanese American Digitization Project

The California State University Japanese American Digitization Project (CSUJAD) is the 2021 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.

CSUJAD, a collaborative effort among a number of partner institutions in California and Utah, provides access to digitized archival collections related to the lives of Japanese Americans throughout the twentieth century. CSUJAD's website includes an extensive user guide and provides descriptions of the specific collections held at each partner institution, along with links to digital repositories. The project's goal is to make these archival collections more easily accessible to a wide range of visitors, and its website includes supplemental resources such as timelines, maps, sample lesson plans, and lists of related publications to assist its users. In addition, the project has inspired a number of exhibits, events, and even a student-created zine.

By unifying these collections in a single web portal, CSUJAD exemplifies the power of long-term collaboration between repositories and demonstrates a commitment to facilitating access to related archival records housed in disparate geographic locations. As one supporter noted, these records are valuable by themselves, but by connecting them via metadata, CSUJAD allows for “vast access to formerly isolated materials” and for the larger story of Japanese Americans to be told.

Preservation Publication Award Special Commendation: Karl-Rainer Blumenthal, Peggy Griesinger, Julia Kim, Shira Peltzman, and Vicky Rampin

Karl-Rainer Blumenthal, web archivist at the Internet Archive; Peggy Griesinger, head of metadata initatives at University of Notre Dame; Julia Kim, digital projects coordinator and program manager at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress; Shira Peltzman, digital archivist for Library Special Collections at the University of California, Los Angeles; and Vicky Rampin, librarian for Research Data Management and Reproducibility at New York University, received a Preservation Publication Award Special Commendation from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their article, “What's Wrong with Digital Stewardship: Evaluating the Organization of Digital Preservation Programs from Practitioners' Perspectives.” The commendation recognizes excellence in a published work on archival preservation.

The article, published in volume 7 of the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, offers a nuanced report on the increasing dissatisfaction expressed by digital archivists about their work experiences and a call for a fair and effective restructuring of the role digital stewardship plays in many institutions. The article reviews results from surveys conducted by the National Digital Stewardship Alliance from 2012 to 2018 that target archival practitioners in all positions, not just administrative roles. The authors write that “even as the field of digital stewardship is entering a period of operational maturity, practitioners largely consider digital stewardship values and goals to be misunderstood at an organizational level” and that there is a gap between senior organizational leaders and digital stewardship practitioners in terms of attitudes toward and satisfaction with digital stewardship and preservation programs. “What’s Wrong” identifies problems contributing to the dissatisfaction and offers solutions for issues of labor distribution, salary equity, inclusion, and long-term planning that institutional leaders can implement. In doing so, this article is useful not only to archivists but to any professional concerned with the management of digital assets.

The Awards Committee commends the authors for the importance of this work to the archival profession. One committee member stated that this article “foregrounds and elevates the day-to-day lived experiences of practitioners who are actively engaged in digital stewardship where former research has focused on administrators.” Another declared that this article “best described many practioners’ frustrations in doing preservation work effectively. It is a seminal work that highlights, in no uncertain terms, why digital preservationists are burning out. It should be required reading at all institutions addressing digital preservation challenges, particularly for administrators.”

Preservation Publication Award: Alexandra Chassanoff and Colin Post

Alexandra Chassanoff, assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University, and Colin Post, assistant professor in Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, are the 2021 recipients of the Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their handbook, OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows (Educopia Institute, 2020). The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

Chassanoff and Post’s Guide makes the daunting task of selecting, implementing, and refining workflows for born-digital archival materials more achievable. The Guide, which is open access, describes the steps that are commonly included in digital curation workflows, from acquisition to access and preservation, and provides a process map for readers to produce their own workflow documentation in both visual and descriptive formats. The Guide also provides a set of case studies that illustrate how readers can use these workflows to improve institutional born-digital archives practices. A unique component of the Guide’s publication is three supplemental Video Learning Modules, which map to specific sections of the Guide and provides high-level guidance in creating and using born-digital workflow documentation.

The Guide’s systematic approach to documenting activities for archiving born-digital material is informed by the innovative OSSArcFlow research project, a three-year empirical analysis of twelve institutions at different stages of born-digital workflow implementation and documentation. The steps outlined in the Guide model an approach that codifies the principles and practices of preserving born-digital archives. 

The Guide and supplemental videos, which were developed and released with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, capture a common, complex, and under-discussed element of digital preservation. There is little material about entry-level processes or broad perspectives comparing multiple institutions. The Guide covers both of these topics effectively.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Mary Grace Kosta

Mary Grace Kosta, congregational archivist for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, is the 2021 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

In nine years of working as a religious archivist, Kosta has contributed greatly to the growth of the Sisters of St. Joseph archives, the public’s understanding of the congregation’s history, and—more broadly—the field of religious archives. During her tenure as congregational archivist, Kosta consolidated four separate archival repositories while implementing new digital tools and technologies that enhanced the management of the archives as well as its outreach to the public.

In addition, Kosta has served in leadership positions with SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section, Archival Resources for Catholic Collections, the Archives Association of Ontario, the Catholic Archives Group in Canada, and the US-Canada Joint AtoM (Access to Memory) Users Group. Kosta is a frequent contributor to archival newsletters and was instrumental in the publication of four works related to the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. She also developed and shared, under a Creative Commons license, a policy manual covering seventeen aspects of archival administration and a processing manual for archives. Kosta regularly presents at workshops and conferences and is active in supporting new archival professionals through a practicum program that delivers instruction in archival methods and museum registration.

Kosta’s willingness to share her expertise and knowledge with other religious archivists is but one of her many outstanding qualities. One supporter wrote that her leadership in the ongoing discussion of the future of religious archives reflects her deep commitment “to excellence in the field of religious archives, in both Canada and the United States.”

Created in 1974, the award 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.

Spotlight Award: Lee Price

Lee Price, a fundraising professional who specializes in grant writing for cultural institutions, is the 2021 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Through the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA), Price consults with museums, libraries, archives, and historic sites on fundraising strategies to preserve their special collections. His expertise and tireless advocacy have made an extraordinary impact on archival institutions, including many smaller institutions with limited support. Over the past twenty years, Price has helped leverage an estimated $100 million in grant funding, including twenty-four successful applications to the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures program. He frequently works with archives and libraries pro bono—assessing needs, identifying sources of funding, and writing and reviewing grant proposals.

In addition, Price regularly teaches and publishes on strategic planning for collections and fundraising for preservation and collections care. For five years, he wrote a bimonthly column, "Bringing in the Money," for Public Libraries, the journal of the Public Libraries Association, and he has published more than 500 blog entries on Save America’s Treasures destinations, preserving family histories, and the courtship of his parents as recorded in their preserved love letters. His work with the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ "Connecting to Collections" initiatives, as well as the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance’s “Building Capacity” project, has helped preserve the cultural heritage of underrepresented groups.

One supporter wrote: “With great thanks to Price’s knowledge and unrelenting volunteerism, archival holdings across the nation have secured external support allowing these irreplaceable holdings to be assessed, relocated, and digitized for future study and enrichment.” Another commented that “his investment in every institution and individual that he works with is sincere. His joy in learning and sharing knowledge is contagious. The cultural heritage field is lucky that Price has given his time and talents to support our work.”

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Ferrin Evans

 

Ferrin Evans, who is pursuing a master’s degree in information at the University of Toronto, is the 2021 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes superior writing achievements by a student of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.

Evans’ paper, “Love (and Loss) in the Time of COVID-19: Translating Trauma into an Archive of Embodied Immediacy,” reflects on the personal experience of the loss of a loved one during a global pandemic and broader observations of collecting, community, and the way trauma informs people’s relationship to the archival record. “Usually discussed in the context of fields like social work and psychiatry, secondary trauma is both highly relevant and deeply underexplored within the archival field,” wrote Evans. His work resides in a liminal space, holding both the significance of the archival record and the recognition of its construction.

Evans’ paper will be published in the American Archivist 85, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2022). His nominator Karen Suurtamm, assistant professor of information at the University of Toronto, noted: “With each section, the paper spirals outward from this singular event to a consideration of the larger impacts of records, memory, and archival work relating to grief and trauma.”

The Awards Committee recognized the importance of speaking to this work in the archival profession and were moved by Evans’ lyrical writing. Evans presents a fresh voice in a troubled time, and challenges archivists to accept the fluidity of boundaries between personal and professional lives.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Cheryl Oestreicher

Cheryl Oestreicher, head of Special Collections and Archives and associate professor at Boise State University in Idaho, is the 2021 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her book Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts, published by SAA in 2020. The book is volume 4 in SAA’s Archival Fundamental Series III, a seven-volume series that provides a gateway to contemporary archival best practices. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

In her book, Oestreicher incorporates history and theory to contextualize reference and access practices so that readers may recognize how these elements intersect, apply them in contemporary environments, and build upon them to advance the profession. Presented in a highly readable and thoughtful manner, Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts has wide applicability for beginning and experienced archivists who work in a variety of institutions. As the profession continues to evolve, archivists can—and should—revise their approach to reference and access practices, with particular attention to removing barriers that prevent some people from accessing archives. Oestreicher effectively breaks down components of physical, virtual, and intellectual access; offers guidance for archivists encountering various accessibility, privacy, and legal challenges; and presents useful case studies and tools for evaluating reference programs.

The Awards Committee noted that Oestreicher’s overview of access restrictions and emerging trends in digital access and outreach is especially important in the post-pandemic world. As Oestreicher writes in her book: “As the conduit between patrons and collections, archivists will have to develop even more skills and knowledge moving forward. . . . It is an exciting time to be an archivist.”

Archival Innovator: Invisible Histories Project

Invisible Histories Project (IHP), a non-profit, community-based archiving and history project, is the 2020 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA).

The Archival Innovator Award recognizes archivists, repositories, or organizations that show creativity in approaching professional challenges, the ability to think outside the professional norm, or have an extraordinary impact on a community through archives programs and outreach.

IHP works to locate, preserve, and make accessible the LGBTQ history of the Deep South. The Project began collecting queer archival materials in February of 2018, and to date has located more than 50 collections of LGBTQ historical documents from Alabama dating from 1912 to the present. It pioneers cooperative collecting, breaks down long-established walls of distrust, and builds lasting partnerships between LGBTQ memory-creators, academic institutions, budding archivists, and researchers. In the last two years IHP has developed Queer History South, a network and conference that brings together archivists, historians, oral historians, and community organizers to focus on the work of LGBTQ archival preservation. It creates a network of support and innovation for the field of Queer Southern Studies.

“We strive to break barriers between organizations and their local communities to ensure that preservation and research exist in a co-productive and relationship-centered way. We are invested in providing scholars with direct access to materials as well as creating a network of people conducting LGBTQ Southern archiving, preservation, education and research to make scholarship more accessible,” said Co-founder Joshua Burford.

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Victor Betts

Victor Betts, NCSU library fellow in the Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University, is a 2020 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, which recognizes and acknowledges individuals of color, such as those of African, Asian, Latinx, Native American, Alaska Native, or Pacific Islander descent, and who have demonstrated professional archival experience.

Currently, Victor is conducting instruction related to archival literacy and research, as well as working to identify opportunities for outreach. His special interests are in helping under-represented first-generation students learn about the importance of archives, and learning about the problems and approaches in documenting and preserving the histories of communities of color. Betts advocates for visibility and inclusion of marginalized voices and communities, and is eager to collaborate with other archivists to find solutions to these problems. In promoting the preservation of collections that document people of color, he has conducted targeted outreach to these specific communities in hopes of raising awareness about archives and the benefits of archival academic research.

In his statement, Betts wrote: “I believe that creative writing, such as speculative fiction and historical fiction, can be used to address these missing, silenced histories and memories.”

C.F.W. Coker Award: Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP)

Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) is the 2020 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The 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.

Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) is a loose association of archivists, librarians, and allied professionals in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. It provides tools that can be immediately implemented to improve the equity, accuracy and accessibility of archival description. In addition, they offer a collocated set of resources and recommendations pertaining to anti-oppressive descriptive practices. Specifically, it focuses on Black communities, but their recommendations can often be extended to description of records created by and about other marginalized and underrepresented communities. This work has substantial impact on descriptive practices that can have biased, misleading, and harmful archival descriptions. Therefore, it provides an important first step toward determining how to remedy these descriptive issues and how to best to minimize their recurrence. 

The nominator states, “These guidelines can inform practices at all institutions and help stop further oppressive language in archival description, which is crucial in a predominantly white field.”

Distinguished Service Award: Orange County Regional History Center

Orange County Regional History Center is the 2020 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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. 

In 2016 a shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida devastated the City, and its LGBTQ and Latinx communities in particular. Within days, Orange County Regional History Center mobilized to begin collecting materials from memorial sites, an initiative which became the foundation of its One Orlando Collection Initiative. This initiative has served as a springboard for many others, one of which is the expansion of their oral history program, where they actively work to decolonize this collection to better reflect the many different people and perspectives of central Florida. In the years since, the Center has served as a nexus of community, connection, and remembrance for those touched by the tragedy. The Center has used its experiences to build relationships and support systems with cultural heritage professionals across the country who have experienced their own mass tragedies, in places like Las Vegas, Parkland, and Dallas. They share their experiences widely through presentations and publications, and contributed to the SAA Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force that produced the vital resource, Documenting in Times of Crisis: A Resource Kit.

As one supporter wrote, “Orange County Regional History Center stepped up to the extremely difficult challenge created from a tragic event – documenting the aftermath of the Pulse shootings – leading the way to ensure that this event and the outpouring of emotion, love and support for the LGBTQ and Latino communities, and the city of Orlando, is not and will not ever be forgotten.”

Diversity Award: Rebecca Hankins

Rebecca Hankins, SAA Fellow and Africana resources librarian/curator at Texas A&M University, is a 2020 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Named a Fellow of SAA in 2016, Hankins’ impressive career has been dedicated to documenting the stories of underrepresented populations. To this end, the breadth of her work is impressive and includes actively collecting materials documenting traditionally underrepresented populations; exhibiting materials illustrating the impact of these groups; scholarly publishing on issues of diversity; and mentoring young archivists of color.  

In addition, Hankins’ commitment to the profession is evidenced in her work for both SAA and the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA). Her work with both organizations has allowed her to continue to press her case for diversity within the profession by engaging in specific activities such as ensuring the representativeness of the ACA exam. Hankins has a long tradition of working tirelessly from within these organizations to effect change in a meaningful way. Rebecca has broken barriers and has been a trailblazer for so many archivists. She has paved the way for marginalized archivists to find their own voices, and has done much to advance diversity within the archives profession through the years.

As noted by one of her nominators, “Rebecca advocates for diversity and equality in SAA and ACA. She has been a tireless champion for good in the archival profession. She has inspired and encouraged me to become involved with both SAA and ACA. She has shown me how to be a mentor, a leader, and how one person really can make a difference.”

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Jeanie Pai

Jeanie Pai is the 2020 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists. Established in 2005, the Donald Peterson Student Travel 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 SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee or section. 

Pai is a recent graduate of the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. Her SAA poster presentation is entitled, Paper Sons of the Chinese Exclusion Era. It describes her research into the history and experiences of paper sons, and how they contributed to the shaping of Chinese American communities. Her interests lie in emerging issues of inclusion and access, particularly toward resources for disadvantaged groups that are historically misrepresented. She is committed to recognizing the gaps in collections, and exploring honest ways to preserve the history of marginalized groups, including what archival materials to collect, how it is described, and who has access to the records. Pai’s belief is that active inclusion allows archivists to create democratic spaces where people of all backgrounds have agency and representation.

A supporter of Pai states, “She is genuinely motivated by the core values of social justice, ethics, inclusion, and access and will continue to be guided by them in her career.”

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Elena Hinkle

Elena Hinkle of Simmons University is the 2020 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

In her essay, Erasing Esther: Borrowing Concepts from Functional Analysis to Help us Hear the Archives’ Unheard Voices, Hinkle relates her inability to find adequate archival documentation to create a story for a central character in a historical fiction novella. Thinking like an archivist, she ties her research experience that led to an insightful proposal for archivists to adapt certain elements of functional analysis to address inequities in collections that they manage. In addition, Elena has achieved an outstanding academic record, served as the student representative to the archives faculty and as co-chair of the SAA student chapter, and is scheduled to present this year at the New England Archivists and SAA annual meetings.

Her recommender noted that she is “truly invested in becoming a leader and in making a difference in the field of archives. I believe this is emblematic of the kind of professional she will be once she completes graduate school.”

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Keith Pendergrass, Walker Sampson, Tessa Walsh, and Laura Alagna

Keith Pendergrass, digital archivist at Harvard Business School, Walker Sampson, assistant professor and digital archivist at the University of Colorado Boulder, Tessa Walsh, software developer at Artefactual Systems, and Laura Alagna, digital preservation librarian at Northwestern University, are the 2020 recipients of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist. 

Keith Pendergrass, Walker Sampson, Tessa Walsh, and Laura Alagna are being honored for their article, Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation, which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of American Archivist (vol. 82, no. 1). The authors provide a framework for the cultural heritage profession to move toward environmentally sustainable digital preservation. First, they review the literature for differing uses of the term “sustainability” to establish the long history of this work in the cultural heritage field. Second, they provide a more holistic view of digital preservation’s environmental impacts than has appeared in the cultural heritage literature by examining the full life-cycle effects of information and communication technology. Then, the authors offer stopgap solutions for reducing digital preservation's negative environmental impacts through altered technology use. Finally, taking into account digital preservation’s full life-cycle impacts, they argue that creating environmentally sustainable digital preservation requires critically examining the motivations and assumptions that shape current practice and propose explicitly integrating environmental sustainability into digital preservation practice by shifting cultural heritage professionals’ paradigm of appraisal, permanence, and availability of digital content.

The SAA Awards Committee noted that the article “is beautifully and clearly written, covering a broad swath of professional thought and practice through the lens of digital preservation. The recommendations for achieving sustainability in digital preservation efforts, at the macro and operational levels, are cogent and compelling.”

Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award: Carol Ng-He

Carol Ng-He, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at San José State University, is a 2020 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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. 

Ng-He serves as exhibits coordinator at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington Heights, Illinois. As an immigrant from Hong Kong and a veteran art museum educator, she is passionate about using exhibitions to uplift ethnically underrepresented voices and present them to the public, to diversify archival collecting, and to increase accessibility to and awareness of collections. In 2019, Ng-He founded the Curating and Exhibitions Interest Group under Chicago Area Archivists for scholars, (art) historians, archivists and librarians in order to build community across varying disciplines of practice. Recently, she organized and led two Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) webinars on career development and advancement focused on the experiences of librarians of color. Because of the impact of her work, she was asked to serve as the chair of the ARLIS/NA Professional Development Committee for 2020-2021. In addition, she has presented on topics related to immigration, identity, and otherness. 

As one recommender noted, “Not only is Carol an ambitious student, she is also collegial, appreciative, and receptive to different perspectives and ideas.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Brad Pomerance and CJ Eastman

Brad Pomerance, host and co-executive producer of KVCR-TV’s Uncovered in the Archives, and CJ Eastman, co-executive of Uncovered in the Archives, are 2020 recipients of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors individuals, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs. 

Each week, viewers throughout southern California watch, Uncovered in the Archives, a thirty-minute public television program on Empire | PBS. Brad Pomerance travels to archival repositories to describe some of the region’s most extraordinary historical events. He features archival experts and treasures, and shoots footage behind the scenes in special collections, allowing the public to learn more about the archival profession. In every episode, the archives are a character in the program. The audience is made aware of the pivotal role that archivists play in maintaining our collective history. Given the success of the show’s first season, plans have been laid for the program’s second season, including potential expansion to other Public Broadcasting Service affiliates throughout the State of California and beyond. Uncovered in the Archives is and will continue to shine a bright light on how archives and archivists fortify the history of our communities, our cities, our states and our nation. 

Pomerance describes the documentary series as an opportunity to “unravel some of the region’s most extraordinary historical events—known and unknown, remembered and forgotten—all told through the hidden treasures that we uncover in the archives.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: CIC’s Humanities Research for the Public Good Program

Council of Independent Colleges’ (CIC) Humanities Research for the Public Good Program is a 2020 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs. 

This program engages undergraduate students in archival research on topics that address issues of public significance. Selected teams—each consisting of a faculty member, a librarian or archivist, and a senior academic administrator—receive grant funds to collaborate with a local community organization on a project to showcase a significant collection of primary sources held by a CIC member institution and address a topic of public concern. Twenty-five private colleges and universities around the country have had an opportunity to highlight primary source collections through public programs, and have created community partnerships. Many undergraduates had the opportunity to spend two semesters getting to know their collections intimately through processing and researching collections, or conducting research in previously processed materials. Projects have taken many forms, including exhibitions, public discussions, websites, and podcasts. Engagement with archivists and primary sources is front and center in this innovative program. 

As stated by the CIC President Richard Ekman for the program’s 2018 launch, “Independent colleges are stronger when they share their resources with their communities—and so are their communities. Those resources often include significant archival or library collections that can illuminate issues of real public importance.”

The project is directed by Anne M. Valk, executive director of the American Social History Project (CUNY Graduate Center), and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Participating institutions are detailed at www.cic.edu/PublicHumanities.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Ishmael Ross

Ishmael Ross is the 2020 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 (SAA). 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.

Ross is a graduate student at Louisiana State University (LSU) pursuing a dual degree that combines an Archival Studies certificate with a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree. His decision to pursue a post-graduate degree was borne out of the realization that even in New Orleans, a city where Black people are the majority, the archival field is majority white women and men. He is employed full-time in the New Orleans Public Library system at the Central City Public Library. In this role, he has assisted in establishing an exhibit from the Amistad Research Center that focuses on Black feminists in New Orleans. Ishmael’s internship at the Amistad Research Center focuses on African-American and Civil Rights-related manuscripts and materials. He recognizes the importance of diversity in this field, as well as the value of his perspective as an African American male in the profession.

He is passionate about the African American culture and keeping its history relevant, as well as sharing it within and in other communities. As one of his recommenders wrote, “He is interested in the intersection of criminal law and preserving and amplifying the history of African Americans.”

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Lydia Tang

Lydia Tang, special collections archivist-librarian at Michigan State University, is the 2020 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

Tang’s exemplary leadership and service is highlighted throughout her emerging archival career, including her work with SAA and ArchivesSpace. Among her leadership activities within SAA, she was an invaluable contributor on the SAA Task Force to revise the Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities and the driving force behind the creation of the Accessibility and Disability section. With this group, she spearheaded the “Archivists at Home” crowdsourced work from home advocacy document and co-founded the Archives Worker Emergency Fund. Passionate about enhancing the usability and accessibility of the ArchivesSpace collection management tool, Tang currently chairs the ArchivesSpace User Advisory Council, is co-leader of the ArchivesSpace Development Prioritization sub-team, and leader of the Usability sub-team, and chaired the Staff Interface Enhancement Working Group (2017).

Nominators described, “Her dedication is matched only by her drive and enthusiasm. She was able to coordinate and spearheaded the creation of the section in record time and with amazing organization and forethought. Everything from the way she created the first steering committee, to how she planned and organized the strategic goals for the section, how meetings are run, and how credit is shared, has set the standard for how a new section should be developed.”

“Lydia leads by example, making respect part of everything she does. She makes sure that everyone can participate in a way that feels comfortable for them. More than that, she knows when to say something in a group setting and when to reach out directly.”

“Her sub-team members are inspired by her energy and encouragement to work harder and do more. In turn this enables the program team to push development projects through more quickly and for users to derive benefits from improvements in the application. Lydia’s ability to inspire others to do better marks her as a future leader.”

“[…] Lydia is a passionate advocate for accessibility and inclusion in all activities. She is already a leader in this area for the whole archival community, both in raising awareness and actively working towards demonstrable change, including in the tools that archivists use to do their work. The lens through which she views the archival field leads her to ideas that are always creative and often challenging to conventional wisdom. Her enthusiasm and drive to take those ideas and work with others to turn them into action from which others will benefit sets her apart from many archivists…”

Mosaic Scholarship: Mya Ballin

Mya Ballin, a graduate student in the Master of Archival Studies program at the University of British Columbia, is the 2020 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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. 

Mya is a full-time student with a strong academic record, who seeks to use her time in graduate school to immerse in initiatives that directly challenge her own biases. Ballin’s hope is to become a strong ally to all groups who have encountered oppression and erasure. Mya’s continuing encounters with racial microaggressions and awareness of the presence of laws and conventions in American society that disadvantage black and brown folks have demonstrated to her that inequities tied to societal perceptions of race still require active attention and serious intervention. She dedicates herself to researching the needs and desires of marginalized communities and determining strategies for allyship. She is very involved in student organizations at her university. She has served as a student member of the UBC School of Information’s Equity and Diversity Committee, and volunteered with Out on the Shelves, a non-profit community library serving Vancouver’s LGBTQ2IA+ people and their allies. 

In her cover letter Ballin states, “I am an aspiring archivist who will go on to apply archival theory to my practice. I want to participate in the disruption of oppression and the engagement of both archival academics and professionals…in feminist, anti-racist, and decolonizing practices.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Klavier Jie Ying Wang

Klavier Jie Ying Wang, who is a graduate student in New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) degree program, is the 2020 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award enables international archivists who are training or studying in the United States or Canada to augment their experience by attending the SAA Annual Meeting. 

Wang has an impressive work experience, publication history, and has received numerous awards. Before joining New York University (NYU), she worked for more than five years as a historical researcher and adjunct professor in Hong Kong. With a doctorate in communication studies from Hong Kong Baptist University, Wang is interested in the history of the Asian diaspora. Recently, she published the English monograph Hong Kong Popular Culture: Worlding Film, Television, and Pop Music (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020). Researching, documenting, archiving, and preserving history of Asian diaspora has always been a theme of her academic and career pursuit. When she returns to Hong Kong, Wang plans to pursue a career as an audiovisual archive to learn to preserve cultural heritage for future generations. The knowledge and professional experience from her education and professional conferences have become a precious asset to develop Hong Kong’s underdeveloped audiovisual archiving and preservation sector.

Attendance at the Joint Annual Meeting will allow her to gain additional knowledge and skills for augmenting the public awareness and stewardship of Hong Kong’s audiovisual heritage. Wang writes, “I believe attending the SAA conference will significantly broaden my horizon through dynamic knowledge and experience sharing.”

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Laura Wagner

Laura Wagner, project archivist for the Radio Haiti Archive at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is the 2020 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.

Haiti’s first independent radio station, Radio Haiti-Inter, dedicated itself to representing the Haitian masses who had been excluded from political discourse, information and power. In order to make the Radio Haiti Archive more accessible to people in Haiti, Wagner ensured that every recording in the collection has detailed narrative description in Haitian Creole, French, and English. The collection, which comprises some 5,300 recordings, is digitized and publicly available via Duke’s Digital Repository. She has presented on the Radio Haiti project in Haiti and to the Haitian community in the United States, and has distributed copies of many recordings to organizations, libraries, and archives in Haiti. The Radio Haiti collection documents much of twentieth-century Haitian history and amplifies the voices of ordinary Haitian people. The collection is the basis for many scholars’ works, and Laura has also worked to take the history of Radio Haiti back to the people to whom it belongs.

As one scholar noted, “These materials are a treasure trove. They contain first-person interviews with historical persons of various time periods, and provide an indispensable perspective on recent religious and cultural history of Haiti and its ties to the rest of the globe.”

Preservation Publication Award: Lisa Elkin and Christopher A. Norris

Lisa Elkin, chief registrar and director of Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, and Christopher A. Norris, director of Public Programs, Yale Peabody Museum, are the 2020 recipients of the Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their book, Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage (the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, The American Institute for Conservation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the George Washington University Museum Studies Program, 2019). The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

As a collaborative work, it issues a comprehensive guide to collection storage by drawing on the efforts of four publishers and seven associate editors (Mary Coughlin, Catharine A. Hawks, John E. Simmons, Jude Southward, Sarah Stauderman Shelley Sturman, and Robert Waller). Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage written by over 110 subject specialists (from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan), defines and establishes standards for preservation, storage, and housing of collections and is a true compendium of preservation theory and practice. The last book to cover such a comprehensive topic was published nearly 25 years ago, and both ethical and practical considerations have evolved over time. Utilizing a risk management approach, covering storage for a variety of collections and media types in libraries, archives, museums, and digital collections, it is an indispensable reference book for archival practitioners, and will likely be used for years to come. Focused attention on special collection types and materials such as remains, digital collections, and many more are presented with thoughtfulness and a full understanding of current standards and practice. 

One of the editors’ supporters wrote, “The book will be useful to anyone in the field of collection care looking for an overview of collection storage – be it an established specialist, an emerging professional, or a student.”

SAA Fellow: Geof Huth

Geof Huth, chief records officer and chief law librarian at New York State Unified Court System, will be inducted as a 2020 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.

Huth's presentations, writings, and workshops have kept him in service to the archival profession. From the beginning of his career, Geof has written and published on a range of records and archival topics. He has completed over 250 presentations given to national, regional, state, and local archival and records management organizations. Presentations include records management topics, digital records, disaster recovery, appraisal, advocacy and outreach, mentoring, strategic planning, and special interest topics. His writings have been published in Archival Outlook, the Mid-Atlantic Archivist, and various historical societies and local government association publications.

Geof has worked with SAA for 29 years, beginning with his first committee appointment in 1991. He has held a position continuously in SAA for 19 years from 2001 to the present, and has held multiple leadership positons on SAA’s various sections, committee and boards. His role was pivotal in developing SAA’s Digital Archives Specialist certificate, which was a result of his extensive and long-standing work with digital records. His latest efforts in the archival community include a podcast that he and his wife Karen Trivette began producing in 2018. Titled, An Archivist’s Tale, this weekly podcast, currently exceeding 100 episodes and highlights archivists in conversation with archivists, discussing their work and passions and how they care for the historical record and present the storied past. No doubt, Geof’s contributions will continue to make a lasting impact in the archival community and beyond.

As one supporter noted, “His overarching desire to push colleagues to think more deeply about the profession and ways to make it better, demonstrate the passion that he has for the archival profession and the possibilities it has for its members and stakeholders.”

SAA Fellow: Lisa Mangiafico

Lisa Mangiafico, senior director of information services for Soroptimist International of the Americas, Inc., will be inducted as a 2020 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.

During her 31-year career, Lisa’s experience has ranged from processing archival collections, to establishing an institutional archives and records management program, creating a digital reformatting program, and managing an archives unit. Her professional career has included positions at two outstanding repositories where she continues to demonstrate her lifelong commitment to mentorship and assisting small community archives. She has engaged in numerous archival consultations as a member of the New Jersey Caucus Archival Preservation Evaluation Service (CAPES) since 1998, and on the New Jersey State Historical Records Advisory Board from 2004-2018. A member of the Society of American Archivists since 1993, Lisa has served in multiple roles in the Society of American Archivists and Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). During her term as chair (2003-2005) at MARAC, she oversaw the review and revision of the conference’s strategic plan, the mission statement and purpose, and promoted advocacy and education. Serving on SAA’s Council, she worked alongside others to develop the Code of Conduct for SAA Annual Meetings, SAA-sponsored events, and Online SAA Spaces. Her time spent on the SAA Executive Committee and Foundation Board of Directors helped to develop the Foundation’s inaugural grants program. Additionally, she has presented or moderated more than 25 sessions at regional and national conferences, such as MARAC, SAA, and Soroptimist. The breadth of knowledge and depth of experience have always been key assets in her professional career.

Lisa has co-authored two monographs, Guide to the Archives of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (1992) and Cherry Hill: A Brief History (2010), and has been a contributor to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and the Encyclopedia of New York State. In 2013, she was recognized for her contribution to the archival profession by MARAC with the Distinguished Service Award.

Her nominator stated, “Lisa represents the best of what an archivist should be. Her activities taken in service to institutions as well as to professional organizations demonstrate Lisa’s resourcefulness, initiative and commitment to the archival profession.”

SAA Fellow: Michael Rush

Michael Rush, assistant head of the Manuscript Unit in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, will be inducted as a 2020 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.

Michael has provided progressive leadership in and considerable contributions to the development, revision, and implementation of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard.

It was during his five-year term as co-chair of SAA's Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Description (TS-EAD) where his leadership and technical skills led to the publication of EAD3. His contributions to EAD development are present throughout his many presentations, publications, and training citations. The citations document his involvement in archival encoded description and access, including his EAD Bibliography (2006-2011) that often serves as research documentation on encoded descriptive standards for the archival community.

In addition, Michael demonstrated his initiative and commitment to SAA in a variety of leadership roles. He served on SAA's Standards Committee, chair and member of the Technical Subcommittee on Descriptive Standards, co-chair of the Encoded Archival Description Roundtable, chair and member of the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), and member of the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Context. He created two SAA EAD Web Seminars—EAD3: What's New? and EAD Tips and Tricks.

Other professional contributions include progressive descriptive and management responsibilities at the Massachusetts Historical Society and in his current position at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. His volunteer work with regional, state, national and international professional organizations document his deep engagement in developing archival encoded description standards.    

His nominator noted that it is "his ability to bring together individuals with different experiences and sets of expertise in pursuit of a common goal,” as his most valuable asset.

Sister M. Claude Lane, OP, Memorial Award: Ellen Pierce

Ellen Pierce, archival consultant for the Dominican Sisters and other Religious Congregations, is the 2020 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

Ellen’s dedication and devotion to religious archives is inspiring. She is knowledgeable about the science and practice of archives and has the ability to explain this to those who are not trained as archivists. Her ability to communicate complex archival ideas to various audiences within and without the archival community has made her a highly sought after consultant. Pierce helped build the Maryknoll Mission Archives, ultimately becoming Director until her retirement in 2017. Her contribution to preserving Catholic history culminated in presentations at the American Catholic Historical Association, ACWR and the Boston College Conference where her expertise inspired others to continue historic preservation of religious archives.

Her nominator said, “It is no small thing to be able to foster change in the methods of collecting, organizing and preserving the stories of women who have a high sense of ownership of this information.”

Spotlight Award: Michelle Ganz

Michelle Ganz, archives director at McDonough Innovation, is the 2020 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Michelle is very involved within both SAA and the Academy of Certified Archivists. She is known as someone who is industrious and passionate about building a strong archival profession. She has been deeply involved in creating policies and best practices for the profession by serving on various committees and roles for SAA and the Academy of Certified Archivists. Her involvement within SAA includes leadership on various commitees, including the Archives Management/Records Management Joint Working Group on Accessibility co-chair (2009–2011), Lone Arrangers Section vice-chair (2009–2012), SAA representative to the American Library Association Committee on Cataloging (2018–2020), Archives History Section Steering Committee member (2019–2020), and Professional Writers Virtual Group co-leader (2019–2020). Ganz is deeply involved in the Academy of Certified Archivists by serving as an Exam Development Committee member, leading the Petition Review Committee, item writing the exams, and proctoring exams. Additionally, Michelle was active in ARMA International in the Technical Manual Auditing Working Group (2013–2014) and the Glossary Working Group (2001–2002).

She is vigorous in her writing and presentations, and generous with sharing her expertise. “She is energetic and tireless in her work and is a pleasure to work alongside,” her nominator stated.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Bridget Malley

Bridget Malley, a December 2019 master of Library and Information Science graduate, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, School of Information Studies, is the 2020 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies, and (entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing).

Malley’s paper, "Nothing about Us Without Us: Documenting Disability History in Western Pennsylvania," is a valuable contribution to the professional literature. It considers how appraisal methodology can be applied to collections that are being created and preserved in order to document the history of disability in a specific geographical region. They provide a thoughtful and well-crafted investigation of an effort to better preserve disability history. Bridget gives a detailed account about applying Helen Samuels’ guidance on documentation strategies in a contemporary context. The article both foregrounds and contributes substantially to the societal need to better recognize and document the lives and experiences of individuals with disabilities.

“The very best student papers either seek to seat themselves firmly within a specific ongoing discussion in the archival literature; or they attempt to bring the archival literature to bear on a relatively overlooked aspect of society. This paper does both of these things, and does them extremely well,” noted the nominator, Amy Cooper Cary, head of Special Collections and University Archives at Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University. Malley's paper will be published in American Archivist Volume 84, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2021).

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Jean-Christophe Cloutier

Jean-Christophe Cloutier, assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, is the 2020 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book, Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature, published by Columbia University Press in 2019. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

In Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature, Cloutier uses a variety of African American novels as alternative repositories for the black experience. The book traces the development of Black special collections in mid-twentieth-century America, exploring how archival methodology, acquisition, and access shape literary history. As an archivist and a researcher, he studies how leading twentieth-century African American authors carefully preserved their individual writing, as well as the African American experience, in their novels. Cloutier provides an enlightening account of the unique challenges that many Black writers faced when trying to establish collections, which either clarified or reconfigured their legacies. Cloutier adeptly employs a cross-disciplinary model in his examination, skillfully moving between the archival and the literary.

“Based on a deep understanding of archival history, theory, and practice, Shadow Archives is a compelling analysis of the power of archives for truth-telling and scholarship that suggests future paths for research,” noted the nominator. “Given the lack of institutions dedicated to the Black experience, the novel became an alternative site of historical preservation, a means to ensure both individual legacy and group survival.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: Dictionary Working Group

Society of American Archivists

Council Exemplary Service Award

Honoring the

Dictionary Working Group
 

WHEREAS a working group was appointed by SAA in 2014 to expand on the 2005 edition of A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology by Richard Pearce-Moses; and

WHEREAS this group, composed of Rosemary Pleva Flynn (chair), Kathryn Bowers, Tamar Chute, Kristy Darby, Pam Hackbart-Dean, Juli Folk, Lauren Haberstock, Cliff Hight, Geof Huth, Andrew Hyslop, Mary Elizabeth Ruwell, Dawn Schmitz, Margery N. Sly, Katy Sternberger, Joseph Turrini, and Diane Vogt-O’Connor, worked for six years to add hundreds of new terms, thousands of citations from more than 600 sources, and a new online platform; and 

WHEREAS the Dictionary of Archives Terminology is a comprehensive and organically evolving intellectual resource that provides open access to authoritative archival lexicon; and

WHEREAS this group of individuals unwaveringly dedicated their time and intellect toward the development of the Dictionary of Archives Terminology; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Dictionary Working Group be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for the compilation and launch of the Dictionary of Archives Terminology.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Archival Metrics Research Investigators

Society of American Archivists

Council Exemplary Service Award

Honoring

 Elizabeth Yakel, Wendy Duff, and Helen Tibbo, 
Archival Metrics Research Investigators

 

WHEREAS Archival Metrics has set a model for the archives profession to evaluate and understand the impact of archives in society; and 

WHEREAS Through the expert leadership of its principal investigator, Professor Elizabeth Yakel (University of Michigan), and co-investigators Professor Wendy Duff (University of Toronto) and Professor Helen Tibbo (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Archival Metrics has pioneered the development of user-based evaluation toolkits for assessing the impact of archives and their archival services and tools; and 

WHEREAS Archival Metrics promoted a culture of assessment in the profession with its creation of survey questionnaires and other performance measures that assist archivists in measuring and articulating the value and impact of their tools and services; and 

WHEREAS Archival Metrics has produced seven easy-to-use, publicly available, user-based evaluation toolkits that cover a broad range of archival services and tools (online finding aids, repository websites and access tools, student orientations, use of archives in teaching and instruction, economic impact of government archives, and use of the focus group method in data collection); and 

WHEREAS The user-based evaluation toolkits developed by Archival Metrics and the findings generated through the continued use of these toolkits have helped archivists make evidence-based decisions to improve archival programs, services, and resources for their users; and

WHEREAS This group of scholars, throughout the duration of the Archival Metrics project, have mentored junior scholars to widen the pool of researchers who continue to engage in the area of user-based evaluation and assessment in the field;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Archival Metrics project and its principal investigators, Professor Wendy Duff (University of Toronto), Professor Helen Tibbo (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and Professor Elizabeth Yakel (University of Michigan), be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Lori Lindberg

 Society of American Archivists

Council Exemplary Service Award

Honoring

Lori Lindberg

 

WHEREAS Lori Lindberg has been actively involved in the academic and archival professions, championing archival education as a member of the SAA Education Committee, the SAA DAS Subcommittee and as a longtime university faculty member;

WHEREAS serving as a lecturer at San Jose State University and other institutions, she advocates for education in archival science, records management, and digital preservation; and

WHEREAS she conducted extensive research to map 15 courses to the ACA and ICRM exam to create curriculum; and

WHEREAS she designed 15 weeks of lessons for each course using the SAA Code of Ethics, SAA Core Values, and her wealth of teaching experience and subject expertise; and

WHEREAS her work led to the creation of the first independent accredited Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA) degree program in the United States; and

WHEREAS in 2008 the MARA degree at San Jose State University accepted enrollment of its first class; and

WHEREAS in 2010 and 2012 she received the WISE (Web-based Information Science Education) Consortium's Excellence in Online Teaching Award upon student recommendation after experiencing her course content and teaching effectiveness;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Lori Lindberg be honored with a 2020 Council Exemplary Service Award for her long-standing commitment to archival education and the betterment of archives professionals that has contributed to the modernization of the archives and digital curation curriculum.

Council Exemplary Service Award: Mark Puente

Society of American Archivists

Council Exemplary Service Award

Honoring

Mark A. Puente

 

WHEREAS Mark Puente has been actively involved with diversity and leadership development since the beginning of his library career; and

WHEREAS while serving as director and senior director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), he advocated for and taught about diversity recruitment strategies, racial equity, networking, and residency programs in academic libraries; and

WHEREAS in 2013, and in subsequent extensions through 2021, he administered grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to establish multiple diversity initiatives in partnership with professional associations, including the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program whose goal was to recruit and retain emerging professionals from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups; and

WHEREAS the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program provided financial support, practical work experience, mentoring, career placement assistance, and leadership development to 34 individuals in eight cohorts, contributing to a more diversified and inclusive archives and special collections workforce;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Mark A. Puente be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for his long-standing commitment to diversity in the archives and special collections profession, and especially for his outstanding leadership of the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program.

Council Resolution: Archival Workers Emergency Fund

Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Organizers of the Archival Workers Emergency Fund

 

WHEREAS the Archival Workers Emergency Fund (AWEF) was established in 2020 by the SAA Foundation to provide financial assistance for archival workers experiencing acute, unanticipated financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and

WHEREAS the AWEF was created based on a proposal developed by an ad hoc group of concerned archivists led by Jessica Chapel and Lydia Tang and comprising Steven D. Booth, Alison Clemens, Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Jennifer Coggins, Courtney Dean, Steve Duckworth, Carady DeSimone, Rebecca Goldman, Irene Hauzinger, Katharina Hering, Hayley Hinsberger, Valencia Johnson, Carli Lowe, Bridget Malley, Sarah McLusky, Rebecca Thayer, Lauren White, Jen Wachtel, Amy Wickner, and Katrina Windon; and

WHEREAS the ad hoc group also gathered resources relating to remote work, archival labor, mutual aid, access to unemployment benefits, and other relief efforts for archival workers based in the United States who are navigating rapidly changing conditions during the COVID-19 emergency; and

WHEREAS since the launch of the fund 740 donors have contributed more than $105,000 (as of July 2020), in addition to the SAA Foundation Board’s contribution of $21,000 in funding; and;

WHEREAS the AWEF Review Committee, comprising individuals from the ad hoc group and SAA Foundation Board members, has provided, as of July 2020, more than $121,000 to 141 applicants;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the organizers of the Archival Workers Emergency Fund be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Resolution for their work in creating a relief aid program designed to support archival colleagues affected by the COVID-19 crisis.  

Council Resolution: Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force

 

Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force

 

WHEREAS in January 2018, at the request of the SAA Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section, the Council recognized that archivists and communities who must deal with sudden tragic events and circumstances need help and support from the archival community during these times; and

WHEREAS the Council charged a task force to create and compile material for ready accessibility by archivists who are facing a disaster or sudden tragedy; and

WHEREAS that charge also included consideration of the creation of a volunteer tragedy response team; and

WHEREAS the task force, chaired by Lisa Calahan with members David Benjamin, Jackie Esposito, Kara McClurken, Allen Ramsey, Patricia Rettig, Vanessa St. Oegger-Menn, and Susan Tucker, worked for more than two years to create resources for use during dire and unfortunate circumstances; and

WHEREAS the work resulted in Documenting in Times of Crisis: A Resource Kit (SAA website), complete with templates, examples, and guidelines for communities that need assistance collecting after a disaster or tragic event; and

WHEREAS their work has been profiled by NPR news stations in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Southeast Missouri, and used by Johns Hopkins University, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Parkland History Society, and History Colorado; and

WHEREAS the task force forged relationships with representatives from the American Alliance of Museums, American Association for State and Local History, Oral History Association, American Library Association, National Heritage Responders, and LYRASIS; and

WHEREAS the task force has laid the groundwork for SAA to form a cross-professional cultural heritage advisory group on tragedy response;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Resolution for creating critical resources and offering its support for archivists and communities during traumatic moments in time.

Council Resolution: Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility

 

Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility

 

WHEREAS in 2017, the Council convened the Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility to review two standards, Best Practices for Working with Archives Researchers with Physical Disabilities and Best Practices for Working with Employees with Physical Disabilities; and 

WHEREAS this Task Force, co-chaired by Kathy Marquis and Sara White with members Krystal Appiah, Daria D’Arienzo, Alan Lefever, Donna McCrea, Lydia Tang, and Samantha Cook, conducted far-reaching research to learn how to improve archives accessibility based on users' experiences, and current innovative and best practices, and drafted a set of guidelines that incorporated expert, member, and user feedback; and 

WHEREAS this group, working in close consultation with many stakeholders including the SAA Standards Committee, the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section, and the Diversity Committee submitted the Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities, which was approved by the Standards Committee and adopted by the Council in 2019; and

WHEREAS the Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities is a freely available resource that provides a set of core values, best practices, recommendations, and resources to help archivists provide services and spaces that are accessible and inclusive;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Resolution for its diligence in creating a comprehensive set of guidelines that expands the conversation to include neuro-diversity, temporary physical disabilities, access to digital resources, and the concept of an accessibility spectrum.

Council Resolution: Mosaic Program Task Force

 

 Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring the

SAA Diversity Committee’s

Mosaic Program Task Force 

 

WHEREAS in October 2010 SAA President Helen Tibbo appointed a Task Force of the Diversity Committee to support the strategic priority related to Diversity; and

WHEREAS the Task Force was charged to 1) develop a proposal regarding what the Mosaic Program might be and 2) prepare a work plan for achieving that vision; and

WHEREAS that charge also included evolving the Mosaic Scholarship into a program that encompasses a broad set of activities, including conference attendance, enhanced mentoring, and cohort development; and

WHEREAS the Task Force, chaired by Terry Baxter, with members María R. Estorino, Bergis Jules, Debra Kimok, and Farris Wahbeh, worked to create a vision for the Mosaic Program; and

WHEREAS the work resulted in a partnership with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL); and

WHEREAS the partnership resulted in grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as a result of a collaboration between Bergis Jules, Task Force member, and Mark Puente, senior director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at ARL; and  

WHEREAS in 2013 the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program was established; and

WHEREAS the vision from the Diversity Committee and success in attaining funding resulted in diversification of the archives and special collections professional workforce, mentoring, and leadership development; and

WHEREAS the success of the Mosaic Program has resulted in 34 fellows and an increase in the diversity of SAA leadership; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Terry Baxter, María R. Estorino, Bergis Jules, Debra Kimok, and Farris Wahbeh be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for their long-standing commitment to diversity in the archives and special collections profession, especially through the vision of expanding the Mosaic Scholarship and support of the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program.

 

Council Resolution: Accessibility and Disability Section

 

 Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Accessibility and Disability Section Steering Committee

 

WHEREAS the SAA Accessibility and Disability Section was established in 2019, with a steering committee composed of Lydia Tang and Michelle Ganz (co-chairs), Jessica Chapel, Veronica Denison, Jade Finlinson, Bridget Malley, Cheryl Oestreicher, Lindy Smith, Chris Tanguay, Zachary Tumlin, Lauren White, and Sara White; and

WHEREAS this group drafted an advocacy tool for developing a more flexible concept of archival labor for archivists working from home due to COVID-19 or archivists with disabilities, including readings, project ideas, and related resources; and

WHEREAS this document, “Archivists at Home,” has been widely shared, used, and re-used by archivists across the United States and the world, including the Association of Canadian Archivists, the International Council on Archives, Archivist Memes, Archivists’ Think Tank, and SAA; and

WHEREAS their work is an exemplar of cooperative information sharing in support of “archival resilience” for closures, remote work, students and contingent archival workers, archivists with disabilities, and others affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Accessibility and Disability Section Steering Committee be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Resolution for their groundbreaking grassroots effort in developing and distributing the “Archivists at Home” resource.

 

Council Resolution: Human Rights Archives Section

 

Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Human Rights Archives Section Steering Committee 

 

WHEREAS in 2019 the SAA Human Rights Archives Section created the “Rights and Records” webinar series under the leadership of Itza Carbajal and Natalie Bond (co-chairs); and

WHEREAS the webinar series, produced in partnership with SAA Education, provided SAA members, the archival community, and allied cultural heritage professionals with two free, web-based, live recordings; and

WHEREAS the SAA Human Rights Archives Section collaborated with the SAA Native American Archives Section (Rose Buchanan and Caitlin Haynes), the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (Christine Diindiisi McCleave, Dr. Rose Miron, and Stephen R. Curley) and WITNESS (Yvonne Ng and Arul Prakkash) to highlight initiatives and research on Human Rights issues and records, and their presence in various archival settings and scenarios; and 

WHEREAS the webinar series had a global reach with attendees from North America and Europe, and speakers based in Prague and Kuala Lumpur; and 

WHEREAS the SAA Human Rights Archives Section fostered rich, relevant, and meaningful conversations on the role and responsibility of archivists working towards the adoption of ethical and moral practices; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the SAA Human Rights Archives Section be honored with a 2020 SAA Council Resolution for developing “Rights and Records,” the first webinar program involving multiple SAA component groups, affiliated archival organizations, and SAA Education. 

Council Resolution: Samantha Winn

 

Society of American Archivists

Council Resolution

Honoring

Samantha Winn

WHEREAS, Samantha Winn launched a grass-roots fundraiser to assist “QTBIPOC, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and multi-marginalized archives workers in their efforts to engage with the profession”; and

WHEREAS, she illustrated through the #52Fund how a community of archivists can work for positive change by helping each other in the spirit of social justice movements; and

WHEREAS, she developed options for directing funds to the SAA Foundation’s Mosaic Scholarship Fund, the Brenda S. Banks Award, the Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award, or to a mutual aid fund that she administered directly; and

WHEREAS, through her efforts, 36 people received support from their archival colleagues;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Samantha Winn be honored with a 2020 SAA Council resolution for her commitment and support of archivists and her example of peer-to-peer mutual aid as positive change for the betterment of the profession.

 

Archival Innovator: Brooklyn Connections

Brooklyn Connections, a school outreach program of the Brooklyn Public Library, is the 2019 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA).The Archival Innovator Award recognizes archivists, repositories, or organizations that show creativity in approaching professional challenges, the ability to think outside the professional norm or have an extraordinary impact on a community through archives programs and outreach.  

Brooklyn Connections exhibits creativity, innovation, and a commitment to the community by incorporating archival education into 4 through 12 grade curriculum in Brooklyn schools. The program has been in service for twelve years and influenced thousands of young people by connecting them to their local history through the use of primary sources and archival research. While the archives profession often overlooks the opportunity for secondary school children to conduct archival research, Brooklyn Connections scales resources to support students and teachers and enhance their educational opportunities in these spaces. Furthermore, Brooklyn Connections seeks to connect K-12 students and their teachers to the rich and fascinating history of their community. Brooklyn Connections serves as a commendable resource for other organizations pursuing similar programming.

 “In so many instances, students are taught history as a long-gone experience that they can’t connect to. This program bridges those pedagogical gaps by using local primary resources to teach the importance of knowing self through a historical acumen,” wrote a Brooklyn Connections teacher. “It’s the best kept secret in education.”

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Tracy Drake

 

Tracy Drake, archival specialist at the Chicago Public Library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Center, is a 2019 recipient of the Brenda S. Banks Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes and acknowledges individuals of color, such as those of African, Asian, Latinx, Native American, Alaska Native, or Pacific Islander descent, and who have demonstrated professional archival experience.

In her position, Drake has worked to provide equitable access to the stories of marginalized communities, specifically those of Black Chicago, through the development of inclusive collection policies and public programming.  At the 2019 Joint Annual Meeting, she will be a session panelist for “No Ordinary Pain: Invisible Labor and Trauma, Radical Empathy, and Self-Care in Archival Work,” which will examine the emotional labor that archivists contend with in their work.

In her statement, Drake wrote: “The commitment to highlighting diverse voices and promoting equity at my institution and in the larger archival profession begins with building inclusive collection development policies and public programming which amplifies those voices. As well as producing scholarship, presentations focused on anti-racism for information professionals, and recruiting and retaining diverse candidates in the field.”

C.F.W. Coker Award: Lou Reed Papers

The Lou Reed papers processed by the Archives Unit on behalf of the Music Division in the Library for the Performing Arts of the New York Public Library is the 2019 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The 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.

The Lou Reed papers serves as a model for finding aids by rigorously applying archival principles and standards in this large, multiformatted collection that included audiovisual and born-digital materials. This recent acquisition dates from 1958 to 2015 and chronicles Reed's career through audio and video recordings, office files, photographs, artwork, and press clippings. The collection details Reed’s musical output, as well as the administrative and business dealings involved in producing records and touring worldwide. The New York Public Library was innovative in its approach to efficiently and expediently describe the contents given the size of the collection, which totaled more than 90 linear feet and 2.5 terabytes. In particular, New York Public Library’s use of data migration to combine minimal processing with item-level description maximizes the use of this collection without expending an exorbitant amount of labor on the project. In addition, the finding aid’s embedded digital content contributes to setting standards of preserving a collection’s context in the digital realm.

Council Exemplary Service Award and Resolutions 2019

July 29, 2019—The SAA Council periodically presents special awards to recognize special contributions to the Society and the archives profession. Read on to learn more about each of this year's recipients and follow the hyperlinks to read the full text of each award.

Council Exemplary Service Award

The SAA Council is pleased to honor Dr. Michael J. Kurtz with a 2019 Council Exemplary Service Award for his outstanding, life-long contributions to the profession.

The Council Exemplary Service Award will be presented during Plenary 2 on Sunday, August 4, at 9:00 am, during ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2019, the Joint Annual Meeting of CoSA and SAA, in Austin, Texas.

Council Resolutions

The SAA Council is pleased to honor the following individuals and groups with a 2019 Council Resolution:

• Ben Goldman and Eira Tansey, for their tireless work to build a critical resource for mapping the locations of archival repositories across the United States, and their work to use those data to address the current and future impact of climate change on archival repositories and the archival profession.

• Chela Scott Weber, for her contributions to the profession on the Research and Learning Agenda for Archives, Special, and Distinctive Collections in Research Libraries, published by OCLC Research in October 2017.

• Project STAND (Student Activism Now Documented) and its founders, Lae’l Hughes-Watkins and Tamar Chute, for their contributions to advocating for and supporting the work of underrepresented student communities’ engagement in social justice activities on and off campus.

• The collective known as “Universities Studying Slavery,” for their work to provide a forum for academic institutions to critically examine their histories.

• Courtney Dean, Lori Dedeyan, M. Angel Diaz, Melissa Haley, Margaret Hughes, and Lauren McDaniel—collectively known as “The UCLA Six”— and Shira Peltzman, for their contributions to the profession as advocates for fair labor practices in archives. 

• Meg Moss, for her skillful copyediting and outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession.

• Kelly Sweeney, for her fetching design work and outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession.

Council resolutions will be presented during the 2019 SAA Membership Business Meeting on Monday, August 5, at 3:00 pm, during ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2019, the Joint Annual Meeting of CoSA and SAA, in Austin, Texas.

Distinguished Service Award: New England Archivists Mentoring Program

The New England Archivists (NEA) Mentoring Program is a 2019 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Launched in 2013, NEA’s Mentoring Program rethinks traditional one-to-one mentoring models through the creation of Mentoring Circles. The Circles, consisting of four to six mentees and two co-mentors, foster relationships between mentors and mentees and expand mentoring into ongoing peer relationships. The Program has served more than 100 mentees in six years and has increased to include a virtual program connecting those who may otherwise be geographically isolated. The NEA Mentoring Program has been used as a model for other regional archival organizations, such as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). The Chair of the Membership Committee of MARAC states, “[The NEA Mentoring Program] is truly innovative and incredibly beneficial to participants. As such, where we were initially going to borrow several aspects of many programs for our mentoring enterprise, we are now going [with] the entire NEA model.”

The Mentoring Program not only fulfills an important need by helping its members grow and connect in innovative ways, it also actively and openly shares this model allowing the possibility for expansion beyond its community. During its six-year history, the NEA Mentoring Program has grown steadily and developed into an engaged, enthusiastic community of archivists and record keepers who generously share their insights, advice, and expertise with one other.

Diversity Award: The Puerto Rico Citizenship Archives Project

The Puerto Rico Citizenship Archives Project (PRCAP) is a 2019 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

A collaboration between University of Connecticut (UCONN) teaching faculty and UCONN Library, PRCAP is a digital repository that highlights the historical process of the granting of US citizenship to Puerto Ricans. The PRCAP offers an innovative window to discover and understand the complicated political history between the United States and Puerto Rico and aims to shed light on the lesser known historical record of citizens from US territories. The digital repository serves as a powerful tool to promote much-needed scholarship on the subject of US citizenship and its territories as well as to facilitate research on this important topic for the people of Puerto Rico and the public. The project allows the public an opportunity to see the original documents that were previously difficult to access in one space and creates a historical context for the current experience of Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens.

One of PRCAP’s supporters notes that PRCAP has “unquestionable value as an educational tool for schools and universities, providing free access to the digitized version of all more than one hundred years worth of records that document the critical and sensitive discussions of the benefits, requirements and limitations attached to a ‘granted’ citizenship in all its iterations.”

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Alexis Recto

Alexis Recto is the 2019 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists. Established in 2005, the Donald Peterson Student Travel 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 SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee or section.

Recto is a student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the master of library and information science program and co-president of the UCLA SAA student chapter. During the Joint Annual Meeting, she will present “PROGRAMMING: Not Just for Professional Network but for Archival Community” during the Graduate Student Poster Presentations. The presentation is based on the activities of the UCLA student chapter from the past academic year and its focus on helping MLIS students better understand and effectively navigate the diversity and nuances of the archival field through thoughtful programming.

A supporter of Recto states, “Recto is a fantastic student, a highly motivated researcher, and an independent thinker who I am confident will change the field for the better.”

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Erin E. Voisin

Erin E. Voisin of Louisiana State University is the 2019 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA).  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.

Ms. Voisin’s thoughtful essay, “Breaking Down Barriers: Inclusivity, Outreach, and the Interdisciplinary Imperative,” contends that archival thinking requires a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach to understand the past and negotiate the challenges of today and the future. She reflects on the evolution of her understanding of archives and the way in which her archival work is informed by her education in classical antiquity and professional experience in historical archaeology. In addition to her exceptional academic record in conjunction with working full time, Voisin actively contributes to the campus ALA and SAA student chapters, and has presented at state and national archival meetings.

Her faculty nominator noted that he is “impressed with her intellectual curiosity, dedication to the profession, and her willingness to go above and beyond requirements.”

Fellow: Cheryl Stadel-Bevans

Cheryl Stadel-Bevans, records management officer for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, 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.

Stadel-Bevans has been an archivist and records manager for more than twenty years, focused on managing electronic records throughout the archival lifecycle. For much of her career, she has held positions of increasing responsibility, and deftly navigates her institution through competing pressures and complex frameworks of laws and regulations. The trajectory of her career reflects her willingness to undertake roles that develop and implement policy, create procedural guidelines, and teach colleagues how to follow such guidelines. She has explored, consistently and proactively, the recordkeeping ramifications of important developments such as the Controlled Unclassified Information program and has encouraged other archivists and records managers to do the same. Additionally, she coauthored an entry, "American Archives and Archival Science," in the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, a comprehensive reference work that is frequently consulted by graduate students and working professionals.

A longtime SAA member, Stadel-Bevans has continually served in various capacities, including as SAA Treasurer. She has been a leading force in developing Annual Meeting sessions that address work-life balance issues in the archival profession—a rarely championed topic in the professional literature. Her efforts to highlight this issue and develop strategies for addressing it has helped dozens of archivists feel less isolated and overwhelmed, as well as encouraged professionals to begin thinking and talking about ways the profession, and its professional associations, can be more responsive to the needs of its practitioners. Her mentorship of a number of early-career archivists has inspired them to pursue various SAA leadership positions and to emphasize to others the importance of becoming actively involved in the organization. In addition, Stadel-Bevans has served on numerous Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) committees, including as co-chair for three program committees, and was a member of the 2010 Archives Leadership Institute.

As one supporter noted, “Her guidance has led to dozens of archivists and records managers becoming more knowledgeable, effective, and committed professionals.”

Fellow: Jeannette A. Bastian

Jeanette A. Bastian, recently retired (June 2019) director of the Archives Management concentration in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, 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.

Bastian is a prolific author, educator, and scholar. Author or editor of over six books, eight book chapters and numerous peer-reviewed articles on archival topics, she has been invited to speak around the world. She holds an MLS from Shippensburg University, an M.Phil in Caribbean Literature from the University of the West Indies and a Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh. Following a career as a practicing librarian and archivist in the United States Virgin Islands, she received her Ph.D. in 1999 and became an archival educator at Simmons College (now Simmons University) bringing a deep knowledge of archival practice and a drive to teach and write. In addition to teaching and mentoring her students, Bastian, over her 20-year career at Simmons created a nationally ranked archives program that responded to the profession’s evolution while implementing educational innovations to better prepare future archivists. Her writings focus on significant archival issues, such as displaced records, decolonial archival practices, and memory and archives, and are regularly cited in archival literature.

Bastian has served the profession in a variety of roles. Beginning in 1972, she worked as a librarian in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was the Director of the Territorial Libraries and Archives from 1987 to 1998. She has served as the chair of the New England Archivists Local Arrangements Committee and as an Archives Commission Member for the City of Boston Archives from 2008-2014. Her closeness to professional practice and governmental archives inspired the Massachusetts Municipal Clerks Archival Education Program, funded by a National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant, where she served as Principal Investigator. Additionally, she is one of the founding members of the Archival Education and Research Initiative, which for more than a decade has brought together an international group of archival educators and doctoral students. An active member of SAA, she was on the 2004 Annual Meeting Program committee, the A*CENSUS Working Group, and the Cultural Heritage Working Group where she served as chair from 2011-2013.

Her scholarship and her service has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2008 Fred Alexander Fellowship from the University of Western Australia, the 2007 Margaret Cross Norton Award from the Midwest Archives Conference, the 2007 Ernst Posner Award from SAA, and the 2017 Distinguished Service Award from the New England Archivists.

As one supporter noted, “There is virtually no area of scholarship that she has not related to the value and importance of archival matters as a contributing factor. Her work has spanned many continents, cultural contexts, and political regimes, giving her an international and multidisciplinary impact on archival research that is both rare and refreshing.”

Fellow: Louis Jones

Louis Jones, field archivist for The Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, 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.

During his 26-year tenure at the Reuther Library, Jones has processed numerous collections, consulted with historical agencies, and secured collections associated with the Reuther Library’s collection scope. Oral history projects and exhibits he has played a part in curating have spanned the subject areas of Black history, Detroit, organized labor or some combination thereof. In the process, he has helped to provide voice and exposure to those who might otherwise be silent and unseen. His colleagues note his deep commitment to building relationships, his strong service philosophy, and his ability to establish respectful connections and trust with donors and communities.

Jones also serves as an adjunct professor in Wayne State University’s School of Information Sciences where he teaches an introductory level course in archival administration and has served as the faculty advisor to the SAA Student Chapter. Previous service to SAA includes membership on the Mosaic Scholarship Committee, as a SAA mentor, and as chair of the 2002 SAA Nominating Committee. The Midwest Archives Conference has likewise benefitted from his work on its Minority Scholarship Committee and Nominating Committee. He understands and champions the need for becoming a member of SAA, the Academy of Certified Archivists and similar professional associations.

One of Jones’ greatest contributions to the archival profession has come in the form of his work with the Academy of Certified Archivists. Within that organization, he served in a number of key positions, including as its president. During his tenure within the Academy’s leadership, Jones spearheaded an oral history project designed to document the work of the Academy, convened task forces to generate revenue without raising dues and maintain the organization’s digital assets, including emails, for future access and review by interested researchers. With the support of the Academy’s board and Capitol Hill Management, which manages the day-to-day activities of the organization, he worked to build upon past successes by initiating the Academy’s first strategic planning process in its then 28-year history. Through that effort, the Academy is now in the process of adding an additional board member to focus on member services, develop an improved website platform, and establish new guiding principles in the form of mission, values and vision statements for the organization. Given his continued commitment to the ideals of the Academy, he was appointed to lead the task force charged with drafting these statements for review by its membership.

One supporter stated that Jones has the “energy, courage, and foresight to question the status quo, and is willing to challenge his colleagues to explore and implement innovation. I admire his patience, professional integrity, and commitment to inclusivity.”

Fellow: Terry Baxter

Terry Baxter, archivist for the Multnomah County Records Program and Oregon County Fair, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, 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.

Baxter’s nominators noted his actions as an archivist are tied directly to his core values as an individual: “Baxter’s initiative, resourcefulness and leadership—wrapped in his commitment to helping archivists make the world better—are reflected throughout his thirty-four years of service to SAA and other professional organizations, his writings and presentations, and his personal interactions.” Baxter’s contribution to the archival profession lies within his ongoing dedication to the critical work of advancing the understanding and practice of diversity and inclusion through various publications, presentations, and leadership roles. Baxter is a founding member of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and he also serves as a Board member at the Northwest History Network.

Within SAA, Baxter has consistently brought his initiative, intellect, and innate ability to make personal connections open difficult conversations and reshape thought in order to move the profession forward. In addition to being elected to the SAA Council, serving on two program committees, and participating in a multitude of special interest committees, Baxter has presented at more than seven Annual Meetings, highlighting important topics such as archives and institutional power, the diversity of the American record, the politics of documenting communities, and tattoos as personal archives.

During the 2017 Annual Meeting in Portland, Baxter conceptualized and implemented “The Liberated Archive: A Forum for Envisioning and Implementing a Community-Based Approach to Archives” intended to envision how archivists might partner with the public to repurpose the archives as a site of social transformation and radical inclusion. This innovative full-day program was designed to benefit both SAA members and the community in Portland, Oregon. Baxter’s acknowledgement of the role and power of communities in the archival profession can be best described in his words: “The future of the archival endeavor will increasingly reside in the relationships among archivists and communities. If we do not connect, heart to heart, with the communities we serve we will become an increasingly irrelevant profession.”

As one supporter noted: “Many archivists care, but Baxter has consistently put his pen and his words where his very big heart is.”

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Jeremy Evans and Melissa Hernández Durán

Jeremy Evans, digitization specialist, and Melissa Hernández Durán, lead archivist for audiovisual curation, both at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, are the 2019 recipients of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist.

Evans and Hernández Durán are being honored for “Rights Review for Sound Recordings: Strategies Using Risk and Fair Use Assessments,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of American Archivist (vol. 81, no. 2). Their article is a large-scale case study on the management of intellectual property rights for digitized sound recordings. Their work presents a generalizable model for identifying the complexities of access to digitized recordings based on the recording’s genre and proposes a scalable review process that balances risk assessment and fair use.

The SAA Awards Committee noted that the article is “clearly conceptualized and written with generous recognition of the works of others.” The authors also provide helpful examples of processing forms based on actual digitized audio collections. Read the award-winning article online at AmericanArchivist.org.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Angela Osbourne

Angela Osbourne, a graduate student at San Jose State University, is a 2019 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 future archivist, Osbourne is committed to preserving and providing access to the history of African Americans for African American communities. In her studies and volunteer experiences, she has worked to become aware of the complexities that surround information needs in a modern library and has demonstrated her ability to learn and master the necessary technical skills required for an archivist and librarian. As a volunteer with Sacramento Central Library’s Special Collections, she assists with a variety of events, including 2018’s annual Archive Crawl, where she noticed a significant lack of African American visitors. These experiences have focused her efforts on informing the African American community that its history can be traced through archives and used to build a brighter future.

One recommender noted that “she displays a rich dedication to reaching and educating underserved African American communities, which will most certainly become an important asset to the larger profession.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Antonia Charlemagne-Marshall

Antonia Charlemagne-Marshall, who is pursuing a master of arts in archives and record management (first cohort) at the University of West Indies, is a 2019 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Charlemagne-Marshall has demonstrated a strong commitment to archives through her internship at the National Archives Authority of St. Lucia (NAASL) and in her work establishing a small community archives in St. Lucia and Barbados. Each experience has increased her passion for creating community archives and ensuring that future generations will have access to the history of underrepresented communities.

Her supporter noted that Antonia’s “role as a leader within the executive committee of the Barbados Association for Records and Information Management, as well as her commitment to supporting the growth of the archives and records management profession within the Caribbean Region, is a testament to the kind of professionalism that she represents.” She has displayed a rich commitment to preserving and increasing access to international archives of color, and especially those in the Caribbean.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Tempestt Hazel

Tempestt Hazel, an independent curator, writer, and director of Sixty Inches From Center, is a 2019 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, July 31–August 6. The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

Hazel is the founder and leader of Sixty Inches From Center, an online publication dedicated to preserving the work of underrepresented artists. In collaboration with the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, Sixty Inches From Center and Hazel work to fill gaps in the Chicago Artist Files, a collection originally created in the 1940s for artists of local, national, and international renown. Her commitment to and advocacy for archives is broad and far-reaching. She encourages these artists to preserve their legacies, provides them with tools to do so, facilitates their inclusion in Chicago-area institutions, and encourages the use of archives to create new projects. Not only has her work led to the inclusion of more artists of color, women, LGBTQ+ artists, and artists with disabilities, she has connected these individuals with the tools needed to control their own narratives and ensure their legacy.

One supporter wrote: “Her work has a direct and immediate impact throughout the Chicago region.” Another supporter wrote, “Tempestt has demonstrated that archives aren’t only a place for academic and scholarly research. They can also be a source of inspiration for artists when they are given access.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva)

The Kitchen Sisters, comprised of Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are the 2019 recipients of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, TX, July 31—August 6. The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

In 2018, the Kitchen Sisters launched the podcast, The Keepers, and a companion blog, Keeper of the Day, which spotlight “activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians—keepers of the culture, and the cultures and collections they keep.” From highlighting various collections and their “Keepers”, such as the recently acquired Hunter S. Thompson collection at the University of California – Santa Cruz and the Forbes Pigment Collection at The Harvard Art Museum, the Kitchen Sisters illuminate the breadth and diversity that archives have to offer. The podcast which regularly plays on NPR’s Morning Edition, and was featured in Rolling Stone magazine, exposes archives and the work of archivists to an audience on the national level and beyond.

One of their supporters noted: “The Kitchen Sisters succinctly convey the importance of archives, the diversity of institutions and individuals embarking on this work, and the many treasures preserved within these collections.”

Learn more about The Kitchen Sisters in Nelson’s three-part interview with ArchivesAWARE!, the blog of SAA’s Committee on Public Awareness, at https://archivesaware.archivists.org/2019/02/21/weve-always-relied-on-th....

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Ashley Flores

Ashley Flores is the 2019 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 (SAA). 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.

Flores, an MLIS student specializing in archival studies at the University of California, Los Angeles has worked in the University Archives and Manuscripts Department at Hamilton Library at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa as well as the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii. Additionally, she has done research at the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum. Each positon has influenced her understanding of the many functions of archives and the services it provides for the public.

Her research interests include working with indigenous peoples to create inclusive, pluralistic, and accessible archives spaces. Her recommenders write of the "tremendous passion" she brings to her studies and that she is "highly conscientious and hardworking with attention to detail." As an archivist, Flores, would like to help people who feel underrepresented, using archives to bring communities and histories together.

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Wendy Hagenmaier

Wendy Hagenmaier, digital collections archivist at Georgia Institute of Technology, is the 2019 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

Hagenmaier’s exemplary service can be seen in work accomplished regionally and nationally. She spearheaded the development of retroTECH, an innovative program at Georgia Tech that provides students, faculty, and community members with hands-on opportunities to discover and explore the history and future of technology. She is currently serving as the Georgia Tech project manager on an IMLS-funded grant which aims to develop an online emulation environment from retroTECH’s collections. Additionally, Hagenmaier was one of the founders of BloggERS, the blog for SAA’s Electronic Records Section, and is coproducer of the popular radio show and podcast, Lost in the Stacks. She was a part of the research team that created Born-digital Access in Archival Repositories: Mapping the Current Landscape, a detailed report that culminated in the development of the workshop curriculum for the Born-digital Access Bootcamp. In addition, she has held multiple elected roles on SAA’s Committee on Public Policy and in SAA’s Issues and Advocacy Section, Electronic Records Section, and Architectural Records Roundtable, and has served as president of the Society of Georgia Archivists.

Her supporters speak of her leadership, collaborative nature, and dedication to the profession and her peers. As one nominator noted, “Though always unassuming and gracious, she is adept at finding opportunities for collaboration and meticulous in managing projects. Her commitment to the work that she does delivers valuable results for the entire archival community.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Lisle Pino

Lisle Pino, who is pursuing a master’s in archives and records administration at San Jose State University, is a 2019 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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 maintaining a strong academic record as a student, Lisle works full time as a records and information management specialist for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians and assigned to the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) both of which are sub-agencies un the US Department of Interior. Having attended a BIE elementary school herself, her proudest moment was working on a 20+ year old case files that included the preservation of her own student case file. As an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, her commitment to diversity in archives shines through in her work with Native American schools and their records. Her work on several unique field projects have provided her with meaningful insights that continue to shape her perspective on the profession. She strives to create a culture within her organization and the organization she serves that promotes and appreciates what records can offer to indigenous communities, presently and in the future.

One of her supporters notes: “Her work clearly demonstrates her professionalism and skills as well as her commitment to working with Native communities in the Southwest and beyond.”

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections for the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center

The Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections for the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (CISDRC) is the 2019 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.

The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (CISDRC) has compiled more than 180,000 pages of archival records from multiple institutions about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (CIIS), the first federally-managed off-reservation boarding school for Native American children and young adults. The CIIS, a frequent topic of scholarly research, had a profound impact on the lives of generations of Native American people. The CISDRC team has created educational materials, facilitated an educational program for teachers, and traveled to communities with a vested interest in the digitized records. From 2013–2018 the website had more than 1.5 million page views and nearly 250,000 individual visitors.

By actively seeking opportunities to share the results of their work with those most affected by the records, CISDRC has actively demonstrated the collections' value on personal, community, scholarly, and societal levels. This project exemplifies the purpose and power of archival materials. In six years since the start of the CISDRC, Dickinson College’s Archives and Special Collections has shown unwavering commitment in connecting this digital collection to the people who can make the best use of it.

Preservation Publication Award: Heather Bowden and Walker Sampson

 

Heather Bowden, director of special collections, archives, and preservation, and Walker Sampson, digital archivist, both at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, are the 2019 recipients of the Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for their book, The No-Nonsense Guide to Born-Digital Content (Facet Publishing, 2018). The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Born-Digital Content investigates preservation issues of current interest and importance to the archives community. The comprehensive and entry-level guide explains step by step processes for developing and implementing born-digital content workflows. With a range of case studies from a number of international institutions, the book covers selection, acquisition, accessioning, and ingest; description preservation, and access; and strategies and philosophies to move forward amid changing technologies.

One of Bowden and Sampson’s supporters wrote that “[the guide] tackles such a complex topic and presents the information in an accessible, easy to navigate format, making it a must-have for every archivist’s toolbox.”

 

Sister M. Claude Lane, OP, Memorial Award: Jillian Ewalt

Jillian Ewalt, librarian for visual resources at the University of Dayton’s Marian Library, is the 2019 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

Ewalt has been active in a number of religious archives organizations including the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA). As an early member and contributor to CRRA, Ewalt led the submission of more than 200 records for finding aids and digital images. Thanks to her active research agenda, Ewalt has made several contributions to the literature on religious archives, publishing in Archival Issues, Theological Librarianship, and Catholic Library World, among others. She has also presented at CRRA’s annual meeting on issues related to research with Catholic archives. Ewalt’s work in preservation, description, and outreach allows students to experience archival collections in the classroom and provides scholars from around the world with access to the library’s religious archival collections.

One of Ewalt’s supporters notes that she brings “a collaborative, creative, service-oriented spirit to her work with faith-based collections. She is committed to promoting collections as research and teaching tools and has developed collaborative partnerships across the institution and community to increase the impact of Marian Library’s special collections.”

Spotlight Award: Kelli Luchs and Ilana Short

Kelli Luchs, Las Vegas News Bureau archivist at the Las Vegas Convention And Visitors Authority, and Ilana Short, former manager of photography collections at the Nevada State Museum, are the 2019 recipients of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Although working in different organizations, Luchs and Short came together to create Las Vegas Lineup, a program which aims to describe unidentified photos. The program invites the public to interact with collections and collaborate with the archives by identifying historical figures in photographs. Through their efforts, they shared their collections with more than one hundred thousand people who identified more than 800 photographs. In addition to managing two institutions’ collections, Luchs and Short highlighted the work of archivists for a wider audience and encouraged the public to invest in archives.

Las Vegas Lineup has been an immensely valuable and popular tool, providing opportunity for thousands of Nevandans to become directly involved in managing their state’s history through their personal knowledge and memories. Las Vegas Lineup has been featured in a variety of media, such as Fox 5 News This Morning and Las Vegas Review-Journal, and has been presented as a model for other projects at professional conferences, such as The Digital Library Federation and the American Association of State and Local History.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Emily Larson

Emily Larson, a dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is the 2019 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.

Larson’s paper, “Big Brother, Big Data: Digital Preservation of Big Data in Government,” was nominated by Luciana Duranti, professor and director at InterPARES. Big Data is central to the concerns of contemporary archivists. The paper discusses government big data and proposes that archivists be responsible for it. Larson urges the reader to consider big data’s technical aspects, primarily its velocity, volume, and variety, but also its claims to knowledge production and decision-making. She provides thoughtful and valuable connections between the archival literature and issues associated with big data, and examines the limited archival research and scholarship on the subject.

“The writing is very clear, given the complexity of the issue. The paper shows curiosity, initiative, and the willingness to take risks,” noted Duranti. Larson's paper will be published in the Spring/Summer 2020 issue of American Archivist.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Trevor Owens

Trevor Owens, head of digital content management at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, is the 2019 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book, The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2018. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

Digital preservation remains a key topic that archivists and stakeholders must address. The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation discusses digital preservation in a straightforward and understandable way, combining theory and practice without getting bogged down in abstract discussion or turning into a how-to manual. Owens provides a broad understanding of the challenges and opportunities of managing digital objects and examines how digital preservation is affected by current trends, particularly neoliberalism, power and privilege, and sustainable labor. Thoughtful and well-written, the book provides valuable insights for practicing archivists, administrators, senior staff, and students.

“Ultimately, the book makes a major contribution to advancing both theory and practice of archival work,” noted one supporter. “Building on half a century or work in electronic records management and digital preservation, the book helps articulate the ways archivists and librarians have established practices to ensure that our digital scientific, social and cultural record will be available to scholars and researchers into the future.

Archival Innovator Award: Dr. Doug Boyd

Dr. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the University of Kentucky Libraries, is the 2018 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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 and outreach.  

Boyd designed and leads the development of the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), a free digital tool that improves access to online oral histories by synchronizing text with audiovisual content on an open-source platform. Launched in 2014, there currently are OHMS accounts at more than 350 institutions in more than 20 countries and OHMS is used by a diverse array of oral history projects. Boyd’s team continues to actively develop new features, including the addition of multilingual support in 2017. This feature has greatly increased visibility of underrepresented groups in digital oral history collections, such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ use of OHMS to publish oral histories of Latinx filmmakers.

Boyd’s supporter wrote: “While it was his creative and innovative nature that envisioned the capability for OHMS to be multilingual, it was Boyd’s leadership and focus that led to the implementation of the vision that now makes this type of project possible by institutions all over the world.”

Brenda S. Banks Travel Award: Saida Largaespada

Saida Largaespada, a graduate student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2018 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.

The inaugural recipient of the award, Largaespada has demonstrated a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in both her academic and professional pursuits. As a library assistant for the UCLA Digital Program, she shares selections from digitized historical collections through social media to highlight injustices involving race, class, and misogyny and uses language centering underrepresented peoples. Largaespada is also an archivist for the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), where she helps marginalized artists to document and preserve their own materials and develops public critical discussions that question traditional archival values. With an interest in audio documentation and preservation, she would like to build a professional network within SAA and become active in its various component groups.

Largaespada wrote: “By becoming more active in the community and joining SAA’s larger groups, I hope to contribute to the understanding of liberatory archives and empowerment through community-centered practices.”

C.F.W. Coker Award: The University of California Guidelines for Born-Digital Archival Description

The University of California (UC) Guidelines for Born-Digital Archival Description is the 2018 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The 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.

The Guidelines for Born-Digital Archival Description is a comprehensive, collaboratively-created document that provides much needed guidance for archivists. Developed by digital archivists Annalise Berdini (UC San Diego), Charles Macquarie (UC San Francisco), Shira Peltzman (UC Los Angeles), and Kate Tasker (UC Berkeley), the guidelines represent best practices based on a review of finding aids from across the country that assessed the state of born-digital archival description. The detailed crosswalks between multiple descriptive standards such as DACS, ISAD(G), MARC, ArchivesSpace, EAD3, and RDA make it an especially powerful document that is accessible to novices and experts alike and can be used by a wide range of institutions.

This best practices guide has since been adopted by all the University of California libraries, aiding in the standardization of description. In addition, the guidelines have been shared via GitHub (a web-based hosting service for version control) and the creators encourage others to submit pull requests from those outside the UC system.

As one supported noted, “The guide is easy to follow, flexible, and adaptable to institutions outside of the UC system. At the Computer History Museum [in Mountain View, California], we have been looking to the UC guidelines as we integrate software and other born-digital materials into our finding aids.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: Documenting the Now

Documenting the Now (DocNow) is a 2018 recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ Council Exemplary Service Award, which recognizes special contributions made to the archives profession—and especially to SAA—and is given at the discretion of the SAA Council.

DocNow was formed in 2016 as a collaboration of the University of Maryland, University of California at Riverside, and Washington University in St. Louis via a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For the past three years, DocNow’s Team and Advisory Board have worked tirelessly to develop user-friendly tools and an international community that extends far beyond that of professional archivists. In seeking to provide an ethical framework for the collection and preservation of social media and web content, DocNow has facilitated an open forum for conversations about technology, surveillance, communities, and the ethics of documentation.

DocNow’s work embodies many of SAA’s core values, including access and use; accountability; advocacy; diversity and inclusion; history and memory; professionalism; responsible custody; service; transparency; and social responsibility—and promotes these values to a variety of communities for the public good. DocNow also challenges professional archivists to think critically about their actions and the results of their actions in documenting historical change through social media, while encouraging radical empathy for those communities from which we collect.

The Council recognizes and thanks the current and former DocNow Team members and DocNow Advisory Board members who have developed, sustained, and continuously expanded Documenting the Now.

Distinguished Service Award: Council of State Archivists

The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) is a 2018 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

CoSA’s archival leadership, training, publication, and advocacy work between 2005 and today, combined with its earlier accomplishments as the Council of State Historical Records Coordinators between 1989 and 2005, continually reflect its deep commitment to the long-term preservation of and access to the documentary records of America’s fifty-six state and territorial governments.

In recent years, CoSA’s work has significantly contributed to the development of new archival theory and practice related to the management and preservation of digital records, the establishment of practical emergency preparedness protocols for government records, and the training of nonarchivists. Among its many initiatives, CoSA’s Digital Best Practices Series founded in 2017, State Electronic Records Initiative started in 2012, Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records Project begun in 2007, and Preserving the American Historical Record Act initiated in 2005 stand out for their innovativeness and shaping of new archives management and preservation practices across the profession.

The awards committee praised CoSA’s “tireless visionary leadership, sensitive listening to the archives profession’s needs, and the development of practical new initiatives to address preservation and access demands over time.”

Distinguished Service Award: Society of Southwest Archivists

 

The Society of Southwest Archivists is a 2018 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.  

Following the devastation of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, members of the Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA) took action immediately by creating dedicated social media channels to help facilitate communication among the region’s archivists that had been physically dispersed. Ten days after Katrina made landfall, SSA and SAA agreed to establish the SSA/SAA Emergency Disaster Assistance grant fund to aid archives affected by the hurricanes—within four days, they had raised ten thousand dollars. By October, SSA had raised nearly ten thousand additional dollars, which enabled it to make the first three grant awards to New Orleans archives affected by Katrina. When Hurricane Rita arrived in Texas in September, the scope of the grant expanded to include that event, and today continues to furnish essential preservation support to archives throughout the United States and its territories.  

SSA has demonstrated visionary, compassionate, and collaborative work establishing the SSA/SAA Emergency Disaster Assistance Grant fund in 2005 to meet the needs of archives affected by natural disasters, deftly managed this fund with SAA until 2009, and has provided an influential model for other disaster recovery funds that have been established by other regional archives organizations across the country.

 

Diversity Award: Community Archivist Program, Austin History Center

The Community Archives Program, established in 2000 by the City of Austin through the Austin History Center, is a 2018 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

The Community Archives Program engages communities in documenting the rich and diverse histories of African American, Latinx, and Asian American residents and their contributions to the city. Over the course of eighteen years, community archivists have developed best practices for establishing ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships with community groups based on trust and commitment to shared priorities. The success of their efforts is most evident in the variety of educational and outreach programs it supports as well as innovative and timely exhibits such as Mexican American Trailblazers, Finding Refuge in Austin, Travis County Negro Extension Service, and Women in Action. A growing recognition of the program’s influence has prompted the Austin City Council to incorporate the program’s invaluable historical perspective and leadership into its new strategic plan for city planning, which will continue to shape the future of the city and its communities.

One supporter who has worked closely with the program noted, “Diversity and inclusion is often talked about within the archival profession, but the Community Archivists Program is one archives taking action.”

Diversity Award: Maya from the Margins Archives Project

Maya from the Margins is a 2018 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Maya from the Margins is a collaborative project developed at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill by Dr. Patricia A. McAnany, Dr. Gabrielle Vail, Dr. Iván Batun-Alpuche, and Douglas “Biff” Hollingsworth with the support of the indigenous-focused nonprofit InHerit, the UNC-Chapel Hill anthropology department, and the UNC-Chapel Hill University Libraries’s Southern Historical Collection (SHC). The project engages high school youth with Latinx and indigenous roots in North Carolina and Yucatán, México, in exploring their complex identity and heritage, focusing on the topics of language, history, and migration. Participants visit the SHC and the State Archives of Yucatán and collaboratively curate a travelling exhibit displayed at both sites. The project models public engagement through its humanities framework, pursues civically engaged scholarship, and engages the community directly through participatory archival research. The project has set many new opportunities in motion as well, including new projects in Yucatan with the National Geographic Society and in the Imbabura region of Ecuador, which continue to build on the work of Maya from the Margins.

One supporter noted that “Maya from the Margins offers valuable insights into how archives serve an important function of diplomacy, welcome, and inclusion. It’s a model that lowers the barriers to entry not just into our archives, but into our communities and the profession at large.” Another supporter wrote, “Maya from the Margins has prompted archives colleagues to think differently about how we might work together; it has inspired students to embrace the value of archives and even seek work in archives settings; and it has challenged educators in high schools and colleges to see archives as the place where knowledge can best be co-created with a range of user communities.”

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Jessica Serrao

Jessica Serrao, who is pursuing a graduate degree in library and information science with a concentration in archives and records management and certificate in digital curation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), is the 2018 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The goal of the scholarship is to stimulate greater participation in the activities of SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee or section.

During the Joint Annual Meeting, Serrao will be chairing the education session “Documenting Decisions: Strategies and Workflows for Consistent and Transparent Processing.” She will also co-present within the session “Documentation for Team Processing: A Strategy for Internal and External Transparency,” which highlights ways team processors can collaborate and improve internal transparency through documentation strategies and how that documentation has the potential to support external transparency to the public.

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Julie Botnick

Julie Botnick, who is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2018 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

In addition to her strong academic record, Botnick impressed the SAA Awards Committee with her insightful essay, “Archivists as Amici Curiae: Archival Frameworks in Support of the Petitioner in Carpenter v. United States,” which explores cell site location information as metadata, record, and evidence. In it, Botnick asks important questions about privacy and digital data and contends that archivists bring valuable expertise to the status of this data in legal proceedings. In her position as a teaching assistant in UCLA’s history department, she has initiated discussion sections in Special Collections, introducing a number of students to archives, and is working with the UCLA Sephardic Archive Initiative to develop a participatory digital community archives. She volunteered as a translator at the International Council on Archives Conference in Mexico City and is the processing archivist for UCLA’s Fowler Museum, working to open up the institution’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act records to the public.

Her faculty nominator noted that she is “someone who will end up representing US archives on the international stage as well as pushing forward the role of archives and special collections in teaching.”

Fellow: Amy Cooper Cary

 

Amy Cooper Cary, head of special collections and university archives at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 12–18. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Cary is a strong leader, educator, and writer, and has been instrumental in promoting access to archives and records for people of all backgrounds. Cary holds a master’s in information science with an archives specialization from the University of Michigan and a master’s in comparative literature from the State University of New York, Binghamton. She was a member of the 2008 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute and the 2013 cohort of the Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians.

A prominent mentor and role model, Cary directed one of the most successful archival graduate training programs in the United States at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Her work on the SAA Committee on Education and the Graduate Education Subcommittee connected SAA with broader trends in the education field. She continues to teach her own classes, work with other faculty to promote the use of primary resources and archives in research, and provide students with practical experience in digital stewardship via fieldwork placement.

Cary has served in a variety of leadership capacities. As the Reviews Editor for American Archivist, she revitalized the reviews section and initiated an online Reviews Portal. She has also served on the Awards Committee and Program Committee, and is in the final year of a three-year term on the SAA Council, where she is a strong advocate for archival education and publication. Beyond SAA, she has been the editor of Archival Issues, reviews editor of RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, and grants reviewer for both the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. She is past president of the Midwest Archives Conference.

As one supporter noted, “Cary represents the best of what an archivist should be, always finding ways to improve the public understanding of the archives profession. She understands what archives can offer to the public and how to generate enthusiasm for archives as a profession, demonstrating resourcefulness, initiative, and commitment.”

 

Fellow: Donna E. McCrea

Donna E. McCrea, professor and head of archives and special collections at the University of Montana in Missoula, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 12–18. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

McCrea’s nominators noted she is a compelling example of archival leadership and management. At the University of Montana, where she oversees collection development, reference, and access for archives and special collections, she has successfully used the department as a laboratory for experimenting and applying innovative theoretical approaches to archival practice. Her application of the “more product, less process” model, for instance, accelerates access to archival materials and augments service to researchers. Throughout her scholarship, McCrea effortlessly connects national archival trends with local issues and implementation. In 2009, she was granted tenure at the university in recognition of her research, service and professional contributions.

Within SAA, McCrea has consistently brought her initiative, analytical abilities, resourcefulness, and energetic commitment to a number of projects. In addition to being elected to the SAA Council and serving on two program committees, McCrea played an influential role as co-chair and then chair of the Education Committee. When confronted with a demanding issue—one regarding the potential to have SAA act as an accrediting body for graduate archival programs—she not only took the time to understand each committee member’s viewpoint, but also sought to provide context for the discussion. As a result of McCrea’s work, the Education Committee revised guidelines and improved SAA’s online Directory of Archival Education Programs—an outcome that would not have been possible without her strong leadership and commitment to tackling difficult tasks. McCrea has also represented SAA in both the Coalition to Advance Learning in Archives, Libraries, and Museums and the Nexus Leading Across Boundaries project; she currently serves on SAA’s Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility.

As one supporter noted, McCrea’s strength is her “dogged insistence on giving back what she’s learned—the strategies, successes, and failures in her application attempts—through her numerous memorable and valuable writings and presentations. In many ways, she is the proverbial poster child for the benefits that an investment in professional organizational engagement can bring to an archival program.”

Fellow: Kate Theimer

Kate Theimer, author, educator, and creator of the blog ArchivesNext, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of CoSA, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 12–18. 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 heart of Theimer’s work is her passion for connecting people and creating inclusive spaces for the open sharing of ideas. With a master of science in information from the University of Michigan and a master of arts in art history and archaeology from the University of Maryland, Theimer worked at the Smithsonian Institution and then at the National Archives and Records Administration. In 2007, Theimer left to start ArchivesNext, where she explored innovative uses of web technology in archives and discussed the applicability of existing archival business models in the current and emerging information environment—all while proposing modifications for a new model and engaging readers in an ongoing conversation on archives issues. ArchivesNext has served as a general outreach tool for the profession, informing readers of disaster relief resources, public awareness initiatives, and career advice. In addition to her numerous publications and presentations, she authored the book Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections and created the Spontaneous Scholarships program in 2011 to assist archivists with funding for attending SAA’s Annual Meeting.

Theimer’s activities have consistently demonstrated her creativity, initiative, commitment, and resourcefulness. Within SAA, she’s served on the steering committee for the Electronic Records Section, co-chaired the Issues and Advocacy Roundtable as well as the “23 Things for Archivists” Working Group, and was a member of both the Nominating Committee and Appointments Committee. She also was elected to the SAA Council, where she was an ardent advocate for transparency and inclusivity within the profession.

As one supporter stated, Theimer has the “rare ability to incorporate complex visions for alternative futures with a commanding understanding of existing archival theory and practice.” Never afraid to “roll up her sleeves and grind out support research,” she continually challenges existing ideas and work, making her an invaluable member of the profession.

Fellow: Rachel Vagts

Rachel Vagts, head of Special Collections and Archives at Berea College and director of the Archives Leadership Institute, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 12–18. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Vagts earned her master’s in library information studies with a specialization in archival administration from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Since then, she has worked in archival management, manuscript curatorship, and academic librarianship, serving with distinction at two liberal arts colleges. Vagts transformed the archives at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, into a dynamic repository, one especially known for collaborating with community partners. She continues to raise the visibility of the archives at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, providing access to collections through a new collection management system and amplifying access to a significant traditional music collection through a digital collections platform.

Vagts has also revitalized and expanded the Archives Leadership Institute (ALI), making it planned by archivists for archivists. She applied for and received two three-year grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to host ALI at Luther College and then at Berea College. In six years, ALI has trained 150 participants, giving them the knowledge and tools to transform the archival profession in practice and theory. One supporter noted that in these efforts Vagts not only managed her institutions’ collections but also “saw and pursued a broader vision for her services to the profession through her engagement with ALI to strengthen her colleagues and profession as a whole.”

Vagts’ leadership and willingness to mentor extends beyond ALI. She has served on both the Iowa and Kentucky State Historical Records Advisory Boards, chaired the SAA Membership Committee and College and University Archives Section, and was elected to the SAA Council. According to one SAA member, Vagts’ “continued encouragement and advice has been the foundation for all my continued Archon work and leadership. Vagts showed me that mentorship and management can go hand-in-hand.” 

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Katherine S. Madison

Katherine S. Madison, processing archivist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives, is the 2018 recipient of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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, American Archivist.

Madison is being honored for “‘Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story’: The Use and Representation of Records in Hamilton: An American Musical,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of American Archivist (vol. 80, no. 1). Her article examines the presence of records both onstage as props and in the narrative of Hamilton, in which they provide both authenticity and authority for the historically-inspired story. At the same time, Hamilton depicts the archival record as incomplete, asking audiences to reflect on the constructed nature of “who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”

The SAA Awards Committee noted that Madison’s well-written and engaging essay “effectively focuses on significant archival issues concerning records creation, the silences or absence of records, and the authority of records as evidence” and is “anchored in continuity with the archival literature on the role of records in society.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Jessica Tai

Jessica Tai, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2018 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

In addition to her strong academic work, Tai impressed the award committee with her exploratory engagement with local groups, including the production of an outreach event in a historically diverse Los Angeles neighborhood in which she taught a photo preservation workshop and facilitated digitizing participant’s photographs for inclusion in a web-based culture mapping project. She is a member of the Diversity Subcommittee of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective and a researcher for the Community Archives Lab at UCLA, where she is working on a grant that will provide UCLA MLIS students the opportunity to complete paid internships at community archives that represent marginalized and historically underrepresented communities. Tai stated that her professional goal is “to build and reinforce the history and identity of communities of color through a collaborative, community-based archival practice.”

Her supporters noted that Tai “has enormous potential” and “is poised to become a passionate, creative, and innovative leader in the field.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Juber Ayala

Juber Ayala, a graduate student in the Master of Information program in the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, is a 2018 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Ayala has demonstrated a strong commitment to archives through his professional work with the Puerto Rican Community Archives (PRCA) at the Newark Public Library and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. Through this work and his studies, Ayala has embraced the role of “activist archivist,” working to prevent loss of or destruction of documents and ensuring community stories are kept in the historical record. His involvement in the Organizing Our Community’s Records project, which documented a local community organization’s historical records, helped the organization understand the importance of its records, which may be donated to the PRCA in the future. In his work at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Ayala revised descriptions of online collection descriptions, increasing readability and access for researchers.

One of his supporters noted that Ayala is “motivated, curious, and capable” and has “already started a clear-cut path in the field of archives focusing on the Puerto Rican diaspora archives—and he is dedicated to this work.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer is a 2018 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

Meltzer is a New York Times bestselling author, television personality, speaker, educator, and promoter of the archives profession. His popular Culper Ring fiction series of books features protagonist Beecher White, a young archivist at the National Archives who discovers that George Washington’s personal spy ring still exists today. Modeled on real archivists, this nerdy hero uses resources at the National Archives and illustrates the pivotal role archivists play as protectors of collective memory.

Meltzer has also hosted the shows Brad Meltzer’s Decoded and Brad Meltzer’s Lost History on the History Channel, engaging the public’s help in preserving historical records and collections. His work on Lost History led to the location of the missing 9/11 flag that firefighters raised at Ground Zero and which now resides at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.

His supporters noted: “Meltzer's genuine respect for history, knowledge, and education is extremely evident in his work and he praises archival professionals for helping him successfully foster these principles and effectively share them with the world.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Yvonne Lewis Holley

Yvonne Lewis Holley, North Carolina State Representative at North Carolina General Assembly, is a 2018 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

For the past decade, Holley has championed archives and family history in her work with the University of North Carolina’s Special Collections, translating the value of archives to regional audiences and beyond. As a state representative, Holley has given generously of her time and talents to support a variety of initiatives and to cultivate important collections documenting African American life in Raleigh, North Carolina. An active supporter of the African American Families Initiative, she appeared in a moving online video on the Initiative’s website, in which she tells the story of her own family history that is now documented in the archives and encourages viewers that their family histories are also worth preserving.

“Holley is an ideal spokesperson to extend the reach of individual programs to acquire, preserve, and make available archival collections about African American families,” noted the Awards Committee. “Her advocacy offers a national model for how state representatives can advocate for the important use of archives.”

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Krystell Jimenez

Krystell Jimenez is the 2018 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 (SAA). 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.

Jimenez, who is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a committed volunteer at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center where she’s worked on a number of projects, including assisting in publicizing a KCET documentary that features the center’s archival materials. In addition, she works as a student researcher on UCLA’s Refugee Rights in Records project, collecting refugee narratives and fact-finding documentation practices in asylum processes in Istanbul. Her passion for the archival profession is fueled by the desire to improve relationships between institutions and communities and to ensure accessibility to archives and record systems that could materially benefit those who most need it.

Jimenez’s supporters were particularly impressed by her “cultural fluency, maturity, and natural sensitivity to how archives and records directly play important positive and negative roles in the lives of some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society” and by her “personal commitment to tackling issues of immigration and the democratization of archives.”

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Harrison Inefuku

Harrison Inefuku, scholarly publishing services librarian at Iowa State University, is the 2018 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

Inefuku oversaw the development of the Iowa State University Digital Repository. He currently leads the library’s publishing program and is exploring new digital scholarship services. His work on scholarly communication and digital repositories provide critical insights into publishing and access, which remains a vital discussion for archivists and library professionals. He has authored numerous publications on the subject and has served in leadership positions for national and international organizations that support open access work.

Inefuku also does commendable work with diversity and inclusion initiatives in the fields of library science and archival science. He has chaired SAA’s Diversity Committee and co-chaired SAA’s Archivists and Archives of Color Section. In addition, his tenure on the Advisory Board of the Association of Research Libraries and SAA Mosaic Fellowship Program included working to make the SAA Annual Meeting a great networking and educational program for Mosaic Scholars. He continues to serve as a mentor for young archivists, particularly archivists of color, which is vital to ensure an equitable and inclusive profession.

His nominator noted, “Harrison is a warm, congenial colleague, dedicated to not only providing access to archives and research but also the people with which he works.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Alexis Recto

Alexis Recto, who is pursuing a master’s of library and information science with a specialization in Archival Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2018 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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, Recto has developed a commitment to empowering underserved communities through archival accessibility and advocating for greater diversity in the field. With an interest in accountability, she hopes to conduct research on the disparity of memory between survivors and bystanders of Martial Law during the Marcos administration in the Philippines. In her position at the Skirball Cultural Center Museum in Los Angeles, Recto has helped to create socially-conscious exhibitions such as Future Aleppo, which was exhibited in the summer of 2017 and rendered the hopes and dreams of Syrian refugee Mohammed Qutaish into an artistic installation. Her goals are to contribute to the reestablishment of the Filipino-American Library and possibly the creation of a community archives in Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles.

Her professor, Dr. Anne Gilliland, considers Recto to be one of her cohort’s top students, stating that she “sparkles with energy and initiative. Her academic work has been consistently top notch.” Additionally, Michele Urton, Recto’s supervisor at the museum, noted that her “dedication and passion are evident as she maintained her full-time work load while pursuing her master’s.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Tianjiao Qi

Tianjiao Qi, a doctoral student at Renmin University of China who is pursuing research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2018 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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. 

Qi has been participating in a research group with Anne Gilliland at UCLA since September 2017. Widely published, Qi’s research interests center on Chinese rural archives, digital archiving and archival management, and issues related to community memory. Qi was the student assistant for the Chinese team for InterPARES and executed the first International Digital Memory Forum in 2015. The awards committee was impressed with Qi’s clear focus on the role of archives in local cultural memory—both historic and contemporary.

Attendance at the Joint Annual Meeting will connect Qi with other students and scholars and will provide opportunities to learn more about the practice of community archives in other countries. Qi wrote: “I want to participate in international academic conferences to learn archival science, archival education, and archival practice in the context of globalization.”

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Find & Connect, eScholarship Research Centre

The eScholarship Research Centre of the University of Melbourne, Australia, is the 2018 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.

The Find & Connect web resource, funded by the Australian government and managed by the eScholarship Research Centre, is a unique web portal that provides resources on the history of child welfare and out-of-home care in Australia and access to related archival records. With a comprehensive search tool of highly sensitive and valuable archival records and supportive elements such as advocacy and access information, the influential site has received attention from around the world as a potential model. It was used extensively as a resource in the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; has been cited in numerous academic and nonacademic publications; is used by public policymakers, lawyers, and legislators; and most importantly, has assisted many thousands of Care Leavers—those who grew up in care—in getting access to records about them to better understand their childhoods and reconnect with family.  

Kirsten Wright, program manager of Find & Connect, noted, “"For many Care Leavers, the search for records—that can help build their identity and assist in reconnecting with family—is complicated, and traumatic. Find & Connect is a supportive environment for them to access information about institutions and records of interest. We collaborated closely with many who grew up in institutions to develop the site, and it is because of them that it is the innovative, successful project it is now.”

Learn more about Find & Connect at https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ and its receipt of the Hamer-Keegan Award at http://www.findandconnectwrblog.info/2018/05/our-first-international-award/.

Preservation Publication Award: Laura McCann

Laura McCann, conservation librarian for the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department at New York University Libraries, is the recipient of the 2018 Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her research article, “The Whole Story: News Agency Photographs in Newspaper Photo Morgue Collections.” The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

McCann’s article was published in American Archivist 80.1 (Spring/Summer 2017) and examines the many complex issues surrounding the creation, use, and preservation of images in archived newspaper photo morgues. These large collections of images have substantial research value and are frequently heavily accessed by a range of users as documentary evidence of local, national, and international events, but they also have complex intellectual and physical preservation needs that repositories have not always met. The article is a superb resource for collection staff to better understand the creation and material make-up of their holdings and provides practical steps to improve storage and handling to ensure that the materials remain accessible for future users.

McCann’s supporter wrote that the article shares “excellent, data-driven information that fills a missing area of knowledge for the field” and provides “models of preservation activities for all types of archival repositories without regard for size or resources.”

Sister M. Claude Lane, OP, Memorial Award: Sister Louise Grundish

Sister Louise Grundish, S.C., archivist for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is the 2018 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

A longtime nurse, Grundish entered the field of archives at the age of 71 because of her love of history, genealogy, and respect for the historical impact of the Sisters of Charity. In 2004, she began her first two years as an intern and assistant archivist for the archives. A natural storyteller and historian, she assumed full-time archivist responsibilities in 2006 and still works daily preserving the heritage and missions of her congregation. During her tenure, she has created several small exhibits and was a major participant in the Slippery Rock History Project: Sisters in Health Care in Western Pennsylvania, an exhibit later donated to the Senator John Heinz History Center in 2010.

Grundish has served as president of the Archivists of Congregations of Women Religious (ACWR) and volunteered as the editor of the ACWR newsletter. She’s an active member of SAA, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the US Catholic Historical Society, the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the Westmoreland County Historical Society. In addition, she was influential in forming the Charity Federation Archives, providing leadership for one year as its liaison.

One supporter wrote, “I can't think of a person who is more collegial, supportive, and dedicated not only to religious archives, but also to other archivists.”

Spotlight Award: B. Bernetiae Reed

B. Bernetiae Reed, project documentarian and oral historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the 2018 recipient of the Spotlight Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Reed is a genealogist, historian, author, documentary filmmaker, and social activist. Over the course of decades and apart from any institution, Reed compiled a one-woman archives and extensive oral history collection documenting the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina, African Americans in Greensboro, the Tuskegee Airmen, Cooleemee plantation and Judge Peter Hairston, US Color Troops, and civil rights activist Al McSurely, among many other topics. Her work in genealogy and the recovery of African American history led her to author the two-volume The Slave Families of Thomas Jefferson: A Pictorial Study Book with an Interpretation of His Farm Book in Genealogy Charts (2007), which remains an authoritative book on the topic.

After a long career in nursing, Reed earned her MLIS at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2015. Currently she is working on UNC’s Southern Historical Collection’s Community-Driven Archives project, funded by an Andrew W. Mellon grant. In this position, Reed conducts community training in oral history and genealogical methodology to help underrepresented communities preserve their history and heritage. She is active in the dialogue surrounding the documentation of the African American experience. Her goal is to help develop a prototype for a slavery database using Social Networks and Archival Context and to create an online exhibit of letters written by enslaved persons.

Her supporter wrote that “Reed is the sort of tireless champion for communities and archives work who works so hard behind the scenes to make meaningful change” and that she works with “patience and an unfailing vision, grounded in her passion for capturing the stories of the least-heard members of society.”

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Anthony Cocciolo

Anthony Cocciolo, dean of the School of Information at Pratt Institute in New York City, is the 2018 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists, published by SAA in 2017. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. 

In Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists, Cocciolo tackles the immediate concern of audiovisual collection care and the importance of digital reformatting for archivists who may not be familiar with these formats but nonetheless find themselves responsible for caring for them. The volume presents real-life cases based on interviews alongside practical information and observations from Cocciolo’s own experience teaching about audiovisual collections. Handsomely designed, the book includes tables, sample forms, and color photographs that supplement the text to provide a manageable workflow for gaining control over audiovisual collections and for considering next steps, such as prioritizing records for digital reformatting. 

The Award Committee noted: “The book successfully fills a need in the archival literature while simultaneously maintaining a neutral stance on reformatting technology that might become obsolete in the future. This ensures that the book will remain a useful text in the archivist’s bookshelf for years to come.”         

C.F.W. Coker Award: Digital Transgender Archive

The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is the recipient of the 2017 C.F.W. Coker Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 1984, 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.

DTA is an international collaboration among more than twenty colleges, universities, nonprofits, and private collections that provides a central hub to access digitized historic materials, born-digital records, and archival finding aids related to trans history. Project director K.J. Rawson wanted to create a resource that would allow researchers to overcome the systematic challenges present in researching trans history, such as the geographic dispersion of historic materials, evolving and diverse language used to describe trans history, and the lack of availability of online primary sources. The aggregated digital content along with contextual learning resources provide a platform usable for diverse audiences and increases the discoverability and accessibility of historic materials from a traditionally underrepresented part of history.

As one of its nominators noted, “With transgender history frequently under-represented in both archival collections and online resources, the Digital Transgender Archive is a strong and visible commitment to innovative archival description.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: The Sustainable Heritage Network

The Sustainable Heritage Network is a 2017 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 Sustainable Heritage Network (SHN) was formed in response to a 2012 Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums report—“Sustaining Indigenous Culture”—that found a need for training in the lifecycle of digital materials through short-topic courses and online resources. Since then, the SHN team, advisors, and partners have developed a model for inclusive and community-centered practices, funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and based in the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University, which provides a space for tribal archivists, librarians, and museum specialists to communicate and learn about digital stewardship and preservation.

The SHN online platform brings together communities, institutions, and professionals who share knowledge, educational resources, and technology tools that are necessary for the responsible digitization and preservation of cultural heritage—which SHN calls “collaborative stewardship.” SHN’s work embodies one of SAA’s core principles—a commitment to diversity and inclusion among members of the archives profession as well as within the archival record. SHN not only provides a valuable resource for tribal archivists, librarians, and museum specialists, but also serves as proof that collaboration works and that community action matters.

This Council Exemplary Service Award recognizes the seven partner organizations, the nine members of the Core Sustainable Heritage Network Team, and the thirteen individual advisors who—together—have created and sustained SHN for the benefit of our nation’s cultural heritage. 

Council Exemplary Service Award: The Teaching with Primary Sources Committee of the Reference, Access & Outreach Section

The SAA Reference, Access and Outreach Section’s Teaching with Primary Sources Committee is a 2017 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.

RAO’s Teaching with Primary Sources Committee has served as a model for robust member engagement since its establishment in 2010, and has worked tirelessly to advocate for the use of primary sources in teaching and learning as a core component of archival work. In its first two years, the TPS Working Group developed a bibliography about teaching with primary sources and created a report of findings and analysis from a survey of archivists regarding practices for teaching with primary sources. In 2013 the group was made a standing committee of the RAO Section and four teams were established within TPS to focus on specific projects. These included advocating for standards for teaching with primary sources, developing a resource bank, surveying graduate education, and hosting an Unconference as part of SAA’s Annual Meeting. The third annual TPS Unconference was held in Portland on July 25, 2017, and brought together archivists, librarians, museum professionals, educators, and others to discuss innovative techniques for engaging students of all levels in the use of primary sources.

The TPS Committee successfully connects archivists from a variety of institutions to work toward the common goal of supporting the archivist as educator. The enthusiastic and engaged members and leaders of RAO’s Teaching with Primary Sources Committee have made and continue to make an astounding contribution to SAA and the archives profession.

Diversity Award: Texas Disability History Collection

The Texas Disability History Collection (TDHC) at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is a 2017 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 2011, recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

The only collection on disability history in Texas, TDHC documents disability rights activists who fought for equal access to education, work, union membership, public transit, and sports. TDHC is notable for its collaborative development across university departments, its commitment to user interface accessibility, and its role as a learning resource for the disability community and beyond. As a result of the TDHC project, UTA Libraries has developed expertise around designing maximally accessible websites and collecting disability-related materials.

In his nomination, Ron Lucey, executive director of the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities, stated: “Ultimately this digital history collection will provide a lasting benefit to the state as an ongoing educational resource for all Texas students who seek to understand the important role Texans with disabilities made to our state’s history.”

The SAA Awards Committee commended TDHC as “a wonderful example of bringing disability history to the forefront of the historical narrative.” 

Also receiving the Diversity Award this year is the Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Diversity Award: Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

The Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota Libraries is a 2017 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 2011, recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Part of the department of archives and special collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries, the Tretter Collection has 3,500 linear feet of material from around the world documenting the GLBT experience. While the Tretter Collection has always sought to include marginalized voices within the GLBT community, the archives has specifically prioritized in the last five years adding materials from communities of color as well as bi/pan/fluid/omni and transgender/gender queer voices. In addition, the archives has taken an active role in documenting transgender/gender queer history by establishing the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, which has a goal of 200+ interviews and 300+ hours of content focusing on the lives of trans/gender queer people in the Upper Midwest, and in partnering with other archives to share material, develop strategies for filling gaps in the archival record, and initiate outreach programs to engage a broader community in GLBT history.

The SAA Awards Committee noted that they were “especially impressed by how the Tretter Collection staff brings the collection’s diverse contents out of the archive and into the community through teaching, exhibits, and presentations, as well as by its strong relationships with the community. The Tretter Collection serves as an excellent model for other institutions interested in connecting with their local LGBTQ+ communities.” 

Also receiving the Diversity Award this year is the The Texas Disability History Collection at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Elizabeth Vallen

Elizabeth Vallen, a 2016 graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign with a master’s degree in library and information science, is the 2017 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 2005, the award supports attendance at the conference by a student and/or recent graduate from a graduate archival program within North America. The goal of the scholarship is 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 a project archivist at the University of California, Merced Library, Vallen is developing a plan for archiving, preserving, and providing access to the University of California’s Cooperative Extension’s record. She will share the strategic plan with the Science, Technology, and Health Care Section in the hope that it will serve as a model for cooperative extension archives in other states. As the only full-time archivist at UC Merced, she will also participate in SAA’s Lone Arrangers Section meeting.

Emerging Leader Award: Natalie Baur

Natalie Baur, digital preservation librarian at El Colegio de México, is the 2017 recipient of the Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Since graduating with her MLS in 2011, Baur has distinguished herself as a leader in SAA and a trailblazer in the international archives community. The Awards Committee commended Baur’s impressive record of collaboration and achievement in her roles as chair of the SAA Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Roundtable (LACCHA), a peer reviewer on The American Archivist, a presenter at conferences, and a member of the 2017 SAA Annual Meeting Program Committee.

In addition, Baur has shown phenomenal leadership in Latin American and international archival initiatives. She co-founded the group Itinerant Archivists, served with Librarians Without Borders, and completed a Fulbright fellowship in Mexico. Baur has engaged in extensive outreach and advocacy work with and on behalf of colleagues in Mexico and Ecuador and with indigenous communities in Ecuador. She has conducted talks, workshops, and training extensively both in the United States and throughout Latin America. In 2016, Baur, along with George Apodaca and Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, was awarded the SAA Diversity Award for the LACCHA webinar series “Desmantelando Fronteras/Breaking Down Borders,” and she is co-authoring a forthcoming book chapter about the project.

As one supporter noted: “A knowledgeable and experienced professional, Baur is an exceptional leader in building international awareness and engagement within SAA and the American archives profession.”

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Alexandra M. Wilder

Alexandra M. Wilder, a graduate student in the archives concentration of the library and information science program at Drexel University’s College of Computing and Informatics in Philadelphia, is the 2017 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

In addition to her strong academic record, Wilder impressed the SAA Awards Committee with her eloquent essay, “Crowdsourcing Archival Description via Flickr: Reining in Grand Expectations,” which explores whether sample photosets show evidence of crowdsourcing, and if so, how it has contributed to description and access. In her current position processing manuscript collections at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania and in her previous position at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum and Library, Wilder has worked with a variety of audiences and media and has contributed significantly to outreach and advocacy efforts for cultural institutions. She holds a master of fine arts in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and a bachelor of arts in English literature from the University of Toronto.

Her faculty nominators noted that she “demonstrates a keen intellect and a generous spirit. She poses insightful questions . . .” and that her “written work is eloquent and conscientious, both technically and rhetorically well-developed.” 

Fellow: Brenda Gunn

Brenda Gunn, director of research and collections at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Gunn holds master’s degrees in both archival enterprise and English literature, and is currently pursuing a PhD in American history at the University of Texas at Austin. Throughout her career, from becoming a founding member of one of the first SAA student chapters to her continuous efforts in mentoring colleagues, Gunn’s leadership has manifested itself in her persistent drive, thoughtful initiative, and creative resourcefulness. When the devastation of Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Gunn founded the Emergency Disaster Assistance Recovery Fund for Archives, which is co-sponsored by the Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA) and SAA, to help with the immediate preservation costs of the region’s archival repositories. She has remained a strong advocate for the program as it evolved into the National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives and has served on its grant committee. In 2009, she received SSA’s Distinguished Service Award for her collaborative archival recovery work during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Gunn’s ongoing contributions to the development and sustainability of the Archives Leadership Institute (ALI) have influenced hundreds of archivists who have been through the program. After participating in ALI in 2010, Gunn supported the idea of a stronger, long-term mentorship model for the program. The program’s reputation for the invaluable practical knowledge and hands-on management experiences it provides its participants are a direct result of Gunn’s contributions, notes one of her nominators.

Her commitment to and efforts on behalf of SAA are equally tireless. She has played significant roles in chairing or co-chairing the Preservation Section, Awards Committee, and the Host Committee for the 2009 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, as well as participating in numerous other committees. Gunn brings her energy and ideas to the Foundation Board, of which she has been a member since 2014, to help it flourish.

One of her supporters noted: “Gunn has the great skill of actively listening to all members to see where there are ways to move forward.” Another supporter commented: “She has been a force in advancing the archival enterprise nationally.”

Gunn is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Cal Lee

Christopher A. “Cal” Lee, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) School of Information and Library Science, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Lee holds a PhD in Information from the University of Michigan School of Information. As an educator, author, and dedicated volunteer, he has been instrumental in helping archivists find solutions to provide access, to preserve, and support the long-term curation of digital collections. At UNC, he spearheaded a curriculum that helped hundreds of information professionals gain skills needed to be digital curators and has created and taught numerous workshops, including the digital forensics workshop for the SAA Digital Archives Specialist curriculum.

Lee has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities: on The American Archivist Editorial Board, Publications Board, and the Task Force on Electronic Publishing. He is active in the Electronic Records Section and, during his term as chair, helped coordinate the work of the Electronic Records and Government Records sections in drafting a response to the National Archives and Records Administration’s rulemaking on the disposal of electronic records.

In addition, Lee’s scholarship has contributed greatly to the professional literature. He edited the book I, Digital: Personal Collections in the Digital Era (SAA, 2011) and has authored or co-authored six peer-reviewed articles, nine book chapters, 28 peer-reviewed conference papers, nine research reports, and given 140 conference presentations. His works have been cited more than 400 times.

Lee has also led a series of projects that have developed, disseminated, and supported free and open-source software, BitCurator, that archivists around the world are using to apply digital forensics methods for the curation of their collections.

As one of his nominators noted: “Lee defined the field of digital forensics, demonstrated its absolute relevance to the archival profession, and developed workshops, courses, and support materials that make it possible for archivists to master digital forensics tools and procedures.” Another nominator said: “He performs cutting edge research and translates it into actionable ways that practicing archivists can use.” 

Lee is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: John H. Slate

John H. Slate, city archivist of Dallas, Texas, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Slate earned his master’s degree in library and information science with a concentration in archival enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin. He began his professional experience in the Public Services Unit at the university’s Center for American History. He later became the curator of collections and rare books librarian at the Hertzberg Circus Collection and Museum at the San Antonio Public Library, and then archivist at the Texas African-American Photography Archive, Documentary Arts, Inc. Since assuming the position of city archivist in March 2000, his indefatigable energy and successful advocacy efforts have propelled the Dallas Municipal Archives to be among the best models of municipal archives nationally.

“Slate has been one of the most ardent advocates for and visible faces of local government records in SAA and NAGARA for nearly two decades,” wrote one nominator. “His commitment and passion is unparalleled. He has been involved in virtually every effort to address the nearly intractable problem of local records preservation in the United States.”

Slate’s scholarly contributions and service to the field have consistently reflected his enthusiasm for local government records. In SAA, he has served as chair of the Government Records Section, Local Government Records Roundtable, and Visual Materials Section. In addition, he is a member of Metroplex Archivists, Academy of Certified Archivists, and the Texas Historical Records Advisory Board as well as being a past president of the Society of Southwest Archivists and alum of the Archives Leadership Institute. Of special significance is his 2016 book, Managing Local Government Archives, co-authored with SAA Fellow Kaye Lanning Minchew, in which they share insights and a common sense approach to addressing issues prevalent among local governments.

Slate is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Michele Pacifico

Michele Pacifico, archival facilities consultant, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Pacifico has been a leader in working with archives in all areas of planning, programming, and the design of new or renovated archival facilities. After the successful completion in 1994 of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland, in which she served as assistant project director, Pacifico went on to coordinate the master renovation plan for the historic National Archives Building on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and coordinated the design concept for an expansion of the Archives II building. Archives II, the world’s largest archives facility, brought a number of breakthroughs to the archival community, including the design and testing of mobile shelving and fire protection systems, as well as setting standards for building environments and materials. She has since worked with the California, Colorado, and Utah State Archives, the DC Office of Public Records and Archives, Library and Archives Canada, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Boston City Archives, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of South Carolina, among others.

Within SAA, she has held various leadership positions, chairing or co-chairing the Technical Subcommittee on Archival Facility Guidelines, the Status of Women Committee, and the Archival History Roundtable, in addition to being a member of the Awards Committee and the Working Group on Accessibility in Archives. She co-edited with Thomas Wilsted the SAA standard Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects and Engineers (SAA, 2009), which won the SAA Preservation Publication Award in 2010. She presented papers at numerous conferences on collections environments, sustainable archives, accessibility in archives, and safeguarding archival records.

As one supporter stated, “One of the most significant contributions an archivist can make to our profession is to gain the respect of those outside it and to nurture their understanding of, and enthusiasm for, our work. Pacifico has done that repeatedly and in significant venues.”

Pacifico is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Pamela Hackbart-Dean

Pamela Hackbart-Dean, director of the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Hackbart-Dean, who earned her master’s degree in history and archival management at the University of Connecticut, has distinguished herself as a thoughtful leader. Her nominators describe her as a “skilled teacher” and someone for whom “to be a professional archivist is to be active—to publish, to present, to serve, to mentor, to collaborate, to learn, and to question.”

A presenter at numerous conferences and instructor at workshops, Hackbart-Dean has also published widely. As co-author of How to Manage Processing Archives and Special Collections, (SAA, 2012), she has contributed a practical step-by-step guide to processing, a project which supplements and develops her work as co-author of Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (Association of Research Libraries, 2009). She has served SAA in a variety of capacities: as chair of the Preservation Section, Oral History Section, Manuscripts Section, Labor Archives Roundtable, and Congressional Papers Roundtable, and Committee on Education; as a member of the Dictionary of Archival Terminology Working Group, SAA Mentor, and Program Committee for the 2002 Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama; and currently as an elected member of the Council. She has developed two successful SAA workshops.

Her nominators uniformly reference her enriching mentorship as well as her ability to “knit together old colleagues to do new things.” Another of her supporters noted as extraordinary “the quiet role she has assumed in inspiring future generations of archivists by guiding, mentoring, and connecting, and by being herself a role model of leadership.”

Previous to her work at SIU, Hackbart-Dean served as head of the Special Collections and Archives and director of the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University and, prior to that, as processing archivist for the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Library.

Hackbart-Dean is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Robin Chandler

Robin Chandler, archives consultant, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Chandler’s expertise and leadership has helped many nascent archives program get established. She began working in archives and special collections in a series of progressively more responsible positions in science and technology organizations at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, before becoming the head of special collections at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), director of the Digital Library Program at the University of California, San Diego, and then associate university librarian at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Her groundbreaking work with the Tobacco Control Archives at UCSF, is recognized as a model project in digital archives. Chandler’s advocacy for the project’s mission to provide universal access to and preservation of the archives ensured its success. In addition, the availability of tobacco industry documents online has influenced health policy on a national scale and resulted in public health statutes across the United States.

As the first full-time permanent manager of the Online Archive of California (OAC), an early consortium of online finding aids which received SAA’s C.F.W. Coker Award for innovative development in archival description in 2005, Chandler helped transition the OAC from a grant-funded project to a stable and innovative international resource. She then assisted colleagues on similar projects to organize, acquire funding, and establish the Northwest Digital Archives and the Texas Archives and Records and Records Online. As one supporter noted, “Chandler’s direction of the OAC working group accelerated the advancement and adoption of national standards and the development of richer archives services in California and beyond.”

Chandler has held various leadership positions in both SAA and the Society of California Archivists (SCA), where she has chaired or co-chaired a number of committees, roundtables, and task forces, as well as served as SCA president. Her supporters note her “steadfast commitment to the improvement of archival practice” and describe her as a “facilitator, bringing the right people together to do incredibly important things for the institutions she works for and for the profession.”

Chandler is one of six new Fellows named in 2017. There are currently 189 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Michelle Caswell, Marika Cifor, and Mario H. Ramirez

Michelle Caswell, assistant professor of archival studies the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Marika Cifor, Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College; and Mario H. Ramirez, doctoral candidate in information studies at UCLA, are the 2017 recipients of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA).

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. Caswell, Cifor, and Ramirez are being honored for “‘To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing’: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2016 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 79, no. 1). Their article reports on a set of qualitative interviews with South Asian American educators regarding their reaction to the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), an independent, nonprofit, community-based organization. Several themes emerge from this research, including the affective impact of community archives on users and the difficulties of locating and accessing material on this ethnic group. The authors suggest that such community archives can counter the symbolic annihilation of marginalized groups, creating instead feelings of representational belonging.

 

 

The SAA Awards Committee noted that their research “presents a clear, deeply theorized and documented case for the impact of community archives” and “advances our understanding of community archives, an increasingly important area for the archival profession as we tackle issues of diversity and post-custodial approaches to preserving information.” 

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Chido Muchemwa

Chido Muchemwa, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, is a 2017 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

In her academic and professional activities, Muchemwa is dedicated to ensuring that historically underrepresented communities are not only reflected in archives, but are the narrators of their stories. As an intern with the American Heritage Center in Laramie, Wyoming, she designed a display that showcased the state’s Native American history outside of the gaze of the American settler. At her current internship at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Muchemwa presented on “Blackness in the White Imagination” during Black History Month, highlighting depictions of African American people and culture authored by White people and advocating for collections to feature Black stories told by Black people.

Muchemwa writes: “Many communities have created their own community archives as a way to tell their stories . . . . Traditional institutions have much to learn from such community archives, and I have been investigating what we can learn about radically imagining new structures for our archives that are more inclusive.”  

One of her supporters notes that “Muchemwa’s work is foregrounded in a concern and a sensitivity toward centering those who have not been traditionally represented in the archive.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: NaVosha Copeland

NaVosha Copeland, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, is a 2017 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). 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.

Copeland’s initiative and ability to collaborate on projects related to archives, primary source research, and community building impressed the SAA Awards Committee. As the historian of the Emory Black Student Union (EBSU), Copeland created a presentation on the first African American students and faculty of Emory University, initiated the process to make available the records of student organizations, including the foundational documents of EBSU, and held open forums with students groups to ensure preservation of their records. She has also partnered with curators and librarians to develop an exhibit on African American productions of Shakespeare’s Othello.

One of her supporters noted that Copeland is “adept at identifying relevant collections, interrogating the material, and repurposing it to affect change or to recognize past achievements of students and faculty of color on campus.”

Copeland’s stated goal is to “become an archivist who assists diverse communities in accessing and using the archives. I am committed to developing outreach initiatives that will attract communities of color.”

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Environmental Data and Governance Initiative

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) is the 2017 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

EDGI is an international network of social and natural scientists, lawyers, and other information and environmental professionals who document and advocate for the vital importance of evidence-based environmental policy. In 2017, EDGI responded to changes in the new presidential administration by making the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website the best archived agency page at the Internet Archive. In its first “Guerrilla Archiving” event, more than 150 volunteers from multiple disciplines preserved information and data at risk of being removed from online public access, including information on climate change and water and air pollution. An EDGI Toolkit—featuring workflows, processes, and guidelines for hosting similar data rescue events—has enabled events in Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, resulting in 35,478 pages added to the Internet Archive and 96 datasets being preserved.

“This work engages broad audiences across the world and creates awareness in communities otherwise blind to the work of archives and archivists,” noted the Awards Committee. “EDGI’s tireless effort to create a network of interdisciplinary individuals, departments, and institutions dedicated to collecting and preserving vulnerable scientific data deserves fuller awareness.” 

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Jeannie Chen

Jeannie Chen is the 2017 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 (SAA). The $10,000 scholarship, established in 2010, 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.

Chen, who is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been a committed volunteer at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC), where she has developed projects to process, preserve, and provide access to archival collections. She has also helped to establish a working Archives Committee to provide CHSSC with a professional support network, basic archival training, and assistance in sustainably stewarding its collections. Her passion for the archival profession is fueled by the desire for members of historically marginalized communities to see themselves reflected in the archives and for greater engagement among international and cross-cultural colleagues.

Noting Chen’s diligence in both her academic and volunteer work, one supporter wrote that Chen is “the kind of enthusiastic and dedicated student we, as teachers, love to have in the classroom” and “one of those rare students that I know . . . will change the field for the better.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Jessica Tai

Jessica Tai, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree with an archival specialization at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2017 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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.

Tai’s commitment to diversity in archives is evident in her unique outreach work, as in her work on the event, “Activating the Archive,” in which participants created crafts around social justice, activist, and human rights issues using reproductions of archival materials. She is an active member of the Los Angeles Archivist Collective Diversity subcommittee and is developing a workshop series that will teach basic photographic preservation at a local library and facilitate a forum for community sharing. Tai’s wide range of experience in the archival field includes managing the image database at the William E. Colby Memorial Library at the Sierra Club, performing holdings maintenance and material rehousing at the San Francisco Maritime Research Center, and photographing collections at Nzilani Stained Glass Conservation. In addition, she is an Archival Processing Scholar at the Center for Primary Research and Training at the UCLA Special Collections Library.

One of her supporters noted: “Tai stands out as a critical and creative thinker who brings her skills as an artist, photographer, and social justice activist to her archival practice and scholarship.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Sabrina Ponce

Sabrina Ponce, who is pursuing a dual master of library and information science degree with an archival specialization and master of arts degree in Latin American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a 2017 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The $5,000 scholarship is given 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, Ponce has developed a commitment to actively engaging with diverse archival collections and communities. Her descriptive work on the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at the Center for Primary Research and Training at the UCLA Library Special Collections demonstrated a strong awareness of the representation of identities and relationships documented within the collection. In her work on an exhibition documenting the experience of Japanese-Americans in internment camps, Ponce reached out to the Nikkei (Japanese-American) Student Union at UCLA to collaborate on developing the exhibit’s narrative. She has also participated in local outreach events with the Palos Verdes Library Local History Center, which inspired her to pursue a career in archives.

Ponce writes, “I believe that archivists should work with an ethic of service and justice for communities, in addition to working in dialogue with all communities whose histories they preserve.” Alongside the MLIS degree, Ponce is pursuing a master’s in Latin American studies to better understand the history, culture, and communities that she will serve as an archivist.

One of her supporters wrote that upon first working with her, “I was impressed with Ponce’s curiosity, interest, and diligence in learning about the profession. Two years later, I continue to be impressed by her commitment to understanding all facets of the profession.”

Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: The Center for Home Movies

The Center for Home Movies is the 2017 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 1973, recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents.

The Center for Home Movies is transforming public perception of amateur films through its outreach and advocacy work, especially its annual Home Movie Day. This international “bring your own film” festival, held in local communities, celebrates the unique and historic content of home movies and provides opportunities for expert instruction on the preservation of this at-risk medium. The Center’s efforts “to preserve, provide access to, and promote the interdisciplinary use and study of home movies” also include the 2007 compilation DVD Living Room Cinema, the Amateur Night touring 35mm film program, the 2010 Home Movie Digitization and Access Summit, and the online Home Movie Registry.

“With its unique focus and engaging projects, the Center is making a significant contribution to the public understanding of the value of home movies and the importance of film preservation,” the SAA Awards Committee wrote. 

Preservation Publication Award: "Waters Rising: Letters from Florence" by Sheila Waters

Waters Rising: Letters from Florence by Sheila Waters (The Legacy Press, 2016) is the recipient of the 2017 Preservation Publication Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

Waters Rising documents the heroic effort to rescue cultural heritage in the wake of the infamous 1966 flood in Florence, Italy, that inundated the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and left one-third of its collections submerged. Leading the rescue efforts was renowned bookbinder Peter Waters, who is considered “the father of preventative conservation” and greatly influenced present-day conservation philosophy and ethical standards. In Waters Rising, his wife Sheila traces his formative experiences and philosophies while outlining methods and observations made during the 1966 disaster recovery.

The SAA Awards Committee noted that “this work serves as a valuable record and inspirational learning tool, but is also a fitting tribute to Mr. Waters himself.”

Sister M. Claude Lane Award: Wesley W. Wilson

Wesley W. Wilson, CA, coordinator of archives and special collections at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, is the 2017 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. The award, created in 1974, honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

Since he first became the coordinator for DePauw’s archives in 1984, Wilson has worked diligently to preserve and share the records of the United Methodist church in Indiana. He has held leadership roles in the SAA Archivists of Religious Collections Section, Midwest Archives Conference, and Society of Indiana Archivists, and is a founding member of the Indiana United Methodist Historical Society. Wilson’s leadership extends to the archival community through his various publications, classes, and presentations on topics related to archival work in religious archives. Wilson’s spirit of sharing and dedication to the preservation of church records are evident in his legacy of progress seen in DePauw’s archives. 

One supporter wrote, “DePauw’s archives are top rate in terms of their content, organization, staffing, and management. Wilson has developed a priceless resource for the DePauw community.” Another supporter noted, “Wilson is an exemplary professional whose accomplishments with the Archives at DePauw University in the national field of archival service have won him wide respect and admiration.”

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Anna Robinson-Sweet

Anna Robinson-Sweet, master’s student in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College in Boston, is the 2017 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 1987, recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.

Robinson-Sweet’s paper, “Truth and Reconciliation: Archivists as Reparations Activists,” was nominated by Janet Ceja, assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons. Her paper reviews selected literature through an activist lens and presents three case studies in which varying degrees of activism on the part of archivists contributed to or detracted from the success of that reparations campaign. She argues that archivists should be and can be the link between activists and evidence, and that through activism archives can make their greatest impact.   

In her nomination, Ceja wrote, “The paper expresses a much needed student perspective on current discussions on archives and social justice. This work is representative of how some students are making sense of and viewing their roles as future archivists, particularly during times of great political upheaval.”

The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 81, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2018). 

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: "Building Trustworthy Digital Repositories: Theory and Implementation" by Philip C. Bantin

Philip C. Bantin, director of the archives and records management specialization at Indiana University, Bloomington, is the 2017 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book, Building Trustworthy Digital Repositories: Theory and Implementation, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2016. The award, established in 1959 in honor of SAA’s second president, is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.

In Building Trustworthy Digital Repositories, Bantin offers a comprehensive look at the state of long-term preservation of and access to digital records. With contributions from 41 international archivists, educators, and practitioners, Bantin introduces theoretical concepts followed by examples of implementation and practical guidance for application for all phases of the digital preservation lifecycle. This publication, pertinent to the entire profession, meets the needs of different archivists—from established archives practitioners and educators to students and new professionals.   

The Award Committee noted: “Pulling together many different contributors into a cohesive volume is no easy task, but Bantin manages to accomplish just that to produce a work that is very relevant to the challenges all archivists face today with the massive amounts of digital records that are part of repositories both large and small.”

Fellow of SAA: Rebecca Hankins

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.

Fellow of SAA: Herbert Hartsook

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.”

Fellow of SAA: Tom Hyry

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.

Fellow of SAA: Barbara Teague

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.

Fellow of SAA: Helen Wong Smith

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.”

Archival Innovator Award: Foy Scalf

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.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: SAA Business Archives Section

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.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: SAA Oral History Section

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.”

Council Exemplary Service Award: William J. Maher

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.”

Distinguished Service Award: Georgia Archives Institute

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.”

Diversity Award: SAA Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Archives Roundtable's Webinar Series

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.”

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Alessandro Meregaglia

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.

Emerging Leader Award: Matt Gorzalski

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.”

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Katherine Madison

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.”

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Wendy Duff and Jessica Haskell

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.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Gailyn Bopp

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.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Karen Hwang

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.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ron Chernow for Hamilton

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.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Desiree Alaniz

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.”

Mosaic Scholarship: Jimmy Zavala

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award: Tristan Triponez

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. 

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: South Asian American Digital Archive

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.

Preservation Publication Award: Preserving Our Heritage - Perspectives from Antiquity to the Digital Age by Michele V. Cloonan

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.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Denise Gallo

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.”

Spotlight Award: Marie Lascu

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.”

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Rachel Walton

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. 

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Sonja Luehrmann

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.”

Archival Innovator Award: State Archives of Florida’s Florida Memory Team

The State Archives of Florida’s Florida Memory Team (Katrina Harkness, Mark Nicolou, Josh Goodman, Adam Watson, Jody Norman, and Derek Long) is the 2015 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.  

In May 2014, the State Archives’ Florida Memory Team launched Florida Memory Radio (Radio.FloridaMemory.com), a twenty-four-hour streaming Internet radio station. Florida Memory Radio features music from the Florida Folklife Collection, which consists of audio, photographic, and documentary materials relating to the history and culture of Florida. The bulk of the programming on Florida Memory Radio consists of daily “shows” featuring the main genres of music represented in the Florida Folklife Collection, including blues, bluegrass or old time, folk, gospel or sacred, Latin, and world music. Florida Memory Radio provides a listening experience designed to expose patrons to archival recordings and then draw them into the Florida Memory website to learn more. This strategy expands the archives’ appeal to patrons outside the academic and professional music communities who may not find traditional research methods as intuitive or accessible.

C.F.W. Coker Award: Social Networks and Archival Context Project

The Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) Project (http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/snac/search) by the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, the UC Berkeley School of Information, and the California Digital Library is being awarded the C.F.W. Coker Award. 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.

SNAC addresses a longstanding research challenge: discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records. These records are held in archives and manuscript libraries around the world, and the standards to describe the records may differ from one archive to another. Thus, scholars using the records as primary evidence often undergo time-consuming and inefficient research. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, SNAC began to explore the feasibility of extracting data in record descriptions (such as finding aids) that describe the people who created or are documented in the records. The data was then assembled into a prototype research tool that integrates and simplifies access to the dispersed records and provides unprecedented access to the biographical-historical contexts of the people documented in the resources. The team is now in the planning phase of transforming its research into an international cooperative hosted by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

One supporter wrote that SNAC “will fundamentally begin to change the landscape of archival description: the program will be a substantive contribution to the national, and indeed, international platform, making the description of archives more efficient and effective—and significantly ameliorating the challenge of discovering, locating, and understanding the resources that document our shared history.”

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker. 

Distinguished Service Award: Archives Leadership Institute

The Archives Leadership Institute (ALI) is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Established 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.

ALI has developed a program and model that warrants special recognition for its contributions to the profession. Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission since 2008, ALI provides leadership training to archives professionals who want to make an impact on the profession. By this fall, the annual program will have hosted more than two hundred individuals who have studied advocacy, media relations, change management, team development, project management, and other relevant leadership topics. These individuals use the professional network created by participating in ALI and implement what was learned through new ideas, improved service, and enhanced leadership skills. Alumni frequently contribute to the curriculum, helping the program adapt and grow so that it can continue to serve its attendees and the archives profession with distinction.

Diversity Award: The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program

The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) at the University of Florida is a 2015 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.

SPOHP teaches students, independent scholars, and community organizations how to bring history to life through oral history interviews. SPOHP teaches the craft and intellectual traditions of oral history through university seminars and community-based workshops. Since its founding in 1967, SPOHP has conducted more than seven thousand interviews and transcribed more than 150,000 pages of material from the interviews. Its current roster of projects, including the Alachua County African American History Project, the Mississippi Freedom Project, the Veterans History Project, the Native American History Project, and the Latina/o Diaspora in the Americas Project, represent the breadth of the program’s impact on diversifying the archival record. 

One supporter wrote that SPOHP’s “relentless pursuit of community knowledge, local voices, and academic transformation has created a monumental program that has impacted the lives of countless people in Florida and across the nation.”

SPOHP joins the Evanston, Illinois, nonprofit Shorefront as the 2015 recipients of the Diversity Award. 

Diversity Award: Shorefront

Shorefront is a 2015 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.

From its beginning in 1995, Shorefront, an Evanston, Illinois–based nonprofit, has diligently collected, preserved, and shared artifacts, documents, photographs, and family archives representing the lives of the black community on the Chicago suburban North Shore.  Shorefront's founding was motivated by the recognition that the records of this vital history, spanning more than 150 years, were at great risk and in need of a long-term community-based steward. Shorefront is now home to more than 170 linear feet of archival collections. In addition to maintaining the Shorefront Legacy Center, the public access point for its collection, Shorefront has embraced its mission of education, supporting extensive public programming and, through its Shorefront Press, publishing an annual journal and historical monographs.  

“Shorefront’s continuous research and collaborations have forever changed how Illinois views the contributions of blacks to one of the nation’s most populous and industrious states,” one supporter wrote.

Shorefront joins the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida as the 2015 recipients of the Diversity Award. 

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Colin Post

Colin Post, a student in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science and the Art Department, is the 2015 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.

At the SAA Annual Meeting, Post will participate in the Students and New Archives Professionals Roundtable and will present his research paper “Voices From Every Angle: An Approach to Archiving the Event.” The paper details a project Post is working on with two master of fine arts students to develop a new way to document performative and ephemeral art, with the artist and the archivist working together to create a short set of questions to present to viewers of the artwork. The archivist will then use these questions to record conversations with the viewers and document many perspectives of the artwork, creating a living document of the ephemeral piece.

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award was established in 2005 and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson. 

Emerging Leader Award: Cheryl Oestreicher

Cheryl Oestreicher, head of Special Collections and Archives and an assistant professor at Boise State University, is the 2015 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.

Since receiving her master of library and information science degree from the College of Saint Catherine/Dominican University in 2004, Oestreicher has exhibited a remarkable record of achievement in teaching, scholarship, and service. At Boise State University, she has done admirable outreach work in the Boise community, establishing a partnership with the Boise City Department of Arts and History and opening the doors of the archives to an array of community organizations, such as the Frank Church Institute and the local chapter of the Wild West History Association.

The Award Committee also commended Oestreicher’s strong record of service to the profession, notably her work as editor of Provenance, the journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists, and success in making the journal’s back issues freely accessible online.

“I have been continually impressed by Oestreicher’s command of current archival practice, commitment to maximizing efficiency of throughput, and enthusiasm for strengthening ties between those who care for special collections and archives and those who use them,” one supporter wrote. “She undoubtedly has an exciting career ahead of her.”

F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship: Noah Geraci

Noah Geraci, who is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the 2015 recipient of the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship. The award offers financial support to a graduate student in his or her second year of archival studies at a US 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 addition to his strong academic record, Geraci impressed the Award Committee with his excellent writing skills and dedication to applying community-based archival frameworks to records and collections related to mental illness. The committee commended Geraci’s thoughtful analysis of a collection in the Getty Research Library that contains drawings and manuscripts by individuals living in a psychiatric hospital in Peru.

Cementing the committee’s decision was Geraci’s extensive paid and volunteer work experiences, which include work with the Freedom Archives, Books Beyond Bars, and the Digital Library Program at UCLA.

One recommender commented that Geraci is “without doubt one of the standout students in his cohort . . . a superb student and personally inspiring individual who is facile in translating what he learns in the classroom . . . into practice.”

The award was created in 1998 by SAA Fellow, past president, and longtime member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie. 

Fellow: Jelain Chubb

Jelain Chubb, Texas state archivist and director of the Archives and Information Services Division at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Cleveland, August 16–22. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Chubb earned her bachelor’s degree in history from the College of Charleston and dual master’s degrees in library and information science and applied history with a specialization in archival administration from the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

Chubb began her professional experience as a search room assistant at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, conducting reference interviews and assisting researchers using state and local government records. She later became the assistant curator of archival collections for the University of South Carolina’s University Archives and moved on to increasingly responsible professional positions as local records archivist for the Kansas State Historical Society, administrative archivist for the Local Records Program at the Missouri State Archives, and as state archivist for Ohio and Texas. Chubb has demonstrated especially strong advocacy skills throughout her career and has succeeded in securing additional funding for the state archives in Ohio and Texas during challenging economic periods. Since assuming the position of Texas state archivist in June 2010, her positive and focused approach to advancing the archival integrity of the Texas state government resulted in the state legislature increasing appropriations for records preservation and access by more than $1 million.

Chubb is a member of SAA, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, the Council of State Archivists, Academy of Certified Archivists, and the Institute of Certified Records Managers, as well as regional and local archival organizations. Her leadership positions include serving as chair of multiple annual meeting program and local arrangement committees and as a member of the NAGARA board of directors.  

“To a level far above the average, [Chubb] is unflagging in pursuit, support, and encouragement of the archival enterprise,” a supporter wrote. “In her deft management of the daily archival function, her ingenuity in building constituencies of supporters, and her attention to ensuring the spread and enrichment of the archival knowledge base, she truly is an archivist’s archivist.”

Chubb is one of three new Fellows named in 2015. There are currently 184 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Kathleen Williams

Kathleen Williams, executive director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grant making affiliate of the National Archives, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Cleveland, August 16–22. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Williams began her career as the assistant archivist at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1982. She then moved on to become the first archivist of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts in 1984. While there she developed an archival and records management program that has served as a model for museums nationwide. In 1994 Williams moved on to become supervisory assistant archivist at the Smithsonian Institution Archives and subsequently advanced to become the supervisory associate archivist (1997) and archives division director (2002), leading archival activities at the largest such repository at the Smithsonian. In 2004, she joined the NHPRC as deputy executive director and became executive director in 2008. As executive director, Williams led the effort to create Founders Online (founders.archives.gov), an online public resource that contains more than 170,000 digitized and transcribed historical documents of six founding fathers of the United States. She successfully negotiated with the White House and Congress for additional funding to support this effort. Williams has worked tirelessly to reinvigorate and reimagine NHPRC's national grants program, including a new funding category to encourage citizen engagement in historical records projects at local, state, and regional archives. Other new NHPRC initiatives she has led go to support state archives electronic records management, online digital publishing of historical records, and professional leadership programs.

In addition to these professional positions, Williams has been active in the Society of Southwest Archivists, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, and SAA. In SAA, she has been a member and chair of the Museum Archives Section; a member of the Task Force on Sections and Roundtables, the Membership Committee, a Program Committee, and a Host Committee; and the first chair of the Emerging Leader Award Committee.

Williams’s supporters noted that she “became well-known for her common-sense, no-nonsense, practical, effective grasp of the challenges of developing museum archives in an underfunded and hostile environment” and that she is a “thoughtful leader . . . [with a] keen perception of where the field is, where it could be going, and what kinds of strategies and partnerships would be especially crucial in reaching optimum outcomes.”

Williams is one of three new Fellows named in 2015. There are currently 184 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Kathy Marquis

Kathy Marquis of Laramie, Wyoming, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Cleveland, August 16–22. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Marquis earned her bachelor of arts in history (with a concentration in women’s history) from the University of Michigan, where she worked as a student in the Bentley Historical Library, and her master of library and information science degree from Simmons College.

Marquis’s career has included a series of posts at several outstanding repositories where she has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to user needs, improved reference services, and developing reference literacy. Her career began in 1978 as an archival assistant at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe College. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she discovered her professional calling as a reference archivist. She then honed her reference, access, and public service skills at the Minnesota Historical Society before returning to her alma mater, Michigan, where she was head of the Reference and Access Division at the Bentley Library.

For the past twelve years, she was the public services librarian at the Albany County Public Library in Laramie, Wyoming, where among other things she promoted Internet access and literacy and organized book discussions and other public outreach activities.

Professional accomplishments include co-development of the SAA workshop “Real World Reference: Moving Beyond Theory”; guest lecturing at Michigan and Simmons; presenting papers at the annual meetings of SAA, the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC), the New England Area Archivists, and the Public Library Association; and co-chaired both SAA and MAC Program Committees and as chair of several SAA committees, most recently as co-chair of the SAA Task Force on the Annual Meeting. In addition, Marquis is the co-author of the forthcoming American Library Association book Local History Reference Collections in Public Libraries.

Marquis’s enduring—and endearing—contributions also include a unique and playful approach to engaging colleagues. She conducted a Haiku contest for a session at SAA’s 2009 meeting, a poetry contest in tribute to MAC’s 40th anniversary, and performed as an ensemble member of the “Raiders of the Lost Archives” during the 2014 SAA meeting.

Marquis is one of three new Fellows named in 2015. There are currently 184 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Kit Hughes

Kit Hughes, soon-to-be assistant professor of media, journalism, and film at Miami University, is the 2015 recipient of the 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.

Hughes, who earned her PhD in media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was honored for her article “Appraisal as Cartography: Cultural Studies in the Archives,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2014 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 77, no. 1).

In her article, Hughes examines the practice of appraisal, which, as she writes, “controls the flow of materials that can be used by people to construct cultural identities.” Hughes compares archival appraisal theory with a cultural studies model of appraisal to arrive at “new ways of considering methods of documenting culture.” Hughes’s model encourages archivists to broaden their view of stakeholders, media, and the role of archives in modern culture and society, leading to the laudable goal of achieving a more inclusive documentary record.

The Award Committee noted that the article provides a “refreshing and innovative view of appraisal theory and methodology.”

The award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president as well as a distinguished author. 

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award:Talía Guzmán-González

Talía Guzmán-González, a graduate student in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a 2015 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.

In addition to her pursuit of a master’s in library and information science degree, Guzmán-González holds a PhD in Portuguese with a minor field in Latin American literature. She was an intern and currently volunteers at the Smithsonian Latino Center in Washington, DC, and is involved with the Latino GLBT History Project. As an archivist, Guzmán-González wants to “advocate for the presence of minorities as user, but also make sure that their contributions to our society are part of archival repositories.” In her past experiences as a teacher and current work in Washington, DC, she is committed to raising awareness about the histories of communities of color. Guzmán-González also was recently recognized by the Association of Research Libraries as a 2014 Career Enhancement Program Fellow.

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA. Also receiving the Pinkett Award this year is Rachel Winston, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Rachel E. Winston

Rachel E. Winston, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), is a 2015 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.

As a student, Winston has been committed to making herself “more capable to advocate for and work with collections and materials related to the African American and Black Diaspora experience.” Her interest, dedication, and enthusiasm for documenting the Black Diaspora is seen in her work with the Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project at UT Austin. Winston also recently completed ethnographic research and multilingual course work in Black Diaspora Studies in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to further define and improve her knowledge of Afro-Brazilian communities and history. Winston is active in many local organizations and serves as the secretary of the student SAA chapter at UT Austin.

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA. Also receiving the Pinkett Award this year is Talía Guzmán-González, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: Adrena Ifill Blagburn

Adrena Ifill Blagburn is the 2015 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs.

Since founding the cultural heritage and multimedia production firm Ifill/DoubleBack Global Group (www.doublebackproductions.com) in 2002, Ifill Blagburn has been a leading advocate for the preservation of archival records documenting African American Congressional history. As a result of her efforts to educate black lawmakers about record retention policies, Ifill Blagburn has increased public awareness on the importance of not only preserving these records, but of the benefits of utilizing them for educational and historic programs. As a consultant and director of the Avoice Project (www.avoiceonline.org), an online library of digitized artifacts documenting the legislative and political contributions of African Americans serving in Congress, Ifill Blagburn grew the project to include nine online exhibits, a collection of lesson units designed to promote the use of primary sources in the classroom, and more than ten thousand digitized assets.

“[Ifill Blagburn] possess a unique combination of passion, vision, and perseverance, which makes her an inspiring colleague, teacher, and advocate,” one supporter wrote.

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson. 

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Maria E. Sanchez-Tucker

Maria E. Sanchez-Tucker is the 2015 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 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.

Sanchez-Tucker, who is currently pursuing a master of library and information science degree at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, also earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in museum science from Texas Tech University.

Presently, Sanchez-Tucker works as the manager of the Special Collections and Western History Department of the InfoZone News Museum, a department of the Pueblo City-County Library District. She previously served as the founding executive director of the Bessemer Historical Society, now the Steelworks Center of the West. 

Sanchez-Tucker is currently part of a collaborative effort to help the largely Hispanic community of Salt Creek in Pueblo document itself through oral histories and writing workshops. This effort will serve as a blueprint for working with and documenting other ethnic communities in the area. 

One supporter noted that Sanchez-Tucker’s “approach to her professional enterprise is always that of inclusion and harmony. [Her] natural leadership abilities are evident in her professional success. These qualities and so much more make her an ideal choice for advancing diversity within the American archives profession.”

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. 

Mosaic Scholarship: Desiree Alaniz

Desiree Alaniz, who will pursue a master of library and information science degree with an archives management concentration at Simmons College starting this fall, is the 2015 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. 

In addition to a strong academic record, Alaniz has demonstrated her commitment to diversity in archives, both as an undergraduate conducting original research in an independent study course and as a volunteer at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, where she catalogued, researched, and described a donated collection. Uncovering these marginalized histories persuaded her “to pursue social justice work in archives through the critical diversification of the historical record.” Alaniz also previously served as a program representative at the UCLA Undergraduate Research Center, where she promoted, developed, and celebrated undergraduate student research.

One of Alaniz’s supporters noted that “she is someone who will go above and beyond to provide services to those in need. [Alaniz] is compassionate, intelligent, and has what it takes to succeed at whatever she puts her mind to.” Another wrote that she “has managed to merge her commitments to social justice with an admirable career track.”

First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership in the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2015 SAA Annual Meeting.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award: Mary Grace Golfo

Mary Grace Golfo, a student in the Master’s Program in Archival Studies at the University of Manitoba, is the 2015 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award. 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.

Golfo is a Filipino citizen and is on leave from her position as assistant professor in the University of the Philippines School of Library and Information Studies. Upon graduating from the Archival Studies program, Golfo plans to return to her home country to lead and develop the first formal graduate degree program in archival studies.

Golfo’s nominator wrote that her “exceptional dedication to the academic development of this field of study not only led her to make a major commitment to come here to study, but is reflected in her performance overall. . . . She is well underway on a well-conceived thesis topic on the shape that graduate-level archival studies education could take in the Philippines.”

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: The Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Medicine

The Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Medicine, is the 2015 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 Legacy Center has made a portion of its unique primary sources accessible to new audiences. The stories featured on the website Doctor or Doctress? Explore American history through the eyes of women physicians (www.doctordoctress.org) make history approachable by guiding users in interpreting and understanding these materials. The site leverages women’s stories to help students build critical analysis skills while learning about the broader scope of American history. It is a polished combination of images of primary source documents, video, audio, timelines, maps, and contextual information, packaged to help users understand why these stories matter.

“With this wonderful mix of materials, the resource most importantly offers to researchers the guidance needed to place primary source documents in historical and cultural context,” the Award Committee wrote. “Since its inception, the site has . . . [raised] awareness about its materials while being very user-friendly for the general population.”

The Hamer-Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents. 

Preservation Publication Award: From Theory to Action

From Theory to Action: “Good Enough” Digital Preservation Solutions for Under-Resourced Cultural Heritage Institutions is the recipient of the Preservation Publication Award. Established in 1993, this award recognizes and acknowledges the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation and, through this acknowledgment, encourages outstanding achievement by others. 

From Theory to Action summarizes the findings of the “Digital POWRR: Preserving digital Objects With Restrict Resources” project, funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant. For the project, Jaime Schumacher, Lynne Thomas, Drew VandeCreek, and other members of the Digital POWRR team examined how small and midsized institutions can achieve standards for digital preservation without the funding sources or technical expertise found in larger institutions. Northern Illinois University was the principle investigator along with four other Illinois universities: Chicago State, Illinois State, Illinois Wesleyan, and Western Illinois.    

“Practitioners at small to midsized institutions often struggle to find solutions to their digital preservation problems. This study encourages those practitioners to successfully solve their problems and meet their digital preservation goals,” the Award Committee noted.

Preservation Publication Special Commendation: The National Digital Stewardship Alliance

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) received a Preservation Publication special commendation from the Society of American Archivists in August 2015 for the publication 2015 National Agenda for Digital Stewardship. The commendation recognizes an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

The 2015 National Agenda for Digital Stewardship, authored by the NDSA leadership group, integrates the perspective of dozens of experts and hundreds of institutions to provide funders and executive decision makers insight into emerging technological trends. The Agenda is available is available for open access at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/nationalagenda/.

NDSA is a consortium of institutions working toward the goal of long-term digital preservation on a national level. Organized in 2010, it advances digital preservation by studying new trends and current gaps and seeking new areas of research and development in this field.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Diane Wells

Diane Wells, CA, archivist and records manager of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia in Seattle, is the 2015 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. 

Wells has held her position at the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia in Seattle since 1994. Early in her tenure, Wells produced a policies and procedures manual that has become a foundational resource for Episcopal diocesan records management programs. She also has creatively used her organization’s archives to promote major commemorative events, such as the 150th anniversary of the Episcopal Church’s presence in the Northwest. During the yearlong celebration, Wells wrote articles, provided background material and photographs, and produced a history video, “One in the Spirit: 150 Years of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington.” Wells maintains the blog Archives in Action and was one of the first religious archivists to embrace blogging as a way to maintain its profile.

Wells has chaired SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section and represented it within conference programs, speaking on such topics as documenting faith communities, utilizing volunteers, and administering clergy misconduct records. She has served on the board of the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists and is also a founding member of The Episcopal Archivists, an advisory group to The Archives of the Episcopal Church.

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. 

Spotlight Award: Anne Ostendarp

Anne Ostendarp, multimedia archivist for the Knights of Columbus and a consulting and project archivist, is the 2015 recipient of the Spotlight Award. The Spotlight 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.

A long-time archivist, Ostendarp is a dedicated professional who provides excellent guidance to her clients and exceptional service to archival organizations. She was selected for the Spotlight Award not only for these achievements but also for the way she has made archival practices understandable for hundreds of individuals who have taken workshops with her. Ostendarp developed curriculums for the Association Archives and Archives Overview workshops, teaching numerous times across the country for SAA. She also became the coinstructor of SAA’s Understanding Archives workshop and has taught at the SAA Annual Meeting and archival regional groups for the last ten years. Many of her workshop attendees come from small historical societies, academic institutions, and businesses seeking knowledge to improve responsible handling of the archival holdings in their care. Ostendarp’s instruction empowers them to do so, providing both theoretical structure and practical guidelines that can be immediately put into effect at a home institution.

One supporter wrote, “One of [Ostendarp’s] amazing qualities is the ability to impart her vast knowledge of archives in a way that is personable and easy to understand.” Another commented, “Along with providing the students with a treasure trove of information, [Ostendarp] brought an enthusiasm that students found contagious. She served as both an excellent instructor and an effective advocate for the archival profession.”

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Paige Hohmann

Paige Hohmann, a student in the dual Master of Archival Studies/Master of Library and Information Studies degree program at the University of British Columbia, is the 2015 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award. The award recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies.

Dr. Luciana Duranti of the University of British Columbia nominated Hohmann’s paper, “On Impartiality and Interrelatedness: Reactions to the Jenkinsonian Appraisal in the Twentieth Century.” Hohmann’s paper deconstructs the arguments of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, a British archivist and archival theorist, as well as the arguments of Jenkinson’s critics.

In her nomination, Duranti wrote, “The most outstanding characteristic of this paper is the subject matter. These days rarely archival students focus on theoretical issues, on traditional writers, and on decades-old discussions. The wish to revisit an issue that has been put away a long time ago with a final sentence, to wonder whether what is by most considered fact is a misinterpretation of [Jenkinson’s] stance, and to identify reasons for embracing the points [Jenkinson] made are extraordinary goals for a first-year archival student.”         

The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 79, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2016). Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of The American Archivist. 

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Michelle Caswell

Michelle Caswell, assistant professor of archival studies in the department of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the 2015 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award for her book, Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia, published by University of Wisconsin Press. The Waldo Gifford Leland Award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. 

In Archiving the Unspeakable, Caswell provides a compelling perspective on the mug shots taken in Tuol Sleng prison during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. The mug shots have come to represent the brutality of the regime, under which roughly 1.7 million people died from untreated disease, starvation, and execution and thousands of “enemies of state” were tortured and killed in prison. Caswell studies these mug shots under an archival lens and examines how the photographs have transformed from Khmer Rouge administrative records to museum displays, archival collections, and databases, illustrating unimaginable human suffering.

The Award Committee called Archiving the Unspeakable “thoughtful and thought-provoking” and noted that it “succeeds in its mission to ‘challenge archivists to embrace their own power to counter the silences embedded in records, particularly records that document human rights abuse’.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president. 

Archival Innovator Award: Trevor Owens

Trevor Owens, a digital archivist with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress, is the 2014 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.  

Owens has led a plethora of creative initiatives that in some way have helped to move the archives profession forward. He has conserved and organized innovative events to bring the preservation community together; for instance, he led the Preservation.exe: Toward a National Strategy for Preserving Software conference at the Library of Congress as well as the Curatecamp: Exhibition “unconference” that brought together archivists, preservationists, and digital collection managers to discuss what access and exhibition mean for archives and archivists in the era of online platforms and delivery.

Owens’ work also has led to a number of practical tools and documents for the archives community, including the Levels of Digital Preservation framework document, which demystifies digital preservation best practices and provides a tiered implementation model accessible to any institution regardless of size, staff, or budget.

One supporter wrote that Owens “displays a remarkable ability to take an idea and steward it into a project, product, or outcome that has tangible benefits. . . . He is capable of engaging with complex, theoretical ideas and distilling them into language that all archivists—students and leaders—can understand.”

C.F.W. Coker Award: Remixing Archival Metadata Project (RAMP) by the University of Miami Libraries

The Remixing Archival Metadata Project (RAMP) by the University of Miami Libraries is the 2014 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award from SAA. The team members who worked on this project are: Tim Thompson, Matt Carruthers, Andrew Darby, David Gonzalez, and Jamie Little.

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.

Over the years, the archives community has produced a body of detailed biographical descriptions that support access to the broader social and historical context surrounding archival and special collections. The emerging archival authorities format, EAC-CPF (Encoded Archival Context–Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families), provides a framework for encoding those descriptions and establishing a dialog between librarians and archivists regarding name authority control. The RAMP editor is a web-based tool for generating and disseminating EAC-CPF records. The RAMP editor successfully brings together librarians and archivists with a diverse range of skills around a project with a singular goal: to make descriptive work more accessible to the public by making archival description dynamic and reusable.

As one supporter noted, “The RAMP project is innovative because it allows for the enhancement and transformation of archival description into other useful forms beyond the traditional finding aid.”

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Diversity Award: Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Program

Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Program, led by Nicolás Kanellos and Carolina Villarroel at the University of Houston, is a 2014 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.

The Recovery Program is being honored for its outstanding achievement in accessioning important Latino archives, organizing and describing them, and making them available broadly to educational institutions and communities via publication and electronic delivery. The program has accessioned, organized, and described such important collections like that of Leonor Villegas de Magnón, a Laredo activist who in the early twentieth century recruited Anglo Texan, Mexican American, and Mexican women for a nursing corps to tend to the wounded and fallen on the battlefields of the Mexican Revolution. As an early feminist, she documented the role of women in her writings. Recovery also has assembled the world’s largest collection of microfilmed Hispanic newspapers published in the United States from 1808 to 1960.

“[This program] has made these records accessible to increasingly larger numbers of researchers who have in turn significantly impacted the development of Latino Studies,” one supporter wrote. “This has become obvious in scholarly conferences that I have attended and noticed increasing numbers of scholars acknowledging the use of digitized records made available by the program.”

Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Program joins Jennifer O’Neal, university historian and archivist at the University of Oregon Libraries, as the 2014 recipients of the Diversity Award.

Diversity Award: Jennifer O'Neal

Jennifer O’Neal, Corrigan Solari University Historian and Archivist at the University of Oregon (UO) Libraries, is a 2014 recipient of the Diversity Award.

Throughout her career, O’Neal has made contributions that reflect the criteria for the Diversity Award, particularly to American Indian and other indigenous groups. O’Neal joined SAA in 2003, helping to found the Native American Archives Roundtable in 2005. After participating in the drafting of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials in 2006, she participated in a multiyear process to bring awareness about the Protocols and advocated strongly for an SAA endorsement, which had a major impact on the profession’s discussion of Native American archives. O’Neal has continued to take leadership roles and advance issues of diversity via SAA’s Native American Protocols Forum Working Group and through the formation of SAA’s new Cultural Heritage Working Group, for which she currently serves as co-chair.

At UO, O’Neal was a lead instructor for the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute, an initiative that helped provide basic archival training to archivists, records managers, curators, and cultural resources specialists affiliated with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes. In addition, she co-teaches a UO honors college course on race and ethnicity in the American West, specifically focusing on the hidden history of the Northern Paiute tribal community.

One supporter noted that O’Neal’s “combined educational endeavors, publications, and continued service to the profession and to tribal communities across the nation make [her] an incredible model for other archivists to strive to emulate.”

O’Neal joins the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project at the University of Houston as the 2014 recipients of the Diversity Award. 

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Michelle Chiles

Michelle Chiles, a 2013 graduate from Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science,  is the 2014 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists. 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.

As a founding member and former co-chair of the New England Archivists’ (NEA) Roundtable for Early Professionals and Students (REPS), Chiles helped implement a pilot mentoring circles program. Chiles will be sharing her perspectives at the Joint Annual Meeting during the session “A Push in the Right Direction: Expanding Models of Mentorship.”

One supporter noted that Chiles consistently “push[es] the profession forward and advocate[s] for students and new professionals in the archival profession. In particular, her work with REPS . . . [has pushed] NEA to recognize and address the concerns of new professionals and students.”

The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award was established in 2005 and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson

Emerging Leader Award: Beth Shields

Beth Shields, the electronic records analyst at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA), and an electronic records consultant for the Council of State Archivists (CoSA), is the 2014 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. 

In her work at KDLA, Shields works to improve Kentucky’s electronic records management policies and procedures. Her contributions help to ensure that Kentucky government records will be properly managed and preserved, regardless of format.  As the co-chair of CoSA’s State Electronic Records Initiative, Shields provides insight and coordination for this large and important collaborative project that has far-reaching implications for electronic records and digital preservation in all state and territorial archives.

The Award Committee noted that Shields 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 in [the archives] profession.”

F. Gerald and Elsie Ham Scholarship: William J. Levay

William J. Levay, a graduate student in the School of Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute in New York City, is the 2014 recipient of the Elsie and 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 US 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.

Prior to attending Pratt Institute, Levay worked as a processing archivist and graduate assistant at New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections as well as the archives assistant at the Associated Press (AP) Corporate Archives. In this position, Levay processed the Vienna Bureau Records, a large collection of news wires dating from the 1950s through the 1990s, sent to the Vienna Bureau from AP correspondents working behind the Iron Curtain. During his time at Pratt, Levay has furthered his involvement in the archives profession through internships, part-time work, and participation in workshops and conferences offered by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, the New York Archives Conference, and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. Levay's interests include digital archives and linked data. He currently works as a graduate assistant on the Linked Jazz project and he was the sole developer of the new website of the ARChive of Contemporary Music.

“There is no doubt in my mind that [Levay] will go on to make valuable and imaginative contributions, no matter what type of library or archival work he lands,” one supporter wrote. “He has all the ingredients for success: curiosity, optimism, hard work, [and] humor.” 

The award was created in 1998 by SAA Fellow, past president, and longtime member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie.

Fellow: Frederick J. Stielow

Frederick J. Stielow, vice president and dean (emeritus) of libraries, electronic course materials, and ePress for the American Public University System (APUS), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10–16, 2014. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Stielow earned master’s degrees in history and library and archival science, as well as a dual doctorate in American studies and history at Indiana University. He went on to accrue more than thirty years’ experience as an educator, consultant, and manager in archives and related fields. His managerial experience is diverse; in one of his first professional positions, Stielow served as head of archives and special collections at the then University of Southwestern Louisiana, a major center for the revival of the Cajun and Creole heritage. Later in his career, he headed Wayne State University’s Walter Reuther Library, the country’s premier labor archives repository with a staff of twenty-five.

Stielow also undertook a productive decade-long interlude as an archival educator. He served as the director of the history/library science program at the University of Maryland and built a new archival concentration at the Catholic University of America.

“[Stielow] has made considerable contributions to the archival profession in his role as an archival educator,” one supporter wrote. “He has trained archivists in several different graduate programs and through his writing, but more importantly, he regularly informs, challenges, and engages our community to think about new approaches, clarify existing practices to ensure their rationality and application, and to constantly move forward in our approaches.”

In 2004, he was solicited to build a virtual library as part of regional accreditation efforts at APUS, a virtual university serving 100,000-plus students in more than 120 countries. In less than a decade, Stielow grew collections from 20,000 volumes and 8,000 serials to 170,000 ebooks and multiyear runs of 53,000 journals. Access increased by 3,000 percent and searches now exceed 100,000,000 annually. These efforts resulted in his recent selection as the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2014 Distance Librarian of the Year.

Stielow has been an active member of SAA for thirty years, serving on the ALA/SAA/American Alliance of Museums Committee on Archives, Libraries, and Museums; the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award Committee; and the ALA–SAA Joint Committee.

Stielow is one of five new Fellows named in 2014. There are currently 179 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Mark Duffy

Mark Duffy, director of The Archives of the Episcopal Church, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10–16, 2014. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Duffy earned a master’s degree in history and archives from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and achieved doctoral candidacy at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. Duffy worked in a variety of institutions early in his career. Serving as the chief archivist and project director for the City of Boston Archives, Duffy was responsible for initiating and administering a comprehensive municipal archives and records management program for the first time for the city. Duffy also worked at Harvard University for six years, as associate curator for University Records and Planning and later as associate director for the Harvard Depository. “It is not always easy to make the change from a government records program to a university, nor is it easy to administer records in an academic setting. [Duffy] flourished in the academic setting. . . . The outstanding abilities [Duffy] evidenced by balancing current records work within an academic library setting is a testament to his intelligence and commitment to archives programs,” one supporter wrote.

Duffy has held his current position as director of The Archives of the Episcopal Church since 1992. “He successfully educated the bishop and senior staff about the lifecycle of records and gained their support to build the archives—almost from scratch,” one supporter wrote. His astute and resourceful development of the church archives, and his masterful implementation of records systems and a digital archives program there, has made it one of the soundest programs among religious archives in the country.

As Duffy built the archives of the Episcopal Church, he published articles and manuals on religious archives, which have won awards and become standards in the professional literature. Duffy’s stature in his field of specialization was recognized in 2012 when he was the recipient of the SAA and Society of Southwest Archivists’ Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for his significant contributions to the field of religious archives.

Duffy also has made distinguished contributions to SAA. He has served in a variety of leadership positions, starting with the Archivists of Religious Collections Section, then as a member of the Nominating Committee, the SAA Council, co-chair of the 2009 Program Committee, and currently as treasurer of SAA and the SAA Foundation. Duffy was central to the development of the SAA Foundation since first serving on the Council; he initiated and stewarded the 2013 annual fund drive, which brought in $40,000 in donations.

“[Duffy] has never been satisfied with the status quo, and certainly not with mediocrity. He pays attention to the tiny details while always thinking of the big picture, and he never shirks a job that needs to be done if it means progress toward the short- and long-term goals,” one supporter wrote.

Duffy is one of five new Fellows named in 2014. There are currently 179 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Merrilee Proffitt

Merrilee Proffitt, senior program officer at OCLC Research, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10–16, 2014. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Proffitt graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley. While pursing that degree, she discovered her passion for archives working as the office manager for the Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) at the Bancroft Library at Berkeley. Throughout her career, Proffitt has been a trailblazer. While serving in positions of increasing responsibility leading up to director of digital archive development at the Bancroft Library, she was a key project team member for a number of the library’s pioneering digital projects, including the California Heritage Collection, an online archive of more than thirty thousand images illustrating California’s history and culture, and the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives, which provides documentation of the experience of Japanese Americans in World War II internment camps.

In 2004, while working at the Research Libraries Group (RLG), Proffitt was part of a team that authored the RLG Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description, a guide that went on to receive the 2004 C.F.W. Coker Award from SAA. “This important initiative in archival description, which involved a two-continent collaboration, would never have come together without [Proffitt’s] knowledge, energy, enthusiasm, and diplomatic skills,” one supporter wrote.

In her current role at OCLC Research, Proffitt leads the research project Mobilizing Unique Materials, an initiative that seeks new collaborative methods that will allow the unique materials found in libraries, archives, and museums to be “effectively described, properly disclosed, successfully discovered, and appropriately delivered.” In the process of shaping and executing this initiative, she’s authored papers on the scholarly and teaching impact of digitizing collections, as well as organizing events that help shape a new professional point of view, such as the conference Past Forward! Meeting Stakeholder Needs in 21st-Century Special Collections.

One of Proffitt’s supporters noted that she has an “unstoppable quest to improve the profession. She has the intelligence to identify areas in which archives can improve, and the indomitable will to move an archival agenda forward. . . . Proffitt has been the kind of person on whom others rely to get a job done, but to whom they also turn when they want to learn.”

Proffitt is one of five new Fellows named in 2014. There are currently 179 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Michelle Light

Michelle Light, Director of Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10–16, 2014. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Light earned master of science in information and master of arts in history degrees from the University of Michigan. Light has held important positions of progressive responsibility at five repositories over the course of her fifteen-year career. In each of her professional roles, she has had a transformative impact on her repository, advancing it in new strategic directions. In her first professional position as an archivist at Yale University, she developed a database of archival authority records for Yale University units that informed her contributions to the international group that created Encoded Archival Context. Later in her career, Light broke new ground at the University of California–Irvine. Working as the head of Special Collections, Archives, and Digital Scholarship, she implemented a virtual reading room that allows researchers near and far to access born-digital records. She also led a multicampus taskforce in creating “Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing.” Within the first year working in her current role, Light has established infrastructure to sustain an ambitious collecting program to document the Southern Nevada region, completed a staff reorganization that will allow Special Collections to work more effectively, and carried out a strategic planning process that set direction for her division and contributes to the UNLV Libraries’ aspirations.

Light has served SAA in a variety of leadership positions, including an active role on the American Archivist Editorial Board as well as on the Council, for which she played a critical role in the group’s efforts to create a new strategic plan for SAA.

“Light is one of the most creative and accomplished archivists of her generation, and her achievements have had a lasting impact on the field,” one supporter wrote. “Her intelligence, creativity, work ethic, collegial nature, scholarly aptitude, and commitment to archives are of the highest level.”

Light is one of five new Fellows named in 2014. There are currently 179 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Fellow: Stephen E. Novak

Stephen E. Novak, head of archives and special collections at the Columbia University Medical Center, will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10–16, 2014. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

Novak earned a master of arts in history degree from New York University. Throughout his career, Novak has worked in an array of archival repositories with increasing levels of responsibility. In his first professional position as a field archivist at Seton Hall University, Novak conducted on-site surveys of historic and current records in institutions across New Jersey. In that position, Novak “immediately exhibited several traits that have characterized his archival career ever since,” one supporter wrote. “Rather than focus narrowly on his own particular project, he demonstrated a wide-ranging curiosity that extended to every aspect of archival administration.” Later, as archivist at The Julliard School, Novak took on the daunting task of establishing an archives and records management program at the institution. He not only accomplished this task, he also helped produce an award-winning guide to the collections and made the archives a vital part of the organization. Novak has held his position at the Columbia University Medical Center since 1997 and is responsible for administering all aspects of the collection, which includes the archives of the Columbia University Medical Center and a rare book collection of 27,000 volumes.

Novak also has taken an active role in several groups within SAA. Perhaps most significant is that he was one of the founders of the Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable (LAGAR), a group that has become a strong voice within SAA for the concerns of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered (LBGT) collections and archivists. Novak was an enthusiastic member of the LAGAR committee that oversaw the creation of Lavender Legacies (1998), the first formal and comprehensive guide to primary source material relating to the history and culture of LBGT people held by North American repositories. Novak also has served on SAA’s Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable’s Steering Committee and as a co-chair.

“[Novak] has been a constructive contributor to the archival scene in New York City for approximately thirty years and also has made his mark on the national level,” one supporter wrote. “He has left behind a better program at every institution he has worked at, and he advocates for archives at every opportunity with style and enthusiasm.”

Novak is one of five new Fellows named in 2014. There are currently 179 Fellows of the Society of American Archivists.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Allan Jason Sarmiento

Allan Jason Sarmiento, a graduate student in the Capital Campus Public History Program at California State University, Sacramento, is a 2014 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.

Sarmiento is pursuing a master of arts in public history degree with a concentration in archives and manuscripts and has gained professional experience through working at the California State Archives, the Center for Sacramento History, and the Yolo County Archives, among other institutions. Sarmiento also had a leading role in establishing the Welga! Archives at the University of California, Davis’s George Kagiwada Reserves Library. The archives’ mission is to store and make accessible primary source materials detailing Filipino-American labor history.

Sarmiento’s passion for the archives profession is evident, and he shares that passion with others. “On his initiative, [Sarmiento] reinstated the long-dormant SAA Student Chapter at CSU Sacramento and was elected its president,” one supporter wrote. “He has energized the group of student members to become active in the field by coordinating scholarly, hands-on, philanthropic, and social activities.”

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA. Also receiving the Pinkett Award this year is Raquel Flores-Clemons, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Raquel Flores-Clemons

Raquel Flores-Clemons, a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a 2014 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.

While pursuing her master’s degree, Flores-Clemons has served as an active member of an archive that seeks to identify, collect, and preserve digital and paper records that document the creative process and practices of members of Midwest hip-hop communities. She also works as a volunteer at Figure One Gallery and Exhibition Lab Space, where she organizes and creates metadata for imported and original born-digital oral histories, among other tasks.

“[Flores-Clemons] has shown exceptional interest and dedication to the field of librarianship, archiving, and special collections,” one supporter noted. “She is goal-oriented and focused with a specific area of interest and shows a keen understanding of the importance of maintaining visual documentation of our cultural history.”

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA. Also receiving the Pinkett Award this year is Allan Jason Sarmiento, a graduate student at California State University, Sacramento.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: National History Day

National History Day (NHD) and its executive director, Dr. Cathy Gorn, are 2014 recipients of 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.

Celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2014, NHD is an academic program in which middle and high school students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through archives, libraries, museums, oral history interviews, and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances, and documentaries.

“A large number of [NHD participants] go on to become lifelong friends of archives and the archival endeavor,” one supporter said. “History Day creates a large cadre of citizen ambassadors for archives, many of whom may develop into donors, financial supporters, and public advocates later in life.”

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson. National History Day joins the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project as 2014 recipients of the award.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center of Central PA History Project

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center of Central PA History Project is a 2014 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives.

The LGBT History Project collects and presents the stories of LGBT history in central Pennsylvania as told by those who lived them, through written accounts and video interviews. Started in August 2012, the ongoing project has completed video oral history interviews with twenty-six individuals and collected about ten cubic feet of archival and artifact materials. The LGBT Center has developed a partnership with the Dickinson College Archives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to receive, catalog, store, and make available to researchers and the public the archival and artifact collections donated to the LGBT History Project.

The Award Committee was particularly impressed by LGBT Center’s efforts to coordinate with archival programs to ensure permanent and professional care of the collections. The committee also commended the center for providing website access to those collections.

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson. The LGBT Center of Central PA History Project joins National History Day as the 2014 recipients of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award.

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Joanna Chen

Joanna Chen is the 2014 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.

Chen, who is now pursuing a master of library and information science degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, discovered her passion for archives while working at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, where she processed collections, created finding aids, researched for exhibitions, led workshops, and provided reference for diverse communities.

One supporter noted that Chen is “deeply and reflexively engaged in thinking about the archival field and ways to increase its diversity. At the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, she translated and gave tours in Taiwanese and Mandarin, reached out to the Chinese-American community, and created an exhibit on African American liberators.”

She continues her professional work while she pursues her degree at UCLA, working as an archive assistant at the Ralph J. Bunche Center Archive to process and create finding aids for special collections focused on African American Studies.

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.

Mosaic Scholarship: Maria E. Sánchez-Tucker

Maria E. Sánchez-Tucker, a master’s student in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM), is a 2014 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.

Prior to attending UWM, Sánchez-Tucker earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in museum science from Texas Tech University. Sánchez-Tucker took on the challenging position as the founding and executive director of the Bessemer Historical Society (BHS) in Pueblo, Colorado, a historical society that focused on the preservation of a large corporate archives and historic complex. While working at BHS, Sánchez-Tucker raised $6.5 million to renovate an historic building so it could become the Steelworks Museum and Archives. She later went on to work as the manager of the Special Collections and Western History Department and InfoZone News Museum, where she was responsible for developing a digitization program.

“[Sánchez-Tucker] actively promotes diversity both in and out of the workplace—in programming, collections, and personal commitment to local organizations,” wrote one supporter. “As a Pueblo native, she has deep ties to the community, which puts her in a unique position to foster active collaborations between community groups and the library to promote better understanding and appreciation for diversity.”

First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership in the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting. Rebecca Nieto, a graduate student at McGill University, is also a 2014 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship.

Mosaic Scholarship: Rebecca Nieto

Rebecca Nieto, a master’s student in the Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, is a 2014 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.

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Nieto earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Oberlin College. While pursuing that degree, Nieto worked as a reference assistant at Oberlin’s Mudd and Clarence Ward Art Libraries. Following her graduation, Nieto spent a year as a library assistant at Albuquerque Academy and volunteered with Indian Pueblo archives.

As a graduate student at McGill, Nieto is working to earn an MLIS degree with a concentration in Archival Studies. Nieto, an Association of Research Libraries Diversity Scholar, is also spearheading an SAA student chapter at her institution.

Nieto’s supporters commended her exceptional academic work. “[Nieto] is bright and articulate and often stimulates classroom discussion with her thoughtful comments,” one supporter wrote. “Her written work, including a major term paper, is clear and analytical. In her term paper, she demonstrated a strong grasp of the appraisal issues involving both government and personal records and a showed a fine understanding of the different challenges faced by archivists in these areas.”

First awarded in 2009, the Mosaic Scholarship also provides recipients with a one-year membership in the Society of American Archivists and a complimentary registration to the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting. Also receiving a 2014 Mosaic Scholarship is Maria Sanchez-Tucker, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: The Emma Goldman Papers Project

The Emma Goldman Papers Project (EGPP) of the University of California, Berkeley, is the 2014 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 EGPP has collected and published tens of thousands of documents by and about American social and political activist Emma Goldman (1869–1940). A leading figure in anarchism, radicalism, and feminism in the United States, Goldman dedicated her life to the creation of a radically new social order rooted in absolute freedom. An eloquent immigrant, she championed universal justice unconfined by national boundaries and passionately advocated for free speech, women’s independence, birth control, workers’ rights, and “everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” In the spirit of Goldman, the EGPP has extended its scholarly research to serve the community and educate the public about the complexity of engagement in social and political transformation. It has published a microfilm edition of the papers and is currently working on a four-volume selective book edition, Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of The American Years (1890–1919).  

The Hamer-Kegan Award Subcommittee selected the EGPP for its efforts in “making the activism, voice, connections, and struggles of this important American heard.” The award will be accepted by Candace Falk, director and editor of EGPP.

The Hamer-Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents. Past recipients include Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project,  the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project team (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries), and the Giza Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Preservation Publication Award: Activists' Guide to Archiving Video

Activists' Guide to Archiving Video, published by WITNESS, a nonprofit organization that uses video to expose human rights abuses, is the 2014 recipient of the Preservation Publication Award. Activists' Guide to Archiving Video focuses on preserving digital video, an area in which there is still little published guidance. Available freely online in three languages, the guide is organized into eight sections that focus on stages in a video archiving workflow: create, transfer, acquire, organize, store, catalog, preserve, and share. Unlike other resources, it is aimed at content creators rather than archivists, enabling interventions that support preservation early in the digital lifecycle. The guide also uses easy-to-understand language and low-cost recommendations that empower individuals and grassroots organizations with fewer resources to take action to safeguard their own valuable collections. To date, the guide has found enthusiastic users among nonarchivists, including independent media producers and archives educators, as well as archivists who are new to managing digital video content.

The Award Committee noted that the guide was a “valuable contribution to the field of digital preservation” and an “example of what a good online resource should be.”

Established in 1993, past recipients of the Preservation Publication Award include Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation and Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership (GeoMAPP) Best Practices for Archival Processing for Geospatial Datasets.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Judi Fergus

Judi Fergus, the director of the Arthur Moore Methodist Museum, Library and Archives in St. Simons Island, Georgia, is the 2014 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award.

The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Fergus is responsible for preserving the history of the United Methodist Church and the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. In this position, Fergus has gathered local church histories of more than six hundred local churches. Fergus also helps welcome more than twenty thousand visitors to the museum each year, directs educational programs for groups of all ages, and is in charge of a reference library of more than five thousand volumes. In addition, she has developed exhibits depicting the role of women in the United Methodist Church, life in colonial Georgia, coins of the Bible, and other topics. To raise funds for the museum, Fergus has been instrumental in hosting a murder mystery dinner event for the past four years.

“All of these activities would seem enough in themselves to qualify [Fergus] for any award,” one supporter wrote. “However, perhaps most important is the attitude and manner in which she does them.” Fergus never loses site of the importance of what she calls the museum’s “Ministry of Memory,” the supporter noted.   

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. Recent past recipients include the late Audrey Newcomer, former director of archives and records at the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and Mark Duffy of the Archives of the Episcopal Church.

Spotlight Award: Kate Theimer

Kate Theimer, author of the popular blog ArchivesNext, is the 2014 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.

Since 2011, Theimer has used Facebook, Twitter, and her blog to raise money for Spontaneous Scholarships that help unemployed, underemployed, and underfunded archivists to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The first year the scholarships were offered Theimer raised $5,504 to assist 18 students and 8 SAA members at the full registration rate; the program continued in 2012 and 2013 resulting in a total of more than $20,000 in donations and almost one hundred archivists assisted over the first three years. Theimer recently launched a campaign to raise funds for the 2014 scholarships. 

One supporter wrote: “By organizing and leading the Spontaneous Scholarship program over the past three years, Theimer has demonstrated her continuing commitment to advance the profession by supporting her colleagues in a direct and tangible way.”

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Joshua D. Hager

Joshua D. Hager, who recently earned a master’s degree in information science from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, is the 2014 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, nominated Hager’s paper “To Like or Not to Like: Understanding and Maximizing the Utility of Archival Outreach on Facebook.” Hager, who is currently employed as the correspondence assistant at the State Archives of North Carolina, conducted a thorough study involving qualitative interviews with twenty-three respondents and carefully coded and analyzed the data to create a clear text that presents a view of how archivists are using social media to engage users. Tibbo noted that the paper “focuses on a topic that is highly relevant to archives today” and is an “innovative study that elucidates best practice.”

The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 78, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2015). Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of The American Archivist.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Ellen Gruber Garvey

Ellen Gruber Garvey, an English professor at New Jersey City University, is the 2014 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award for her book, Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance, published by Oxford University Press. The Waldo Gifford Leland Award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice.  

Writing with Scissors provides an engaging narrative on the role of newspaper clippings scrapbooks as archival records that transcend lines of race, politics, gender, and class. Garvey contextualizes the keeping of these scrapbooks as a way for marginalized people to tell their history. As scrapbook makers reused free books and blank scrapbooks to create and manage their own personalized texts, they claimed ownership of their reading matter and constructed counter-narratives to their portrayals in the press. By reading scrapbooks against new technologies for managing newsprint, Garvey encourages archivists to view scrapbooks as “direct ancestors of digital information management.”

The Award Committee noted that the book is “compelling, well-written, well-researched, and supported by thoughtful examples that illuminate how scrapbooks function as democratic archives.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president. Past recipients include Astrid Eckhart for The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War; Francis X. Blouin and William G. Rosenberg for Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives; and Laura A. Millar for Archives: Principles and Practices.

Archival Innovator Award: The APT Research Team

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.” 

C.F.W. Coker Award: The Princeton University Library Archival Description Working Group

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.

 

Distinguished Service Award: Black Metropolis Research Consortium

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.”

Diversity Award: Asian/Pacific/American Institute

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.”

Diversity Award: Joan Krizack

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.

 

Diversity Award: Karen Underhill

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.” 

 

 

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship Award: Samantha Norling

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.

 

Emerging Leader Award: Tanya Marshall

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.”

F. Gerald Ham Scholarship: Catherine L. Miller

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.

Fellow: Deborra A. Richardson

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.

Fellow: Ellen Swain

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.

 

Fellow: Lynn Holdzkom

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.”

Fellow: Margery Sly

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.

 

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award: Scott Cline

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.

 

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Lori E. Harris

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.”

       

 

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Maria Angel Diaz

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.”

      

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: AARP Virginia and Dr. Warren Stewart

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.

 

Josephine Forman Scholarship: Kimberly Springer

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.

Mosaic Scholarship: Barrye Brown

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.

Mosaic Scholarship: Rhonda Jones

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.

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award: Weimei Pan

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.

 

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award: Densho

“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.

Preservation Publication Award: "Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation," Nancy McGovern, Katherine Skinner

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.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Audrey Newcomer

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.

Spotlight Award: Terry Brown

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.”

 

Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Alex H. Poole

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. 

 

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Astrid M. Eckert, "The Struggle for the Files"

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.

Awards and Scholarships

Outstanding Contributions to the Archives Profession

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

Mark J. Duffy, the Canonical Archivist and Director of the Archives of the Episcopal Church, is the 2012 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lang, O.P., Memorial Award, which honors an individual archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Over the past three decades, Duffy has made innumerable contributions through his publications, professional service, and institutional dedication. He has demonstrated continued commitment to SAA’s Archivists of Religious Collections Section through his service as chair and web coordinator. As one nominator noted, “Mark has elevated the archives from a traditional, historical manuscript collection to a thriving and visible archives, records, and research program.” In addition to working with the Episcopal Church Archives, Duffy also has consulted with about a dozen other religious bodies in establishing archives.

Spotlight Award

Cindy Ditzler and Joan Metzger of Northern Illinois University (NIU) are the 2012 recipients of the Spotlight Award, which recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition. Ditzler, NIU’s university archivist, and Metzger, the assistant university archivist, are being recognized for preserving the documentation of a tragic event on NIU’s campus on February 14, 2008, when a gunman killed five students in an auditorium, injured 21, and then shot himself. Despite the overwhelming emotional pain experienced in the aftermath, Ditzler and Metzger immediately went into action to document the unfortunate event as well as the ensuing grieving process and memorials. The Regional History Center worked with an NIU history class and the nonprofit group StoryCorp to collect oral histories. They gathered and preserved hundreds of items from spontaneous memorials that emerged on campus. And they developed a supplementary website to display memorial artifacts, which ultimately became a central place for the campus to share, grieve, and learn.

Emerging Leader Award

Mark A. Matienzo, digital archivist at Manuscript and Archives, Yale University Library, is the 2012 recipient of the Emerging Leader Award, which 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. Matienzo has exhibited a remarkable record of achievement in a career that is eight years young. Matienzo played a critical role as the lead digital archivist on the Mellon-funded AIMS project, which developed a framework for the stewardship of born-digital archival materials within collecting repositories. The Award Committee also recognized Matienzo’s significant contributions to the ArchivesSpace project, which, with Mellon support, is integrating two successful archives information management tools—Archon and the Archivists’ Toolkit.

Diversity Award

The Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the first recipient of the Diversity Award, which recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions to advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. For more than 40 years, CSRC has been at the forefront of collecting and providing access to archival material reflecting the rich history of the Chicano population in the Los Angeles and Southern California area. The Chicano Studies Research Center’s significant achievements in activism, education, outreach, publication, and service on pressing issues facing the Chicano and Latino communities are truly exemplary.

Distinguished Service Award

The Archival Education Collaborative is the 2012 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, which 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. The Archival Education Collaborative (AEC) has developed a program and model that warrants special recognition for contributions to the archival field. For 10 years, this graduate initiative has provided access to archival education that would otherwise be geographically out of reach for many students. Through this cross-institutional resource, many students have been able to engage with relevant coursework and instructors while remaining part of their home institutions.

 

Advocacy/Public Awareness

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

Freelance writer and New York Times columnist Eve Kahn, choreographer and dance company director Bebe Miller, and author and film sleuth Philip W. Stewart are the 2012 recipients of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award, which honors individuals, institutions, or organizations that promote the greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives.

Kahn has written for a number of mainstream publications. In articles published in the New York Times—such as “Saving Scrapbooks from the Scrapheap” (08/04/11), “A Museum Isn’t Rebuilt Every Minute” (02/17/11), “Lantern Slides at Getty Museum and American Museum of Natural History” (11/04/10), and “Conservation Efforts for Endangered Papers” (07/06/09)—Kahn time and again presents a vivid illustration of the urgent need for preservation of important and unique artifacts. Kahn’s nominator writes, “When Kahn brings these stories to the world through mainstream media publications such as the New York Times [and International Design], she shines a spotlight on the multitudes of dedicated archives staff across the country who work so hard to preserve these original materials. Most importantly, she reminds us that these treasures, and the responsibilities for their safekeeping, belong to us all.”

Miller has shown commitment to the archival preservation of dance through many avenues, such as advocacy within the dance community, organizing workshops on dance archives and documentation, initiating an archives model to be used by artists, and by being a bridge between archivists and dance creators on how to best meet the preservation needs of the field. Miller has collaborated with the OSU Department of Dance in producing several digital documented works, a software template for choreographic documentation, and with the OSU Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design in exploring the use of motion capture technology for creative and archival purposes.

Stewart has published eight books that are designed to assist writers, researchers, historians, film and video makers, content producers, and the public in finding historically rich, celluloid-based moving images preserved in the motion picture holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). From the broad overview (what’s in the vault and how do you find it), to the specific (story titles of the Universal Newsreels), and the detailed (scene-by-scene descriptions of 36 WWI aviation titles), Stewart’s publications inform and invite others to explore America’s film vault. Stewart’s titles include America’s Film Vault, A Reference Guide to the Motion Pictures held by the U.S. Archives; Battlefilm, U.S. Army Signal Corps Motion Pictures of the Great War; and Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel, A Researcher’s Guide to the Aviation Related Stories Released Nationally by Universal Pictures, 1929–1931.

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota is the 2012 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer–Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award, which recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents. The Immigration History Research Center is honored for its efforts to promote the knowledge and use of documentation of the immigrant experience through the Digitizing Immigrant Letters Project. The Award Committee expressed its high regard for the team’s efforts to promote access to immigrant letters through an inviting and useful website. The web access, together with the project’s sponsorship of scholars, public talks, and exhibits, increases public awareness of American immigrant history for scholars, family historians, and the general public.

 

Writing/Publishing Excellence

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

Francis X. Blouin Jr. and William G. Rosenberg, professors at the University of Michigan, are the 2012 recipients of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award for their book Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. Processing the Past, published by Oxford University Press in 2011, provides a fresh perspective and contemporary interpretation to the modern fields of Archival Science and History.

Preservation Publication Award

Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership (GeoMAPP) Best Practices for Archival Processing for Geospatial Datasets by the GeoMAPP project is the 2012 recipient of the Preservation Publication Award. Best Practices for Archival Processing for Geospatial Datasets, published on the GeoMAPP website in November 2011, provides a detailed and practical guide to the geospatial archival processing workflow, including useful guides such as key questions to ask at each step of the workflow to make sure essential factors are not overlooked. The publication is a valuable contribution to the field of digital preservation for a common but complex type of electronic record.

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award

Douglas Cox, associate law library professor and the international law librarian at the City University of New York School of Law, is the 2012 recipient of the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award, which recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology that was published during the preceding year in The American Archivist. Cox was honored for his article “National Archives and International Conflicts,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of The American Archivist (vol. 74, no. 2). In the essay, Cox addresses the archival community at large, offering an extremely thought-provoking analysis of the significance of archives as factors for good and ill in times of dramatic international conflict.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

Pam Mayer, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science, is the 2012 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award, which recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies. Mayer’s nominator noted that her paper, “Like a Box of Chocolates: A Case Study of User-Contributed Content at Footnote,” “reports on a thoughtful and well-executed study of an issue that is very relevant to contemporary archivists: user-generated information related to primary sources. Her arguments, evidence, and conclusions are well-reasoned, informative, and grounded in appropriate archival literature.”

 

Travel Awards

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award

Lara Mancuso, a first-year student from Brazil, and Georgia Barlaoura, a first-year student from Greece, are the 2012 recipients of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award, which enables overseas archivists who are already in the United States or Canada for training to build upon their experience by traveling to SAA’s Annual Meeting. Both are students enrolled in the Master of Archival Studies program at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Prior to attending UBC, Mancuso earned a Master of Arts and a PhD in history and has 20 years’ experience as an educator and researcher. Her goal is to apply her previous knowledge and her professional research and teaching experience to the development of archival repositories with holdings related to Latin America and the Caribbean. She is particularly interested in digitization and online publications to facilitate access to records and resources concerning Latin America.

While in Greece, Barlaoura accumulated five years of experience as an archivist, working at the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, Historical Archive; the AMS Archive filing Systems LTD; and as archivist/librarian at the University of Crete Rethymnon. As a result of Barloura’s solid understanding of archival science and archival history, she was invited to work on the International Council on Archives Multilingual Terminological Database and is responsible for the Greek language. This requires a profound understanding of archival concepts as they are articulated in English terms and definitions.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

Kapena Shim, a student in the Library and Information Science Program of the University of Hawai’i Manoa, is the 2012 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award, which 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, Shim mobilized a group of 10 members of the University of Hawai’i SAA Student Chapter to raise funds to attend the annual conference of the Association of Hawai’i Archivists. Shim has also presented posters and appeared on panels at multiple conferences, volunteers in his community, and belongs to many other professional groups.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship Award

Amanda Strauss, a graduate student at Simmons College, is the 2012 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award, which supports students and recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. Strauss is pursuing Master of Arts in History and Master of Science in Library and Information Science, Archives Management, degrees. During SAA’s Annual Meeting, Strauss will be presenting “Treading the Ground of Contested Memory: Archivists, Memory, and the Human Rights Movement in Chile,” which is part of the In Pursuit of Moral Imperative: Exploring Social Justice and Archives session.

 

Scholarships

Mosaic Scholarship

Aditi Sharma Worcester, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, is the 2012 recipient of the Mosaic Scholarship, which provides $5,000 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. Drawing from her previous career in print and broadcast media, Worcester started Save Their Story in Austin, providing workshops to minority communities on using video biographies to preserve family and community history.

F. Gerald Ham Scholarship

Nathan Sowry, a graduate student in the Library and Information Studies program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Jarrett M. Drake, a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Information, are the 2012 recipients of the F. Gerald Ham Scholarship, which offers $7,500 in financial support to graduate students in their second year of archival studies at a U.S. university. Scholarship selection criteria include the applicants’ past performance in their graduate programs in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessment of the students’ prospects for contributing to the archives profession.

In awarding the scholarship to Sowry, the Award Committee was impressed by his solid and extensive archival experience, his excellent academic record, and the high quality of his essay, “Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain: Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records,” with its eloquent and effective navigation between colonial records and archival theory.

In recommending Drake for the award, the selection committee noted the outstanding quality of his writing, analytical skills, and thoughtfulness displayed in his paper “Remembering the Impossible: Collective Memory and the Narrative of Freedom.” The committee also cited his dedication to the archival profession as demonstrated by his diverse archival work experience and his professional archival activities, including presenting and publishing.

Josephine Forman Scholarship

Nathasha Alvarez is the 2012 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 (SAA). 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. Alvarez is a student in the double master’s program at New York University and Long Island University and is studying to receive degrees in history and archives and library and information science. Alvarez’s goals and academic achievements match well with the intention of the Josephine Forman Scholarship to support persons “who demonstrate excellent potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archives profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.”

Fellows

Scott Cline

After earning a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees in history from Portland State University, Scott Cline started his career as an archivist working for the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland as a Jewish History Specialist. Today Cline works as the City Archivist and director of the Seattle Municipal Archives—a position he’s held since 1985. Cline’s tenure with the city’s archives has been long and marked with distinction. His work to engage people from all walks of life was instrumental in making the Seattle Municipal Archives into a nationwide model for effective archival programs. His highly regarded work even led the Seattle City Council to proclaim August 30, 1999, as Scott Cline Day. Cline is also an award-winning author who has added to the archival canon with his insightful and probing contributions to the professional literature. As one nominator wrote, “Scott’s writing intertwines philosophy and religion into archival theory and practice and pushes us to consider the deeper meanings of our work.”

Peter Gottlieb

Peter Gottlieb earned a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977, and since his first archival position, his career has shown a progression of increased professional responsibility and commitment to his institutions and the profession at large. Gottlieb is best known for his work as the state archivist of Wisconsin, a position he held from 1991 until his retirement in 2010. As state archivist, he served with distinction and vision, urging his staff and profession to effectively handle the transition from paper to electronic records. In the position, Gottlieb also developed the Wisconsin State Historical Records Advisory Board into one of the most productive and active of any in the United States. Gottlieb also has been an enthusiastic and invaluable archives advocate. One nominator wrote, “For [Gottlieb], it has never been about power or glory, it is about his responsibility to a profession for which he cares so deeply…he sets a model of professional involvement and integrity that we all would do well to follow.”

Nancy Lenoil

For fifteen years, Nancy Lenoil served as administrator of the highly regarded Western Archives Institute (WAI), an intensive two-week program that provides integrated instruction in basic archival practices to individuals with a variety of goals. In this position, Lenoil fostered the program’s growth and ensured that it continued to be a highly regarded program in the profession. She relinquished the position only when she became state archivist of California, but she continues her association with the WAI as a faculty member. Additionally, in 2003–2005, Lenoil brought her insight, experience, and considerable depth of knowledge about the needs and challenges facing the archives profession to her service on the Working Group for the A*CENSUS. Lenoil’s essay “A*CENSUS: Archival Census & Continuing Education Needs Survey in the United States: Report on Continuing Education” (The American Archivist, Fall/Winter 2006) won wide recognition and praise. Colleagues well beyond California also recognized her ability when they elected her to SAA's Nominating Committee and later to the SAA Council. In these professional leadership positions, Lenoil contributed, in one nominator's words, through “her willingness to share her experience, insights, and passion for archives” with everyone she encounters.

Ben Primer

Ben Primer has been an archivist since 1981, when he began his long and successful archival career as a project administrator for the Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project. Since that appointment, he has held positions with increasingly more responsibility, and today serves as the associate university librarian for rare books and special collections in the Princeton University Libraries system, where he has worked since 1990. In this position, he directs an internationally acclaimed department that consists of five different units comprising more than fifty professional and staff employees. Primer, who holds a PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University, also has made contributions in the area of strategic planning and development. Specifically, he has been immensely successful in fundraising at Princeton, securing major grant funding from NHPRC, NEH, the Delmas Foundation, and the New Jersey Historical Commission. One nominator wrote, “I think his greatest contribution to the profession is his indefatigable optimism for accomplishing what needs to be done.”

Timothy D. Pyatt

Timothy D. Pyatt has held distinguished positions in the field for more than twenty-five years. He has served in both archival and rare book positions, as well as university archivist at University of Maryland–Baltimore County and Duke University. He was director of processing for the Maryland State Archives, and curated rare book and manuscript collections at the University of Maryland–College Park, the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Duke University. Today he serves as the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and Head of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University. Pyatt’s publications and presentations reflect significant breadth and depth. His articles have appeared in Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship and the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, and he has authored contributions to several SAA books, including Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives: Archivists and Archival Records (2005), New Skills for a Digital Era (2007), and both Campus Case Studies and College and University Archives: Reading in Theory and Practice (2008). Pyatt has also made major contributions to several professional organizations, most notably SAA. Within SAA, Pyatt has chaired the College and University Archives Section, the Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable, and the Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct (CEPC).

 

Awards and Scholarships

Writing/Publishing Excellence

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

Archives: Principles and Practices by Dr. Laura A. Millar was awarded the Waldo Gifford Leland Award, which honors writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. The volume draws on a comprehensive review of the English language professional literature and the author’s wide-ranging career to create, in the words of one nominator, “a truly international text for a globalizing archival profession.” Millar’s arguments are reinforced by examples from actual practice and sample policy statements. 

 C.F.W. Coker Award

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum received the C.F.W. Coker Award, which recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, or projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Digital Archive and the “Access to a Legacy” project are models for archival repositories interested in large-scale digitization and description projects. The redesigned website includes a user-friendly single search interface that provides access to both digitized and undigitized holdings with advanced search functionality. The project relies on standard descriptive practices, but uses a traditionally corporate digital asset management tool as its all-purpose archival management system.

Preservation Publication Award

Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual by Ross Harvey received the Preservation Publication Award, which recognizes the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation. Digital Curation (Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2010) delivers a detailed and practical guide to the Digital Curation Centre’s lifecycle model. The manual pulls together an exposition of the concepts and activities involved in digital curation, with comprehensive lists of references and links to online tools.

Special Commendation: Digital Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections, by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Richard Ovenden, Gabriela Redwine, with research assistance from Rachel Donohue, received a special commendation. Digital Forensics (Council on Library and Information Resources, 2010) introduces archivists to a set of tools for the preservation of digital resources. The book serves as an introduction to techniques that allow recovery of unchanged digital materials that were originally developed in the disciplines of law enforcement, computer security, and national defense. 

Fellows' Ernst Posner Award

Paul Conway was honored for his article, “Modes of Seeing: Digitized Photographic Archives and the Experienced User,” The American Archivist 73:2. Conway examines the transformative nature of digitization and posits a new theory for understanding how highly skilled researchers derive meaning and value from digitized photograph collections. He brings a variety of disciplinary perspectives to bear to set the research context. The archival values derived from a digitized photograph collection are convincing and the exegesis of the interview transcripts concise and apt. The Fellows’s Ernst Poser 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 the journal.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

Lora J. Davis (a student in the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee) was honored for her paper “Providing Virtual Services to All: A Mixed-Method Analysis of the Web Site Accessibility of Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) Member Repositories.” Her paper explores the ability of the websites of repositories in the PACSCL to meet the needs of archives users with disabilities. She uses both automated accessibility checkers and content analysis to assess the accessibility of these repository websites. From choice of topic, methodology, and presentation, the paper demonstrates a high level of scholarship, creativity, and originality.

Outstanding Contributions to the Archives Profession

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

Malachy R. McCarthy was honored with The Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award, which honors an individual archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. McCarthy has worked for over 30 years in religious institutions: serving 26 years as the Archivist at Saint Anselm Abby and College in Manchester, New Hampshire and seven years as the Province Archivist at Claretian Missionaries Archives in Chicago. He initiated a collaborative effort among 21 archivists in the greater Chicago area that developed into the Chicago Area Religious Archivists (CARA). McCarthy’s passion for archival education led him to develop many workshops, including the popular “Introductory Archives Workshop for Religious Communities” in 2007 with Ellen Pierce, archives director from the Maryknoll Mission Archives.

Spotlight Award

Teresa Kiser, director of the Public Library of Anniston and Calhoun County, was honored for her continued dedication to finding ways to improve libraries in the state. A strong supporter of the Alabama Virtual Library, she applied in 2002 for a Library Services and Technology Act grant to purchase large format scanners to begin a project of digitizing, organizing, and properly storing the Russell Brothers glass plate negative collection that documents Anniston Alabama’s growing years. Kiser’s foresight and perseverance in digitizing the negatives has brought recognition to the collection. The Public Broadcasting Service requested use for various segments, authors have used the images in books including two on the history of Anniston, and local businesses provide a visual history of Anniston through exhibited reprints.

Council Exemplary Service Award

Mary Jo Pugh received the Council Exemplary Service Award, which honors special contributions to the archives profession and especially SAA. Pugh was cited for her ambitious vision for the semi-annual journal, in which she embraced both its scholarly richness and its role in documenting the work of best professional practices. Pugh adhered to her vision of an enhanced and expanded professional journal throughout her six-year tenure. Since becoming editor in 2005, she embraced challenging goals for The American Archivist and dramatically increased the number of manuscript submissions. Among her many accomplishments she succeeded in getting The American Archivist published online. She oversaw the digitization of the entire back file of 242 issues of the journal, leading the Editorial Board in developing a process, issuing RFPs, and recommending a vendor to make the entire body of scholarship available to members, subscribers, and the public. In Spring 2010, the first comprehensive survey of The American Archivist readership was conducted and published. Pugh’s tenure as editor ends on December 31, 2011.

Advocacy/Public Awareness

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

The television program “Who Do You Think You Are” was honored for its realistic and supportive presentation of archival work. The show explored the wide range of archives and historic materials available worldwide as different celebrities sought answers to their family history. The stories shown on NBC have inspired citizens around the country to visit or contact archives. The J. Franklin Jameson Award honors an individual institution or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities.

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project team at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries was recognized for its promotion of the Archives Department’s primary source collections relating to the African American civil rights movement in Milwaukee. The digital collection provides unprecedented access to materials such as personal papers, organizational records, photographs, television news footage, and oral history interviews. The team has actively pursued public outreach and education about this material, including co-sponsorship of a symposium with the Milwaukee Public Library in September 2010. The Hamer Kegan Award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents for education, instructional, or other public purposes.

Travel Awards

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award

Patrick Ansah and Umi Asma’ Mokhtar are the recipients of the 2011 Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award, which enables overseas archivists who are already in the United States or Canada for training to build upon their experience by traveling to SAA’s annual meeting. Ansah is a student enrolled in the second year of the Master of Archival Studies degree at the University of British Columbia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in publishing studies from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and certificates in publishing and global health. He serves as a graduate research assistant for InterPARES 3 (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) and has worked and volunteered for the Anglican Church Archives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mokhtar is a doctoral student at the Department of Information Science, Faculty of Technology and Information Science, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who is a visiting student at the University of British Columbia. Her student research focuses on the preservation of electronic records of the Malaysian Syariah Court. Mokhtar received a bachelor’s degree from MARA University of Technology and a master’s degree from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She is the author of several articles and conference papers on records management in Malaysia and electronic legal records.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

Kelly E. Lau and Melvin J. Collier were honored the Harold T. Pinkett Award, which acknowledges minority undergraduate and graduate students who, through scholastic and personal achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.

Lau is a Masters of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies student at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is affiliated with many professional organizations including the Chinese American Libraries Association, the UBC Chapter of the Association of Canadian Archivists, and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. She is also the recipient of the Association of Research Libraries Fellowship.

Collier is a library assistant in the Archives Research Center of the Robert W. Woodruff Library- Atlanta University Center. As a graduate assistant, he processed the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collection and worked with the HBCU Alliance Project. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University and master’s degree from Clark Atlanta University. An avid genealogist, Collier is the published author of Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery, which details his search to document his family’s genealogy and provides best practices for African American Genealogical Research. He expects to graduate in 2012 with a master of Archival Studies from Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia. 

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship Award

Brittany Turner is the recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Scholarship, which recognizes a graduate student or recent graduate for exceptional leadership and the desire to become actively involved in the archives profession. Turner is pursuing her Master’s in Library and Information Science through the University of Alabama. Commending her work on archival security for the New York State Archives, one nominator stated that she has identified and reached out to colleagues around the country to assist her with the project and as a result, involved the State Archives in the OCLC’s Missing Materials webinar and the San Jose Virtual Archives Conference on Public Records/Public Trust.

Scholarships

Mosaic Scholarship

Rose Chou and Helen Kim were both awarded Mosaic Scholarships, which offer financial support to minority students who manifest a commitment both to the archives profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.

Chou is a master of library and information science student, specializing in archives at San Jose State University. Her goal is to work in an archives of color and use emerging technologies to expand the visibility and accessibility of archival materials and the many voices contained in them. As vice president of AHANA Leadership Council, the undergraduate student government for students of color at Boston College, she fought for the administration to implement a hate crime protocol, to diversify the core curriculum to include non-Western history perspectives, and to include sexual orientation in the university’s statement on non-discrimination.

Kim is working toward a master of science in information studies with a focus on archival science at the University of Texas at Austin. She volunteered at Central Texas’ Lower Colorado River Authority and the Austin History Center, where she conducted processing projects, including the records of the Korean Association of Greater Austin. She was also a State Preservation Board intern at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum where she worked on the library’s outreach and education program. One of her nominators cites her commitment to studies and the quality time she dedicates to the archival calling to be so strong, fulfilling, and sound, that her energy animates all the archivists around her.

F. Gerald Ham Scholarship

Eric Willey, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies, was honored with the F. Gerald Ham Scholarship, which offers financial support to one or more second-year students in a graduate archival education program. Willey has worked or completed internships at the McCormick/International-Harvester Archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Illinois State Archives, and at the Western Illinois University Archives. He is noted for his outstanding quality of the writing, analytical skills, and thoughtfulness displayed in the paper “Appraisal in Community Archives Collections: A Case Study of University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Appraisal Methods and Decisions for LGBT Collections.”

Josephine Forman Scholarship

Nidya G. Gonzalez was honored with the inaugural Josephine Forman Scholarship, a $10,000 award that provides financial support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, encourages students to pursue a career as an archivist, and promotes the diversification of the American archives profession. Gonzalez began studies at the University of Pittsburgh where she is enrolled in the MLIS program with a specialization in archives, preservation, and records management. Prior, she interned at the University of the Pacific in the library/archives at the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California. Her senior paper at the University of Pacific, “Off to Work They Go: An Analysis of Mexican Immigrant women Laborers in Canneries,” received praise from one of her nominators, who noted that “this original research project included both archived oral histories from the 1980s and oral histories that Gonzalez herself complete with research subjects.”

Fellows

Eight individuals are now among a list of 170 Fellows, the highest individual honor annually bestowed by SAA for outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

George Bain

Retired archivist George Bain spent his entire career in Ohio, working for 10 years in the Local Government Records Program for the Ohio Historical Society (State Archives), and for 20 years as head of the Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at Ohio University Libraries, where he retired in 2007. At Ohio University, he was lauded for his “holistic view of archives” and for “opening up the profession” to his students and younger colleagues. Bain’s interests and service are vast and varied. He served for eight years as editor of SAA’s Performing Arts Roundtable newsletter, and for 28 years also has worked tirelessly with colleagues in SAA’s Reference, Access and Outreach Section, coaxing, leading, encouraging—and living outreach.  “Any archivist in Ohio will tell you that Archives Month is celebrated because of George Bain,” said one of his nominators. “Even after his so-called retirement, George took on the Preserving the American Historical Record, or PAHR, bill as a cause—and successfully got Ohio Congressmen as sponsors. For his entire career, George put others first.” Bain is a regular contributor to local, regional, and national archival periodicals. His analysis of state archival law, from his days as a government records archivist, is described by one colleague as a “milestone” document in telling the story of state archives in the United States.

Kaye Lanning Minchew

Kaye Lanning Minchew, executive director, Troup County Historical Society and Archives, developed the institution into a model local government records repository and local history program. In 2008, the SAA Council honored the Troup County Archives with its Exemplary Service Award, and by doing so also recognized Minchew’s work. Within the state of Georgia, she was a founding member of the State Historical Records Advisory Board and served in many positions for the Society of Georgia Archivists, the Georgia Historical Society, and the Georgia Records Association. At the national level, she was “the driving force” in the founding of SAA’s Local Government Records Roundtable and assumed leadership positions in the Government Records Section. She also served on the Academy of Certified Archivists’ Board of Regents and on the Government Archivists and Record Administrators’ Board of Directors. She co-chaired the Council of State Archivists’ national local government records project, “Closest to Home.” NAGARA chose Minchew to testify before a Congressional committee in 2010 in favor of NHPRC’s reauthorization. One of her nominators wrote, “one would not describe [Kaye] as an imposing physical presence. But the package you get—recognizable immediately upon working with her in any capacity—is a tenacious and passionate advocate on behalf of the historical record.”

Timothy Murray

Timothy Murray, head of special collections, University of Delaware, is one of the preeminent voices speaking for special collections, and more particularly for literary manuscripts in the nation. A member of SAA since 1983, Murray has attended more than 25 annual meetings. His strength rests in his ability to share his expertise and create interesting and arresting programs for the membership. He has served on SAA program committees, the Publications Board, and chaired the Manuscripts Repositories Section and the Privacy & Confidentiality Roundtable. Most recently he served as co-chair of the ACRL/SAA Joint Statement on Access to Research Materials in Archives and Special Collections Libraries Task Force. Murray is a frequent contributor to publishing and lecturing on the issues of acquisition and collection development, access to collections, preservation, ethics, privacy, and the other legal questions relating to literary manuscripts. Another nominator commented that, “Tim’s subject expertise ranges across all aspects of literary archives management and [that] he has had a demonstrable impact on contemporary practice in this field.” 

Janice Ruth

Janice Ruth, assistant chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, has been leaving her mark on the archival profession for 25 years. She is the first woman to hold her current position at the Library of Congress, a role in which she has improved the description of the holdings. Ruth is widely recognized for her role in the development of Encoded Archival Description (EAD). She participated in the formative meetings in Berkeley, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich., in the 1990s to define the technical underpinnings of the standard; served as lead editor for written documentation and the Tag Library; and because of her superb writing skills and clarity of expression, was selected by the other developers to explain EAD structure and the tagging of finding aids in what are viewed as seminal pieces of professional writing. When she secured the adoption of EAD in the Library of Congress, she helped assure the future of online research. One of her nominators stated, “Janice was an absolutely critical piece of the process and EAD would not have achieved the success it did without her contributions.” Ruth has been advancing the work of SAA for two decades. She has served on the Committee on Archival Information Exchange, and as member and co-chair of the Program Committee, and on the C.F.W. Coker Award Committee. 

Bradley Westbrook

Bradley Westbrook, digital archivist/metadata librarian at the University of California, San Diego, has more than 20 years of experience working with the breadth of cultural memory. His experience encompasses bibliographic materials and art collections, sound recordings, and photographs. In addition to his current position at UC, San Diego, he also serves as archives analyst for the ArchivesSpace planning project. For the past several years, Westbrook has worked as project manager on Archivists’ Toolkit. Among Westbrook’s contributions to the profession are leading workshops on Archivists’ Toolkit, Digital Preservation Management, and Digital Preservation Metadata, as well as 20 publications and numerous conference presentations. His service on SAA committees and to other archival groups further demonstrates his commitment to the profession.  I believe that Brad is a model digital archivist,” said one of his nominators. “Even when working with traditional formats, Brad’s knowledge of technology has allowed him to make significant contributions to the profession.”

Deborah Wythe

Deborah Wythe, head of digital collections and services at Brooklyn Museum, began her career teaching music, but quickly expanded to cataloging music, then arranging and describing music-focused archival collections within museums. Her numerous national and international conference presentations have examined the challenges of digitization, automation, and automated access for museum archives. Within SAA, she has served on the Annual Meeting Task Force, the Committee on Educational and Professional Development, as chair of the Museum Archives Section, and on the Publications Board. A prodigious writer, Wythe contributed five chapters to, and also took on the challenging task of serving as editor of, the second edition of Museum Archives: An Introduction (SAA, 2004). As one of her nominators stated, “If publications play an instrumental role in the vitality of SAA and the archives profession, then Deb has struck all the right chords through her versatile work on the  Museum Archives book and on the Publications Board.”

Julia Marks Young

Julia Marks Young, director of the Archives and Records Services Division at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, has made her imprint as a leader in the profession through a variety of positions. She currently is president of the Council of State Archivists as well as on its Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records (IPER) Project, a member of the steering committee of a three-state (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama) Archival Training Collaborative, the Mississippi Digital Library Advisory Committee, and the Mississippi Cultural Alliance. Young is an acknowledged expert on disaster preparedness and recovery and on coordinating stewardship and use of cultural patrimony. She is widely recognized for co-authoring with Frank Boles the game-changing article, "Exploring the Black Box: The Appraisal of University Administrative Records" (The American Archivist, Spring 1985). It laid out the particulars and nuances of what would later be called microappraisal. For SAA she has served as Editor of The American Archivist, chair of the Acquisition and Appraisal Section, member of the Trusted Archival Repository Program Task Force, and a frequent conference presenter and workshop instructor.

Tanya Zanish-Belcher

Tanya Zanish-Belcher, associate professor and special collections department head at Iowa State University, has served the archival profession in numerous capacities. She has assisted the State Historical Society of Iowa as a gubernatorial appointed member of the Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board. As a consultant with the Technical Assistance Network for one of its grant programs, her advice helped organizations design projects that met standards, received funding, and were successfully implemented. Zanish-Belcher has made more than 30 professional presentations at a variety of venues. Within SAA she has chaired the Nominating Committee and chaired or co-chaired the Membership Committee, the Women’s Collection Roundtable, Reference and Access Section, Committee, the Oral History Section, and the Science, Technology, and Healthcare Roundtable. “Tanya’s service to SAA has been dedicated and able, has been continuous over a dozen years, and has taken place at all levels along the leadership chain,” noted one of her nominators. Zanish-Belcher has contributed articles to a variety of professional periodicals and is currently under contract with SAA to co-edit the Women’s Archives Reader. She currently serves as president of the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC.

 

Awards and Scholarships

Outstanding Contributions to the Archives Professions

Distinguished Service Award

The American Heritage Center (AHC), University of Wyoming, was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, which was established in 1964 and 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. Director Mark A. Greene accepted the award on behalf of the center.

Over the last two decades, the AHC has evolved into an exemplary archival institution that serves as an inspiration to the profession. The “More Product, Less Process” (MPLP) theory of archival processing, which the AHC co-developed, has amounted to a revolution in practice and has made a significant impact on the entire archives profession. In a similar vein, the AHC has contributed to the development of archival theory and practice by promoting reappraisal and deaccessioning as standard collection management tools.

The AHC serves its constituencies in an outstanding fashion by maintaining an active K–12 and undergraduate outreach program, administering History Day for the State of Wyoming, and providing consistently excellent reference service. Since 2003, AHC has adopted an accessioning process that ensures new collections do not disappear into an invisible backlog, launched a pilot project to apply MPLP theory to digitization efforts, and is currently experimenting with a new model for its acquisitions program.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

Sister Jane Aucoin received the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award, which honors an individual archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Upon becoming the archivist for the Congregation of St. Joseph, Aucoin embraced professional membership and archival training and began employing principles of arrangement, description, access, and preservation to the congregation’s collections.

“Sister Jane Aucoin has been a faithful sister of the Congregation of St. Joseph for 66 years, and she served as archivist for the Congregation from 1999 to 2009,” said one Awards Committee member. “She organized archives from the Congregation of St. Joseph from Minnesota, Ohio, and Louisiana into a single repository in New Orleans.”

During her 10-plus years as archivist, Sr. Jane was dedicated to the organization, arrangement, and preservation of the materials in the Congregation of St. Joseph archives, both in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, forced the evacuation of the sisters from the city of New Orleans due to widespread floodwaters, and the collection had to be moved. Preparing the collection required four weeks of 10-hour days in a difficult environment. Sr. Jane persevered and succeeded in safely housing and moving the collection.

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav brought a second challenge to the Sisters and their archival collection. This time water threatened from above due to roof damage. Sr. Jane enlisted volunteers and collaborated with the Diocese of Baton Rouge Archives to temporarily relocate the most vulnerable items in the collection until repairs could be completed.

Upon Sr. Jane’s retirement late in 2009, she again directed the movement of the collection to Wichita, Kansas, where the materials remain today.

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, where she served from 1960 until her death in 1974.

Spotlight Award

Ann Russell was honored with the Spotlight Award, which recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition. Between 1978 and the present, Russell worked for archives, special collections, and historical societies nationwide in staff training; emergency planning and collections salvage work; digital project planning; digital conservation; advocacy and outreach to grant funders; as well as teaching, writing, and consulting.

One nominator noted her as “one of the moving forces and creative mothers of preservation in the United States. She has shown herself to be creative, collaborative, innovative, effective, flexible, and tireless in service of the archival profession and the records we hold.”

As director of Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC), Russell initiated the center’s field service office and obtained ongoing grant funding to support staff positions. She launched internship programs that seeded at least 50 conservators into the profession at labs across the country. Russell envisioned and raised funds for dPlan, an innovative online disaster planning tool used by cultural heritage repositories, particularly archives nationwide. In May 2009, after 30 years of service, Russell retired as executive director of NEDCC.

Council Exemplary Service Award

Kathleen Roe, director of archives and records management operations at the New York State Archives and David Carmicheal, director of the Georgia Archives, received the Council Exemplary Service Award for their outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession. The award cited their hard work on the Joint Task Force on Preserving the American Historical Record (PAHR) since its inception in August 2006; their collaborative advocacy efforts between and among SAA, CoSA, NAGARA, regional archives organizations, and affiliated organizations; development and support of PAHR legislation; and support of passage of PAHR in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.

Both Roe and Carmichael are Fellows of the SAA. Roe has served on or chaired a number of SAA committees. She has been honored by the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College for her contributions to documenting New York's Latino communities, awarded three NEH-Mellon Fellowships for the Study of Archival Administration, and been a member of several national and international archives practices research projects. Carmicheal is a past president of CoSA, and has led a disaster assessment team that reported on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi coast.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also received the Council Exemplary Service Award for FOIA and related services.

Advocacy / Public Awareness

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation was awarded the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award, which honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives. The Delmas Foundation was honored for its long-term support of and involvement in the archival profession’s work to address the challenges of managing, preserving, and providing access to archival records, and to fostering the development of the archival profession.

As one Awards Committee member noted, “The Foundation has had a true broad and long-term impact on the archival profession by 1) making it possible for a group of American archivists to meet with their Canadian counterparts to discuss the possible creation of a common North American descriptive standard; 2) funding the Primarily History Project at the University of Glasgow and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to address the questions of how best to configure electronic access tools to support research; and 3) funding the 1999 Working Meeting of Graduate Archival Educators held at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Studies.”

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson.

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Giza Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston received the Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award, which recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archives documents. The Giza Archives was honored for its outstanding efforts in promoting its vast holdings of early-20^th-century archaeological expedition records. The Giza Archives and its accompanying website provided unprecedented access to the records of the Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts archaeological expedition to the Giza Pyramids during the early 1900s. The digitization of thousands of glass plate negatives, expedition diary pages, object records, maps, and manuscripts allow people from all over the world to virtually explore Giza and learn more about the history of archeology.

“The website’s creative display, visual search, and high-resolution zoom features effectively use today’s technology to provide insight into the ancient Egyptian civilization during the Pyramid Age,” said one Awards Committee member. Scholars and enthusiasts alike now have immediate access to important primary research materials that previously had been difficult, and in some cases impossible, to examine.

The Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

Writing / Publishing Excellence

C.F.W. Coker Award

The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries Special Collections Research Center was awarded the C.F.W. Coker Award for its finding aid redesign project. The 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.

“With its robust search functionality including full-text searching, faceted browsing, and a virtual book-bag for saving collection information, the NCSU Libraries Special Collections finding aid redesign project sets a new benchmark for both the accessibility and usability of archival finding aids,” said one member of the Awards Committee. Using state-of-the-art web technologies, the Center builds on standard descriptive practices to place collections more directly in users’ pathways and research expectations.

Established in 1984, the award honors SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

The Waldo Gifford Leland Award was presented to Karen D.  Paul (United States Senate), Glenn R. Gray (Federal Reserve Board), and L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin (University of Delaware) for their editorship of the book An American Political Archives Reader. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, or practice.

This volume, published by Scarecrow Press in 2009, addresses very real and immediate needs within the American archival community. Editors Paul, Gray, and Melvin seamlessly bring together recent scholarship pertaining to the unique challenges of documenting complex and voluminous congressional collections. The work covers a broad landscape while offering fresh perspectives in the areas of arrangement and description.  

An American Political Archives Reader also provides invaluable information on less written topics, such as the topic of building research centers. “This work will be of superior use to archivists confronted with political collections, especially those who are not in congressional research centers,” said one Awards Committee member.

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archives pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Preservation Publication Award

Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers, edited by Michele Pacifico and Thomas Wilsted, received the Preservation Publication Award, which recognizes the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

Archival and Special Collections Facilities, published by SAA in 2009, is the product of the SAA Task Force on Archival Facilities Guidelines and the SAA Standards Committee. The book, which includes contributions from archivists, architects, conservators, and construction specialists, is intended as a working document toward development of a national standard for archival facilities, and it should serve as a resource for archival facilities design, construction, and renovation.  The book covers topics such as the building site and construction, archival environments, fire protection, and security. Contributors include Patrick Alexander, Nick Artim, David Carmicheal, Ernest Conrad, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Scott Teixeira, and Diane Vogt-O’Connor.

The Preservation Publication Award was established in 1993.

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award

The Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award was presented to Scott Cline, city archivist at the Seattle Municipal Archives, for his article “To the Limit of Our Integrity”: Reflections on Archival Being” in American Archivist (vol. 72, no. 2). Established in 1982, this 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 American Archivist.

The Award Committee noted that Cline’s essay was “innovative and thought-provoking, integrating a breadth of sources and personal experience into a coherent and eloquently written piece on what it means to be an archivist in the world today. The four values proposed for archivists to inform how they do their work in a moral and ethical manner (faith, radical self-understanding, intention, and integrity) is a provocative invitation to engage in self-examination. Inspiring a discussion among archivists who are just embarking on their careers or an internal dialogue for those who are assessing decades in the profession, the piece addresses the best parts of who we are as individuals as well as a profession.”

The Awards Committee also gave an Honorable Mention to Jeffrey Mifflin for his article, “'Closing the Circle': Native American Writings in Colonial New England, a Documentary Nexus between Acculturation and Cultural Preservation,” American Archivist (vol. 72, no. 2).

The Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow, former president, and distinguished author.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

Emily Monks-Leeson, a student in the Archives and Records Management Path within the Master of Information Program at the University of Toronto, was named the winner of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award for her paper, “Archives on the Internet: Representing Contexts and Provenance from Repository to Website.”

Monks wrote the paper in a second-year course, “Archival Representation,” during the winter term of the 2009–2010 academic year. Associate Professor Heather MacNeil nominated the paper, which provides an in-depth analysis of the representational practices at play in digital archives. In examining two specific websites in the context of archival theory, the paper makes a compelling argument that these digital archives represent provenance and context in new and more flexible ways. The insights from this discussion not only apply to the digitization practices of archives, but also to the way in which archivists conceptualize the key tenets of archival theory and practice.

From choice of topic to approach to delivery, the paper demonstrates a high level of creativity and originality. The paper explores an important topic relevant to different types of repositories making their holdings available online. Professor MacNeil noted, “It is a worthwhile contribution to contemporary discussion surrounding the ‘archival turn’ in the humanities disciplines and the impact of that turn on archival theory and practice.”

Established in 1987, the award is named for Theodore Calvin Pease, the first editor of the American Archivist.

Travel Awards

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award

Elaine Goh a doctoral student at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, received the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award, which enables overseas archivists who are already in the United States or Canada for training to build upon their experience by traveling to SAA’s Annual Meeting.

Goh earned her Master of Archival Studies at the University of British Columbia and her bachelor’s degree in sociology at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests concern the impact of organizational culture on recordkeeping and the management of financial records. Her nominator described Goh as “a proactive colleague, always emphasizing the value of theory and its capacity to improve practice. . . . She is a natural leader, both in a professional and in an academic sense.”

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

Miranda N. Rivers and Vivian Wong were each awarded the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award, which 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.

Rivers earned a bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in history and library science in archive management at Simmons College. She was a Mellon Librarian Recruitment Fellow at the James B. Duke Memorial Library at Johnson C. Smith University in 2008, and received the Mellon Graduate Library School Scholarship in 2009.

“She is learning everything she can about the archives profession, and was an intern for Project SAVE: The Armenian Photo Archive Collection, and is an archives technician at the Fredrick Law Olmsted Archives National Park in Boston,” said one Scholarship Committee member.

Wong is currently pursuing a PhD at UCLA in Information Studies, where she also received her Master's of Fine Arts from the School of Theater, Film, and Television. Her bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies was earned at Bryn Mawr College. Her research interests included the documentation, collection, preservation, and circulation of historical and cultural records in Asian American communities and archives in the Asian diaspora. “She comes to the profession as a filmmaker, and when she created a film in 2005 about her grandmother from Malaysia titled, ‘Homecoming,’ it spurred her interesting in documenting underrepresented communities,” said one Scholarship Committee member.

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship

Keara Duggan was awarded the Donald Peterson Student Scholarship, which recognizes a graduate student or recent graduate for exceptional leadership and the desire to become actively involved in the archives profession. Duggan, a recent graduate of New York University, completed her master’s degree in archives and public history in January 2010. In 2009, she founded the first SAA Student Chapter at New York University, and has served as an intern at the American Philosophical Society and worked as an archivist, researcher, and metadata consultant on a digital archive of Ojibwe Indian material. Duggan’s involvement in the “Protocols for Native American Archival Materials” particularly impressed the Peterson Award Subcommittee members.

“As part of her master’s thesis, she developed a website featuring case studies for archivists, museum professionals, and tribal communities grappling with issues surrounding Native American archival materials,” said one Scholarship Committee member. “Despite her young age, she has already made a significant contribution to building bridges between archives and Native American communities.”

The Donald Peterson Student Scholarship was established in 2005, and honors the memory of New York lawyer and philatelist Donald Peterson.

Scholarships

Mosaic Scholarship

LaNesha DeBardelaben and Susan Gehr were each awarded the Mosaic Scholarship, which offers financial support to minority students who manifest a commitment both to the archives profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it. DeBardelaben and Gehr both received a $5,000 scholarship, a one-year membership in SAA, and complimentary registration to DC 2010.

DeBardelaben has a MA degree in history from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and is a student in the MLS program with a specialization in Archives and Records Management at the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University-Bloomington. In her past work with the Missouri Historical Society’s “Through the Eyes of a Child” project, she taught students and teachers how to incorporate the program’s curriculum unit within the classroom to develop oral history projects. As project manager for the Teaching American History Grant for Flint (Michigan) Community Schools, she organized history summer institutes and speaking engagements for and about the history of diverse ethnic communities. 

“LaNesha’s goal is to further the work of documenting, archiving, and digitizing the records of African American women’s history,” said one Awards Committee member.

Gehr is earning a master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University. As member of the Karuk Tribe (California), she acted as the Karuk Tribe’s tribal language program director where she co-published with linguist William Bright a dictionary of the Karuk language. After attending the Western Archives Institute, she prepared a preservation and use report for Humboldt State University’s Center for Indian Community Development as they planned their Native Languages Archive. Currently, she volunteers with Humboldt State’s Special Collections Unit where she processes an anthropologist’s collection that includes field notes and recordings gathered in preparation for a book on Yurok Indian spirituality.

“Susan’s goal is to understand and address the comprehensive archival needs of tribes in the northwestern California region and to contribute to the field of archival studies for Native American/Alaska native people,” noted one Awards Committee member.

F. Gerald Ham Scholarship

Venus E. Van Ness, a student in the combined MSIS/MA program at the State University of New York at Albany, was awarded the F. Gerald Ham Scholarship, which 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 her or his graduate program in archival studies as well as faculty members’ assessment of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession. Ness received a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University and a juris doctorate from Marquette University Law School before returning to graduate school at SUNY-Albany to pursue archives.

“Among a large number of deserving applicants, Ms. Van Ness distinguished herself by her outstanding writing and analytical skills in her paper ‘Legal Liabilities and Archives: Orphan Works and Copyright Issues,’” said one Awards Committee member.

The award was created in 1998 by SAA Fellow, past president, and longtime member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie.

Modern Archives Institute Scholarship

Sarah L. Patterson of the Maryland State Archives received the Modern Archives Institute Scholarship, whereby she was able to attend the Winter 2010 Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. The two-week program provides an introduction to archives principles and techniques for individuals who work with personal papers and the records of public and private institutions and organizations. The institute seeks to help archivists acquire basic knowledge about caring for archival materials and making them available.

Patterson received her MLS degree from Indiana University in 2008, before starting her professional career at the Maryland State Archives. Patterson works with records dating from the founding of Maryland in 1634 to the present day.

“It is her love for history and the records which tell the story of the past that influenced her decision to make archives her profession,” said one committee member. “Sarah's desire to become a more well-rounded professional prompted her to apply for Modern Archives Institute Scholarship.”

Fellows

The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession. Daria D’Arienzo, David Haury, Diane Kaplan, Leon Miller, Christopher J. Prom, Scott Schwarz, and Becky Haglund Tousey were named Fellows. The honor was established by SAA in 1957 and is conferred annually. There are currently 169 Fellows.

Meet the 2010 class of Fellows:

Daria D’Arienzo is an archival consultant whose work focuses on local communities and small groups that have traditionally been underserved. As one nominator noted, “D’Arienzo has long been an ambassador for our profession, a mentor for young professionals, a leader in our community, and a valued colleague.”

D’Arienzo has committed her career to bringing archives to public attention and to showing their importance in society. She began her archival career at Yale University on a grant project to develop the university’s own archives and then moved to the University of Connecticut archives for a similar grant project. She left UConn for Amherst College, where she served more than 20 years as college archivist and, later, head of Archives and Special Collections.

She has a distinguished record of service to SAA, the New England Archivists, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, the Academy of Certified Archivists, and other organizations. As co-chair of the SAA Awards Committee, she reorganized the numerous subcommittees, brought order to prior inconsistencies, and skillfully negotiated the inevitable compromises needed to balance competing interests. As a mentor to younger archivists, she has also dedicated much of her professional energy to developing and supporting grass-roots archives for local communities.

“Daria started me on my career as a historian, teaching, encouraging, and materially aiding me at every point in my path—she even introduced me to the subject of my first book," said Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography of Henry Ward Beecher. 

D’Arienzo holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master of arts in liberal studies from Wesleyan University. In addition to her interests in archival outreach, preservation, and community archives, D’Arienzo early committed her abundant energies to effective management. She earned a second master’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts and then applied this knowledge to archival programs.

For several years she helped organize and spoke at SAA sessions dealing with management issues, ranging from project management to staffing, using volunteers, empowering women managers, and accommodating people with physical impairments. Her concern for the “unsung heroes” of the profession led to the creation of SAA’s Spotlight Award, which honors individuals who contribute to the profession through “tireless committee or advocacy work, volunteerism, and/or quietly but effectively promoting the profession”—but whose work “would not typically received public recognition”—an apt description of D’Arienzo herself.

---

David Haury, Pennsylvania state archivist, is marked by a career of significant contributions to his work and the archives profession. During 10 years at Bethel College in Kansas, he moved from his first position as assistant archivist to directorships of the college’s research library and the archives of the General Conference of the Mennonite Church. He followed with 15 years at the Kansas State Historical Society, first as assistant, then associate director.

In 2004, Haury became the director of the Bureau of Archives and History and State Archivist for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, one of the nation’s largest state archives. Professionally, Haury has proven leadership not only in SAA but also CoSA and the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC). He is one of the few to serve on both the SAA and CoSA governing councils.

His contributions as a scholar and editor include books and articles on the history of Mennonite faith and community, articles for state historical publications, and The Midwestern Archivist. His extensive experience as an editor includes several books, a large number of Mennonite periodicals, Archival Issues and MAC Newsletter. Haury was involved in the SAA publications program for a decade, during a time in which the Archival Fundamentals Series was launched and the monographs catalog was expanded to include new areas of interest and titles from other publishers. One nominator noted that the result of “a larger and increasingly professionalized publishing program . . . meant so much for SAA’s success, both financially and intellectually.”

Another nominator wrote, “David . . . shares a trait with successful secret agents: his very effectiveness makes him almost invisible to the casual observer. But the accomplishments are manifest when you start looking, and they have made real benefits to the archival profession.”

Haury holds a bachelor’s degree from Bethel College, a master’s and PhD from Harvard University, and a master’s of library science from the University of Illinois.

---

Diane Kaplan is head of public services in the Manuscripts and Archives Department at Yale University. She has been an archivist for almost 40 years, with much time spent in Manuscripts and Archives in the Yale University Library where she has acquired extensive expertise in preservation microfilming, arrangement and description, and public services.

Throughout her lengthy career she has had an impact on the practice of the archives profession in so many different areas through her work at Yale, and through publications and conference presentations in which she shared the findings of her research. She is a master collaborator who has worked willingly with others to advance the professional discourse on topics from collection policies for faculty papers and minimal processing standards, to archival metrics and archives revenues, to issues of access versus privacy. 

Kaplan developed the first online tutorial for using archives and manuscripts in the United States, and has played a leading part in diversifying the profession. Her contributions to the profession also include serving for 10 years on SAA’s Membership Committee and being a founding member of the New England Archivists.

One supporter noted:  “In addition to her pioneering work on many aspects of archives, Diane has served as a mentor to generations of archivists at Yale; to members of the New England Archivists . . . and to the archival community as a whole through her service on the SAA Membership Committee.”

Kaplan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Michigan.

---

Leon Miller is head of the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University. Miller’s first major professional activity was chairing the membership committee of the Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA), where he tripled membership in two years. He went on to serve as SSA’s vice-president and president, and received its Distinguished Service Award in 1994.

Miller has shared his interest in archival membership, outreach, and mentoring with other organizations. During his term as Regent for Outreach for the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA), the number of people taking certification exam increased by 200% in two years. He went on to become ACA president and received ACA’s Distinguished Service Award in 2004. In addition, he has chaired or served on more than a dozen SAA committees, including serving on SAA Council and chairing the SAA Membership Committee, where he created the SAA Mentoring Program in 1994. After more than 15 years, the SAA Mentoring Program is still helping to welcome newer archivists into the profession.

Miller’s resume includes a lengthy list of exhibits and publications on historical and archival subjects. For nearly 20 years he has served as editor of various archival publications, including the Southwestern Archivist, ACA News, and Reach Out!, the newsletter of SAA’s Reference, Access, and Outreach Section. Miller earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Arkansas.

---

Christopher J. Prom is assistant university archivist and associate professor of library administration at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. One of his nominator’s said: “Prom represents the best of the archives profession—he is a pragmatist practitioner who consistently looks above the trees of daily work to envision and shape the larger forest that gives our efforts meaning and purpose. He is a scholar who grounds his research on efforts to make archives work more efficient, more forward-looking, and more practical. He is an effective collaborator, both within the profession and in helping to bridge the gap between archivists and librarians.” 

Prom is also an innovator. He is the co-director of the ARCHON project, which developed award-winning software for archivists and manuscript curators. The software automatically publishes archival descriptive information and digital archival objects in a user-friendly website. During the 2009–2010, he was Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Dundee (Scotland), where he conducted the “Practical E-Records” project, seeking to develop cost-effective approaches to identifying, preserving, and providing access to born-digital records.

Prom has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the archives profession through service on a variety of committees in SAA and the Midwest Archives Conference, ranging from technical standards to editorial boards. He has further committed himself to regularly publishing his work so that others may benefit. As another nominator stated: “There is probably no better way to describe Chris than simply . . . an extremely smart, class act. . . . It is because he wears his excellence so lightly that his being named a Fellow will bring as much distinction to the award as it will bring to him.” 

Prom earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Marquette University and a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

---

Scott Schwartz is archivist for music and fine arts and adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. As one of his nominator’s noted: “Scott represents the best of an archivist, always finding ways to increase awareness of what an archives is and what it can offer to the public and to generate enthusiasm for archives as a profession.”

His transformation of the Sousa Archives into a vibrant Center for American Music has been recognized by the more than 15 awards and grants he has received to advance his activist archives vision. This vision led Schwarz, in 2004, to engineer one the decade’s most important archival outreach programs: convincing the United States Senate to declare November, “American Music Month.”

His contributions to the field are many: as a principal developer of ARCHON, award-winning software for archivists and manuscript curators that automatically publishes archival descriptive information and digital archival objects in a user-friendly website; as technological coordinator for a variety of programs at the Smithsonian Institution, including the Ivory Soap Advertising Digital Image Library and the Scurlock Photograph Collection Image Library; and through publishing of articles in the professional literature and presentations at archives workshops.

“It’s hard to overstate the transformative impact ARCHON and the Archivist’s Toolkit are having on facilitating the control and description of archival holdings,” said one nominator.

Since serving on the Program Committee in 1993, Schwartz continues to be an active member of SAA. He has chaired the membership Committee and the Nominating Committee. He was instrumental in establishing and securing funding for SAA’s Donald Peterson Student Scholarship Award.

Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 2003, Schwartz worked for 10 years as archivist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and as technical archives specialist at East Tennessee State University. He holds a bachelor’s in music education from the State University of New York at Fredonia and a master’s in music education and history from Michigan State University.

---

Becky Haglund Tousey is archives senior manager at Kraft Foods Inc., where she runs a global corporate archives program with repositories and staff in several countries. She has gained the respect and support of Kraft Foods management, as well as of her archival colleagues, for her outstanding professional standards and execution. Tousey has shared her knowledge and best practices around the world, by presenting at conferences in North America, Scotland, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Japan. As one of her nominators noted, “Becky’s management of Kraft’s archives has served as a beacon of excellence and adaptation.”

Tousey is well known for advancing the goals and activities of regional, national, and international archival associations through her exemplary service in numerous positions, including terms on SAA’s governing Council and the Midwest Archives Conference’s Council, as co-chair of SAA’s Program Committee and Host Committee, and as secretary of the International Council on Archives Section on Business and Labour Archives.

Less well known are her frequent unsung volunteer activities, such as the 15 years she spent leading teams of ballot counters for SAA elections. Her nominators spoke frequently of her intelligence, commitment to the profession, kindness, hard work, and modesty. One individual who served with her on both the SAA and MAC Councils said, “Hers was the reliable voice of reason, objectivity, and logic that so often prevailed at times when hand wringing, discord, or indecisiveness would otherwise deter progress.”

Awards and Scholarships

Outstanding Contributions

Distinguished Service Award

The NATIONAL HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS COMMISSION (NHPRC) is the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes an archival institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or governmental organization that has given outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archives profession.

Executive Director Kathleen Williams accepted the award on behalf of the NHPRC. The selection committee said “the NHPRC Records Grant Program has arguably done more to advance our nation's archives and records programs, and the archival profession, than any other program or organization. SAA is especially pleased to acknowledge the service of the NHPRC to the archives profession this year, as 2009 marks the Commission's 75th anniversary.”

The NHPRC is the grant-making affiliate of the National Archives and Records Administration and supports a wide range of activities to preserve, publish, and encourage the use of documentary sources. The commission was established by the U.S. Congress in 1934 as the National Historical Publications Commission (NHPC). Its initial focus was documentary editing until 1974, when the commission began to include the collection and preservation of historical records held by state and local governments, as well as private organizations throughout the United States. The NHPC was then renamed the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.  

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

ROBERT JOHNSON-LALLY, an archivist and records manager for the Archdiocese of Boston is the recipient of the 2009 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. Johnson-Lally is being recognized for his leadership in safeguarding and advancing the Archdiocese of Boston’s archival program and collections during a “tumultuous period of institutional stress,” said the award selection committee. “His remarkable ability for advancing the leadership of others within the professional mantle is also noteworthy.”

Johnson-Lally served as president of the New England Archivists from 1990 to 1991 and is active in the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists, as well as SAA. He was part of a team that produced the Thesaurus of Catholic Diocesan Terms, and has written articles for the Encyclopedia of American Catholic History and the Catholic Social Science Review.  

Created in 1974, the award honors Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., the first professionally trained archivist at the Catholic Archives of Texas in Austin, who served there from 1960 until her death in 1974. It is sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists. Nominees for this award must demonstrate involvement in SAA’s Religious Archives Section, contribute to archival literature relating to religious archives, show leadership in religious archives organizations, and/or leadership in a specific religious archive.  

Council Exemplary Service Award

The Council Exemplary Service Award honors individuals or groups for their outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession. This year’s recipients are DAVID B. GRACY II, of the University of Texas, Austin, and SAA’s INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WORKING GROUP (IPWG). 

Gracy is the Governor Bill Daniel Professor in Archival Enterprise at UT-Austin, where he has worked since in 1986. He is being recognized for a 50-year career in the archives profession and his work as a teacher, administrator, researcher, historian, editor, and “as an advocate and ambassador for archives.”

Gracy played a role in the creation of the William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at UT’s School of Information. His early career included positions at the Texas State Archives and Georgia State University. He has taught archives education courses at the Modern Archives Institute, the Georgia Archives Institute, and the Western Archives Institute. Gracy was SAA president in 1983-1984, and served as president of the Academy of Certified Archivists. He is the author of Archives and Manuscripts: Arrangement and Description, published by SAA, and the editor of the Libraries & the Cultural Record journal.

The Intellectual Property Working Group was recognized by its peers for providing SAA and the Council with information and advice on intellectual property issues. The IPWG was established in 2001 and includes: Heather Briston (chair, University of Oregon), Jean Dryden (University of Maryland), Mark Allen Greene (University of Wyoming), Peter Hirtle (Cornell University), William Maher (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Aprille Cooke McKay (University of Michigan), Richard Pearce-Moses (Arizona State Library), and Margery Sly (Presbyterian Church USA).

The group tracks current legislation on the subject and testifies on SAA’s behalf when necessary. It also makes recommendations when SAA is asked to support litigation, and prepares position papers as well. “The IPWG has more than fulfilled its charge, evidenced by the confidence that the Council places in it as a source of expert advice on one of the most important topics addressed by the profession today,” said the selection committee.

In 2008 the IPWG acquired funding from the Research Libraries Group for an orphan works investigation best practices retreat. Several members of the IPWG helped produce a 15-page report titled “Orphan Works:Statement of Best Practices,” which provides the best methods to use when attempting to identify and locate copyright holders.

---

Public Awareness

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

ROSS KING, chair of the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board, is the 2009 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. The Jameson award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives.

King is being recognized for his dedication to the cause of records preservation, including his effort to obtain stable sources of funding and leading the board in developing a policy on private donations. As deputy director of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, King coordinated a project in 2007 to survey Georgia’s recordkeeping practices and then produced a “Best Practices Guide” for statewide distribution.

He has been a member of the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board since 2001 and became its chair in 2007. In naming his selection the award committee said, “King’s advocacy on behalf of archives has raised the understanding of the value of archives among local, state and federal officials who will be important future supporters of archival initiatives.”

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson, who was a long-time advocate for the establishment of a National Archives in the United States.  

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The WARD M. CANADAY CENTER FOR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, is the 2009 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award. The center was recognized for its exhibit and publication titled "From Institutions to Independence: A History of People with Disabilities in Northwest Ohio.” Director Barbara Floyd accepted the award on behalf of the center during a ceremony at ARCHIVES 2009.

The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections is being recognized for its outstanding efforts to promote the collections of its Regional Disability History Archive. In making its selection, the award committee noted the exhibit and catalog “sought to highlight a segment of society that has too often been omitted from the historical record. While the exhibit largely focused on institutions and groups from northwest Ohio, it sought to place the local experience within a national context to provide viewers with the larger picture of disability history.” A virtual exhibit is available at: http://homepages.utoledo.edu/ASabhar/DVX/index.html.

The Hamer Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents.

---

Writing/Publishing Excellence

C.F.W. Coker Award

A two-volume guide describing archival materials about the U.S. military’s  participation in World War II has been awarded the C.F.W. Coker Award this year.  World War II: Guide to Records Relating to U.S. Military Participation was published in 2008 by the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. It was compiled by TIMOTHY MULLIGAN and edited by REBECCA L. COLLIER, JUDITH KOUCKY, and PATRICK R. OSBORN, all of the National Archives.

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 archival description, or otherwise have a substantial impact on national descriptive practice.

“This guide has the potential to make a tremendous impact on national and international scholarly research and will serve as a seminal reference tool for archivists and librarians in describing records and assisting researchers for years to come,” noted the selection committee.

Established in 1984, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

The 2009 Waldo Gifford Leland Award goes to PHILIP C. BANTIN for his book, Understanding Data and Information Systems for Recordkeeping. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, or practice. 

Bantin is the director of Archives Specialization and an adjunct associate professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. His award-winning book was published by Neal-Schuman Publishers. It outlines changes in electronic records management, provides definitions of key terms, describes different kinds of recordkeeping systems, and looks at the need for good e-mail management and laws relating to electronic records management.

“The narrative makes these complex territories understandable to all levels of the profession, from those beginning in the field to those who are senior in the profession,” the award selection committee remarked. “This work is at once useful and ultimately readable.

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Preservation Publication Award

The AIC GUIDE TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND CONSERVATION DOCUMENTATION, produced by the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) of Historic and Artistic Works, is the 2009 winner of the Preservation Publication Award. The award recognizes authors or editors of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

The AIC is a national membership organization of conservation professionals who work to preserve art and historic artifacts of cultural value for future generations. The guide was developed and written by AIC’s Digital Photographic Documentation Task Force and edited by Jeffrey Warda. It gives recommendations on the best way to use digital photographic equipment when working on document conservation, and addresses concerns about long-term accessibility and preservation of the electronic records created during the process.

“The AIC Guide is a collaborative venture drawing on the expertise of conservators, faculty, researchers, and photographers,” the award selection committee said. “It is particularly useful in terms of having all the knowledge you need for camera-ready and digitization projects, essentially at your fingertips.”

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award

The 2009 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award has been awarded to GEOFFREY YEO of University College London for his article “Concepts of Record (2): Prototypes and Boundary Objects” (American Archivist vol. 71, no. 1). Yeo is a lecturer in records management and archives at University College London.

Established in 1982, this 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 semi-annual journal, the American Archivist.

“This work displays an unusual blend of innovative thinking, cross-disciplinary research, graceful writing, and practical applicability to the profession.The result is clearly innovative and thought provoking, pushing the boundaries of the definition of “record”—our most central defining concept as a profession,” the selection committee said.

“Yeo’s insights, especially when coupled with suggestions for their practical application, are timely given the realities of record making and recordkeeping in our digital era and the increasing mergers (or at least greater convergence) of archives, libraries, and museums in many jurisdictions,” they added.   

An Honorable Mention was given to Adrian Cunningham of the National Archives of Australia for his essay, “Digital Curation/Digital Archiving: A View from the National Archives of Australia” (American Archivist vol. 71, no. 2).

The Posner award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president, as well as a distinguished author.

Click here to subscribe to American Archivist.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

KATHLEEN FEAR has been named the winner of SAA’s 2009 Theodore Calvin Pease Award for her graduate student paper “User Understanding of Metadata in Digital Image Collections.”  

Fear recently earned a master’s of science degree with a specialization in preservation of information from the University of Michigan School of Information. She plans to continue her studies in the school’s doctoral program this fall. The Pease award recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs, and includes forthcoming publication in SAA’s semi-annual journal, the American Archivist. Fear’s paper will be published in the spring/summer 2010 issue.

Fear’s paper explores the usefulness of Dublin Core metadata for non-expert users searching in digitized image collections. It will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of the American Archivist. “It is relevant to many repositories mounting digital collections in a more-product-less-process environment and has implications for metadata application, one of the more costly aspects of publishing digital materials online,” the selection committee noted.

“The findings clearly point to problematic elements in Dublin Core that affect how images are viewed as evidence (or not), but, in an age of archivists looking for ways to be more economical, this study does show the utility of the minimal Dublin Core,” they added. 

Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of the American Archivist.

Click here to subscribe to American Archivist.

---

Scholarships

Mosaic Scholarship

This year the SAA Mosaic Scholarship made its debut and was awarded to two minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science: JANET CEJA of the University of Pittsburgh and HARRISON W. INEFUKU of the University of British Columbia.

The Mosaic Scholarship provides $5,000 in financial aid and offers mentoring support to encourage students to pursue a career as an archivist. The scholarship was established in 2008 to promote diversification of the American archives profession. It is given to applicants who demonstrate potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archives profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.

Ceja is enrolled as a second-year Ph.D candidate in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Pittsburgh. She entered Pitt’s archival studies program in 2007 after working as a film archivist in Los Angeles. Ceja said she will focus her dissertation research on “archival methodologies used by Latinos as a tool of social practice and resistance. My work raises questions about the development of archives by this group but at the same time, seeks to help attract underrepresented populations to archival work.”

Inefuku is a graduate student in the joint Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He earned undergraduate degrees in graphic design and visual culture from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. “My primary research interest lies in the position of the National Archives of South Africa (and its predecessor) within the apartheid government and in post-apartheid South Africa,” said Inefuku.

In addition to the scholarship, each recipient was given a one-year membership in SAA and complimentary registration to ARCHIVES 2009.

 F. Gerald Ham Scholarship

ANDY (JONATHAN) UHRICH won the F. Gerald Ham Scholarship in 2009, which recognizes an individual’s past performance in a graduate archival studies program and his or her potential in the field. The award gives Uhrich $7,500 in tuition assistance toward his second year of graduate study in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.  

“It makes going to school in New York possible,” Uhrich said. “This scholarship is integral to me being able to continue my studies and expand my skills and understanding of the archival field.” He plans to graduate with a master’s degree in 2010.

Uhrich earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of South Carolina-Columbia in 1994. He has been involved in the field of film in a number of positions in Chicago—as assistant technical director for the Gene Siskel Film Center, manager of film and media operations at the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center, and director of collections and programming for the Chicago Film Archives. He is currently an intern at the Anthology Film Archives in New York, working on a preservation project of Sidney Peterson films.

The F. Gerald Ham Scholarship Fund was established in 1998 by SAA Fellow and past president F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie. The endowed fund was awarded for the first time in 2008. Uhrich is the third recipient of this scholarship.

 Colonial Dames Scholarship Scholarship Awards

MARIA DAY and AMANDA KLAUS each won a Colonial Dames of America Scholarship in 2009, which provides archivists entering the profession an opportunity to attend the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

Day is the assistant director of Special Collections at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis, Maryland. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D in Art History from the University of Maryland. Day previously worked as public programs manager for the Historic Annapolis Foundation. She attended the Winter 2009 Modern Archives Institute in January.

Klaus attended the institute’s summer session in June. Klaus is a student in the Museum Studies Department at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and works as a graduate assistant archivist for the university’s Western Historical Manuscripts Collection. She is pursuing a master’s degree in museum studies and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

Established in 1974, the scholarship provides $1,200 toward tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship, an individual must be employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825.

The Colonial Dames of America (CDA) is an international society of women whose direct ancestors held positions of leadership in the Colonies and was founded in 1890. The award is funded by CDA’s Chapter III in Washington, D.C.

---

Travel Awards

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award

RICARDO L. PUNZALAN, a professor in archival studies at the University of the Phillipines in Manila, is the recipient of the 2009 Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award. The award enables overseas archivists who are already in the United States or Canada for training to build upon their experience by traveling to SAA’s annual meeting.

Punzalan is currently a PhD candidate studying at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree in library science at the University of the Philippines, where he taught Archival Studies before taking a leave of absence to undertake his doctoral work. Punzalan’s research interests include collective memory, and how minority and marginalized communities are documented by archives.

“In addition to giving colleagues from around the world the opportunity to learn about the work of SAA and meet a wide array of archivists from North America, the members of SAA also benefit from the insights and experience that our international colleagues can bring to us,” members of the selection committee said. 

Established in 1979, this award honors SAA Fellow and former President Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

KRYSTAL APPIAH and I-TING EMILY CHU are the joint recipients of the 2009 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.

Appiah earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Brown University. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Sciences Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Appiah has expressed an interest in developing archival programs that reach out to African-American communities, and plans to graduate with a degree in public history to meet her goal of expanding archival programming and outreach to minority communities. 

Chu is a graduate student in the archival management program at New York University (NYU). She is a recipient of the Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute graduate assistantship and works with the institute’s archival materials in the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Chu also works on materials produced by Asian CineVision, which has placed its archives at NYU. She recently presented a poster at the National Council on Public History’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, and organized a session on Asian-American collecting efforts for the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York, Inc. 

The minority student award was established in 1993 and honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, an SAA Fellow who worked for the National Archives and Records Administration.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship

JESSICA SEDGWICK is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ 2009 Donald Peterson Student Scholarship, which recognizes a graduate student or recent graduate for exceptional leadership and the desire to become actively involved in the archives profession.

Sedgwick earned a master’s degree in library science from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) in August, 2008. She worked as a student processor for the university’s Southern Historical Collection as a graduate student, and was hired as a manuscripts processor by UNC after graduation. Sedgwick now works as the Archivist for Women in Medicine at the Center for the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“Her solid education and growing experience, when combined with a thoughtful and creative approach to archival practices, have her at the cusp of what is certain to be a long career in archives in which she contributes not just to the institutions where she works, but the profession as a whole,” one of her nominators noted.

Sedgwick participated in a session titled “The Real Archives 2.0: Studies of Use, Views, and Potential for Web 2.0” at ARCHIVES 2009.   

The Donald Peterson Student Scholarship was established in 2005 and honors the memory of Donald Peterson (1908–1999), a New York lawyer and philatelist. Sedgwick is the fourth recipient of the award.

Fellows

SAA Names Four New Fellows at AUSTIN 2009

Congratulations Fellows! Sheryl Vogt (University of Georgia), David Carmicheal (Georgia State Archives), Edward Galvin (Syracuse University), and Nancy McGovern (University of Michigan) were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists in August. Photography by: Bob Levy

David Carmicheal, Edward Galvin, Nancy McGovern, and Sheryl Vogt were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists during an Awards Ceremony held August 14, 2009, at the Hilton Hotel in Austin, Texas. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession. There are now 186 Fellows in the program, which was established in 1957.

---

David Carmicheal is the director of the Georgia State Archives, located in Morrow, just south of Atlanta. Carmicheal was appointed state archivist in 2000.

He served as president of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) in 2005–2006. As such, he led a disaster assessment team that reported on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi coast. Carmicheal is the author of Rescuing Family Records: A Disaster Planning Guide, published by CoSA in 2007.

Carmicheal earned his master’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1984. Early in his career he worked as an archivist for the State University of New York in Stony Brook and in Westchester County. He has served on the Advisory Committee on Electronic Records for the National Archives and Records Administration. 

Philip Mooney, director of Heritage Communications at the Coca-Cola Company, said Carmicheal’s “visionary leadership has created a series of innovative programs that have allowed the [Georgia] Archives to reach new audiences and forge new relationships.” 

“David is a man with an endless willingness to use his considerable talents in the services of his professional colleagues and the users of archives,” said Kathleen Roe, director of operations for the New York State Archives. “He is a modest, unassuming colleague who delights in putting forward the accomplishments of others to ensure they receive the recognition and attention he shies away from.” 

---

 

Edward L. Galvin is the director of archives and records management for Syracuse University.     Galvin began his career as a genealogical researcher in 1975 as the co-founder and first archivist of the Winchester Archival Center in Winchester, Massachusetts. Other positions held during earlier in his career include archivist for the MITRE Corporation, archivist for the New York State Archives and Records Management Administration, and archivist and records manager for the Aerospace Corporation.

Galvin earned his master’s degree in historical agencies and administration from Northeastern University in 1980 and became a Certified Archivist in 1989. Galvin joined the staff at Syracuse in 1995. He has been honored with the university’s Keeping the Spirit Alive Award for his work in documenting the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. Thirty-five students studying abroad with Syracuse University were killed in this terrorist attack. Syracuse University is the site of the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives, which were established in 1990.

He has been a member of SAA for 34 years, and has been active in the New England Archivists, New York Archives Conference, Society of California Archivists, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

Randall Jimerson, director of the archives program at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, said “Edward knows how to fly beneath the radar of public attention. Modest and unassuming, he has nonetheless contributed significantly for many years in building solid and professionally-run archives and records management programs, advancing these twin professions, and helping everyone he meets to understand better the importance of archives and records in today’s society.”

---

 

Dr. Nancy Y. McGovern is the digital preservation officer and research assistant professor for the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Colleagues who nominated McGovern for the honor of Fellow refer to her as “a major force in moving the archives profession from managing traditional paper documents to the preservation of electronic records.” They noted her innovation in developing and implementing the Archival Electronic Records Inspection and Control (AERIC), and the design of the Archival Management Information System (AMIS) for NARA.

McGovern previously worked for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), working her way up to senior electronic records archivist in the Center for Electronic Records. She stayed with NARA for 11 years, then moved to Budapest, Hungary, in 1996 to become the electronic records manager for the Open Society Archives. She then went to England to study in the doctoral program at University College London and work for Audata, Ltd., as the electronic records manager.

McGovern returned to the United States in 2001 and joined the staff of Cornell University as the digital preservation officer and director of Research and Assessment Services. She assumed her current position at UM in 2006.

McGovern has written more than twenty articles, most recently “Digital Preservation,” in a forthcoming Digital Curation Manual for the National Research Foundation in Pretoria, South Africa. She joined SAA in 1988 and co-founded and chaired the Electronic Records Roundtable and the Electronic Records Section.

---

 

Sheryl Vogt is the director of the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. She began her career at the university in 1974 as a library specialist for the Russell Memorial Library, after earning her Ed.S. at UGA in 1973.

Among her other accomplishments, Vogt is being recognized for developing a survey that led to the Guide to Research Collections of Former Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and her participation on the Congressional Documentation Task Force. Vogt currently serves on the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and for the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress.

Colleagues who nominated Vogt as a 2009 Fellow also cited her contributions to SAA’s Congressional Records Roundtable. Said one, “She was instrumental in the growth of the Congressional Papers Roundtable from an informal group of colleagues with a common interest to a structured entity with ongoing projects.”

Vogt joined SAA in 1976 and has been a member of the Society of Georgia Archivists for 25 years, serving as its president in 1983. Many of her peers also noted her 20-year stint as editor of the Georgia Archive/Provenance journal. Vogt’s most recently published articles have appeared in The Documentation of Congress and the American Political Archives Reader.

---

*   *   *   *   *   *

Criteria and Selection Committee

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Elizabeth W. Adkins (chair), Elizabeth W. Adkins, CA, Timothy L. Ericson, Mark Greene, Randall Jimerson, Richard Pearce-Moses—and three Fellows selected by Council—Philip Bantin, Anne Diffendal, and Jane Kenamore.

Awards and Scholarships

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the CBC Digital Archives (Les archives de Radio-Canada) is the 2008 recipient of SAA’s Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is being recognized for its outstanding efforts to promote the use of its radio and television collections. In making its selection, the award committee noted, “The CBC Digital Archives makes a vast collection of audio and video, in French and English, accessible to a community of users stretching far beyond Canada.”

The CBC Digital Archives has created a website (http://archives.cbc.ca/) to provide access to nearly 12,000 radio and news clips, which contain the voices and images of journalists, performers, citizens, politicians, and artists.

The Hamer-Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

C.F.W. Coker Award

The ARCHIVISTS’ TOOLKIT (AT), an open-source archival data management system developed through a collaboration of three university libraries, is the 2008 recipient of SAA’s C.F.W. Coker Award. The award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids.

Bradley Westbrook, the AT’s project manager at the University of California-San Diego, will accept the award on behalf of the project team. The team includes members from the University of California-San Diego Libraries, the New York University Libraries, and the Five Colleges, Inc., Libraries. Five Colleges is a consortium of Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, the University of Massachusetts, and Hampshire College. The Toolkit is the first open-source archival data management system to provide broad, integrated support for the management of archives and can be used by a wide range of archival repositories. It is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Toolkit is an archival management system with description at its core and it is designed to make it easier for archivists to adopt and utilize descriptive standards, according to Chris Burns, curator of manuscripts for the University of Vermont and chair of the selection committee.

“The Archivists’ Toolkit has already made a tremendous impact on archival practice and the promotion and adoption of descriptive standards,” says Burns. “It has been rapidly adopted by archivists. Its creation serves as a truly wonderful model of a collaborative design, testing, and implementation process.”

Established in 1984, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

Deidre Simmons is the winner of the 2008 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for her book Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, or practice.

Simmons, an archives consultant in Victoria, British Columbia, provides a look at the records of the Hudson’s Bay Company and their stewardship from the company’s first year in 1670 to the present. The Hudson's Bay Company Archives are stored in the Archives of Manitoba, and they trace the history of the fur trade, North American exploration, the growth of a retail empire, and the evolution of Canada as a country. The book was published in January by McGill-Queen's University Press. “Simmons has broken new ground in treating a body of archives as something worthy of study itself. Although so many secondary sources may— and do—rely heavily on primary sources to support a broader thesis, this book is a study of the archives itself, its shift from Britain to Canada, and just who has cared for the collection through the decades,” noted the selection committee.

“Keepers of the Record displays detailed and deep research—and a superior readability. It bridges the gaps among archivists, historians, and the general public—all the while bringing to life the figures and stories intimately connected with the creation and care of the records.”

Established in 1959, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Preservation Publication Award

The Digital Dilemma, produced by the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is the 2008 winner of SAA’s Preservation Publication Award. The award, which was established in 1993, recognizes an outstanding published work related to archives preservation.

The Digital Dilemma is “a ground-breaking publication that is the product of more than nine months of investigative research into the daunting and largely uncharted arena of preserving digital motion picture materials,” said the award committee.

The report outlines critical issues that movie studios are facing as they undergo a transition from film-based to digital storage technology. “Though the movie studios are especially spotlighted, both the scope and implications of this publication extend well beyond that industry,” noted Steve Dalton, preservation manager at Boston College and chair of the selection committee.

“The studios’ experiences are, in fact, intentionally framed within the broader context of preservation strategies already employed by institutions well-known to [the archives] profession, such as the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress,” Dalton added.

The 2008 selection committee also gave an Honorable Mention to Rescuing Family Records: A Disaster Planning Guide, which was produced by David Carmicheal of the Georgia State Archives and distributed by the Council of State Archivists. The committee said, “This timely work puts the expertise of the archives profession at the service of the general public and meets a vitally important need in the process.”

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award

Magia Ghetu Krause, a PhD candidate, and Elizabeth Yakel, associate professor, both of the University of Michigan’s School of Information, are joint recipients of SAA’s 2008 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for their essay, “Interaction in Virtual Archives: The Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections Next Generation Finding Aid,” in the American Archivist, volume 70.

The award recognizes an outstanding essay that explores some facet of archival administration, history, theory, or methodology and that was published in SAA’s semi-annual journal during the preceding year. “As many professionals [in the field] are in institutions that do not have funds to support training, this article can be a starting point to expose them to Internet concepts and the possibilities for their application to archival finding aids,” noted the selection committee.

“The outstanding benefit of this article is that the reader not only is introduced to new technologies and concepts, but is also offered the option to review, use, and interact with the actual Polar Bear website. [It] explains the development and design of an actual electronic-record, web-based finding aid project, and incorporates “next generation” electronic technology to introduce a new way of designing an archival finding aid,” the committee said.

Established in 1982, the award is named for Ernst Posner, an SAA Fellow and former president.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

Mary Samouelian, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is the winner of the 2008 Theodore Calvin Pease Award for her research paper “Embracing Web 2.0: Archives and the Newest Generation of Web Applications.”

The award recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in a formal archival internship program. Samouelian’s paper, which she wrote while enrolled in a master’s class at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, explores the use of Web 2.0 technology in archives. It will be published in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of the American Archivist.

“There has been a lot of buzz about Web 2.0, but relatively little research on the nature of these interactive web technologies or how archivists might employ them,” said Mary Jo Pugh, editor of the American Archivist and chair of the award’s selection committee. “Her paper fills a void in the archival literature and provides an informative look at current practices, making many observations useful to the profession as more and more archivists begin to use such features to enhance access to, and interest in, repository holdings.”

Pugh said Samouelian’s research presents relevant examples of implementation already underway at a variety of institutions and shows how many archivists are able to implement these tools. “Her paper has the capacity to drive adoption of these technologies and user services in many archives,” she added.

Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of the American Archivist.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

Monique Lloyd and Tiffany-Kay Sangwand are the joint recipients of SAA’s 2008 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority graduate students who manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA, and do so through scholastic achievement.

Lloyd is a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University in Portland, Oregon. She serves on a committee for the American Indian Library Association. Her article “Diversity in Library Science: The Underrepresented Native American” was published in the February 2007 issue of the Library Student Journal.

Sangwand is a second-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science program and the Latin American Studies program. She has worked on projects for UCLA’s Department of Special Collections, Ethnomusicology Archive, and Center for the Study of Women. Sangwand is a member of SAA’s student chapter at UCLA.

The minority student award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA.

Colonial Dames Scholarship and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards

Amy Moorman of the Archdiocese of St. Louis is the recipient of SAA’s 2008 Colonial Dames Scholarship, which gives new archivists the opportunity to attend the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. She attended the winter institute, which is held in January.

Moorman is an assistant archivist for the archdiocese in St. Louis, Missouri, where she provides reference services to archives users and arranges and describes collections. The archives contains materials that predate 1826, when the Roman Catholic Church officially created the diocese of St. Louis. Moorman earned a master’s degree in history from the University of New Hampshire and a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Franklin Pierce College, also in New Hampshire.

The scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the Institute, which also has a summer session in June. To be eligible for this scholarship, individuals must be employed for less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscript collection in which a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825.

The Colonial Dames of America (CDA), founded in 1890, is an international society of women whose direct ancestors held positions of leadership in the Thirteen Colonies. The award is funded by CDA’s Chapter III in Washington, D.C.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

The Data-Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, San Diego, is the winner of SAA’s 2008 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award.

The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives. The DICE Group was selected for its long-time support of and involvement in the archives profession’s work to address the challenges of managing, preserving, and providing access to electronic records.

The group has supported efforts to develop and implement international standards related to electronic records, been partners in digital preservation efforts funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, provided technical expertise to NHPRC grant projects, contributed to the archival literature, and provided invaluable support in the many and varied archival research efforts in developing electronic records archives. In February 2008, the DICE Group released version 1.0 of the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODs), a new open-source approach to managing, sharing, and preserving electronic records.

In making its selection the award committee noted, “Members of the DICE Group have a genuine interest in and understanding of the archives profession, its principles and practices, its unique challenges, and have become strong advocates in its favor.”

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson, who was a long-time advocate for the establishment of a national archives in the United States.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship

Katherine Blank, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), is the winner of SAA’s 2008 Donald Peterson Student Scholarship. The scholarship is given to a graduate student or recent graduate for exceptional leadership and the desire to become actively involved in the archives profession.

Blank is an archival studies project assistant for the School of Information Studies at UWM. She will graduate in December with a master’s degree in library and information science and a second master’s in history.

Blank was an intern at Marquette University’s Department of Special Collections and University Archives where she developed an arrangement for a complex collection of more than 75,000 photographic images. She is active in SAA’s student chapter at UWM, having previously served as vice president and president.

“Her leadership within the student chapter has been valuable to professional archivists from throughout southeastern Wisconsin,” one of her nominators wrote. “She has helped organize several enriching programs and workshops, attended not only by graduate students, but working professionals and support staff.” Blank will participate in a student paper session at ARCHIVES 2008 in San Francisco. "The paper will explore issues of archival access—digital and physical—and social memory affecting Native American tribes,” explains Blank.

This student scholarship was established in 2005 to honor Donald Peterson (1908–1999), a New York lawyer and philatelist.

Spotlight Award

The staff of Afghan Film will receive SAA’s Spotlight Award for risking their lives to save films that chronicle Afghanistan’s culture and history. The Spotlight Award, which was established in 2005, recognizes individuals who work for the good of the profession and archival collections, work that does not typically receive public recognition.

When the Taliban seized power of Afghanistan in 1996, 11 of the 120 employees working at Afghan Film stepped up to save film reels documenting their country’s culture and history. “Scholars and historians around the world will appreciate your great act of courage,” the SAA award committee said when announcing its selection.

Abdul Latif, a former diplomat and fil director is head of Afghan Film, which kept the country’s major film and TV archive. Earlier this year he told ABC News, “When the Taliban came, they decided to turn our institute into a war museum and decreed they would burn all the reels. The employees who remained hid the Afghan movies in a lab on the second floor of the building.”

The eleven employees were able to hide 6,000 film reels, showing the Taliban only the foreign films on the first floor. “They knew,” Latif said, “that if the Taliban discovered the lab all of them would have been killed.” The award committee took note of their “extraordinary personal and moral courage, resolve, and their great personal risk in protecting and saving the documentary evidence of Afghan culture and heritage from destruction by the Taliban.”

See “Heroes of Saving the Afghan Film Archives,” a tribute to Latif and his colleagues on YouTube.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

Mark Thiel, an archivist at Marquette University, is the 2008 recipient of SAA’s Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. Thiel’s work on the five-volume Guide to Catholic-Related Records About Native Americans in electronic format garnered the award. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of religious archives.

Thiel collected the information for more than 25 years from over 1,000 repositories in 43 states and 15 foreign countries. “This reference work has been noted for its thoroughness, its detail, and the precision of its records,” noted the award committee when announcing its selection. A colleague describes Thiel’s work as “probably the most important manuscript guide produced on American Catholic materials in a generation.” Thiel’s project is of interest to scholars of American Indian history and culture and Native Americans looking for their own data and records.

Created in 1974, the award honors Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., who served at the Catholic Archives of Texas from 1960 until her death in 1974. It is sponsored by SAA in conjunction with and funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists. Nominees for this award must demonstrate involvement and work in the Religious Archives Section of the Society of American Archivists, contributions to archival literature relating to religious archives, leadership in religious archives organizations, and/or leadership in a specific religious archive.

Distinguished Service Award

The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut is the winner of SAA’s 2008 Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes an archival institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or governmental organization that has given outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archives profession.

Recently retired director Thomas Wilsted will accept the award on behalf of the Dodd Center, which the selection committee noted “has become a center of campus intellectual life by linking collection development and preservation to public programming and the academic curriculum in a vital and exciting way.”

The center was established in 1995 and is named for the late Connecticut Senator Thomas J. Dodd. It houses the university’s archives and focuses on building research collections that document the U.S. Congress, human rights, and public policy. The Center contains Senator Dodd’s papers, including his service as chief trial counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, and holds the Alternative Press Collection and the papers of naturalist Edwin Way Teale and children’s author Tomie dePaola. It is known for its collection of Connecticut business history and the creation and development of Connecticut History Online.

One of its recent accomplishments involved the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. The Dodd Center provided assistance and training to preserve the records kept by the ANC while it was in exile for 30 years.

“The selection committee was particularly impressed with the breadth and depth of the Center’s development over the past fifteen years and its outstanding service to multiple constituencies,” said Ohio State Archivist Jelain Chubb, chair of the selection committee.

Fellows

Eight members were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists during an Awards Ceremony held August 29 at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco: DANNA BELL-RUSSEL, BILL LANDIS, DENNIS MEISSNER, JOAN SCHWARTZ, ROBERT SPINDLER, SHARON THIBODEAU, THOMAS WILSTED, and HELENA ZINKHAM. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession. The program was established in 1957 and conferred annually. There are currently 182 Fellows.

---

DANNA BELL-RUSSEL is an educational outreach specialist in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress, where she handles reference services, conducts workshops for educators, develops content for the Library’s website, and coordinates summer teacher institutes. She joined the Library of Congress in 1998, first working as a learning center specialist and then a digital reference specialist. A colleague who nominated Bell-Russel for the honor of Fellow called her “a dedicated servant within SAA, an articulate voice of reason and progress, a pragmatic and committed leader, and an energetic presence who exemplifies the activist archivist.” Another colleague noted, “It was Bell-Russel’s fire that insured that a Diversity Committee be appointed and given its charge to advance diversity in SAA.”

Bell-Russel has been a member of SAA since 1989 and has held several leadership positions, including being elected to the Council, serving as chair of the 2008-2009 Appointments Committee, and co-chair of the 2007 Program Committee. Bell-Russel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Miami University and a master’s degree in library science from Long Island University.

Before joining the Library of Congress, Bell-Russel worked as the curator for the National Equal Justice Library at American University and as an archivist for the District of Columbia Public Library and the Henry Lee Moon Library at the NAACP. She is also an active member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference and the Special Library Association.

---

BILL LANDIS is head of processing at Yale University Library. One individual who nominated him as a Fellow wrote,“Bill is one of our great visionaries. He anticipates where we need to be in five or ten years, and determines how we need to adapt our practices to get there.”

Before joining the staff at Yale in 2006, Landis was a metadata coordinator for the California Digital Library and a manuscripts librarian for the University of California, Irvine. Landis earned a master’s in library and information science from the University of Michigan after picking up a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

A colleague recalls watching the younger Landis in action at a conference: “Bill was still a graduate student, but his passion for archival issues and his ability to influence events was already impressively sophisticated.”

He co-edited, with Robin Chandler, Archives in the Digital Library (2007) and also was a contributor to Describing Archives:A Content Standard (2004) and Encoded Archival Description Tag Library (2002). Along the way he has garnered a few honors: the Faculty Career Development Award from the University of California, Irvine; SAA’s 1998 C.F.W. Coker Award as a member of the Encoded Archival Description Working Group; the Charles F. Scott Graduate Fellowship from UCLA; and the University of Michigan’s Margaret Mann Award, an academic honor based upon demonstration of ability and promise of professional development.

He joined SAA in 1993 and has served on the Task Force on Sections and Roundtables, Committee on Education Task Force on Education Office Guidelines, and the Canadian-U.S. Task Force on Archival Description. Landis is currently a member of the American Archivist Editorial Board.

---

DENNIS MEISSNER is head of Collections Management for the Minnesota Historical Society, where he is responsible for a 28-employee department with a budget of $850,000. Meissner’s enthusiastic supporters who nominated him for Fellow refer to him as a: “stimulating thinker,” “absolutely good fellow,” and “a proverbial island of sanity in an increasingly chaotic world.” Many cited his seminal contribution to the profession as co-author with Mark Greene of “More Product, Less Process” (American Archivist, Fall/Winter 2005), which proposed radical changes in the way collections are processed.

At the Minnesota Historical Society, which he joined in 1973, Meissner has worked as a records analyst, manuscripts coordinator, and in various processing management positions. He earned his bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn., and took graduate courses in American history at the University of Minnesota.

He has served as a grant evaluator for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and as a consultant for the Northwest Archives Processing Initiative and the Henry Ford Museum.

Meissner was instrumental in the development and implementation of Encoded Archival Description, chairing the Research Libraries Group’s EAD Advisory Group in 2001 to create Encoded Archival Description Guidelines. The group received SAA’s 2004 C.F.W. Coker Award for innovative development in archival description for the guidelines. Meissner has also been awarded an NHPRC Fellowship. A member of SAA since 1980, Meissner most recently chaired the Publications Board and served on the Task Force on Electronic Publications. He is working on a forthcoming book with Greene titled, Effective Processing: An Archival Reader. He currently serves as president of the Midwest Archives Conference.

---

JOAN SCHWARTZ is an associate professor and Queen’s National Scholar in the Department of Art at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. Prior to joining the university, she held a variety of positions at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa photography acquisition, research, and preservation departments.

A colleague who recommended Schwartz as an SAA Fellow said, “Joan stands almost alone as a visionary, advocate, and ambassador between the profession and academics in the area of visuality, visual materials, and the archives.”

Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in historical geography from Queen’s University in and a master’s degree from the University of British Columbia. Another nominator noted, “Dr. Schwartz’s doctoral research and her many publications have revolutionized how users of historical photographs in archives, including historians, geographers, historical geographers, photographic historians, and other archivists perceive not just photographs, but all visual media.”

Schwartz is the author of the 2003 book Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination. Her honors include two W. Kaye Lamb Prizes for the best article in Archivaria: in 1996 for “’We make our tools and our tools make us’: Lessons from Photographs for the Practice, Politics, and Poetics of Diplomatics,” and in 2001 for “‘Records of Simple Truth and Precision’: Photography, Archives and the Illusion of Control.” She also received the National Archives of Canada 125th Anniversary Award for notable achievement.

Schwartz has served on the SAA Program Committee and as a mentor to upcoming archivists. Her award presenter remarked, “From the students who have benefited from her teachings and mentoring, to the academics and peers who have been influenced by her views, all feel that Joan has profoundly elevated the perceived value of visual resources as essential evidence of the documentary record.”

---

ROB SPINDLER is head of Archives and Special Collections at Arizona State University-Tempe, where he has been on staff since 1988. When asked to comment on his nomination for Fellow, one associate remarked: “He is the sort of archivist with whom one longs to work on a daily basis, just to experience first-hand his knowledge, enthusiasm, intellect, and collaborative spirit.” Spindler, a Certified Archivist, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Boston University, and then went to Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science to obtain another master’s in archives management.

Spindler has served as chair of SAA’s Task Force on Electronic Publishing, the Description Section, the Nominating Committee, and the Committee on Archival Information Exchange. He was a member of the Encoded Archival Description Working Group that won the C.F.W. Coker Award in 1998 after developing the EAD encoding standard. Most recently he contributed a chapter on electronic publishing to the new SAA book, College and University Archives: Readings in Theory and Practice.

A colleague noted: “Rob’s work generally focuses on the most challenging issues of contemporary archives. He does not simply serve on a committee or board—he puts forward intelligent, well-articulated ideas, working tirelessly to ensure the work of the group is accomplished.”

In 2005, Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records honored Spindler with a Turtle Award, which recognizes individuals who cherish Arizona’s rich cultural heritage and who have supported the agency’s efforts to accomplish its mission. He is a member of the Society of Southwest Archivists, serves on the Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board, and is past president of the Arizona Paper and Photograph Conservation Group.

---

SHARON THIBODEAU is the deputy assistant archivist for Records Services at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. She previously served as director of Archival Operations at NARA’s College Park, Maryland, facility.

Colleagues who nominated Thibodeau for Fellow refer to her as “the single most welcoming and helpful person at NARA for many new arrivals, even those in other offices and programs.” One individual said, “I conducted a number of interviews at NARA, and, to a person, when asked who they most admired and trusted, Sharon Thibodeau was the first name offered.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Colorado State University in 1968, and a Ph.D in the history of science from Yale University in 1972. Thibodeau joined the National Archives in 1976. Her associates point out her “pioneering work in the early days of the custodial program for electronic records” and her “major role in bringing the National Archives into the mainstream of national and international descriptive practice.”

Thibodeau, a member of SAA since 1979, has been a driving force in archival description. She served on the Working Group on Standards for Archival Description, was part of the team that developed Encoded Archival Description, and was behind the development of two international standards—General International Standard Archival Description and the International Standard Archival Authority Record.

She served on the SAA Council from 1995 to 1998 and has served as chair of the Committee on Archival Information Exchange and on the Program Committee. She is also active in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the Society for History in the Federal Government, and the History of Science Society.

---

THOMAS WILSTED, recently retired director of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, was described by one of his nominators for the honor of Fellow as “a dynamic and visionary leader who sees the big picture and commands respect in a very natural and unassuming way.”

The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center was established in 1996 at the University of Connecticut and Wilsted became its first director. “Tom served tirelessly to elevate the stature of the Center and it is under his leadership that it has enjoyed immeasurable successes,” noted his Connecticut colleagues. Wilsted, who retired in June, is now an archival consultant based in Arizona.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Kalamazoo College in 1966 and a master’s degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. A career that would take him around the country and then overseas began that same year when he took his first job as a field services representative for the Illinois State Historical Library. He then moved to New Zealand to become the manuscripts librarian at the Alexander Trumbull Library in Wellington. His next home was New York City, where he joined the Salvation Army Archives and Research Center as its director. The journey continued when he headed West to serve as director of the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Wilsted’s honors include the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference’s Arline Custer Memorial Award for best book for his co-authorship of Managing Archives and Manuscripts Repositories (SAA, 1991) and the Wyoming State Historical Society’s Henryetta Berry Memorial Award for promoting state history. A member of SAA since 1982, he wrote Planning New and Remodeled Archival Facilities in 2007.

---

HELENA ZINKHAM is currently the acting chief for the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. Colleagues who nominated Zinkham for the honor of Fellow refer to her as “one of those magical individuals who brings out the best in others.”

Zinkham began her career working with pictures at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. She became the curator of prints and photographs at the New York Historical Society in 1980 and joined the Library of Congress in 1984 as a cataloger in the Prints and Photographs Division.

One of Zinkham’s supporters remarked, “She is grounded in reality and yet grasps the ideals—and can see practical ways to get from here to there.” Another recalled how she was a key member of several groups that created Encoded Archival Description (EAD): “Without Helena’s efforts to organize and focus members through gentle direction of strong personalities, EAD might never have come to fruition. Her tact, firmness, and ability to draw the conversation to points of agreement saved the day.”

Honors for that work include the Bentley Library Fellowship for the Berkeley Finding Aid Project (1995) and the C.F.W. Coker Award for the EAD Group (1998). She also received the JSC Certificate of Appreciation in 2006, the Library of Congress Meritorious Service Award in 1999, and the Library of Congress Special Achievement Award in 1998. Associates at the Library of Congress cite her work on the Optical Disk Pilot Project and the American Memory Project, and her current effort to move collections into the online FLICKR environment: “Once again, Helena is leading the way, introducing the archival and library communities to creative and low-cost ways to implement new technologies that help us build our base of users nationwide.”

Zinkham was a major contributor to SAA’s Photographs: Archival Care and Management, published in 2006. She has been a member of SAA since 1987.

---

 

*   *   *   *   *   *

Criteria and Selection Committee

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Richard Pearce-Moses (chair), Elizabeth W. Adkins, CA, Timothy L. Ericson, Peter Hirtle, and Randall Jimerson—and three Fellows selected by Council—Linda M. Matthews, Robert S. Martin, and Charles R. Schultz.

Awards and Scholarships

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE’s website, “Profiles in Science,” is the 2007 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents. Profiles in Science was recognized for its ability to increase public awareness of leading innovators in science, medicine and public health through its content and presentation of primary documents, complementary text, valuable metadata and collaboration among archives. Christie Moffat accepted the award on behalf of the National Library of Medicine.

C.F.W. Coker Award

GREG BRADSHER is the 2007 recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award for his work at the National Archives on Holocaust-Era Assets: A Finding Aid to Records and the Japanese War Crimes Finding Aid. This award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. Bradsher provides two outstanding models for the creation and publication of complex finding aids on topics with wide and significant social impact. Holocaust-Era Assets is over 1,500 pages long and includes records from 30 different U.S. federal agencies. The Japanese War Crimes Finding Aid is more than 1,700 pages, and as Edward Drea writes in the introduction, it “brings coherence to the collections, enables researchers to consult a single reference to begin their search, and introduces first-time users to the variety of materials available at NARA on Japanese war crimes.”

Established in 1984, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

WAVERLY LOWELL and TAWNY RYAN NELB are co-recipients of SAA’s 2007 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for their book, Architectural Records: Managing Design and Construction Records (SAA, 2006). The award is given for superior writing and usefulness in the areas of archival history, theory, or practice. Lowell is the curator of the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley. Nelb is president of Nelb Archival Consulting in Midland, Michigan. The selection committee noted that this volume was “longawaited by archivists and is the first comprehensive guide to managing the unique records of designers and builders.” The work includes information on unique architectural records, how they are produced and a guide to identifying and maintaining visual design records. It also contains 40 pages of color images to illustrate various design and building records, with examples from archives around the country. The award is named for Waldo Gifford Leland, a pioneer in the archives profession and the second president of SAA.

Copies may be obtained at SAA's Online Publications Catalog.

Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Preservation Publication Award

The HERITAGE PRESERVATION’s Field Guide to Emergency Response is this year’s winner of the Preservation Publication Award. The field guide was lauded as “…remarkable for its practicality and user-friendly design. It is the progeny of preservation and conservation professionals, who sought to provide straightforward, authoritative instructions about the steps to take in the first few hours after a disaster. The publication and companion DVD, whose development was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, are an outstanding resource that fills an important need in the literature of the archival community.” The selection committee noted that the book was honored with a first-place media award from the International Association of Emergency Managers in 2006 and when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received a copy, she reportedly said, “… There are countless cultural institutions and historical sites that will benefit from the useful knowledge contained in this book.” Established in 1993, the award recognizes the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation, and through this acknowledgement, encourages outstanding achievement by others.

Fellows' Posner Award

The Fellows' Ernst Posner Award for 2007 has been given to the A*CENSUS WORKING GROUP for their work surveying the archival profession and subsequent report published in Vol. 69 (Fall/Winter 2006) of the American Archivist. The A*Census Working Group was comprised of 28 individuals, chaired by Peter Hirtle of Cornell University with Victoria Irons Walch, director of the Council of State Archivists, serving as the principal research consultant. SAA Executive Director Nancy Beaumont was project director. The citation recognized the analysis of the survey results produced by seven authors in the working group. “The authors offer significant analytical insights on the profession in general, as well as on important topics such as graduate and continuing education, diversity, leadership and certification. They summarize the data, provide historical context, analyze trends, pose important questions, and propose action agendas for the profession.” Walch accepted the award on behalf of Elizabeth Yakel, Jeannette Bastian, Nancy Zimmelman Lenoil, Brenda Banks, Susan Davis, and Anne Diffendal. The award was established in 1982 and honors the memory of former SAA President Ernst Posner. It is given annually to the author(s) of the most outstanding article published in American Archivist.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

ELIZABETH SNOWDEN of Middle Tennessee State University won the 2007 Theodore Calvin Pease Award for her paper “Our Archives, Our Selves: Documentation Strategy and the Re-Appraisal of Professional Identity.” Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in a formal archival internship program. The award includes publication of the paper in a forthcoming issue of American Archivist. Dr. Ellen Garrison, Snowden’s thesis advisor, noted in her nomination: “This innovative paper makes connections between two important movements in American archival practice, the documentation strategy and activist archivists, within the context of broad social and cultural trends of the period. The article also puts current interest pertaining to archives, social memory, and postmodernism…in the context of earlier archival developments. The writer’s scholarship reflects both an in-depth survey of the literature of documentation strategy and a cultural historian’s understanding of baby boomer ethos and values.” In her abstract Snowden writes, “The relatively recent realization that archivists are more often shapers of the past, than neutral keepers of the past, has its root in the intersection of appraisal theory and professional identity. This paper explores the relationship between the two, through an analysis of the literature on archival documentation strategy. Though ultimately unworkable, documentation strategy caught archivists’ attention because, as this paper argues, it represented a practical application of a larger identity shift within the profession.”

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

JANEL QUIRANTE and BERGIS K. JULES are the joint recipients of the 2007 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority graduate students of African, Asian, Latino, or Native American descent who demonstrate an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA. Quirante is now at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She recently completed her graduate study in library and information science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She was a disaster recovery technician for the university’s Preservation Department and was part of a team that rescued thousands of maps in a 2004 flood of the Hamilton Library. Quirante coordinated the 2005 joint conference of the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, and Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance at the East-West Center in Honolulu. Jules is pursuing dual masters degrees in Library Science and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. He is a 2006-2008 Association of Research Libraries’ Diversity Scholar and winner of a 2007 American Library Association Pre-Conference Scholarship. Jules volunteers for the Liberian Archives Project and works as a reference assistant. The award is named for Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and was a Fellow of SAA.

Colonial Dames Scholarship and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards

CLAIRE-LISE BÉNAU D and BÉATRICE COLASTIN SKOKAN are recipients of the 2007 Colonial Dames of America Scholarships. Established in 1974, the scholarships enable new archivists to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship, an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C. Bénaud attended the winter institute. She is associate director of the Center for Southwest Research/Special Collections at the University of New Mexico. She manages the rare book and Southwestern materials unit and coordinates activities related to archives and manuscripts, collection security, and exhibit preparation. Bénaud received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Paris, Nanterre, and her master’s in library science from Columbia University. She has experience in library cataloging but is new to special collections and archives. Skokan, who attended the institute in June, is the archives assistant in Special Collections at the University of Miami Libraries where she has worked since 2006. Her responsibilities include processing, arrangement and description, as well as supervising student assistants. Holdings in Special Collections document Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America from the 16th century to the present. Skokan has earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as a masters in international studies and French. She is working toward a third master’s degree in library science, which she expects to receive this year. 

Council Exemplary Service Award

TRUDY HUSKAMP PETERSON is one of two SAA members to be given a Council Exemplary Service Award in 2007 for outstanding service to SAA and the archives profession. Huskamp is an archival consultant in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she brought together archival leaders from the U.S. and Japan in Toyko after a successful grant proposal made to the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. She has represented SAA in leadership roles in the International Council on Archives and served as “an unofficial ambassador for SAA and the American archives profession in the global archives community” noted the selection committee. When she retired from the National Archives in 1995 she was the Acting Archivist of the United States, a position she held for two years. Since her retirement, she has been involved in archives and human rights, most notably: advising South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the disposition of its records; serving as director of Archives and Records Management for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; and serving as founding executive director of the Open Society Archives in Budapest. Huskamp joined SAA in 1973, was named a Fellow in 1980, and served as president in 1990–1991.

VICTORIA IRONS WALCH executive director of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA), is the other individual to receive the Council Exemplary Service Award this year, given on occasion when the situation warrants special recognition. Walch was cited for recent accomplishments that include serving as principal investigator on the A*CENSUS (the national census of individuals working in U.S. archives) and for her work in bringing together CoSA with SAA and the National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators to form a joint conference in 2006. Walch’s earlier work was also noted by the selection committee, specifically: organizing the National Forum on Archives Continuing Education in 2000, which led to significant improvements in training resources for the archives field; and compiling the Standards for Archival Description in 1994, which includes technical standards, conventions, and guidelines used by archivists in describing holdings and repositories. Walch joined the society in 1974, was named a fellow in 1992, and served as a Council member from 1985 to 1988.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

The CHICAGO TRIBUNE is the 2007 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. Debra K. Bade, subject editor in the Information Center, accepted the award on behalf of the daily newspaper. This award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities. The Chicago Tribune was selected due to its consistent representation of archives as important repositories of culture and as storehouses of unusual objects of historic importance. In 2006, columnist Dawn Turner Trice raised awareness about the value of preserving the records of African American churches in her articles on the Pilgrim Baptist Church fire. In November 2004, the paper published a series on how archival records document and illuminate events in Chicago’s history, allow family members to trace their histories, and document historical injustices. Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian who was a long-time advocate for the establishment of a national archives in the United States.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship

CHELA SCOTT WEBER is the winner of the 2007 Donald Peterson Student Scholarship, which recognizes a graduate student or recent graduate for exceptional leadership and desire to become actively involved in the archives profession. Weber earned a master’s degree in 2006 from the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University in Detroit. She is the archives manager at Echo Services for Microsoft Archives, in Redmond, Wash. During graduate school, Weber interned at the Benson Ford Research Center, where she worked on both digital and manuscripts projects, including an online exhibit. She also served as vice president of the SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State. The award, established in 2005, honors the memory of Donald Peterson (1908–1999), a New York lawyer and philatelist whose deep appreciation of world history developed early through his stamp collecting and held true throughout his life.

Spotlight Award

This year ALAN H. STEIN received the Spotlight Award for his “efforts to promote greater public awareness of the role of archivists and (their) role in cultural preservation.” Established in 2005, the Spotlight Award recognizes an individual who works for the good of the profession and archival collections, work that would not typically receive public notice. Stein is currently a librarian specialist with the Consortium of Oral History Educators, having lost his previous position as head of the Louisiana Division and City Archives Collection at the New Orleans Public Library following Hurricane Katrina. The displacement took him to the Arne Nixon Center at the Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno. The selection committee noted, “His foresight in disaster planning played a significant role in preparing the New Orleans Public Library (Louisiana Division) for pending disaster. Though displaced himself, Alan has continued to focus attention on the need for disaster preparedness by historical and cultural institutions.” Stein recently co-authored “Oral History, Folklore and Katrina” with Dr. Gene B. Preuss for the Routledge Press anthology There Is No Such thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award

The 2007 Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award went to GERALD CHAUDRON from Christchurch, New Zealand. Established in 1979, this award is named for an SAA Fellow and former president. The award assists overseas archivists, already in the United States or Canada for training, with a stipend to attend SAA’s annual conference. Chaudron is enrolled in the graduate program at Louisiana State University, pursuing a master’s in Library and Information Science. He is a graduate assistant at LSU’s Hill Memorial Library, where he is processing a collection of photographic images rescued from the New Orleans’ flood following Hurricane Katrina. In addition, he serves as president of the LSU student chapter of SAA. Chaudron earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history at the University of Canterbury, where he also completed his Ph.D in history with a dissertation on New Zealand’s relationship with the League of Nations. He has taught English language in Okinawa, Japan, and American history and culture at three universities in China.

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

ROGER M. DAHL of the National Baha’i Archives of the United States in Evanston, Ill., received SAA’s 2007 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for his contribution to the field of religious archives. During his 32-year tenure, Dahl has built a collection encompassing 4,400 linear feet that is maintained by two professional archivists. He conducts archival workshops, acts as a mentor in the broader religious archive community, has published Guidelines for Baha’i Archives and made important contributions to the historiography of the Baha’i faith. A collaboration of SAA and the Society of Southwest Archivists, the award was created in 1974 to honor Sister M. Claude Lane, the first professionally trained archivist at the Catholic Archives of Texas, who served from 1960 until her death in 1974.

Fellows

Six New Fellows Honored at ARCHIVES / CHICAGO 2007

Six members were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists during the annual awards ceremony Aug. 31, 2007, at the Fairmont Chicago: R. Joseph Anderson, Laurie A. Baty, Jane Kenamore, Robert S. Martin, Christine Weideman, and Joel F. Wurl.  Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. There are now 174 Fellows among SAA’s membership of more than 4,900.

Meet the class of 2007 SAA Fellows:

R. JOSEPH ANDERSON has worked for the American Institute of Physics since 1993, and is now director of the Niels Bohr Library and associate director of the Center for the History of Physics. He is currently directing a major study to document the history of physicists in industry, funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition, Anderson administers a grant program he established that funds the processing and description of records relating to physics and allied sciences. The program has awarded approximately 40 grants of up to $10,000 each.

Prior to his current position, Anderson was the director of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia. He has also worked on the Contemporary Medical Care and Healthy Policy Collection at Yale University, as well as the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In each of his positions, Anderson has worked to document traditionally under-documented areas, with a focus on inter-archival cooperation.

Anderson has served on SAA’s Nominating Committee, Manuscripts Section, and the Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable. He is active in regional archival and history organizations, participated in the Cooperation on Archives of Science in Europe project, and served on the Technical Committee of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science.

“Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, has been to take the archival programs at the Center for the History of Physics, which already stood as a model for all discipline-based history centers, and make them better,” remarked presenter Peter Hirtle of Cornell University. “In all that he does, and in his own unique low-key and effective manner, Joe works to foster collegiality for the betterment of the profession and the documentation of his selected fields.

---

One of LAURIE A. BATY’s nominators referred to her as“a tireless advocate for preserving the nation’s cultural heritage.” Baty is the senior director of Museum Programs at the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C. She worked in historical interpretation at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Site and at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, was a post-master’s Fellow at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, a program officer at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), and deputy director of collections at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Baty has contributed her expertise to several organizations by serving as a consultant, judge, reviewer and panelist for the NHPRC; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland; and for National History Day programs. In addition, she has authored numerous articles and served as editor of the Daguerreian Annual.

Baty’s colleagues cite her influence as the chair and chairelect of the Visual Materials Section from 2001 to 2003, and as the editor of Views, a newsletter for SAA’s Visual Materials Section. “For over 18 years, Laurie guaranteed that a beacon in the visual materials world stayed strong because of her dedication and enthusiasm to publish up-to-date visual materials information,” said Wilda Logan of the National Archives during her introduction. Baty has been an instructor for SAA’s workshop “Administration of Photographic Collections” for 15 years, as well as a lecturer for a graduate course in “Visual and Sound Materials” at the University of Maryland. She also worked as an editorial assistant on A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (SAA, 2005).

---

JANE KENAMORE, a partner in the archive and library consulting firm of Kenamore and Klinkow in Chicago, was presented the Fellows’ plaque by Richard Pearce-Moses of the Arizona State Library. He recalled a former SAA president recommending her because, “Her voice is valued in and outside the profession as a quiet and effective moral leader by those dealing with high-level policy issues…and also by the rank-andfile who deal day-to-day with fundamental issues of archives management and archival service. Her insight and good sense have been forces for a balanced approach that recognizes the way things are, but looks forward to the future.”

She began her career as an archivist at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, Texas, in 1976, where she was named head of Special Collections in 1985. At the Rosenberg she co-edited (with Michael E. Wilson) Manuscript Sources in the Rosenberg Library and (with Uri Haller) Cartographic Sources in the Rosenberg Library, both published by Texas A&M University Press.

Kenamore relocated to Illinois in 1998 to become the archivist at the Art Institute of Chicago. A year later she joined the staff of SAA as its Education Officer. From 1995 to 1997 she worked in the archives of the American Medical Association. Since 1997, she has been an archives consultant in Chicago. Kenamore has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities, including as a Council Member from 1999 to 2001 and as a member of the Committee on Education and Professional Development, Program Committee, Nominating Committee, and the Committee on Automated Records and Techniques. She is a past president of the Society of Southwest Archivists and a former board member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.

Pearce-Moses wrapped up his acknowledgment with: “Jane is much more than a professional who processes collections and manages archival programs. She is, at heart, an educator. Her verve, sense of humor, and dedication to the profession bring all who meet her the desire to become the best archivists they can be.”

---

“Every year, it seems, the Committee on the Selection of Fellows is inevitably surprised when several, or all, of the nominees are found to not already be Fellows,” noted Steve Hensen of Duke University, when introducing ROBERT SIDNEY MARTIN. “Taking nothing at all from this year’s selection, or from the cadre of existing Fellows, I would like to paraphrase George Orwell and observe that some are more ‘Fellow’ than others. I believe that is certainly the case with Bob.”

Martin is a professor of library science at Texas Woman’s University. Hensen noted that Martin has “always been the most effective of leaders,” in his previous positions as director of a special collections library at Louisiana State University; a state librarian in Texas; and “granter” of government grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS). Martin was named by President Bush to be director of IMLS in June 2001. He served in the post for four years, during which time IMLS distributed more than $860 million in grants to enhance access to cultural resources in the nation’s museums and libraries. In 2005, he was awarded the SAA Council Exemplary Service Award for his support of the profession.

Martin has also held leadership positions in the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries. Martin’s supporters refer to his wide influence in “extending and integrating archival issues among librarians, museum curators, and academics about documentation, preservation, scholarly communication, electronic records, and access.”

---

CHRISTINE WEIDEMAN has served in a series of positions in the Manuscripts and Archives Division at Yale University, most recently as deputy director and currently as its interim director. “In her two decades as a professional archivist, Chris has written seminal articles and presented innovative and pragmatic papers that have contributed heavily to archival discourse; she has led several successful SAA committees and sections; and she has served as a superlative mentor to multiple early-career archivists who have gone on to make their own mark on the field,” remarked Sue Hodson of The Huntington Library.

Weideman’s research and work on streamlining processing via minimal standards is well respected in the profession. Her recent articles include “The Buckley Stops Where: The Ambiguity and Archival Implications of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,” co-authored with Mark Greene in Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives (SAA, 2005), and “Accessioning as Processing” in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of American Archivist. It can be found in SAA’s Privacy and Confidentiality Reader.

Weideman has served as chair of SAA’s Manuscript Repositories Section, a member of the 2000 Program Committee, and co-chair of the 2004 Program Committee. Hodson concluded her tribute: “Like the Yale bulldog, Chris brings a purposeful tenacity to her work, yet she usually shies away from the limelight. Indeed, her unassuming manner makes her instantly approachable to young professionals looking for a role model.”

---

JOEL F. WURL is a senior program officer in the division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C.

He began his career in 1981 as archivist at the University of Toledo. Four years later he joined the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center, where he served until 2006 as head of Research Collections and then associate director. One of his supporters wrote, “He has thrived in the emotion-laden world of immigration and is respected by archival colleagues who could charitably be called ‘the competition.’ How does one move so effortlessly between organizations of Slovaks, Finns, Italians, Poles, Greeks, Czechs, Estonians, Latvians, and Arabs?”

He has written, edited, or co-authored more than 25 publications about archives administration and immigration research. His service on 35 advisory committees, boards, and panels has brought him in contact with groups such as Elderhostel, the Ironworld Discovery Center, the Minnesota League of Women Voters, the Somali Community Documentation Project, and the Center for the Documentation and Preservation of Houses of Worship.

Tim Ericson, senior lecturer emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, concluded his tribute to Wurl with the comment: “His sensitivity toward the feelings and perspectives of others makes him a strong supporter of diversity within SAA, a wise advisor, and a calm voice in difficult discussions. As one supporter wrote, ‘Joel is someone who I would gladly hold up to non-archivists as a model and ambassador of our profession.’"

* * *

Criteria and Selection Committee

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Randall Jimerson (chair), Timothy L. Ericson, Steven Hensen, Peter Hirtle, and Richard Pearce-Moses—and three Fellows selected by Council—Sara Sue Hodson, CA, Wilda Logan, and Patrick M. Quinn.

Awards and Scholarships

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF FLORIDA’s Florida Folklife Digitization and Education Project received SAA’s 2006 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award in recognition of its outstanding promotion of the Florida Folklife Collection. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents for education, instructional, or other public purpose.

The Florida Folklife Collection documents the folk arts, crafts, customs, traditions, games, music and dance of many of Florida’s cultural communities. The 150-cubic-foot collection, when acquired by the State Library and Archives of Florida, was unusable and at risk of loss through deterioration. The creation of an online resource involved providing an index that afforded item-level access to approximately 50,000 images and 6,000 audio recordings. The project, in addition to creating a widely-accessible finding aid for the collection, identified materials in need of preservation treatment, created catalog records for 10,000 of the most significant and representative indexed images, created five educational units for use in the Florida school system using digitized primary source materials from the Folklife Collection, and produced two collected music samplers (free and available in CD and online) and a collection of post-cards. To support this work, a strong web presence was created for all aspects of the collection, including links to the Florida Memory Website.

As one nominator wrote, “From music CDs to an enlarged web presence, to a more prominent role in the Florida historical, library and educational communities, the Florida Folklife Digitization and Education Project has changed how the general public, and staff, see the State Library and Archives and its role in Florida’s life.” 

The Hamer Kegan Award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

C.F.W. Coker Award

The WALT WHITMAN ARCHIVE’s integrated guide to the great American poet’s manuscripts received SAA’s 2006 C.F.W. Coker Award, which recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve 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, in some significant way, set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have a substantial impact on national descriptive practice.

The Walt Whitman Archive, begun in 1995, is dedicated to the creation of a vast electronic scholarly resource that will eventually include in one online site the full range of work by and about the renowned poet of democracy. The integrated guide to the poet’s manuscripts is a significant accomplishment in finding aid innovation. It brings together thousands of poetry manuscripts into a searchable, browsable, and comprehensible form through the use of EAD. In doing so, this scholar-archivist-librarian collaboration located, listed, and described Whitman manuscripts—more than 30 finding aids from more than 29 repositories. The guide taps the potential of EAD and demonstrates the richness born in collaboration.

Established in 1983, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

SAA’s 2006 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to MARY JO PUGH for her book, Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts (AFS II).

Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts, published in 2005 by SAA, is a thoughtful, broadly conceived treatise, and as one of the seven titles in SAA’s Archival Fundamental Series II, it updates and expands Pugh’s 1992 book of the same title. The new version is extremely useful as a textbook and as a guide for practicing reference archivists. It is also a valuable resource for those who are not accustomed to thinking of policies and practices from the user’s perspective. Beginning with a discussion of the role of the archives in the “information family tree,” Pugh explains what is unique about the information needs of the archival researcher. New material in this edition on such topics as information-seeking behavior, electronic records, and web-based reference services bring the book into the twenty-first century. The book includes an extensive bibliographic essay organized by topic, expanding the depth of what is, admittedly, a very broad topic.

Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts is notable for its approachability—it is well organized and easy to read—and it is a significant addition to the literature on reference service as a vital part of the archival enterprise. Copies may be obtained at SAA's Online Publications Catalog.

Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Preservation Publication Award

DATA DICTIONARY FOR PRESERVATION METADATA: FINAL REPORT OF THE PREMIS WORKING GROUP was awarded the Society of American Archivists’ 2006 Preservation Publication Award.

Established in 1993, the award recognizes an outstanding work published in North America that contributes to the advancement of the theory and practice of preservation in archives institutions by introducing new preservation theories, methods, or techniques; by codifying principles and practices of archives preservation; by presenting the results of innovative research on matters related to archives preservation; by investigating preservation issues of current interest and importance to the archives community; or by studying aspects of the history of the archives profession.

The Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata: Final Report of the PREMIS Working Group, published in May 2005, was developed in response to an emerging need shared by archives and cultural heritage institutions implementing digital archiving capacity and infrastructure. One vital piece of that infrastructure is preservation metadata, the information needed to manage, document, and otherwise support any digital preservation process. The PREMIS Data Dictionary defines a set of preservation metadata elements that can be implemented in repositories managing a variety of object formats, utilizing a variety of preservation strategies, and implementing various system architectures.

As one of the nominators noted: “It is without a doubt the most significant publication on any aspect of preservation in the year 2005. The work is intellectually sophisticated, groundbreaking, truly collaborative and international in scope and of great significance for the archival preservation community.”

Fellows' Posner Award

SAA’s 2006 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award was presented to TIMOTHY L. ERICSON for his article in the most recent volume of the American Archivist. The award, established in 1982 by the Fellows of SAA and named for former SAA President Ernst Posner, recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published in SAA’s semi-annual journal.

Ericson, senior lecturer emeritus for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies, received the award for “Building Our Own Iron Curtain: The Emergence of Secrecy in American Government,” in volume 68 of the American Archivist. His article is timely, original, well researched, and of relevance in and outside the archives community. He provides an excellent examination and historical analysis of the creation of secrecy files and committees, the withholding and classification of information, and curtailing of civil liberties.

Ericson, who served as SAA president in 2004–2005, gave an abbreviated version of his article as his presidential address during SAA’s 68th Annual Meeting in 2004. As such, he could have published it with only minor revisions. Instead, his article is a significantly expanded version and shows substantial research on a complex topic, displaying both depth and breadth, and including a call for archivists to advocate for the public’s interest in a period of increasing secrecy in government records and information. This is a crucial topic about which archivists need to be fully informed, and Ericson’s clear explanation makes that possible.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

SAA’s 2006 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to BEN BLAKE of the University of Pittsburgh for his student paper, “A Call for a New American Labor Archives: History, Theory, Methodology and Practice.”

Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA’s semi-annual journal, American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. The award includes a certificate, cash prize, and forthcoming publication of Blake’s paper in the American Archivist.

Blake wrote “A Call for a New American Labor Archives” for the course “Records and Knowledge Management,” for Professor Richard J. Cox of the School of Information Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh. In his nomination form, Professor Cox wrote, “Blake’s paper is a critical assessment of the evolution of labor archives, stressing that, despite considerable success in the area, labor archivists have much yet to do. It is the fullest analysis of labor archives in some years.” Blake is the first student from the University of Pittsburgh to receive the Pease Award.

Blake begins, “The challenge for labor archivists is to prove our worth to the labor movement…. The first step in this process involves examining our own history, theory, and practice to become better labor archivists.” His paper grounds the development of labor archives in the context of the archival profession. Early collections were firmly rooted in the historical manuscripts tradition; later collections were influenced by the public archives tradition. Acknowledging the “new” labor history, Blake concludes with a call for labor archives to forge a closer relationship with the union movement, especially by establishing records management and knowledge management partnerships with unions.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

LANELL JAMES and SHAWN PHILLIP SAN ROMAN are the joint recipients of SAA’s 2006 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.

Lanell James recently completed her first year of graduate study at the University of Michigan, School of Information.

Shawn Phillip San Roman just completed the Library and Information Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Both recipients have made apparent their dedication to the field and both have made strong impressions on faculty and future colleagues at their respective schools. The Awards Committee believes that both Ms. James and Mr. San Roman will become leaders in the archives profession and agree with their nominators that both are “rising stars” who will “leave a lasting impression on the archival profession.”

The award, established in 1993, honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and was a Fellow of SAA.

Colonial Dames Scholarship and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards

Francesca Livermore, Terry Jackson, and Gloria Stonge are recipients of the Society of American Archivists’ 2006 Colonial Dames Scholarship Awards. Established in 1974, the scholarships enable new archivists to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. In 2002 the Colonial Dames added a third scholarship, the Donna Cutts Scholarship. The awards are funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

TERRY JACKSON, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the Summer 2006 Modern Archives Institute, is an Assistant Research Clerk at the Metropolitan Government Archives, where her responsibilities include reference activities, conservation and preservation of original records, digitization projects, and processing activities. The Metropolitan Government Archives, a division of the Nashville Public Library, has more than 5 million records dating from the 1780s to the present. Jackson expects to receive her MA in Public History from the Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro in August 2006. She received her BA in History from the Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro in 2003. 

FRANCESCA LIVERMORE, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the Winter 2006 Modern Archives Institute, is the Processing Archivist for the Consuelo Northrop Bailey Collection in the Special Collections Department of the Bailey/Howe Library at the University of Vermont. In addition to these duties, she also works at the main reference desk and in the Library Research Annex. The University of Vermont library is older than most states of the Union. During its long period the library has acquired numerous collections, occupying over 8 thousand linear feet, that contribute to the history and study of Vermont from pre-Revolutionary times to the present. Livermore received her MLS in 2004 from Drexel University and her BA in Art History in 1999 from Hartwick College.

GLORIA STONGE, recipient of the Donna Cutts Scholarship to the Summer 2006 Modern Archives Institute, is Director of the Brethren in Christ Historical Library and Archives/Archives of Messiah College, where she preserves church history, provides service to faculty, students and researchers, and provides leadership for the overall direction of the archives. The archives is the official repository for the Brethren in Christ denomination. The church originated about 1778 near Marietta, Pennsylvania. The archives houses 150 manuscript collections, including early church documents in both German and English, a 1748 edition of Martyrs’ Mirror, and Bibles dating back to the 16th century. Stonge received her BS in Special Education from Bloomsburg University in 1974. 

Each scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C. 

Council Exemplary Service Award

ROBERT M. SCHMIDT, archivist at Miami University (Ohio), received a Council Exemplary Service Award from SAA for his outstanding service to the archives profession. As the moderator of the Archives and Archivists Listserve from1998–2006, Schmidt performed this service with the utmost care and professionalism; donated significant time and energy to sustaining an open forum for discussion of all aspects of archival theory and practice; and demonstrated noteworthy patience and courtesy in assisting subscribers. The Archives and Archivists Listserve has been cited in published literature, thereby informing professional discourse and advancing the cause of archival science.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

U.S. SENATOR HARRY REID of Nevada received SAA’s 2006 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award in recognition of his long-standing support of the archival community in his home state and his advocacy for archives nationally.

Established in 1989, the award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities. Such contributions may take the form of advocacy, publicity, legislation, or financial support that fosters archival work or that raises public consciousness of the importance of archival work while having long-term impact at the regional level and beyond.

Senator Reid , who was unable to attend the ceremony, was honored for his commitment to preserving archival records and historic sites in Nevada and was celebrated for his dedication to making these resources accessible via museums and research facilities at places like the Walking Box Ranch and the Old Las Vegas Post Office. Nationally, Senator Reid’s vocal support has been instrumental for the American Folklife Center, Government Printing Office, Federal Depository Library Program, and most importantly the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). As a passionate backer of NHPRC, his support has proven vital to its continued funding and thus many significant archival and documentary editing projects. When NHPRC faced funding elimination in 2005–2006, Senator Reid and his staff members provided invaluable advice and assistance to help the archival community advocate for NHPRC and navigate the appropriation process. Without his support of NHPRC and its important work, our nation could have lost some of its most vulnerable historical resources and cultural heritage.

The award is named for the noted American historian who was a long-time advocate for the establishment of a National Archives in the United States.

Council Resolutions

The governing Council of SAA passed resolutions honoring Richard J. Cox, Kathleen Roe, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, and the Society of Southwest Archivists together with the Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund Review Committee for their outstanding contributions to the association and the profession.

RICHARD J.COX, professor of Archival Studies and chair of the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Pittsburgh, served as SAA’s Publications Editor from 2002–2006. During his tenure SAA published more than a dozen books and created a “pipeline” of more than 20 additional manuscripts. During that time he also authored two of those books, Lester J. Cappon and the Relationship of History, Archives, and Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory and Understanding Archives and Manuscripts (with James O’Toole). In addition, he helped to further establish SAA as a clearinghouse for English-language resources about the profession, its mission, and its practices.

KATHLEEN ROE, newly appointed Director of Operations at the New York State Archives, serves as chair of the Joint Task Force on Advocacy of the Council of State Archivists, SAA, and National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators. She has worked diligently to advocate for increased funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the National Archives and Records Administration and has given of her time and energy to draft materials to assist SAA members in understanding how best to contribute to advocacy efforts. Her passion, persistence, and commitment have motivated others to join the cause and she has remained a driving force and leading advocate for strengthening the collective voice of archivists nationwide.

GREGOR TRINKAUS-RANDALL, preservation specialist for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, serves as chair of the SAA Preservation Section. He has worked diligently to promote disaster preparedness and emergency preparedness throughout his career and frequently volunteered his expertise in the recovery of archival materials following disasters. Following the destruction caused by hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in 2005, he generously gave his time to represent SAA on the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, SAA members understand how best to respond to archives colleagues who needed assistance.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused untold damage to archives in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas in 2005 and disrupting the lives of archivists in those states. The SOCIETY OF SOUTHWEST ARCHIVISTS (SSA) responded immediately to the need to assist archivists by establishing a blog as a means to connect individuals at a critical time, and proposed establishment of an SSA-SAA Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund to provide aid to archives in need. SSA participated actively in promoting contributions to the fund, resulting in more than $47,870 in donations to date; and provided significant support for creation and activities of the SSA-SAA Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund Review Committee. The SSA-SAA EMERGENCY DISASTER ASSISTANCE FUND REVIEW COMMITTEE acted efficiently, effectively, and compassionately to review applications and distribute the funds fairly to 17 applicants to date.

Distinguished Service

The MODERN ARCHIVES INSTITUTE of the National Archives and Records Administration is the recipient of SAA’s 2006 Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1964, the award recognizes a North American archival institution that has provided outstanding public service and has made an exemplary contribution to the archival profession. Mary Rephlo, long-time director of the Modern Archives Institute, accepted the award

The Modern Archives Institute was recognized for its long history of service to the archives profession. Nominators noted that the Institute has, since its founding over fifty years ago, offered a high-quality, intensive introduction to archival theory and practice in an accessible format. The Institute was developed in the years following World War II when few post-graduate training programs were offered in archival administration. The Institute offered a critically needed service for archivists who had few educational alternatives. Since that time, more than 4,000 archivists have been trained by the Institute.

As the 100th Institute approaches in November 2006, it is important for the profession to recognize the impact of its teachings on the development of a shared canon of archival practice. Through its educational programs, the Institute has helped formulate a common understanding of the principles and practices that underlie the profession today.

Donald Peterson Student Scholarship

JESSICA LEMIEUX is the recipient of SAA’s 2006 Donald Peterson Student Scholarship, which recognizes a graduate student or recent graduate of a graduate archival program for exceptional leadership and desire to become actively involved in the archives profession through research and presentation during SAA’s annual meeting or active participation in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable.

Jessica Lemieux, a graduate student in the archives program at San Jose State University and the Photo Duplication Coordinator at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley, was recognized for her outstanding academic record and commitment to the archives profession through her work as SAA’s key contact representative for California and co-editor of the Society of California Archivists’ newsletter. One nominator noted her “enormous potential as a future leader of the archives community who has clearly demonstrated her ability to conduct rigorous intellectual research while, at the same time, generously contributing her time and talent for the betterment of the profession. Her pursuit of excellence and her drive to work collaboratively and thoughtfully with her peers are the essential qualities needed for tomorrow’s leaders of SAA.”

The award, established in 2005, honors the memory of Donald Peterson (1908–1999), a New York lawyer and philatelist whose deep appreciation of world history developed early through his stamp collecting and held true throughout his life. Lemieux is the first recipient of the award.

Spotlight Award

EMILIE LEUMAS, Archivist of the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, was awarded SAA’s 2006 Spotlight Award. Established in 2005, this award recognizes the contributions of an individual who works for the good of the profession and of archival collections, and whose work would not typically receive public recognition.

Leumas was cited for her quiet, selfless leadership in laying the groundwork for the recovery and resumption of operations of the neighboring Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
When Katrina struck in August 2005, the Diocese of Baton Rouge was ready. With a sound archival program in place, Leumas and her colleagues were able to offer practical support to New Orleans archivist Charles Nolan and to step in and relocate staff and critical material to Baton Rouge and save parish sacramental records. In the face of these unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances, nominators noted her “calm, decisive actions” and the way she “constantly demonstrated an uncanny creativity”; all fueled by her “passion for the history, culture, places, and people of New Orleans.” 

All agreed that the role the Diocese of Baton Rouge played in saving the Catholic documentary heritage of New Orleans cannot be exaggerated and add that “because of Ms. Leumas’ fearless commitment to the archives profession and the records of the Church, much was saved.”

Leumas is the first recipient of the new Spotlight Award.

Fellows

Margaret (Peggy) O’Neill Adams, Thomas J. Connors, Philip B. Eppard, Frederick L. Honhart, Elisabeth Kaplan, Wilda Logan, Nancy McCall, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, and Diane Vogt-O’Connor were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists on August 4, 2006, during the Joint Annual Meeting of SAA, the Council of State Archivists, and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of conference attendees attended the ceremony in a ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel to salute the nine new Fellows.

Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. There are now 164 current members so honored out of a membership of more than 4,600. SAA welcomes the nine new Fellows. Following are citations for the Fellows presented during the awards ceremony.

---

MARGARET (PEGGY) O’NEILL ADAMS has been an electronic records archivist for the National Archives for almost twenty years. Following her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clarke College in Iowa and the University of Wisconsin, she taught history at the college level. But she quickly found her niche as the founding data archivist at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1960s and in a series of posts for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky. She then was recruited to the National Archives, into what was then the Machine-Readable Records Branch, now the Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division.

Through the years, Adams developed the first and foremost reference service for electronic records in the American archival community. In 2003, she was recognized by NARA with the Archivist’s Special Achievement Award for the development and launch of the “Access to Archival Databases” web resource. In SAA she’s been an active member of committees and sections, a frequent presenter in workshops on electronic records, and a program speaker at a dozen annual meetings.

In more than a dozen publications, Adams has tied professional practice to the use of electronic records in a variety of ways, just as she has done with her contributions to allied associations, including the International Association for Social Science Service Information and Technology, the American Association for Computing and History, and the Association of Public Data Users, among many others.

Adams has had an influence on literally hundreds of her colleagues both in SAA and around the world. She has been a bridge-builder in so many ways. She is, in the words of one of her nominators, “a tireless champion for the preservation, effective use, and management of electronic data.” Adams has lived with this technology from the punch card to the Internet, and continues to keep a step or two ahead of it.

THOMAS J. CONNORS holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown University in anthropology and American civilization. From his first position as archives assistant at Yale University Library in the late ‘70s through his post as archivist/curator since 1993 at the National Public Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland, he has consistently distinguished himself throughout his career. From his early ground-breaking and still definitive work on labor archives; to his tireless efforts on behalf of international archives affairs and greater American involvement therein; to his leadership in documenting the broadcasting industry; to the energy and dedication he brought to SAA’s governing council; and to the passion and eloquence he has evinced in advocating on behalf of greater access to federal and municipal records, Connors has shown himself to be the sort of archivist that defines the very best characteristics of the profession. 

During the middle of Connors’s three-year term on SAA’s governing council (2000–2003), SAA and the profession faced many challenges: from 9/11 to unprecedented assaults on the public’s right to information about its government. Throughout it all, Connors was always ready to assist leadership to reason through and draft statements, make public appearances, and to work behind the scenes in the Washington media environment he knew so well. One of his great strengths was the way in which he then leveraged this activity with his international connections. As one of his nominators pointed out, “Tom has always been outspoken in defending academic and press freedoms, but he has recently brought that advocacy to an international forum, thus bringing our European colleagues into the dialogue.” 

In addition to his leadership in SAA, Connors also is active in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the Academy of Certified Archivists, and the Oral History Association. As one of his nominators noted: “Tom is a consummate archivist and a leader in the profession. The major quality that characterizes him is enthusiasm. He is always excited about his work and the field because he truly believes in its importance.”

PHILIP B. EPPARD of the University at Albany, State University of New York, has richly earned this recognition through his contributions to archival scholarship, electronic records research, archival education, the study of archival history, and national and regional professional associations. Eppard, who holds a PhD in American Civilization from Brown University, was editor of the SAA journal American Archivist for the past 10 years and strengthened its reputation for excellence. As one of his nominators stated, he “has given the journal vision and theoretical heft that it did not enjoy consistently before.”

Eppard has co-directed for seven years the American group participating in the InterPARES research projects on electronic records. As another nominator observed, Eppard could “persuasively articulate archival concepts to researchers from other disciplines” and “conduct himself as a consummate ambassador for our profession when working internationally.” In addition, as co-founder and co-convenor of the first International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA), Eppard has contributed significantly to the study of archival history, by fostering research and publication in an oft-neglected field. In these two disparate roles, he has bridged new and traditional concepts, combining theory and application.

Through his professional work and scholarship, Eppard has also strengthened the connections between archivists and allied professional groups. As an archival educator on the faculty of the Department of Information Studies at SUNY-Albany for almost two decades, he has integrated archival courses with library and information science. As Dean of the School of Information Science and Policy for several years he further strengthened the connections between the worlds of archives and information science.

Eppard has served SAA in other capacities over the years, including service on the Committee on Education and Professional Development to the Archival History Roundtable. He was elected treasurer and president of the New England Archivists, and has been active in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, the New York State Archives Advisory Committee, and many other professional groups.

FREDERICK L. HONHART joined the staff of Michigan State University in 1974 and currently serves as director of University Archives and Historical Collections, a program he established and advanced into a truly national model supporting administrative needs and the university’s educational and research missions.

Honhart was recognized for his leadership, his vision, and his integrity. He pioneered what we take for granted today: the use of computer technology in the daily operation of archival organizations. MicroMARC:amc, developed under Honhart’s leadership with the support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, was the first software package that enabled a significant number of archival institutions to automate description and share that information with researchers and other institutions. As one nominator noted, “Today, 20 years later, it would be easy to overlook the significance of Fred’s brainchild . . . MicroMARC:amc . . . [which] became the catalyst for many archivists to consider adopting professional standards for description.”

Throughout his career, Honhart, who holds a PhD from Case-Western Reserve University, has been an active and leading participant in the broader archival community. In the mid-1970s he advocated for greater transparency in SAA’s governance and was instrumental in opening the governing council’s meetings to all members. He also proposed the creation of a student membership category.

In addition, Honhart is active in the Michigan Archival Association, Midwest Archives Conference, and the International Council on Archives (ICA). He currently serves as president of the ICA Section on University and Research Institution Archives, and last year hosted archivists from around the world at the section’s meeting in East Lansing, Michigan, which was deemed one of the most successful and well-attended section meetings.

ELISABETH KAPLAN is university archivist and co-director of the University Digital Conservancy at the University of Minnesota. As one nominator noted, “In a relatively short period of time, Kaplan has made significant contributions to SAA and to the archival profession that outstrip what most archivists achieve in a lifetime.”

In her capacity as co-chair of the Program Committee for SAA’s 2005 Annual Meeting, Kaplan introduced a new feature called the “Archives Seminar” track: consecutive sessions on focused, intensive discussion of a range of new or especially complex topics that archivists face today. The proof of their success has been the high attendance at these intellectually challenging sessions. 

Kaplan, who holds BA and MA degrees in history and archival methods from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, has wide and varied research interests: digital archives, visual records, ethnicity, science and technology, postmodernism. She was the principal investigator on “Documenting Internet2: A Collaborative Model for Developing Electronic Records Capabilities in the Small Repository,” a 2005 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). In 2001, she was a Fellow in the NHPRC Electronic Records Research Program.
Her writings are already classics, appearing on university syllabi across the country: “Mind and Sight: Visual Literacy and the Archivist” (co-authored with Jeffrey Mifflin) in Archival Issues (1997); “‘Many Paths to Partial Truths’: Archives, Anthropology, and the Power of Representation” in Archival Science (2003); and “We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Ethnic Identity” in American Archivist (2000). In addition, she served as reviews editor of the American Archivist for four years.

As her nominators noted, Kaplan has enriched the professional literature, conferences, and the archives profession with a “keen intelligence,” “sense of humor,” and “superb interpersonal skills.”

WILDA LOGAN joined the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration in 1985 and currently is supervisory archives specialist in the Life Cycle Management Division. She holds a BA from Hampton University and an MLS from the University of Maryland. Her life strategy is about inclusion, participation, education, and achievement. Within SAA, she is a founding member of the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable and helped to establish the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award.

As an advocate for diversity within the National Archives, Logan served as co-chair of the Office of Records Service’s Diversity and Upward Mobility Strategies subgroup. She co-drafted the final report to devise strategies for recruitment and retention of targeted groups in the largest office in NARA. She currently leads the Diversity and Upward Mobility Coordinating Committee recruitment team and was responsible for its development and participation in major recruitment events, including SAA’s Career Center. Logan received the Archivist’s Special Achievement Award for outstanding promotion of diversity in NARA for 2001 and 2002 due to the significance of the final report and implementation of key diversity initiatives.

Logan has had a hand in developing many important NARA documents and policies including appraisal justification memos; records management training materials; conference programs, newsletters, and publications; records management briefing documents; records management and diversity policies and procedures; and evaluation reports. She also served as a member and leader of the NARA Equal Employment Opportunity Interim Advisory Group.
As one nominator noted, “Logan is well known for providing wisdom with a quiet voice. . . . She has helped shape both our national professional association and our National Archives into organizations that are more effective, and more open to participants from diverse backgrounds with different ideas but the same goal: to preserve our historical record.”

NANCY MCCALL holds a BA from Western College for Women and an MLA from the Johns Hopkins University, where she has spent her entire archival career. Currently she serves as archivist of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and as a research associate of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine. She has developed the archives into one of the premier medical archives in the world, an accomplishment recognized by SAA in 1995 when the Alan Mason Chesney Archives at JHMI was awarded the Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to managing an award-winning program, McCall has published more than 20 articles, books, and chapters on such topics as the history of medicine, art history, conservation, program development in health care archives, and the use of medical archives. She co-edited Designing Archival Programs to Advance Knowledge in the Health Fields, which remains the standard work on the subject; she also contributed a chapter to Joan Krizack’s Documentation Planning for the U.S. Health Care System, which won SAA’s Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior quality and usefulness.

Through her publications and her many presentations at SAA and regional archival meetings, all archivists have benefited from McCall’s work. Especially important is her two decades of work on the issue of balancing access requirements for privacy and opportunities to study records of health care, which has led to her becoming a leading expert (and an expert witness) on the archival implications of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Under the auspices of an NHPRC-funded research grant, she is currently developing a model of a HIPAA-aware EAD finding aid that will have wide application for many archivists.

Science, technology, and health care archives are immeasurably better off because of McCall. As a nominator noted, she is “a professional’s professional who has tirelessly added to our body of knowledge while giving unstinting service to one of the world’s greatest biomedical institutions.”

GREGOR TRINKAUS-RANDALL is currently a preservation specialist for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, where he has served since 1988. He holds a bachelor’s and double master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and has been extraordinarily successful in assisting institutions in preservation planning and implementation projects including disaster planning and recovery. The statewide preservation program he developed is, as one supporter noted, “worthy to be a model for other state libraries and archives.”

Trinkaus-Randall’s work has had, as another supporter put it, a “multiplier effect” through his publication record on preservation and security, including his SAA book, Protecting Your Collections: A Manual of Archival Security. His writings are of superior quality, and useful. He has shared his expertise in teaching more than 50 workshops. At the last two SAA Annual Meetings he has provided timely guidance on the archival implications of the USA PATRIOT Act.
His most notable contribution has been coordinating SAA’s response to hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in 2005. Following the destruction caused by these hurricanes, he generously gave his time to represent SAA on the Heritage Emergency National Task Force and helped SAA and its members understand how best to respond to colleagues who needed assistance. His outstanding service was recognized by SAA’s governing council this year.
His professional involvement is indeed impressive. In addition to SAA, he participates actively in the Academy of Certified Archivists, New England Archivists, Midwest Archives Conference, Boston Archivists Group, and Association of College and Research Libraries.
As his nominators summed up: Trinkaus-Randall “is a prototype for the dedicated archival professional.”

DIANE VOGT-O’CONNOR is prolific and exhaustive in all of her endeavors as an archivist, writer, teacher, consultant, and member of professional organizations. She recently joined the Library of Congress as chief of the Conservation Division. Prior to that, she held archival positions with the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the National Archives and Records Administration. She has served all of those organizations with grace and distinction, and now the greatest library in the world will receive the substantial benefits of her knowledge and skill, and her limitless energy and enthusiasm for archives and preservation.

Vogt-O’Connor is the co-author of Photographs: Archival Care and Management, published this summer by SAA, and already being hailed as “a superb manual for the preservation of our nation’s photographic heritage at risk.” Other writing accomplishments include the Smithsonian Institution’s Guide to Photographic Collections, which garnered both SAA’s C.F.W. Coker Award for best finding aid and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference’s Arline Custer Award for best book; 22 Conserve O’Grams published for the National Park Service; and more than two dozen articles and special editions of the journal Cultural Resource Management.

Vogt-O’Connor has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities, including as chair of the Preservation Section and assorted committees, as a speaker at annual meetings, and as a workshop instructor. Her professional involvement extends to the Academy of Certified Archivists and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. She also has served in a number of archival consultancies here and abroad. 

As one of Vogt-O’Connor’s nominators aptly concluded, “She supplies both the inspiration and the just plain hard work necessary to bring conferences, workshops, seminars and publications to fruition.”

* * *

Criteria and Selection Committee

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Timothy Ericson (chair), Peter Hirtle, Steven Hensen, Randall Jimerson, and Lee J. Stout—and three Fellows selected by Council—Nancy Bartlett, Thomas Battle, and Linda Henry.

Awards and Scholarships

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

WILLIAM SUMNERS, director of the Southern Baptist Library and Archive, received SAA’s Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for his significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Established in 1974, the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award is sponsored in conjunction with and funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Sumners has served as director of the Southern Baptist Library and Archives since1988, where he has shaped an important collection into a model of archival standards and efficiency during a time of transition and controversy within the denomination. One nominator described Sumners as a “hardworking, creative, and utterly dependable fellow laborer in the archival vineyard.” Another praised his general excellence and persistence in keeping the Southern Baptist archive intact during financial hardships. Archivists, librarians, and researchers alike praise him as a mentor and inspiration to many who have sought aid and answers at the Southern Baptist Library and Archive. Sumners’s contributions to the profession include being a workshop instructor and an author of numerous publications, most notably Documenting the Spirit: Manual and Guidelines and the Church Archive Series. A 30- year member of SAA, he has served with distinction in the Archivists of Religious Collections Section.

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The SURVIVORS OF THE SHOAH VISUAL HISTORY FOUNDATIONreceived SAA’s Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award in recognition of its website and online resource featuring information about the Testimony Archive of Holocaust survivors and other Holocaust witnesses. The award was accepted by DONNA CASEY, an archivist for the foundation. The award, which recognizes individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents for education, instructional, or other public purpose, was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

The Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation has innovatively raised public awareness of its vast archive of testimonies from Holocaust survivors and witnesses. One of three strategic goals adopted by the foundation is to preserve and provide access to the Testimony Archive. Through its website, www.vhf.org, the foundation has made available basic biographical data on more than 50,000 testimonies searchable through the online Testimony Catalogue. The online Testimony Viewer allows visitors to view portions of materials from the Testimony Archive directly. To further extend awareness of the Testimony Archive, the foundation has produced 10 documentaries that have been screened or broadcast in 50 countries for 110,000 students, educators, and the general public. The foundation partners with more than 42 locations around the world that serve as Visual History Collection Sites.

C.F.W. Coker Award

The Online Archive of California (OAC) received SAA’s C.F.W. Coker Award. The award was accepted by OAC Director ROBIN CHANDLER.

The Coker Award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. Nominees must, in some significant way, set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have substantial impact on descriptive practices.

The OAC provides access to more than 120,000 images, 50,000 pages of documents, letters and oral histories, and 8,000 guides to collections located at museums, historical societies, and archives in California. The OAC’s consortial approach for implementing and delivering Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids has become a model for other regional and statewide projects. The OAC has developed best practice guidelines for EAD and encoding tools to assist contributing institutions, all of which are made available to the archival community on its website at www.oac.cdlib.org. The OAC’s work has made it possible for more than 100 repositories in California to encode finding aids in EAD and make them available through a sophisticated user interface.

The OAC exemplifies positive collaboration among cultural heritage institutions. This collaboration gives researchers unprecedented access to historical records from institutions throughout California.

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

SAA’s 2005 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to RICHARD J. COX for No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004). Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

The book makes an important and valuable contribution to the topics of appraisal and acquisitions. Rather than offering a basic primer or “how-to” guide, it presents a much needed, and more thoughtful, analysis of the issues surrounding these two critically important archival enterprises. The book is both insightful and provocative, engaging readers in lively interaction with the discussions presented. Highly readable and extensively researched, it leads readers to think deeply about appraisal and to question their beliefs and assumptions. No matter their own points of view or biases, all archivists can benefit from the analyses, musings, and examples that illustrate how and why appraisal is the most fundamentally important activity the profession undertakes, the activity that carries the greatest long-term consequences. This is the third time that Cox has received the Leland Award.

Preservation Publication Award

SAA’s 2005 Preservation Publication Award was presented to the National Film Preservation Foundation for its book, The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries and Museums. The award was accepted by DAVID WELLS, designer and typesetter of the book. Established in 1993, the award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding work published in North America that advances the theory or practice of preservation in archival institutions. The Film Preservation Guide is an introductory text, jargon-free and suitable for a broad audience. It is the first of its kind and much needed because it codifies principles, terms, and practices and presents up-to-date archival theories, methods, and techniques. The book is well illustrated and easy to use. It is available both in print and electronically at www.filmpreservation.org.

Fellows' Posner Award

SAA’s 2005 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award was presented to ELENA DANIELSON for her article in the most recent volume of the American Archivist. The award, established in 1982 by the Fellows of SAA and named for former SAA President Ernst Posner, recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published in SAA’s semi-annual journal.

Danielson, associate director of the Hoover Institution, and director of Library and Archives, received the award for her essay, “Privacy Rights and the Rights of Political Victims: Implications of the German Experience” in volume 67 of the American Archivist. This superior exposition of the conflicts between privacy, security, and access as exemplified in the East German “Stasi” files clearly and effectively sorts out and explains these competing elements. She shows that opening records can help address past injustices and strengthen the democratic process. The article reflects substantial research using primary and secondary resources in multiple languages and offers keen analysis of issues. Danielson demonstrates that privacy rights and the right to information can be reconciled, an issue that is timeless and often vexing for archivists and citizens of all nations.

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

SAA’s 2005 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to IAN CRAIG BREADENof the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for his student paper, “Sound Practices: Online Audio Exhibits and the Cultural Heritage Archive.” Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA’s semi-annual journal, American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. The award includes a certificate, cash prize, and forthcoming publication of Breaden’s paper in the American Archivist.

“Sound Practices” was written by Breaden as a master’s student paper for Professor Helen Tibbo at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. In her nomination form,Professor Tibbo wrote, “This is one of the best papers I’ve supervised in years. The creation of an analysis/evaluation framework and recommendations based on such analysis places this student paper in a small group of such ambitious studies.” Breaden is the fifth student from UNC to receive the Pease Award.

Breaden’s paper examines the use of audio media in twenty- five Web exhibits. The online audio exhibits are analyzed using a matrix that measures specific aspects of audio performance. Based on this analysis, the author proposes a set of standards for archives to use as a starting point whenever they are incorporating audio elements into online exhibits. The paper was praised by committee members for its solid review of the technical and other issues surrounding the use of digital audio and the standards for digital audio formats. The author was also commended for going the extra mile by developing an assessment tool for archivists.

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

JENNIFER OSORIO and PAUL SEVILLA of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), are the joint recipients of SAA’s 2005 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. The award, established in 1993, honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and was a Fellow of SAA. It is coordinated through the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable.

Jennifer Osorio is currently enrolled in the MLIS program at UCLA, specializing in archives and records management. She is incoming co-president of UCLA’s SAA student chapter and the outgoing co-president of the student chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. She is also the recipient of the Society of California Archivists’ James V. Mink Scholarship. Osorio is currently working as a graduate student researcher on the International Research and Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES 2) Project in the UCLA Department of Information Studies.

Paul Sevilla was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States when he was 10 years old. Before he began his graduate degree, he provided reference support at theCalifornia Department of Health Services Resource Center. He is in his second year as a MLIS student at UCLA. Currently, Sevilla is working at UCLA’s Department of Special Collections and interning as an archival research assistant at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, Calif. In addition to the Pinkett Minority Student Award, Sevilla also received a partial scholarship to attend the 46th Annual American Library Association’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference in St. Louis last July. He has also received other student honors and awards through the years, including the Gates Millennium Scholarship.

Colonial Dames Scholarship and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards

LINDA HOCKING and DEBRA KIMOKreceived SAA’s 2005 Colonial Dames Scholarship. Established in 1974, the award enables new archivists to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

Linda Hocking, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the Winter 2005 Modern Archives Institute, is Curator of Library and Archives at the Litchfield Historical Society in Litchfield, Conn. Hocking received her MLIS in 2001 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her BA in Political Science in 1995 from Marist College. In a letter to the Colonial Dames she explained that she will soon begin a digitization project on historical society records from 1751–1833. Because of her attendance at the MAI, she “will now be able to make better decisions about level of description, arrangement, conservation needs and issues surrounding the creation of digital facsimiles.”

Debra Kimok, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the Summer 2005 Modern Archives Institute, is Special Collections/Reference Librarian for the Benjamin F. Feinberg Library, State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh. Kimok received her MLS from SUNY Buffalo in 2000 and her BA in History from SUNY Plattsburgh in 1997. In her cover letter, she wrote, “While all of my previous internships and self-study have provided me with a good understanding of archival practice, I strongly believe that both SUNY Plattsburgh and I will benefit greatly by my participation in the Modern Archives Institute. I am looking forward to immersing myself in this work and learning all I can from the instructors and other archivists.”

CHARLOTTE A. WALTERS received SAA’s 2005 Donna Cutts Scholarship. Established in 2002, the award enables one archivist each year to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

Walters, who attended the Winter 2005 Modern Archives Institute, is an administrative assistant in the University Libraries/Center for Southwest Research-Political Archives at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where she processes and describes manuscript collections as well as maintains and develops guidelines for the processing and description of political papers. The Center for Southwest Research holds both manuscript and book materials that document the history and culture of New Mexico and the Southwest, including New Mexico’s governance and administration by Spain and Mexico, pre-1825. Walters received her BA in Social Thought and Political Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2004. In a letter to the Colonial Dames, she notes, “The Institute gave me many resources and an important professional network to support the archives here in New Mexico. It is a solid base for me to build upon and increase my professional expertise.”

Council Exemplary Service Award

ROBERT S. MARTIN, who completed his four-year term as director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in July, received SAA’s Council Exemplary Service Award.

Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to be director of IMLS in June 2001; the U.S. Senate subsequently confirmed his nomination by unanimous consent. During his tenure, IMLS awarded 4,704 grants to America’s museums and libraries totaling more than $899 million. Martin served with distinction throughout his term as IMLS director and he consciously and consistently sought to include archival projects and priorities within the IMLS scope of grant programs.

A librarian, archivist, educator, and administrator, Martin was professor and interim director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women’s University (TWU) prior to his appointment at IMLS. From 1995 to 1999, he was director and librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Martin returned to work in September at the Denton campus of TWU, where he has been named the Lillian Bradshaw Endowed Chair in Library Science.

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

GEORGE F. FARR, JR. received the 2005 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award from SAA in recognition of his advocacy and support of archival preservation and access projects during his distinguished career at the National Endowment for the Humanities, and particularly as its Director of the Division of Preservation and Access. Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian who was a long-time advocate for the establishment of a National Archives in the United States.

Farr put a concerned and caring face on the Division of Preservation and Access, fostered an openness and understanding that changed the NEH’s grant process, and assisted in transforming the preservation world as it is known today. Always generous with his time, and gracious to everyone he met, he was an integral part of the archival, library, and academic communities, and a frequent presence at SAA Annual Meetings. Fostering a belief that the cultural heritage of the nation needs to be preserved and made available to all, he energized a generation of individuals and organizations to make a difference in the future by paying attention to the past. His broad definition of cultural artifacts included archives, books, and three-dimensional objects. This breadth of vision expanded preservation efforts and helped develop access tools to still and moving images and sound recordings, thereby unlocking many hidden collections.

Farr’s groundbreaking work has had a national impact on the preservation and access of archival and library materials. Projects that he guided during the past two decades include: a national initiative to identify, catalog, and microfilm the nation’s newspaper heritage; the microfilming of brittle books; the preservation of material culture collections; the digitization of microfilmed newspapers for increased accessibility; grants for smaller institutions to obtain consultants and preservation supplies; the establishment of regional preservation/conservation centers with field service departments; the creation of a national clearinghouse for preservation information; and the establishment of university programs to train preservation personnel, among others.

Outstanding Service

Two long-standing contributors to the Society of American Archivists—PHILIP B. EPPARD and SCOTT SCHWARTZ—were honored for their service by the SAA Council at the 2005 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Eppard, associate professor in the School of Information Science and Policy at the University at Albany, State University of New York, served as American Archivist Editor for ten years. Schwartz, archivist for the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was the Membership Committee chair and advocate who saw SAA’s membership development efforts reach new levels.

SAA Council Resolution Honoring
Philip B. Eppard
American Archivist Editor
1996–2005

Whereas Philip B. Eppard has furthered professional discourse through his editorship of the American Archivist from 1996 to 2005; and

Whereas he facilitated the transition from quarterly to semiannual publication; and Whereas he re-established a timely production schedule for the journal; and

Whereas he balanced the content mix with theoretical and practical articles and oversaw publication of theme issues on graduate archival education, encoded archival description, and user studies; and

Whereas he harnessed new technologies to streamline the editorial review process; and

Whereas at SAA Annual Meetings he hosted new author forums and, together with Editorial Board members, presented sessions on how to conduct research projects and produce publishable papers from them; and

Whereas he brought a personal warmth to the editorship that encouraged new authors to submit manuscripts to the journal; and

Whereas his sharp intellect and analytic perspective enhanced the quality of the journal;

Therefore Be It Resolved that the Society of American Archivists owes a debt of gratitude and expresses its sincere thanks to Philip B. Eppard for advancing he professional discourse through his nine-year editorship of the American Archivist.

SAA Council Resolution Honoring
Scott Schwartz
SAA Membership Committee Chair
1996–2005

Whereas Scott Schwartz has served with distinction for ten years on the Society of American Archivists Membership Committee, nine years of which he has served as its chair; and

Whereas during his tenure the organization has experienced increased membership; and

Whereas he has enthusiastically and passionately supported the recruitment and retention of members through tracking and reporting on membership statistics and trends and through the Key Contact Program, Mentoring Program, Career Center, annual raffle and silent auction, and other development initiatives;

Therefore Be It Resolved that the Society of American Archivists extends its sincere gratitude to Scott Schwartz for his outstanding leadership of the Membership Committee.

Fellows

Nancy Bartlett, Thomas Battle, Connell Gallagher, Joan Krizack, Richard Pearce-Moses, Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Helen Tibbo, and John (Jac) Treanor were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists on August 19, 2005, during an awards ceremony at SAA’s 69th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. An overflow crowd packed the ballroom of the New Orleans Hilton Riverside to salute the eight new Fellows. Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. There are now 154 current members so honored out of a membership of more than 4,200.

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Timothy Ericson, Peter Hirtle (chair), Steven Hensen, H. Thomas Hickerson, and Lee J. Stout—and three Fellows selected by Council—Anne Gilliland, Karen Jefferson, and Kris Kiesling.

SAA welcomes the eight new Fellows and extends its thanks to those involved in the selection process. Following are citations for the Fellows presented during the awards ceremony.

---

NANCY BARTLETT is Head Archivist for the University Archives and Records Program and Assistant to the Director for Academic Programs at the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Her championship of international awareness as a key component of the archival professional identity has been lauded by her colleagues worldwide. One nominator wrote, “The word ‘international’ is probably associated more with Nancy Bartlett than with any other member of the archival profession in the United States. In her work she has informed all of us of the links that bind us through common concerns about records management, implications of diplomatics across political boundaries, the impact of the European model on archival thought, the commonalities in archival practice between East and West. [Through her] extensive work in Denmark, France, Russia, China, and with the International Council on Archives, she has come to a real understanding of national, cultural, and procedural differences among archival institutions that has been enormously influential in shaping the international conversation about archival practice.”

Another nominator wrote, “Nancy Bartlett is one of the most original thinkers in the archival profession in the U.S.A. . . . Through her extensive writings and many presentations she has brought to all of us a greater appreciation of the role of the archivist as mediator. That is, mediator between scholars and the historical record, between the visual object and the user, between the psychology of a culture and its own heritage, between ‘silences’ in the archives and the extant record, between bureaucratic processes and archival policy.”

A provocative and articulate author in her own right, Bartlett has served as editor-in-chief of Comma—International Journal on Archives; co-editor of the international section of American Archivist, as well as co-editor of two special issues; co-editor of a special issue on archives of China of the
International Council on Archives’ journal Janus; and a member of the editorial boards of the American Archivist, Janus, and the Midwest Archives Council’s Archival Issues, as well as a member of SAA’s Task Force on Electronic Publishing. She also has the distinction of being the only U.S. archivist ever to participate
as a stagiaire, a seminar participant in the Stage Technique International d’Archives, in Paris in 1985.

— Anne Gilliland, University of California, Los Angeles

THOMAS C. BATTLE is the Director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) at Howard University. During his 32- year career at MSRC, he helped build an outstanding library, museum, manuscript collection, and university archives. The MSRC is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world. As one of Howard University’s major research facilities, the MSRC collects, preserves, and makes available for research a wide range of resources chronicling the Black experience.Its collections include more than 175,000 bound volumes and tens of thousands of journals, periodicals, and newspapers; more than 17,000 feet of manuscript and archival collections; nearly 1,000 audiotapes; hundreds of artifacts; and 100,000 prints, photographs, maps, and other graphic items. These extraordinary historical materials are a source of great pride to the Black community, and the MSRC is held in high esteem around the world.

Battle has written and published a number of articles during his career. However, more important are his initiatives to support scholarship and publishing. In 1983 Dr. Battle organized a symposium on Black contributions to the preservation of Black history that acknowledged activities dating back to 1827. The proceedings of this symposium—Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History—were the first of six titles in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center Series published by Howard University Press.

Battle is an active member of numerous archives, library, history, and museum associations and works with many community groups. His outreach efforts have educated countless persons about the importance of preserving history and introduced them to archives as a profession. He is a long-time member of the Society of American Archivists and has served on numerous committees and task forces and most recently completed a term on its governing council. He works tirelessly to expand diversity, always recommending and encouraging the participation and inclusion of younger and lesser known archivists.

An alumnus of Howard University, Battle is affectionately known as “Dr. B,” “Bat,” and “TCB” (for “taking care of business”) His dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, generosity, skills, knowledge, leadership, and contributions exemplify what is best in the archival profession.

— Karen Jefferson, Atlanta University Center

CONNELL GALLAGHER joined the University of Vermont in 1970 as its University Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts. He currently serves as the Director of Research Collections at the Bailey/Howe Library and is also a lecturer on archives and Vermont history. Within the archival profession, he has made numerous contributions to the theory of privacy and confidentiality— a perennial topic of abiding interest to archivists, but one of special and keen interest in today’s political and social climate.

Gallagher is actively involved in a number of professional associations. He has served SAA in a variety of leadership
capacities, including as chair of the Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable, Congressional Papers Roundtable, and the College
and University Archives Section. He is a member of SAA’s Ethics Committee and has served as a mentor to new
archivists. In addition, he is the past president of the New England Archivists and the Vermont Library Association, and
is a long-time member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.

Gallagher has come to represent the very best of the archival profession. As one of his supporters put it, “Whether it be mentoring young archivists, serving our national and regional organizations, or publishing and presenting so the rest of us can learn from his work, Connie Gallagher has served the archive profession with distinction for more than thirty years.” Many of his supporters singled out the mentoring he had provided to younger colleagues.

Others supporters remarked upon his demeanor: “…a quiet exemplar of the archival profession…never [grandstanding] but always there when needed—one of the quintessential ‘ nice guys’…[a] consummate professional, respectful though rigorous, thoughtful though articulate, patient though pointed.” There is remarkable unanimity among Gallagher’s colleagues and nominators who describe him in their letters of support as “ kind,” “wise,” “dedicated,” “steadfast,” “intelligent,” “modest,” “ knowledgeable,” “patient,” and “professional.” The archival profession is lucky to have someone within its midst who so effectively embodies these assets.

— Steven Hensen, Duke University

JOAN KRIZACK is the University Archivist and Head of Special Collections at Northeastern University. Her nominators cited her “burning intellectual honesty coupled with an astounding capacity for work and no shyness about ‘encouraging’ others to excel.” She is a remarkable archivist who has distinguished herself through her writings, her service to the profession, and her archival activism. In 1994 she edited the publication, Documentation Planning for the U.S. Health Care System (Johns Hopkins University Press), which eventually won SAA’s Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior quality and usefulness. Later on in her career at Northeastern University, Krizack started another exemplary project to document the experiences of underrepresented populations in the Boston area.

As one nominator noted, “Joan’s fiery activism was an inspiring contrast to the dry appraisal rhetoric . . . that I had encountered up to then.” Through this project Krizack made history a palpable and empowering part of the communities present, by showing them that their past accomplishments and challenges are worthy of remembrance and study.

Krizack has also been a major contributor to the archival profession. She has served SAA in a variety of leadership capacities on numerous sections, committees, and boards, including the Program Committee, the Publications Board, the American Archivist Editorial Board, and the Task Force on Diversity. Her nominators all note her willingness to tackle complicated, challenging, and at times contentious issues, while always giving thoughtful consideration to the opinion of others. She has been very active in the New England Archivists as well, including serving as its president. Krizack helped create the current Research Fellowship Program for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and, after overseeing its operations for several years in Boston, saw it safely moved to North Carolina.

One of her nominators put it best: “Joan’s dedication to archives makes you want to be a better archivist.”

— Peter Hirtle, Cornell University

RICHARD PEARCE-MOSES is the Director of Digital Government Information at the Arizona State Library Division of Archives and Public Records, where he has worked since 1999. Prior to that time he was Photograph Archivist and then Documentary Collections Archivist and Automation Coordinator at The Heard Museum, and from 1988 to 1994, Curator of Photographs and Associate Archivist in the Department of Archives and Manuscripts in the Arizona State University Libraries. The earliest part of his career was spent as Historic Photography Project Coordinator at the Texas Historical Foundation, and as Assistant to the Curator of the Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Pearce-Moses’s service to SAA has been extensive and varied. This month he begins his one-year term as the association’s 61st president. He was a member of the governing council from 1999 to 2002, twice served on the Nominating Committee, and was a member of the Committee on Education and Professional Development, the Education Office Advisory Board, the Committee on Archival Information Exchange, the Task Force on Sections and Roundtables, and chair of the Visual Materials Section. For many years he co-instructed the SAA workshop “Administration of Photographic Collections.”

In 2002 Pearce-Moses was awarded a fellowship from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to tackle the revision of the SAA glossary. The just-published Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (SAA, 2005) contains more than 2,000 defined entries and more than 600 leadin terms and is destined to become an authoritative reference.

Several of Pearce-Moses’s nominators spoke of his compassion as a mentor, his willingness to reach out to new members of SAA, and his work with Native American archivists and their collections. One nominator wrote, “He asks hard questions, makes thoughtful proposals, enjoys vigorous debate, and both relishes and contributes to the camaraderie that is the hallmark of groups within SAA. He is intent and avid about his profession.”

— Kris Kiesling, University of Texas at Austin

MEGAN SNIFFIN-MARINOFF is University Archivist at Harvard University. She was described by her nominators as a “model professional,” “a mentor to a generation of archivists who received their education at Simmons College,” and a “prodigious contributor” to the archival profession. She began her career as a graduate assistant in the university archives at New York University and went on to a distinguished teaching career at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She then was appointed Head of Archives and Special Collections at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later on she joined the staff of Harvard University, serving first as librarian and deputy director of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, before assuming her current position as university archivist.

Sniffin-Marinoff’s colleagues and former students credit her with being a “clear thinker, a compassionate colleague” and a dedicated mentor whose “sound judgment and ability to articulate issues in a soft-spoken but effective way” have benefited those with whom she has had the chance to work.

Over the years she has contributed countless hours of service to the Society of American Archivists, including as a member of the governing council, Nominating Committee, Committee on Education and Professional Development, Public Information Committee, Committee on Regional Archival Activity, and Awards subcommittees. She has been equally active in the New England Archivists and has served as a consultant, trustee, and advisor for such groups as the Northeast Document Conservation Center, the WGBH Education Foundation, and the City of Boston Archives Advisory Committee.

She also has an impressive record of international involvement, currently serving as a member of the Steering Committee of Section on University and Research Institution Archives for the International Council on Archives, and a participant in two international colloquia on archival education.

— Timothy Ericson, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

HELEN R. TIBBO is a Professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her principal achievements are as a scholar and as an outstanding educator of new archivists, librarians, and information scientists. Armed with a PhD in Information and Library Science from the University of Maryland, she accepted an initial appointment at the University of North Carolina in 1989 and was promoted to full professor in 2003. At UNC, while contributing to the building of a top-ranked academic program, she has served as Assistant Dean and as Associate Dean of the School of Information and Library Science; she has served on numerous academic and administrative bodies, including two terms on the Graduate School’s Administrative Board; and she was elected as treasurer and as chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Tibbo’s research focuses on the users of archives and their discovery and use of archival holdings, particularly in today’s networked environment. Her university courses range across a broad spectrum, from archival administration and records management to information technologies and digital preservation to information retrieval and use and user evaluation. She is a dedicated teacher who infuses her students with a passion for research, writing, and the archival endeavor. And she’s an enthusiastic mentor, committed to insuring the professional success of her students, thirteen of whom have published and won awards. In fact, since its establishment in 1997, one half of all of the recipients of SAA’s Theodore Calvin Pease Award for superior student writing have been Tibbo’s pupils, which is a remarkable record.

At SAA, she has served in a variety of leadership capacities, including election to the governing council and to the Nominating Committee; as chair of the Archival Educators Roundtable and the Task Force on the Future of the American Archivist; and as a member of the American Archivist Editorial Board. She has also appeared on fourteen of the last sixteen SAA Annual Meeting programs. In 1994, she received SAA’s Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for her outstanding essay in American Archivist, “The Epic Struggle: Subject Retrieval from Large Bibliographic Databases.”

— H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University

JOHN (JAC) TREANOR is Vice Chancellor for Archives and Records Management for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He began his career in Boston in its archdiocesan archives after receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Massachusetts. Following two years at the Massachusetts State Archives, Treanor joined the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1986 and built its archives into a model repository that has influenced Catholic archives around the world. He has taken modern archival practice, reinforced it through records management, and demonstrated how information technology can both enable and incorporate these professional streams. He has done this while persuading dioceses and religious orders that archives are both canonically necessary and extraordinarily valuable. And, in the midst of modern American Catholicism’s stormiest era, when shutting the doors to the world might seem the easiest path, Treanor has campaigned for transparency and openness for the archival record.

Treanor is among a small number of archivists who have found the means to integrate archives and records management, and he has implemented an electronic records program. He has been instrumental in technology planning and policy and he helped re-engineer the archdiocese-wide IT infrastructure. One of Treanor’s nominators noted that his “knowledge of technology and how to apply it to solve business problems continues to be a significant asset” for the archdiocese.

Not only has Treanor created a model program, but his leadership efforts have reached around the world. He has lobbied chancellors and bishops to promote archival programs. He helped create the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists and has held all its offices. He created biennial conferences where diocesan archivists meet leading professionals and researchers. The publications he edited from these conferences both unify practice and advocate for the scholarly use of the records.

In addition, Treanor’s commitment to education extends to frequent presentations in venues ranging from local to international. He has served a variety of organizations well in program development, he’s fostered communication and shared effort between the archival and records management professions, and he’s a mentor to both his own staff and his colleagues in the greater archival community.

— Leon Stout, Pennsylvania State University

And the 2004 SAA Awards Go To...

The Society of American Archivists celebrated outstanding archival achievements in public service, outreach, and writing, and provided scholarship assistance to students at an awards ceremony held Aug. 6, 2004, during SAA’s 68th Annual Meeting in Boston. Hundreds of conference attendees packed the ballroom of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel to salute the successes of their colleagues. The annual competition recognizes accomplishments of the preceding calendar year.

The Awards Committee, co-chaired by Diane Dimkoff and Daria D’Arienzo, worked with subcommittees in the selection process for each award. SAA heartily congratulates the following award recipients and extends its thanks to all who participated in the competition.

---

Distinguished Service Award

THE BANCROFT LIBRARY at the University of California, Berkeley, received SAA’s 2004 Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1964, the award recognizes a North American archival institution that has provided outstanding public service and has made an exemplary contribution to the archival profession. CHARLES FAULHABER, director of the library, accepted the award on behalf of the institution.

The Bancroft is well known for its rich and varied collections documenting the history of California, the American West, and beyond. Home to half a million books, 50 million manuscripts, and more than 3 million photos and other pictorial items, the Bancroft has compiled a distinguished record of outreach to its many and varied constituencies through its print and digital publication programs. In an age when many institutions are forsaking traditional publication programs, the Bancroft deserves praise, indeed, for its continuing commitment to the value of print as a means of sharing its resources with the scholarly world. In addition, the Bancroft has also helped usher in the new digital age, with wide-ranging programs that have contributed to the development of EAD and Web-based resource sharing. 

---

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

JOHN (JAC) TREANOR, vice chancellor for Archives and Records, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Archives and Records Center, Archdiocese of Chicago, received SAA’s 2004 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for his significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Established in 1974, the award is sponsored in conjunction with and funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Since his 1986 appointment to oversee and direct the archives and records management program of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Treanor has transformed a small, inaccessible collection into one of the largest diocesan archives in the world. While nurturing the confidence and support of church leaders, he located and rescued records stored in warehouses and cemetery vaults and created a records management program to accurately identify permanent and historical records early in their life cycle to facilitate their transfer to the archives. Through his establishment of an open access policy, previously inaccessible records are available to researcher and administrator alike. In 1996, through meticulous archival planning and management, Treanor secured a state-of-the-art archival repository known as the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Archives and Records Center. Today the center contains more than 8,000 cubic feet of permanent and historical records and is a model for all Catholic dioceses.

Active promotion of archives has long been another of Treanor’s distinguishing characteristics. He is a founding member of the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists, where he has served in a variety of leadership positions, including president. He is a frequent presenter at various conferences and institutes. Through his advocacy, leadership, and example, many Catholic dioceses and religious orders within the United States have implemented professional archival programs in their own institution, and have hired professionally trained archivists based on his recommendations.

---

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

SAA’s 2004 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award for increasing public awareness about manuscripts and archives was presented to the PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION in recognition of its publication, Documenting Pennsylvania’s Past: The First Century of the Pennsylvania State Archives. WILLIS L. SHIRK, JR., editor of the publication, accepted the award. The award was established in 1973 and named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

Documenting Pennsylvania’s Past: The First Century of the Pennsylvania State Archives celebrates the centennial of the founding of the Pennsylvania State Archives. Well-written and interesting essays reveal a deep understanding of Pennsylvania’s past and the records that document its heritage. Extensive use of attractively reproduced archival documents illuminate this story of Pennsylvania. What could have been a dry institutional study is instead an exciting look at the state of Pennsylvania and its people. Documenting Pennsylvania’s Past is an excellent outreach tool for the Pennsylvania State Archives and a model for other archives to follow.

---

C.F.W. Coker Award

RLG’S EAD ADVISORY GROUP received SAA’s 2004 C.F.W. Coker Award for its Encoded Archival Description Guidelines. Established in 1983, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker. The Coker Award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. Nominees must, in some significant way, set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have substantial impact on descriptive practices.

RLG’s EAD Guidelines have found a broad audience since their release in August 2002. They have been adopted by various archival projects, including the Northwest Digital Archive, the Online Archive of California, and the North Carolina EAD Project. 

“We saw it as an essential part of the basic toolkit for archivists dealing with EAD—if you didn’t have something like this, you’d have to invent it,” said Terry Abraham, head of special collections and archives at the University of Idaho library, and chair of the SAA subcommittee that determined this year’s award recipient.

Accepting the award on behalf of RLG’s EAD Advisory Group was program officer MERRILEE PROFFITT, RLG’s representative in this collaborative effort. Chaired by Dennis Meissner of the Minnesota Historical Society, the EAD advisory group is composed of archivists and digital content managers, including Greg Kinney at the University of Michigan, Mary Lacy at the Library of Congress, Naomi Nelson at Emory University, Richard Rinehart at the Berkeley Art Museum/ Pacific Film Archive, David Ruddy at Cornell University, Bill Stockting at the National Archives, Michael Webb at the University of Oxford, and Timothy Young at Yale University. The guidelines are freely available to the archival community at www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID= 450.  

---

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

SAA’s 2004 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to GREGORY S. HUNTER for Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual 2nd edition (Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.). Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

The 456-page large-format book provides a comprehensive, intelligent, and fresh overview of what archives are and what archivists do, presented in a style nicely suited to beginners in the field or students in introduction to archives classes. Hunter’s discussions of such standard areas as accessioning and arrangement are practical, sensible, and true both to practice and theory. He covers newer topics of archival concern, such as managing digital records and developing a perspective on EAD without assumptions that could lead to confusion. And he includes very recently developed insights to tasks such as appraisal, where theory and practice are both in constant development. 

Hunter’s style is straightforward, even pleasantly pithy at times, and he injects humor to lighten topics that otherwise could get pretty tedious. Extra features, such as an abundance of boxed quotations from archivally relevant news stories, illuminate real-life applications. His assured tone and wide knowledge of the field convince readers that they have all the essential background needed to make a more detailed study of any aspect of the archival domain.  

---

Preservation Publication Award

SAA’s 2004 Preservation Publication Award was presented to ANNE R. KENNEY and NANCY Y. MCGOVERN of Cornell University for their Web-based tutorial, Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems. Established in 1993, the award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding work published in North America that advances the theory or practice of preservation in archival institutions.

Informative as well as entertaining, the Digital Preservation Management tutorial delivers exactly what the title promises. Based on international standards, it can serve a wide audience not only world-wide but also across the spectrum, from resource allocators to archivists to preservation librarians. To all, it offers a clear expression of what is needed for long-range planning while providing concrete and positive ways of moving forward via short-term strategies.

---

Fellows' Posner Award

SAA’s 2004 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award was presented to James O’Toole and George Bolotenko for their respective articles in the two most recent volumes of the American Archivist. The award, established in 1982 by the Fellows of SAA and named for former SAA President Ernst Posner, recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published in SAA’s semi-annual journal.

JAMES O’TOOLE (left), a professor of history at Boston College who specializes in American religion, is the recipient of the Posner Award for his essay, “Democracy—and Documents—in America,” published in volume 65 of the American Archivist. On the occasion of a new translation of Democracy in America, O’Toole’s essay brings to the forefront Tocqueville’s insights on “the subtle but recurrent role of records and documents which [he] identified in the success of American democracy.” As O’Toole points out, “[W]ithout ever speaking of accountability . . . Democracy in America recognized that records might serve that crucial purpose in a free society…[T]he easy accessibility which citizens had to information in all forms helped undergird a society in which privilege and power, potent and grasping though they might be, would always face counterveiling forces.” This “documentary basis for American democracy,” according to O’Toole, makes Tocqueville’s work worthy of examination in “an age in which democratic institutions seem newly challenged…and the nature of records is changing dramatically.”

GEORGE BOLOTENKO (left), an archivist in the Political Archives Section of Library and Archives Canada, is the recipient of the Posner Award for his article, “Frost on the Walls in Winter: Russian and Ukrainian Archives Since the Great Dislocation (1991–1999)” published in volume 66 of the American Archivist. His article addresses the national upheaval caused by the paradigm shift from the Soviet Union to the evolving systems of government in Russia and the Ukraine. Most articles on the collapse of the archival system in the Soviet Union, Bolotenko notes, focus on legislative and structural issues. His intent, though, was to consider “the blood-and bones reality of the effects of this transformation on the everyday life of archivists,” and how these effects “imposed heavy personal burdens and posed extraordinary professional challenges” for Russian and Ukrainian archivists. Bolotenko writes compassionately about their decade of “privation and trials,” to which they have responded with the utmost professionalism and, to use the author’s phrase, “stoic heroism.”

---

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

SAA’s 2004 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to CATHERINE O’SULLIVAN of New York University for her student paper, “Diaries, Online Diaries, and the Future Loss to Archives; or, Blogs and the Blogging Bloggers Who Blog Them.” Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA’s semi-annual journal, American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. The award includes forthcoming publication of O’Sullivan’s paper in the American Archivist.

O’Sullivan’s award-winning paper was prepared for a spring 2004 class in Archives, Historical Editing, and Historical Society Administration taught by Peter Wosh. In his nomination form, Wosh said, “I think this is one of the best research papers that I have received in the ten years that I have been teaching at NYU.” The well-researched paper examines blogs, a particular form of electronic record that is becoming both more commonplace and more influential in public discourse. O’Sullivan prefaces her discussion of blogs with a historical consideration of their paper-based antecedents—diaries. With this background in place, O’Sullivan then reviews the development of online diaries, or blogs, over the past several years, comparing and contrasting them to traditional diaries and delineating the challenges for archivists if they wish to preserve them. The paper concludes with some practical advice that might make this daunting task more feasible for the archival community.

One member of the Awards Committee commented, “This is a timely topic and represents fresh thinking on a very important issue for the profession. It also presents a topic in a way that I think will thoroughly engage archivists in manuscript repositories with electronic records issues.”

---

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award

SAA’s 2004 Oliver Wendell Holmes Award was presented to BART BALLAUX of Belgium. Established in 1979, the award is named for an SAA Fellow and former president. The award assists overseas archivists, already in the United States or Canada for training, to travel to and attend SAA’s conference.

Ballaux is enrolled in the Graduate School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. He serves as a graduate research assistant on the InterPARES Project and is interested in research in the archival discipline. Ballaux completed a graduate degree in archival studies from the Free University Brussels and has taken postgraduate training in social-economic history at the N.W. Posthumus Institute in the Netherlands. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master's degree in modern history from Catholic University Leuven, Belgium.

---

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

JOSUÉ HURTADO is the recipient of SAA’s 2004 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority undergraduate and graduate students of African, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American descent who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA. Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and was a Fellow of SAA. It is coordinated through the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable. 

Hurtado earned a B.A. in history from Stanford University in 1997 and a M.S.I. with a specialization in Archives and Records Management from the University of Michigan School of Information in 2004. He received the ALA Spectrum Scholarship in 2002 and the Chris Larew Memorial Scholarship in Library and Information Technology from LITA in 2003. His archival experience includes internships at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, volunteering at the New York Historical Society, and directed field experience at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Hurtado has also worked part-time at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. Currently he works at JSTOR, the online scholarly journal archive.

---

Colonial Dames Scholarship and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards

Shugana Campbell, Ann T. Boltin, and Luciana M. Spracher received SAA’s 2004 Colonial Dames Scholarship Award. Established in 1974, the award enables new archivists to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection in which a fair percentage of the repository’s holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

SHUGANA CAMPBELL, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the summer 2004 Modern Archives Institute, is the reference archivist at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans. She has also served as a processing archivist for the Center and as a graduate assistant for a McCain Archives and Library (University of Southern Mississippi) IMLS Digitization project. She received her M.L.I.S. in 2003 from the University of Southern Mississippi and her B.A. in history from Tougaloo College in 2001. In her cover letter for the scholarship application, Campbell noted, “I am still eager to learn and receive new and current archival methods to enhance my current institution.”

ANN T. BOLTIN, recipient of the Donna Cutt Scholarship to the summer 2004 Modern Archives Institute, is assistant archivist at the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge Archives. She began her association with the archives as an intern during a field experience and was then hired as assistant archivist. Boltin received her M.L.I.S. from Louisiana State University this summer. She earned her B.A. in history from the same institution in 1998. About attending the MAI, Boltin stated in her cover letter, “I am eager to learn more about the field, acquire practical knowledge, and meet other archivists.” 

LUCIANA M. SPRACHER, recipient of the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the winter 2004 Modern Archives Institute, is the principal historical researcher for her company, Bricks & Bones Historical Research. The company focuses on architectural, property, and genealogical research. Spracher also works as a project archivist for a variety of repositories in Savannah, GA. She has published several books and articles, including A History of Thunderbolt, Georgia (Thunderbolt Museum Society, 2003) and Lost Savannah (Arcadia Publishing, 2003). Spracher received her M.A. in public history from Armstrong Atlantic State University in 2002 and her B.A. in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 1998. In a letter to the Colonial Dames in which she reflects on her MAI attendance, Spracher wrote, “The variety of backgrounds and institutions the participants in the program came from were amazing, and I learned just as much from hearing about their experiences and problems as from the experienced instructors brought in to lead the various sessions.”  

---

Council Exemplary Service Award

The following citation was read by SAA President Randall Jimerson and presented to JOHN CARLIN at the Boston 2004 Closing Plenary Session:

Whereas John Carlin has served with distinction as Archivist of the United States since 1995; and

Whereas he has enhanced communication with the Society of American Archivists, including preparing a regular column in Archival Outlook; and

Whereas he has fostered a new mission/vision statement that defines the National Archives and Records Administration as an agency that is essential in our democracy for protecting citizens’ rights, holding government officials accountable, and documenting the national experience; and

Whereas he has set priorities and new directions for NARA by developing and institutionalizing a ten-year strategic plan; and

Whereas he has secured record agency budget increases that have protected ongoing operations and funded new strategic initiatives, and has championed increased funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission; and

Whereas he has promoted access to records by reducing the agency’s processing backlogs; has raised the public profile of the National Archives; and has dramatically increased NARA’s online services via a robust Web site that includes a catalog of NARA’s nationwide holdings and online access to electronic records; and

Whereas in partnership with other government entities and the private sector he is developing solutions for long-term preservation of and access to electronic records through the Electronic Records Archive program;

Therefore Be It Resolved That the Council of the Society of American Archivists recognizes John W. Carlin for his exemplary contributions to the archival profession.

In his remarks following receipt of the Council Exemplary Service Award, Carlin acknowledged the important relationship between NARA and SAA and encouraged archivists to advocateeven more strongly for the profession: “We [as archivists] take our roles very seriously and we do a good job, but I don’t think we fully communicate to the people who have the purse strings—who can provide resources—the essential nature of the real work we do.” In an emotional conclusion, Carlin said: “Every day I have [left at NARA] I will continue to work. But when that day comes, I’m not done. I want to continue to work with you, because there’s [so much] more to be done.”

Fellows

SARA S. “SUE” HODSON is Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. In summarizing her distinguished 30-year career, nominators wrote the following:

“She is a distinguished and consummate professional, a thoughtful scholar with keen intelligence and deep-rooted integrity, and a thoroughly warm and compassionate person.”

“Sue is passionate about what she does and how it makes a difference to people’s lives.”

“Even more than her particular accomplishments and contributions, Sue has been remarkable for the warmth, generosity, and enthusiasm with which she has infused the projects and organizations she serves. She does not seek the limelight, and is apt to redirect praise aimed at her toward those with whom she worked.”

“Her experience, her thoughtfulness, and her unflinching ability to argue and yet leave no doubt for an instant that she respects the views of her opponent, have made her a trusted and widely admired colleague.”

Hodson has served on the Huntington Library staff in increasingly responsible positions since 1973. She has published extensively on the Huntington’s literary collections and is particularly known as a scholar of the 20th-century novelist Jack London. Two forthcoming books reflect the breadth of her scholarly and curatorial accomplishments: Poems in Manuscript, to be published by the Huntington, and Human Documents: Photographs by Jack London, written in collaboration with Jeanne Campbell Reesman. Reflecting her scholarly interests, Hodson is currently president of the Jack London Society.

Hodson is best known to her SAA colleagues as an expert on issues of privacy and confidentiality, and it is in this area that her most enduring contributions to the profession may lie. She helped to found and has long been a leader of the Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable, serving as chair from 1996 to 1998, and her paper on privacy in the papers of authors and celebrities is forthcoming in the Privacy Reader scheduled for publication by SAA this year. She has spoken and published on these issues many, many times. More praise from her colleagues: “Sue’s fervor for both privacy rights and access, coupled with an innate sense of justice and fairness towards all parties … make her ideally suited to consider and resolve these often difficult issues.”

Hodson has generously served as chair or member of numerous other SAA groups over the years, including a term as chair of the Manuscript Repositories Section. She has been a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists since 1990. She has also contributed in many ways to the Society of California Archivists, for which she was honored with the SCA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. A nominator described her as one of the most “knowledgeable, energetic, and eminently collegial forces in the California archival community.”

— Jackie Dooley, University of California, Irvine

---

GREGORY S. HUNTER is Professor in the Palmer School of Library and Information Science of Long Island University. In summarizing his distinguished 27-year career, nominators wrote that, “He embodies all the qualities that SAA seeks to honor with selection as a Fellow. He is a committed archivist, records manager, teacher, writer, presenter, and consultant.” Hunter bridges a variety of communities and is known to be “broad and versatile” and “a high-energy, tireless contributor to, supporter of, and champion of the archival field.”

A long-time New Yorker, Hunter received his undergraduate degree from St. John’s and his master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University. He began his professional career as a business archivist with Chase Manhattan Bank and was later Manager of Corporate Records for ITT. He also spent six years as Director of Archival Programs for the United Negro College Fund. From this background, he learned archival and records management practice from the ground up.

With the completion of his doctoral studies, Hunter took his teaching from workshops and adjunct assignments to being a full-time educator. In addition to his current post at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, he has taught at Columbia, St. John’s, the University of Puerto Rico, and the Georgia Archives Institute, and has made more than 200 presentations at professional meetings, workshops, and seminars. One of his supporters noted that, “His approach has been a rare combination of the theoretical and practical. He investigates archival questions with rigorous methodology, but passes on his knowledge in a practical, down-to-earth manner.”

This clearly comes through in his publications as well. His more than 25 articles and seven books cover a variety of topics, but his two best-known works, the award-winning Preserving Digital Information and Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives, now in its second edition, are standouts. Many archival educators use the latter title as a textbook in their own archives courses, as well as referring to it in day-to-day work.

Hunter’s dedication to his profession has been evident at all levels as he has provided leadership and service to the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, the Long Island Archivists Conference, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, and the Academy of Certified Archivists, for which he was a charter member and the group’s first president. Within SAA, he has chaired the Committee on Education and Professional Development and the Publications Board, served on Annual Meeting program committees, and been an officer of the Business Archives Section, editing the online version of the Directory of Business Archives in the United States and Canada.

— Lee J. Stout, Pennsylvania State University

---

KAREN JEFFERSON is Head of Archives and Special Collections at the Atlanta University Center. In nominating Jefferson for her exemplary professional achievements, supporters noted that, “In her work as a practicing archivist, she has built and managed distinctive programs and collections. As a dedicated member of SAA for 21 years, Karen has filled many important roles. Perhaps most importantly, she has made SAA a better organization for African American professionals, and has made SAA a better organization as a result. As a kind and caring guide and teacher, she has served as a mentor and a model for young African American information professionals. As a leader in SAA, she has been a wise and forceful presence in the governance of our Society.”

Jefferson received a BA in history from Howard University in 1974 and an MS in library science in 1975 from Atlanta University. She soon joined the staff of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University in Washington, DC. From her start as a Library Technician in 1975, she remained there for 18 years, serving as Curator of Manuscripts from 1987 to 1993, supervising a staff of twelve and managing a collection of 6,000 linear feet. During her time there, Jefferson did much to create the archival professionalism that now characterizes the Research Center. Though dating its origin to 1914, the University had only in 1973 begun to provide support for a professionally staffed manuscript program.

In 1993, Jefferson joined the staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities as a Program Officer in the Division of Preservation and Access. During her three years at NEH, she advised prospective applicants and monitored active grants, devoting particular attention to encouraging and advising in the development of strong proposals by Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Jefferson then moved to Duke University, where she worked with the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation, focusing on identifying and acquiring materials and encouraging their use. After two years at Duke, she moved to the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center as Head of Archives and Special Collections, where she has responsibility for the archives that supports Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, and Spelman College. Since moving there, she has done much to revitalize a struggling program and to make its collections a valued element in the life of the colleges.

In SAA, Jefferson was a founding member of the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable, serving as co-editor of its newsletter and compiling the Archivists of Color Directory. She has served on the Awards Subcommittees for the Colonial Dames Scholarship and for the Harold Pinkett Award. She served on the SAA Task Force on Diversity, is currently a member of the Publications Board, and served on the Society’s Council from 1997 to 2000.

Jefferson also has been active in the work of other archival and library organizations as a committee member, instructor, author, and editor, including the Association of Certified Archivists, SOLINET, the Society of Georgia Archivists, and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Archives Institute. She has served as a valued consultant to national and regional archival programs. In 2003 she was honored by the University of Maryland with the James Partridge Outstanding African American Information Professional Award.

— H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University

---

ALDEN N. MONROE is Head of Collections Management at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. Monroe has been a leader in developing and promulgating descriptive standards regarding archival control within bibliographic networks, moving the profession forward in a critical area at a critical time. As a member of the RLG Archives, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Program Committee, he introduced the concept of controlled vocabulary and a thesaurus of function for government records described in the RLIN database.

In reviewing his contributions to the profession and to SAA, one of several nominators cited “his dedication to archival work and the profession, his archival sense, calm presence, and sound judgment.” He has been a prolific contributor to many Society of American Archivists committees and task forces.

Known for his capabilities as “a great archivist, mentor, and colleague who takes his profession rather than himself seriously,” Monroe was honored by his nominators as follows: “Alden is one of those very special people who do the essential yet often unsung work of our profession—the work that others defer in doing because it is hard, time-consuming, and does not always earn great recognition. He is the backup singer; the person who does all the essential work of providing the constant rhythm, the depth and the harmony necessary to support and sustain the music, doing the difficult and unheralded work that makes everything come together.”

— Waverly Lowell, University of California, Berkeley

---

DANIEL PITTI is Associate Director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. While at the University of California, Berkeley, Pitti started the Berkeley Finding Aid Project in 1993 as a platform to explore the application of markup technologies to archival description. Through Pitti’s brilliant conception and collaboration with leading archival descriptive experts, the project evolved into a tool known as Encoded Archival Description (EAD), now widely recognized as the international standard for providing access to archives and manuscripts via the Internet.

As one nominator noted: “The road to becoming a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists has many forks. Some attain it through long and outstanding work in the archival trenches and in professional service. Others arrive through scholarly achievement and intellectual accomplishment by adding to and stretching the theoretical boundaries of what used to be called ‘archival economy.’ And then there are those few who erupt upon the scene like some cosmic event, who so dramatically change the very landscape of what we do, how we do it, and, indeed, even who we are. Daniel Pitti is such a person.”

Pitti has been tireless in his efforts to promulgate EAD by conducting workshops and seminars and giving talks and presentations in countless national and international forums. As one of his supporters noted, “… acceptance of EAD did [not] fall from the skies like manna. It required a lot of explaining, educating, exhorting, and just plain politicking to convey its merits…. The international acceptance of EAD is due in good measure to Daniels’s work as promoter, teacher, writer, and all-around evangelist.” He has helped to elevate the archives profession into a position as a leader in information technology.

As another supporter pointed out: “EAD is significant not only for enhancing archival description and increasing access to primary sources, but for providing a framework that is now being used in a wide variety of settings.”

— Steven Hensen, Duke University

And the 2003 SAA Awards Go To...

The Society of American Archivists celebrated outstanding archival achievements in public service, advocacy, and writing and provided scholarship assistance to students at an awards ceremony held Aug. 22, 2003, during SAA's 67th annual meeting at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The annual competition recognizes accomplishments of the preceding calendar year.

The Awards Committee, co-chaired by Alexandra Gressitt and Diane Dimkoff, worked with subcommittees in the selection process for each award.

SAA heartily congratulates the following award recipients as well as all who participated in the awards competition.

 

---

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY (ASU) received SAA’s 2003 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. Established in 1990, this prestigious award, named in honor of a historian and advocate for the archival profession, recognizes an organization that promotes greater public awareness of archival activities and programs. Dean of ASU Libraries Sherrie Schmidt accepted the award on behalf of ASU.

The award recognized the work of ASU’s Electronic College and University Records (ECURE) conference (www.asu.edu/ecure). The university, in hosting and funding four ECURE conferences to date, has significantly increased public awareness and appreciation of archives. More specifically, ECURE conferences have advanced understanding of electronic records management. The conferences have lowered professional boundaries, bringing administrators, archivists, records mangers, and information technologists together in a manner revealing the important expertise and potential contribution of each profession to the common objective of developing and implementing sound electronic records management practices. ECURE has facilitated the development of truly interdisciplinary problem-solving teams at universities across the country. ECURE conferences would not have been possible without the generous and sustaining support of ASU.

---

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Society of American Archivists’ 2003 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award for increasing public awareness about manuscripts and archives was presented to the NEW YORK STATE ARCHIVES PARTNERSHIP TRUST in recognition of its quarterly publication, New York Archives. The award was established in 1973 and is named for two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

Handsomely designed and printed, New York Archives offers a visually appealing introduction to the archival world. Its articles are uniformly well written and amply reflect the diversity of peoples and experiences that comprise the history of New York State. Moreover, although under the sponsorship of the state archives program, the magazine taps the resources of many institutions across the state. Through that approach, it promotes awareness not merely of one institution or collection, but of institutions large and small across the state. Regular features, such as “In Their Own Words,” “Genealogy,” and “Parting Shots,” provide the reader with insight into different dimensions of the archival endeavor, including the good stewardship of the documentary record undertaken by the archival profession. New York Archives is an excellent vehicle for archival outreach.

---

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

THERESA “TERRY” THOMPSON of the Anglican Church of Canada Archives of the General Synod is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ 2003 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for her significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Established in 1974, the award is sponsored in conjunction with and funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Since becoming archivist for the Anglican Church in 1979, Thompson has established an archives and records management program that has become a model for all of the dioceses of the church throughout Canada. She has created networks, training manuals, and workshops for local church archives as well as successfully advocated for making the archives an indispensable part of the operation of the institution.

This was never more important than when the Anglican Church of Canada became a defendant in more than 1,500 lawsuits filed by former students of Indian residential schools, which sent the church into years of litigation and near bankruptcy. During this period, Thompson provided litigation support, testified to the authentication of historical documentation, and provided research services and interpretation of records that were critical. A working set of 16,000 documents was identified and each case also required case-specific research. During all of this, she maintained professional archives standards and practices while under intense pressure, scrutiny, and conflict. The settlement for the church last year is now also serving as a model for other Canadian denominations facing similar suits. The Anglican Church archives collections were also recognized as essential to the ongoing process of healing and reconciliation as the church works with indigenous partners for justice.

In addition, Thompson’s contributions extend beyond her own institution. She has served in multiple capacities for the Association of Canadian Archivists, including as treasurer, vice president, and president. She has been an active member of SAA, the International Council on Archives, and the Canadian Council of Archives. She was a consultant to the World Student Christian Federation Archives and on the board of the Student Christian Movement of Canada, and, more recently, a founding member of the International Working Group on Archives of the Anglican Communion. In 2002, the Archives Association of Ontario recognized the Anglican Church of Canada Archives of the General Synod with a service award.

---

Fellows' Posner Award

SAA’s 2003 Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award was presented to WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG of the University of Michigan for his article, “Politics in the (Russian) Archives: The Objectivity Question, Trust and the Limitation of Law,” published in volume 64 of the American Archivist. The award, established in 1982 by the Fellows of SAA and named for former SAA President Ernst Posner, recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published in the latest volume of SAA’s semi-annual journal.

Rosenberg is the Alfred G. Meyer Professor of History at the University of Michigan and a noted Russian/Soviet Union historian. In this fascinating and thought-provoking article, he challenges the archival community to make the selection, description, and availability of records as transparent and objective as possible. This challenge is based on the deep understanding of archives, archival practice, and changing archival legislation and procedures he experienced in working in the archival holdings of various Soviet/Russian and American archives over many years. That experience was broadened by membership on the Joint Task Force on Archives sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and the American Historical Association, which produced a landmark report in 1995 on the changes official archives faced after the fall of the Soviet Union. His archival understanding was further refined during the 2000/2001 academic year, when he co-directed the University of Michigan’s Sawyer Seminar with Francis X. Blouin, Director of the Bentley Historical Library. The year-long seminar, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, focused on “Archives, Documentation, and the Institutions of Social Memory” and featured nearly 100 presentations by U.S. and international archivists on archival issues.

Rosenberg argues that politics are never far removed from “any important question about the role and function of archives.” Drawing from his experience in both Soviet/Russian and American archives, he demonstrates that control over and within archives ultimately determines what is collected, when it is available for users, and how it is described. Users are dependent upon the archivist to keep archival politics and the relation of power they reflect as transparent as possible. He articulates the nervousness historians and, by extension, all users, feel when using archives and the questions they ask: Does this body of records represent an appropriate memory of the past? Is this body of records authentic? How can these records be verified? Has the archival mantle of objectivity disguised or distorted the picture? Archives, as an institution of social memory, implicitly gain an aura of authenticity and uncontestable fact. The challenge to the archival community is to document its activities in such a manner that reassures the user about the archivist, the process, and the resulting archival collections.

Click here to subscribe to American Archivist.

---

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

SAA’s 2003 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to JOAN ECHTENKAMP KLEIN of the University of Virginia Health System for the Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection Web site. Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America’s archival pioneers and SAA’s second president.

Klein embraced technology to foster an understanding of the historical record as the project director for the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant-funded digitization and World Wide Web project. Her approach exemplifies the positive transformation by archivists and curators from print to electronic media, demonstrating that digital projects can serve a multitude of purposes. In an attractive, easy-to-navigate site—http://yellowfever.lib.virginia.edu/—beautifully written text reveals the dramatic story of the conquest of this dreaded disease. The site provides many ways to learn about Yellow Fever and its history, to view interesting images and important letters and documents—more than 5,000—and to search for persons, places and subjects relating to the disease and the collection. From an access perspective, the site offers several methods of retrieving documents and provides unique features, such as digital images of documents with transcriptions that include encoding schemes to provide rich metadata, corresponding abstracts of digital documents, and the use of controlled vocabulary to enhance subject retrieval.

Klein holds a dual appointment at the University of Virginia, where she serves as assistant director for Historical Collections and Services at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, and assistant professor for Medical Education at the School of Medicine. Her work demonstrates how archivists and curators who oversee important historical collections can become creative and imaginative, and can perform a public service that reaches beyond the archival repository.

---

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

SAA’s 2003 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to GLENN DINGWALL of the University of British Columbia for his student paper, “Trusting Archivists: The Role of Archival Ethics Codes in Establishing Public Faith.” Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA’s semi-annual journal, American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. The award consists of a certificate, cash prize, and forthcoming publication of Dingwall’s paper in the American Archivist.

Dingwall’s award-winning paper was prepared for a directed studies course taught by Professor Heather MacNeil in the Master of Archival Studies Program at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia. The paper provides a concise background on ethical theories and perspectives and examines the issues surrounding ethics and professionalism and the importance of codes of ethics for professions. It also examines existing archival codes of ethics to analyze the ways in which they can be both effective and ineffective in promoting a sense of public faith in archivists as trusted professionals.

Through careful scholarship, clear presentation, and thoughtful analysis, Dingwall’s paper strikes new ground in its comparative analysis of existing ethical codes and in the connections it makes between literature from outside the archival field and the ethical challenges that the archival profession faces. It reflects a broad understanding of the thinking behind professional codes of ethics and the challenges that must be met to make them truly effective.

Dingwall is the fourth student from the University of British Columbia to win the award.

---

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award

SAA’s 2003 Oliver Wendell Holmes Award was presented to JI-HYUN KIM from Korea. Established in 1979 and named for an SAA Fellow and former president, the award assists overseas archivists already in the United States or Canada for training to travel to and attend SAA’s conference. Kim received the award on Aug. 22, 2003, at SAA’s 67th annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Kim is enrolled in the doctoral program in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She is working on several research projects, including an analysis of archival Web sites and a large-scale study of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) implementation. She recently completed a paper examining EAD encoding practices across a wide spectrum of archival repositories.

Kim completed a master’s degree at the University of Michigan School of Information with specialization in archives and records management. She has an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in library and information science from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul. Kim hopes to return to Korea and teach archives at one of the country’s library and information science schools.

---

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

MICHELLE BAILDON is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ 2002 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award, which is coordinated through SAA’s Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable, recognizes minority undergraduate and graduate students of African, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American descent who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA. Baildon received complimentary registration to SAA’s 67th annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Baildon received a B.A. in history and science from Harvard University in 1997; an M.A. in American Studies from Yale University in 2001; and an M.L.I.S. from Simmons College in August 2003. She has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the ALA Spectrum Scholarship in 2002; the LITA/OCLC Minority Student Scholarship in 2002; and the Midwest Archives Conference Archie Motley Scholarship for Minority Students in 2003. Her archives experience includes internships at Massachusetts Historical Society, Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives, and Harvard Medical School Rare Books and Special Collections. She has also worked part-time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections. She recently secured a professional position at the Boston College O’Neil Library, where she will be working in the areas of digital initiatives, scholarly communication, and reference and instruction.

The award, established in 1993, honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and was a Fellow of SAA.

---

Colonial Dames Scholarship Award

Two newcomers to the archival profession, SISTER FRANCES M. GIMBER, RSCJ, and ELI NAEHER, received SAA’s 2003 Colonial Dames Scholarship Award. Established in 1974, the award enables new archivists each year to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers up to $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository’s holding’s predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

Sister Frances M. Gimber of the Society of the Sacred Heart Provincial Archives in St. Louis, Mo., attended the winter Modern Archives Institute. Eli Naeher, archives assistant at the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society in Wilmington, N.C., attended the summer Modern Archives Institute.

---

Council Exemplary Service Award

SAA’s governing council selected four individuals to receive the Council Exemplary Service Award in 2003:

BRENDA BANKS, deputy director of the Georgia Archives, was honored for challenging SAA to embrace a diverse membership and for encouraging the protection and preservation of historical records, especially those documenting the African American experience.

While many encourage change, Banks has worked throughout her career to make it happen. Most recently, she has served as consultant for the Cooperative HBCU Archival Survey Project, which surveyed the archival collections at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This important project assisted HBCU archivists in creating descriptions of their collections and making these descriptions available on the Internet, thereby providing access to some of the richest resource material on African American history.

Banks has coordinated and served as lead instructor for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Archival Institute, a program to help provide education and training for archivists and librarians who care for archival and manuscript collections at these institutions. As part of the curriculum, institute attendees are encouraged to join SAA and, in 2002, she shepherded 27 of the 47 participants from the first two years of the institute to the SAA conference in Birmingham, Ala. For many, it was their first time at an SAA conference. This year an additional 17 archivists and librarians from HBCUs and other African American archival repositories are participating in the archival institute.

In addition she has helped in the development of the Archival Assistants training program providing formal training for archival assistants working at HBCUs, formal training not often provided to these staff members. She has worked with her alma mater, Spelman College, to obtain grant money to fund these projects and many others to help ensure the preservation of materials that document the activities of HBCUs, including those of her alma mater.

A Fellow and former president of SAA, Banks continues to make SAA a stronger and diverse organization by being a model of activism and excellence through her work and example.

ALEXANDRA S. GRESSITT of Richmond, Va., was honored for her unflinching service during her two consecutive terms as chair of the SAA Awards Committee.

The recognition of one’s professional peers is the highest personal or institutional achievement one can reach. At the same time, the SAA awards process helps the archival profession identify the very best it has to offer and, as a result, helps improve the entire profession. Thus, chairing the SAA Awards Committee is one of the most important tasks in the association and also one of the hardest. The chairperson coordinates the work of thirteen different awards subcommittees as well as the Awards Committee itself, serving on half of those subcommittees. In Gressitt’s case, because her first co-chair could not continue to serve, she took on these duties for a second term. She did more than just make sure the awards subcommittee did its work, however; she also organized lists of appropriate nominations to fill vacancies on all the subcommittees. In addition, she compared the description of each of the awards subcommittees to existing committee documentation, ultimately refining and enhancing the end product.

CARROLL DENDLER and DEBRA NOLAN were cited for their “yeomen’s work as interim executive co-directors of SAA, providing invaluable leadership” throughout the ten-month-long search process. In addition, their extraordinary talents have benefited SAA for many years.

Dendler arrived at SAA in 1992 to serve as the finance and human resources director. She quickly proved her value to the organization with her meticulous attention to financial details. Her reputation for hard work, dedication, attention to detail and ability to “squeeze every possible dime out of SAA’s budget” is well noted. Dendler previously received this award in 2001 for her “extraordinary grasp of SAA’s financial minutia and human resources.”

Nolan joined SAA in 1991 as meetings/member services director, and within very little time became a standout member of the staff. She was promoted to assistant executive director in 1995, and served in that capacity for two years. In 1997, she moved to Florida and has since served SAA as a meetings consultant. Nolan has an astonishing ability to juggle lots of details, always maintaining a positive relationship with hotel staffs, vendors, presenters, Council members, staff members and SAA members.

When SAA’s former executive director departed in September 2002, Dendler and Nolan agreed to divide the responsibilities of the position while continuing to maintain their regular duties. The search for a new executive director took ten months and, throughout that process, Dendler and Nolan maintained a considerable workload. They did an outstanding job maintaining member services, meeting the governing council’s information needs, providing guidance and assistance to staff, and moving forward with scheduled events and a new budget. Although their responsibilities as interim executive co-directors officially ended July 15 when the new executive director joined SAA, they continue to play a key role in helping with the transition.

Fellows

Philip Bantin and Ian E. Wilson were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on Aug. 22, 2003, during an awards ceremony at SAA's 67th annual meeting at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. They join 142 current members so honored out of a membership of 3,600.

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Leon J. Stout (chair), Steven Hensen, H. Thomas Hickerson, Luciana Duranti, William J. Maher—and three Fellows selected by Council—Valerie Gerrard Browne, Megan Desnoyers, and Deborah Skaggs.

Following are citations given by presenters during the awards ceremony.

---

PHILIP C. BANTIN is university archivist for Indiana University at Bloomington. He has been a leader in tackling the brave new world of electronic records outside of government archives. In 26 years of professional service, he has developed an excellent understanding of the academic environment and its organizational dynamics. His entire career has been spent in universities, first at Marquette in the 1980s, where he was assistant and then associate archivist and conducted a National Endowment for the Humanities grant project to survey Catholic Indian Mission and School Records in the Midwest. At the University of California-Los Angeles he served as university archivist and studied collection development practices in academic archives. At Boston College, he was head of archives and manuscripts, and, for the last decade, he has served Indiana University at Bloomington as university archivist and director of a series of National Historical Publications and Records Commission-funded projects in electronic records.

In each of his posts he has taken on new challenges and educated himself in new fields. His work at Indiana University is the most notable of these efforts. His leadership and knowledge about IT systems design, auditing, and transactional systems have convinced high-level administrators to pay attention to archival issues in systems redesign. The electronic records project is ongoing and built on previous work in other projects in which Bantin has shared widely through his project Web site, award-winning articles in professional journals, and numerous presentations at professional conferences.

Bantin has generously served on a variety of advisory committees, including the University Archivists Group of the Big Ten Schools, where he has assisted his colleagues in moving electronic records issues forward on their own campuses. He has taught archival courses at Bloomington and given many guest lectures in other classrooms. He has been an active professional at all levels, serving SAA on steering committees for both the College and University Archives and the Electronic Records sections, on program and local arrangements committees, and in a variety of posts for regional and state associations.

— Leon J. Stout, Pennsylvania State University

---

IAN E. WILSON is the National Archivist of Canada and vice president of the International Council on Archives. His career is exemplary and his contributions to archival practice and the archival professions in Canada, the United States, and worldwide have been outstanding. Under his leadership, the National Archives of Canada exercises its archival mandate within the unique concept of “total” archives, in which the national repository is charged with acquiring the full range of the documentary record, ranging from public to private and from historical to artistic. The National Archives also operates the national portrait gallery, and current plans will unite the archives and the national library in achieving a common mission in preserving and providing public access to the cultural heritage of the peoples of Canada.

Wilson began his career in 1966 as an assistant archivist in the university archives of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he was the Provincial Archivist of Saskatchewan, Wilson chaired the work of the Consultative Group on Archives of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Its report, Canadian Archives, set forth a strategy for a national archival system. This groundbreaking effort was recognized by SAA in 1981, when it was awarded a Waldo Gifford Leland Certificate of Commendation for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice. This report, combined with another visionary statement, Report of the Advisory Committee on Archives, issued by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 1985, charted the development of the Canadian Archival System, a network of more than 800 Canadian archival programs linked together for common purposes, including public advocacy, fundraising, and sharing knowledge of their combined holding through the use of common descriptive standards. As a principal author of both reports, Wilson sketched out a vision that, in his succeeding professional assignments, he has been able to exercise a prominent role in realizing. After leaving Saskatchewan, he served for thirteen years as Archivist of Ontario, during which he also managed the Ontario public library system for three years and served as an adjunct associate professor on the faculties of Information Studies and of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto for seven years. He was named National Archivist of Canada in 1999.

Wilson joined SAA in 1967 and has been a continuous member for thirty-five years. He has been a regular speaker at SAA conferences since 1975 and has also spoken at meetings of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, regional archival associations, and university forums in the United States. He has served on SAA’s Techniques for the Control and Description of Archives and Manuscripts Committee, Program Committee, and Task Force on Goals and Priorities, which set a strategic course for SAA during the mid-1980s. His extensive writings have appeared in a broad range of historical, archival, library, and museum publications.

His appointments to Canadian public and professional boards and committees are numerous and his awards include being named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2002; receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from York University in 2001; and, in 1983, receiving the W. Kaye Lamb Prize for the best article published in Archivaria, the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists.

His record of contributions to the work of archivists and archival agencies in North America is remarkable. Wilson has also addressed his attention to archives worldwide. Principally through the International Council on Archives (ICA), he has devoted his abilities and his time to efforts seeking to strengthen archival programs and improve the quality of archival practice globally. In addition to his current service as ICA vice president, he also serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the International Conference of the Round Table on Archives. In the complexities of the international arena, he exhibits the same organizational and political intelligence that has brought him such success in many other endeavors. Wilson truly is a world leader in the archival profession.

— H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University

And the 2002 SAA Awards Go To...

The Society of American Archivists recognized and celebrated outstanding archival achievements for the calendar year 2001 at an awards ceremony held August 22, 2002, during its 66th annual meeting at the Sheraton in Birmingham, Alabama. Subcommittees of the Awards Committee, which was chaired by Alexandra Gressitt, and Bill Brock, selected recipients of the SAA-sponsored awards. SAA heartily congratulates all of the award winners.

---

Distinguished Service Award

 

DUKE UNIVERSITY is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists' 2002 Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1964, the award recognizes a North American archival institution that has provided outstanding public service and has made an exemplary contribution to the archival profession. David Ferriero, Duke University Vice Provost for Library Affairs, and Robert Byrd, Director of Rare Book, Manuscripts and Special Collections, received the award on behalf of the institution.

Duke has long been a leader in regional, national, and international archival efforts in descriptive standards, cutting-edge cooperative projects, and professional development and involvement. Duke was a very early implementer of Encoded Archival Description and helped to refine the standard. In addition, Duke staff produced a best-selling archival publication, Encoded Archival Description Tag Library, which was published by SAA in 1998. For almost a decade the Digital Scriptorium has led the development of best practices for online digital collections. As one nominator said, "Duke University is a model for other universities in how it develops its archives, hires and supports archivists, and commits itself to the principles that are at the heart of the archival profession."

Previous recipients of the Distinguished Service Award include the Master's of Archival Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives at Johns Hopkins University, The Research Libraries Group, Oberlin College Archives, and the Billy Graham Archives.

---

J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

 

Retired systems administrator JOAN WINTERS (pictured at left) and retired associate librarian LOUISE ADDIS, both of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, are the recipients of the Society of American Archivists' 2002 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. Established in 1990, this prestigious award, named in honor of an historian and advocate for the archival profession, recognizes individuals and/or organizations that promote greater public awareness of archival activities and programs.

Ms. Winters and Ms. Addis not only grasped the historical dimension of their participation in the working group that created the first Web server in the United States, but also instinctively did the right things at the right times to ensure that records of that project survived. Ms. Winters' diligent safeguarding of superseded Web pages and system documentation along with Ms. Addis scrupulous maintenance of electronic meeting minutes and her firmly articulated record-keeping guidelines for the working group created one of the most significant windows into the history of the Web in the United States. The Society of American Archivists lauds Ms. Winters and Ms. Addis for their farsighted efforts and sustained commitment to promoting archival activities when they confronted the issues associated with the rapid evolution of information technology.

Past award recipients of the Jameson Award have included former Senator Thomas F. Eagleton (D-MO), Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), The Mellon Foundation, Hudson's Bay Company, and New York City philanthropist Richard Benson, Newsday, and Kraft Foods.

---

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The VERMONT STATE ARCHIVES received the Society of American Archivists' 2002 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award for increasing public awareness about a specific body of documents. The award, established in 1973, honors the memory of two SAA Fellows and former presidents. Vermont State Archivist Gregory Sanford accepted the award.

The Vermont State Archives' impressive Web site, "Continuing Issues of Government and Governance," uses technology as an extension of a traditional archival publication program, but is not limited to merely posting electronic versions of finding aids or state records. In a proactive and unique approach, the staff of the Vermont State Archives made the extra effort to identify materials from the holdings of the State Archives relevant to current issues and topics and then post that material to this Web site (http://vermont-archives.org/governance/govern.htm). It is a dynamic publication. The Web site is now an active outreach tool known and used by legislators, the press, and the public.

Previous recipients of the Hamer Kegan Award include Jeffrey D. Marshall for his publication, A War of the People: Vermont Civil War Letters (which documents the lives and attitudes of rank-and-file Vermont soldiers), the American Heritage Center at University of Wyoming, New York Public Library, Minnesota Historical Society, and Delaware Public Archives.

---

Fellows' Posner Award

The Society of American Archivists' 2002 Fellows' Posner Award was presented to TERRY COOK, professor in the Archival Studies Programme at the University of Manitoba and an archival consultant, for his article, " 'The Imperative of Challenging Absolutes' in Graduate Archival Education Programs: Issues for Educators and the Profession," published in volume 63 of the American Archivist. The award, established in 1982 by the Fellows of the Society of American Archivists and named for former SAA president Ernst Posner, recognizes an outstanding essay dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory, and/or methodology published in the latest volume of SAA's semi-annual journal.

Mr. Cook's article, which was published in a special issue on graduate archival education, reflects on various themes presented at a 1999 archival education conference and of the state of archival education at the beginning of the twentieth-first century. It provides a model summary, acknowledging the variety of perspectives presented in the other thought-provoking articles in the special issue. Mr. Cook uses his platform to go well beyond a summation of conference papers and offers a keen discussion of the relationships among research, education, and practice.

In this well-written essay, he argues that archival educators should ask not only, "What does an archivist need to know?" but also, "How does an archivist need to think, and why?" For Mr. Cook, this "approach advocates…a blend of the humanist and cultural perspective that is (or should be) at the heart of any university education, with professional knowledge and practical competence." He presents a research agenda that notes the needs for varied types of research, and research in varied settings. His broad, humanist essay illustrates how faculty, students, and practitioners can be partners in advancing the archival profession. While observing that, "Research by archivists in daily work is not the same as archival research," Mr. Cook establishes a continuing role for the practicing archivist in the archival research agenda. He further notes that, "It is important for the profession to remember that the opposite of practical is impractical, not theoretical. Theory is rather the complement to practice, and theory and practice should interact and cross-fertilize each other…"

Click here to subscribe to American Archivist.

---

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

The Society of American Archivists' 2002 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to RICHARD J. COX of the University of Pittsburgh for his provocative monograph, Managing Records for Evidence and Information (Quorum Books, 2001). Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America's archival pioneers and SAA's second president.

Describing the work as an exploration of the fundamental principles of archives and records management that must be understood before records policy can be set, Cox asks records professionals to re-examine basic concepts, beginning with the definition of a record. Drawing upon a wide range of resources—archival theory past and present, his own research, and insights gleaned from other disciplines—Cox turns his keen analysis to other vital issues that should inform the setting of records policy: the place of technology in defining and managing records; the central role of sound records appraisal and maintenance criteria; the importance of advocacy for the records enterprise; and the need to better prepare future generations of records professionals. Some will differ with some of his conclusions, but few will disagree that his presentation is forceful, well informed, and impossible to ignore. Cox challenges archivists to be bold enough to think along these essential lines with him, to ask big questions about what archivists do and why. Managing Records as Evidence and Information is a vibrant contribution to professional discourse.

Cox, a SAA Fellow, is a second-time recipient of this award, having won it in 1991 for his book, American Archival Analysis: The Recent Development of the Archival Profession in the United States. Other previous recipients include Charles Dollar for Authentic Electronic Records: Strategies for Long-Term Access, James O'Toole of Boston College for The Records of American Business, and Anne Kenney & Steve Chapman of Cornell University for Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives.

---

Preservation Publication Award

 

The Society of American Archivists' 2002 Preservation Publication Award was presented to ROBERT E. SCHNARE, JR. for his publication, Bibliography of Preservation Literature, 1983-1996 (Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2001). Established in 1993, the award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding work, published in North America, that advances the theory or practice of preservation in archival institutions. Mr. Schnare, director of the library at the U.S. Naval War College.

This extensive annotated bibliography—and the excellent essay on preservation management that is included—addresses the pragmatic concerns of modern collection preservation. The book provides access to the best strategies and advice currently available. On both the title page and in his preface, Mr. Schnare credits and acknowledges the contributions of the late Susan G. Swartzburg and George M. Cunha in the genesis and development of the book. It is a wonderful tribute to these pioneers and leading lights in the archives and library preservation field. The archival community is grateful for this collective accomplishment, but especially to Mr. Schnare for bringing the work to fruition.

Past recipients of the Preservation Publication Award include Gregory S. Hunter for Preserving Digital Information: A How-To-Do-It Manual, Eléonore Kissel and Erin Vigneau for Architectural Photoreproductions: A Manual for Identification and Care, and James M. Reilly for The Storage Guide for Color Photographic Materials.

---

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

The Society of American Archivists' 2002 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to RETO TSCHAN of the University of British Columbia for his student paper, "A Comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on Appraisal." Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA's semi-annual journal, American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administration classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. Mr. Tschan received a certificate and cash prize. In addition, his paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of the American Archivist.

Mr. Tschan's award-winning paper was prepared for a course on "Selection and Acquisition of Archival Documents" taught by Professor Terry Eastwood in the Master of Archival Studies Program at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia. The paper examines the thinking of Hilary Jenkinson and T.R. Schellenberg, two towering figures in twentieth-century archival theory, on the subject of appraisal. After carefully reviewing the logic of the starkly different approaches to appraisal taken by Jenkinson and Schellenberg, the paper examines how their writings have influenced current debates on appraisal, particularly in relation to the challenges posed by the appraisal and management of electronic records. The result is a fresh analysis of familiar themes and ideas and a thoughtful application of these ideas to current archival thinking and practice. One member of the committee described it as "a very creative re-examination of fundamental principles as they are evolving and being applied in new circumstances," and added, "the paper shows a very thorough understanding of the issues, creatively re-evaluates basic source materials, and carries the discussion very competently and usefully into the present."

---

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

 

PETRINA D. JACKSON of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists' 2002 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority undergraduate and graduate students of African, Asian, Hispanic or Native American descent who through scholastic achievement manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA. The award, established in 1993, honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, an SAA Fellow who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration. The award included complimentary registration to the annual meeting.

Ms. Jackson, a student in the archives/ preservation track in the M.L.I.S. program, is the second student from the University of Pittsburgh to capture the award. Tywanna Marie Whorley received it 1999.

---

Colonial Dames Scholarship Award

Three newcomers to the archival profession, IAN GRAHAM, VALERIE J. FREY, and CHARITY ANNE GALBREATH, received the Society of American Archivists' 2002 Colonial Dames Scholarship Award. Established in 1974, the award enables new archivists each year to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers up to $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository's holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C.

Ian Graham, special collections and archives assistant at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, attended the winter institute. Both Valerie J. Frey, manuscripts archivist at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, and Charity Anne Galbreath, processing archivist at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., attended the summer institute.

Fellows

Elizabeth W. Adkins, Thomas J. Frusciano, and Mark A. Greene were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on August 22, 2002, during an awards ceremony at SAA's 66th annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Established in 1957 and conferred annually, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. They join 139 current members so honored out of a membership of 3,600.

Following are citations given by presenters during the awards ceremony.

 

---

ELIZABETH W. ADKINS, Global Information Manager for Ford Motor Company, has been named a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the highest individual honor bestowed by SAA. Established in 1957 and conferred annually, this distinction is awarded to a limited number of individuals for their outstanding contribution to the archival profession. She joins 138 current members so honored. Ms. Adkins was named a Fellow on August 22, 2002, during SAA's 66th annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama.

In her professional work, her contributions to the archival profession worldwide, and her personal integrity, industriousness, and generosity, Ms. Adkins exemplifies the best attributes of an archivist. As one colleague wrote in nominating her for this honor, "Elizabeth is the consummate professional, combining excellent management skills and a visionary approach to archival practice with a strong personal commitment to her profession and the standards that define it. She has been a mentor for aspiring archivists, an inspirational leader for her staff, and a respected colleague for members of the archival community."

Throughout her career Elizabeth has worked in the field of business archives, creating world-class programs in an environment that does not generally place high priority on preserving historical records. However, through her tireless efforts to establish archives as corporate resources, she has solidified the position of the archives as a vital operation held in high regard by senior management, most notably at Kraft Foods and the Ford Motor Company. She has conveyed this sense of mission to numerous archivists who have attended the Business Archives Workshops that she has co-taught over the past decade.

Ms. Adkins has served SAA in many different capacities in the past two decades. Currently the SAA treasurer, she has chaired both the Acquisition and Appraisal Section and the Business Archives Section and has served as co-chair of the Committee on Public Information and co-chair of the 1998 Program Committee. She has also been active in the Academy of Certified Archivists, where she has served as vice president and president, the Midwest Archives Conference, the Michigan Archival Association, and the Illinois State Archives Advisory Board. She has contributed numerous published articles on business archives, public history, and local history.

Among Ms Adkins' many achievements in international activities, two recent accomplishments deserve special recognition. First, as Manager of Archives Services for Ford Motor Company, Elizabeth devised and implemented a plan to discover and reconstruct the archival record regarding the use of forced labor at Ford's plant in Cologne, Germany, during the Second World War. Not only did the final report of this project set "a new standard for documenting corporate actions on a significant and controversial issue," according to one of her colleagues, but she even managed to persuade the company to change its restrictive access policies for corporate records to "the more open access policy that generally governs academic research institutions."

Second, as this colleague states, "as a result of her handling of this project, Elizabeth so inspired the trust of senior management at Ford Motor Company, that her title and responsibilities changed from Manager of Archives Services to Global Information Manager." This is a significant breakthrough in positioning archives as an essential program in a major global corporation.

—Randall C. Jimerson, Western Washington University

---

THOMAS J. FRUSCIANO, University Archivist at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has been a member of the archival profession for 25 years. Prior to joining Rutgers, he began his professional career as an archivist at Educational Testing Services and then became the first professionally trained university archivist at New York University. As one of his nominators noted: "He is an exceptionally talented, dedicated, and innovative archivist, teacher, author, editor, speaker, workshop conductor, consultant, project director, and leader in the archival profession." At Rutgers he reaches out to the campus to promote the visibility of the archives. He has served as a faculty senator and adviser to the student yearbook, for example. He does what all archivists need to do; he brings the archives down out of the attic and demonstrates its usefulness to all for instruction, research, and administration.

Over the years, Mr. Frusciano has bridged archives and historical research through his writings. He is the co-author New York University and the City: An Illustrated History (Rutgers University Press) as well as a wide variety of articles on both the history of higher education and archival practice. He has served on several editorial boards and is currently co-editor of the new Journal of Archival Organization (Haworth Press).

Teaching archives courses for both NYU's Archival Management graduate program and Rutgers' School of Communications, Information, and Library Studies, Mr. Frusciano has provided formal instruction and guidance for a score of students, many of whom have advanced into the profession. Mr. Frusciano has been an active participant in a number of professional associations. At SAA, he has chaired the Description and the College and University Archives sections and the Archival Education Roundtable, as well as served on a wide variety of committees for SAA, MARAC, and the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York. He has given numerous conference papers and taught a wide variety of workshops, most frequently on descriptive practices, but drawing teachers, researchers and archivists alike into a better understanding of the use and keeping of archives. As another supporter said, "In all that he does Tom communicates an essential lesson: that we belong to a community; that we always innovate, collaborate, find ways to overcome challenges, so we as a profession can carry out our essential work: processing and making historical records accessible. I cannot think of a more valuable service to the archives profession."

—Leon J. Stout, Pennsylvania State University

---

MARK A. GREENE is the director of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. He began his career as archivist of Carleton College, followed by 11 years as the curator of manuscripts acquisitions at Minnesota Historical Society, during which he received two awards for writing. Prior to joining the American Heritage Center, he was head of research center programs for the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich.

As one nominator put it, "The heart of [Mr. Greene's] archival contributions lies in his thinking and writing about the profession." Another noted that, "he is one of only a few archivists who not only have highly useful ideas, but also the ability to communicate and share those with a wide audience through publication." He has written compelling works on appraisal, access to records, Congressional papers, business records, research use of archives, and even histories.

He is the co-author, along with Todd Daniels-Howell, of the article "Documentation with an Attitude: A Pragmatist's Guide to the Selection and Acquisition of Modern Business Records" in The Records of American Business. It has been described as "the best article available for archivists who take on the challenge of documenting enterprise in America" and "has invigorated appraisal theory in the United States."

Mr. Greene is active in national and regional archival associations. At SAA, he is a mentor and has served as a leader of the Congressional Papers Roundtable, Manuscripts Repository Section, Committee on Education and Professional Development, and a recent member of council. Of his time on SAA council, another council member said, "his values reflect his deep commitment to and understanding of the profession, as well as his respect for fundamental principles of human dignity, respect for work, and equity." He is a past president and council member of the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC), and a workshop instructor. As chair of the MAC Editorial Board, Mr. Greene has actively sought out articles and nurtured the lesser ones, and the works that he oversaw "are among the best that MAC has ever published." This level of service to the archival profession is a standard for him. As one nominator put it, "he has always retained a higher degree of interest in learning from others than in imparting what he knows. As a result, he is seen by many in the field as a standard bearer of collegiality at a time when the profession is growing beyond the limits of easy interpersonal familiarity."

—Bruce Bruemmer, Cargill

And the 2001 SAA Awards Go To...

The Society of American Archivists recognized and celebrated outstanding archival achievements for the calendar year 2000 at an awards ceremony held August 30, 2001, during its 65th annual meeting at the Hilton & Towers in Washington, D.C. Subcommittees of the Awards Committee, which was chaired by Roland Baumann, Alexandra Gressitt, and Deborah Day, selected recipients of the SAA-sponsored awards. SAA heartily congratulates all of the award winners.

---

Distinguished Service Award

 

The OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Archives/Library Division, is the recipient of SAA's 2001 Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1964, the award recognizes a North American archival institution that has provided outstanding public service and has made an exemplary contribution to the archival profession. GEORGE PARKINSON (pictured at left), chief of the Archives/Library Division, received the award on behalf of the institution.

With technology changing, costs rising, and state money often shrinking, it is a daunting challenge for state archives to find ways to meet the needs of an ever-more insistent public for increased, if not instantaneous access, to historical information. The Archives/Library Division of the Ohio Historical Society has risen to this challenge and provided more than one model for those dealing with the same issues. Through the clever and careful use of state money and grant funds, Mr. Parkinson and his staff have shown that it is possible not only to increase access to historical records via the Internet, but at the same time, launch major initiatives to manage electronic records of historical value being created by a variety of government departments.

The results of their work for researchers may be seen on the Ohio Historical Society's outstanding Web site www.ohiohistory.org. Interested in the basic records defining governance? Then, click on the Ohio Fundamental Documents Database where you can find the text of the Ordinance of the Northwest Territory of 1787 as well as the state's constitutions. Interested in the state's African-American history? Then go to award-winning African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920, developed as a contribution to the Library of Congress' American Memory project. Looking for genealogical information? Then check out the searchable Ohio Death Certificate Index, 1913-1937.

This Web site also provides evidence of the Archives/Library Division's leadership role in developing management strategies for state government's electronic records. The division was the driving force behind the organization of an Electronic Records Committee that brought together government supervisors from various departments with an interest in managing the preservation of electronic records. The breadth and depth of the committee's work is reflected in the documents available electronically, for example: "Digital Document Imaging Guidelines," "Electronic Records Management Guidelines," and "Managing Electronic Mail."

Nominators for this award noted that one reason for the division's recent successes was due in large part to their leaders' unshakeable belief in collaborating with other state institutions and government departments. This willingness to go out and find partners to accomplish common goals is an object lesson for all institutions struggling to organize similar projects. Another key to success mentioned by the nominators was the division's use of one successful project to leverage another. For example, the division is currently working with the Ohio Bicentennial Committee to develop the Ohio Memory Project. Building on the knowledge gained from the African-American Experience in Ohio, this project will be a collaboration of the state's leading archives and libraries to create a digital collection reflecting the most important events in the state's long and rich history.

---

Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

SHELLY HENLEY KELLY of the University of Houston-Clear Lake received SAA's 2001 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award for increasing public awareness about a specific body of documents. Established in 1973, the award honors the memory of two SAA Fellows and former presidents.

Ms. Kelly, formerly assistant archivist at the Galveston and Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library, worked with primary documents from the Rosenberg Library relating to the deadly and disastrous Galveston hurricane of 1900. For the 100th anniversary of the event, she wrote articles, made presentations to schools and civic groups, and publicized documents about the storm in the archives holdings. The final culmination of her work was the publication, Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm, a compilation of manuscripts and oral histories of storm survivors, which is both well documented and illustrated, in addition to being very readable.

Ms. Kelly has demonstrated historical entrepreneurship and perseverance in instigating this project and getting it done. SAA commends her commitment to the project, and the quality of her activities throughout the two or more years that were required to bring the book and related materials to the public.

---

C.F.W. Coker Award

 

WAVERLY LOWELL of the Environmental Design Archives at University of California, Berkeley and KELCY SHEPHERD of Special Collections and Archives at W.E.B. Du Bois Library at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, received SAA's 2001 C.F.W. Coker Award for their guide, Standard Series of Architecture and Landscape Design Records: A Tool for Arrangement and Descriptions of Archival Collections. Established in 1983, the award honors the memory of SAA Fellow C.F.W. Coker.

The Coker Award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids. To merit serious consideration, the nominees must, in some significant way, set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have substantial impact on descriptive practices.

Ms. Shepherd and Ms. Lowell's guide, published by the University of California Regents (2000), provides a much needed model for thinking about, organizing, and consistently describing a format of material that has received little attention--the project-based profession. It creates a useful, practical standard. As one nominator noted, "Many descriptive standards and projects focus on data and data elements, but the standard series concept as elaborated in this volume addresses a more fundamental level of archival description, the organization and arrangement of a unit of archival material, the process from which the description emerges.... The authors do a wonderful job of showing how, in the specific area of records of architects and landscape designers, the career patterns and records production of individuals and firms lend themselves quite well to a standardized series organization."

---

Fellows' Posner Award

 

SAA's 2001 Fellows' Posner Award was presented to PHILIP C. BANTIN, university archivist of Indiana University, for his article, "The Indiana University Electronic Records Project Revisited," published in volume 62 of the American Archivist, SAA's semi-annual journal. Established in 1982 by the Fellows of the Society of American Archivists, the award recognizes outstanding work dealing with some facet of archival administration, history, theory and/or methodology published in the latest volume of the journal.

Many grant-funded projects provide models of theory or practice for other repositories. Few, however, report on the problems and shortcomings that follow their initial success. By revisiting a project that has already had a significant impact on the management of electronic records, Mr. Bantin has demonstrated the value of continued critical thinking and has set an example for others to follow. His article offers a realistic view of the real world of archives and records management. He also provides archivists with a useful analysis of the recent literature of related disciplines and suggests new allies for archivists in identifying information of continuing usefulness. Others in the profession will benefit from the integrity and insight he demonstrated in evaluating his own model, a practice that will be encouraged, it is hoped, by this recognition of his achievement.

---

Waldo Gifford Leland Award

 

SAA's 2001 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice was presented to ANNE R. KENNEY (pictured at left) and OYA Y. RIEGER of Cornell University for Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Research Libraries Group, 2000). Established in 1959, the award is named for one of North America's archival pioneers and SAA's second president.

Digital projects have become the expectation at most of institutions where archivists are confronted with the challenge of taking on these new access tools and integrating them with other operations. Ms. Kenney and Ms. Rieger's publication provides the answers and, like its predecessor, Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Cornell University, 1996) (which also received SAA's Leland Award) will be on the active reference shelf of every institution contemplating or constructing digital projects.

Moving Theory into Practice covers the broad range of issues from a conceptual point of view and also provides a wealth of practical information in the form of benchmarks, case studies and other contributions from leading practitioners of digital imaging for archival and library collections. The book is well written, clearly designed and easy to follow. Ms. Kenney and Ms. Rieger have earned the gratitude of the archival profession for their authoritative, informative and timely work.

---

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award

 

KINGA PERZYNSKA, director of the Catholic Archives of Texas, is the recipient of SAA's 2001 Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award for her significant contribution to the field of religious archives. Established in 1974 and conferred annually, the award is sponsored in conjunction with and funded by the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Since making archival enterprise her profession ten years ago, Ms. Perzynska has been actively involved in regional, national, and international professional and religious archival organizations. Ms. Perzynska has served on the Executive Board of the Society of Southwest Archivists as well as other positions within her regional organization.

Ms. Perzynska has served on SAA's Religious Archives Section as a Steering Committee member and as chair of the Nominating Committee. In 1998, Ms. Perzynska received the Certificate of Recognition of Dedication to the Archival Profession from SAA. Also in 1998, as co-chair of the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists' Thesaurus Committee, Ms. Perzynska successfully prepared a grant to create and publish a book of controlled diocesan terms. The Thesaurus of Catholic Diocesan Terms was completed and made available in 2000.

At the international level, Ms. Perzynska contributes to the International Council on Archives, Section of Archives of Churches and Religious Denominations, currently serving as secretary. She has worked on the section's Steering Committee and the Program Committee, through which she helped organize the Church Archives Conference in Seville, Spain, in September 2000. A highlight of Ms. Perzynska's career came in 1997 when Pope John Paul II, appointed her to a five-year term as a Consultor of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church in the Vatican.

Ms. Perzynska teaches in the History Department of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, as well as serving as a consultant for the staff of Texas Catholic Dioceses, where she emphasizes the basics of recordkeeping and preservation of archives.

---

Preservation Publication Award

SAA's 2001 Preservation Publication Award was presented to GREGORY S. HUNTER for Preserving Digital Information: A How-To-Do-It Manual (Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2000). Established in 1993, the award recognizes the author or editor of an outstanding work, published in North America, that advances the theory or practice of preservation in archival institutions.

Mr. Hunter's book provides a thorough and systematic review of the issues, best practices, and challenges associated with the preservation of digital objects. As one nominator noted, Mr. Hunter does "a great job of summarizing and articulating very complicated issues in terms that can be understood and appreciated, and he does this without distorting the facts." Further, he successfully identifies the most important current research on digital preservation and electronic records management and effectively summarizes the results of these projects. Lastly, the book presents a multi-step approach to implementing a digital preservation program that is well reasoned, sound, and based on the best knowledge available.

---

Theodore Calvin Pease Award

 

SAA's 2001 Theodore Calvin Pease Award was presented to JAMES M. ROTH of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his student paper, "Serving Up EAD: An Exploratory Study on the Deployment and Utilization of Encoded Archival Description Finding Aids." Established in 1987, the award is named for the first editor of SAA's semi-annual journal, the American Archivist, and recognizes superior writing achievement by a student enrolled in archival administrative classes or engaged in formal archival internship programs. This paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of American Archivist

Mr. Roth master's paper, written for Professor Helen Tibbo of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reports on a survey of repositories that have implemented Encoded Archival Description in an effort to determine the methods used for deploying EAD finding aids, to assess what kinds of evaluations of the use of EAD finding aids have been undertaken, and to explore the perceptions of archivists regarding the end use of EAD finding aids. This is clearly an area of major concern to the archival community, and the paper lays out some of the real benefits and obstacles to the use of EAD. Its recommendation that we must double our efforts to understand and evaluate how end-users are actually using EAD finding aids sends a strong message to repositories planning to develop or expand their use of Encoded Archival Description. The study evidences careful scholarship, clear presentation, and thoughtful analysis. Mr. Roth is currently an archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

---

Oliver Wendell Holmes Award

 

SAA's 2001 Oliver Wendell Holmes Award was presented to EUN G. PARK from Korea. Established in 1979, the award is named for an SAA Fellow and former president. The award assists overseas archivists already in the United States or Canada for training, to travel to and attend SAA's conference.

Ms. Park is enrolled in the doctoral program in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been working on exploring constructs of authenticity as they are understood by different recordkeeping communities. Her work compares similar electronic recordkeeping functions in universities and archival institutions in different national, cultural, juridical, and organizational contexts to understand the extent to which these variables impact requirements for permanently preserving authentic records in electronic student records systems. Her research thus examines communities of practice in electronic recordkeeping across a broad range of organizational and national contexts. This allows her to bring her academic expertise in business administration, information systems, and archival science to bear on examining an area of the nonprofit sector-administration and academic institutions-which will benefit from such research from the standpoints of policy, organizational theory, and technology.

---

Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award

 

ROSE ROBERTO of the University of California, Los Angeles is the recipient of SAA's 2001 Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority undergraduate and 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. Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, an SAA Fellow who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Ms. Roberto earned her master's degree in Library and Information Science in June from UCLA, specializing in the areas of archives and electronic records management. During her years at UCLA, she was very active with the SAA student chapter. As vice president of the chapter she organized field trips, onsite and offsite SAA meetings, and coordinated a panel discussion contrasting information seeking activities and priorities of public libraries, special libraries, and archives. Ms. Roberto is now employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA Center in Pasadena, California.

For more information on SAA student chapters, please click here.

---

Colonial Dames Scholarship Award

LAURA POLO of the Crawford County (Penn.) Historical Society and JOHN MARTINEZ of the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives received the Society of American Archivists' 2001 Colonial Dames Scholarship Award. Established in 1974, the award enables two archivists each year to attend the Modern Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Administration. Each scholarship covers up to $1,200 of the total tuition, travel, and housing expenses associated with attending the institute. To be eligible for this scholarship an individual must have been employed less than two years as an archivist and work in an archives or manuscripts collection where a fair percentage of the repository's holdings predate 1825. The award is funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, Washington, D.C. Ms. Polo attended the winter institute and Mr. Martinez attended the summer institute.

---

Council Exemplary Service Award

 

CARROLL DENDLER received SAA's 2001 Council Exemplary Service Award. Ms. Dendler, SAA's finance and human resource director, was cited for her "extraordinary grasp of the Society's financial minutia and human resources," as well as for the "firm hand she has kept on SAA's financial tiller for a number of years." The four treasurers of the association who have worked with Ms. Dendler since she joined the staff of SAA nine years ago noted how fortunate they have been to work closely with a "remarkable person." In his presentation, SAA President Leon Stout, himself a former treasurer, said that Ms. Dendler "can coax a report out of a cranky accounting system at the drop of a hat [and] she can explain a Federal Accounting Standard so that even I could understand it."

Fellows

Five members were named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on August 30, 2001, during an awards ceremony at SAA's 65th annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Valerie Gerrard Browne, Peter Hirtle, Randall Jimerson, Deborah Skaggs and Peter Wosh received the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA, thus joining 134 current members so honored. Established in 1957 and conferred annually, this distinction is awarded to a limited number of individuals for their outstanding contributions to the archival profession.

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Luciana Duranti (chair), Brenda Banks, Nicholas C. Burckel, William J. Maher, and H. Thomas Hickerson—and three Fellows selected by Council—Richard Cameron, Susan Davis, and Robert Sink.

Following are citations given by presenters during the awards ceremony.

---

Valerie Gerrard Browne

Valerie Gerrard Browne, director of the Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University of Chicago, began her archival career at Wayne State University more than 25 years ago. During that time she has served the archival profession with exceptional dedication.

Valerie is the author of the award-winning publication, Guide to the State Archives of Michigan. Within the Midwest Archives Conference she has held virtually every important elected office or appointed position—chairing four major committees, serving on five others, and serving successively on council, as vice president, and president. Her service to SAA is equally impressive—chairing three committees, serving on several more, and elected to the Nominating Committee and Council.

In every area in which she has worked, she has done an exemplary job, and perhaps none more important than in documenting the role of women, beginning with her early efforts at Wayne State—collecting, processing, publicizing, and promoting use of archival materials related to women—to her current position at Loyola. That activity has extended to work within SAA through the Committee on the Status of Women, the Women's Caucus, and Women Archivists Roundtable.

Such a record certainly warrants recognition as a Fellow, but it is an incomplete record. Valerie's nominators cited her essential humanity: "Above all, Valerie has been a model of humane generosity that has been a source of inspiration for other archivists." Another nominator notes that Valerie's colleagues "value her human decency and cordiality, which make it so easy to work with her." Yet another adds that she is "rich in these special qualities of modesty, energetic willingness to help, thoughtfulness in matters personal and professional." And finally, a colleague mentions her "warmth, generosity, [and] joy with which she has infused the projects and organizations she serves."

—Nicholas C. Burckel, Marquette University

---

Peter Hirtle

Peter Hirtle's value to the archival profession results from a dynamic combination of knowledge, skills, and interests. His knowledge of basic archival principles and methods is significantly enhanced by his strategic awareness of developments and trends outside of the profession that impact on archival practice. He is articulate in his explication of archival theory, but as one of those recommending his selection wrote: "Peter easily shifts from theoretical approaches to practical without missing a beat." He is well versed in archival practice, having served as curator of Modern Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine from 1986 to 1993. Envisioning the opportunities that new technological developments would bring, Peter became coordinator for electronic public access initiatives at the National Archives in 1994.

Continuing his focus on the impact of the digital world on archival practice, Peter presently serves as co-director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections. His work at Cornell University has included various digital projects using archives and special collections. Additionally, he co-directed a cooperative project with the campus art museum to provide networked access to their collections, is contributing to the development of an international digital theater archive, and has served as associate editor of D-Lib Magazine, the leading electronic journal on innovation and research in digital libraries. Peter has also become an expert in intellectual property rights issues, serving as a highly valued resource for the archival and digital library communities.

Peter's service to SAA has also been exemplary. He chaired the Committee on Archival Information Exchange, coordinated the Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable, and served on the Task Force on the Information Superhighway and the 2000 Program Committee. He served on SAA Council from 1996 to 1999, and was named to its Executive Committee. This year he was elected vice president of SAA and will become its 58th president in 2002-03. Perhaps most importantly, Peter is a natural-born teacher and a frequently sought after lecturer. Beginning his career as an assistant professor of history at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Peter has continued this role as a leader of SAA workshops across the country, and as a key instructor in Cornell's widely-acclaimed digital imaging workshops. As one colleague put it: "He brings to the table a profound understanding of the archival implications and a clear sightedness that enables him to demystify basic issues."

As another colleague concluded, "The archival endeavor needs people with a broad understanding of technological issues and legal concerns combined with a solid grasp of archival principles and practices. Peter Hirtle serves as a distinguished example of the skills that the twenty-first century archivist should have."

—H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University

---

Randall Jimerson

Dr. Randall C. Jimerson's credentials in archival work, scholarly achievement, and service to the profession provide more than ample justification for his election as a Fellow. Furthermore, his personal characteristics of dedication to collections and students, steadfast work for the profession, and rigorous dedication to decorum and fairness in professional deliberations make his nomination timely and exemplary. After he received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan in 1977, he served for two years as archivist at the Yale University Library before becoming university archivist and director of Historical Manuscripts at the University of Connecticut. Over the next decade and one-half, he established the archival program, launched archival education at the university, lead an innovative regional program to provide basic training for local curators, and planned the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. In 1994, he moved to Western Washington University where he is director of the Graduate Program in Archives and Records Management.

Throughout his career, Randall has been actively engaged in contributing to the advancement of the profession by assuming responsibility and taking leadership roles in organizations including the New England Archivists for which he served as newsletter editor, Education Committee chair, and president. In SAA, Randall has been an elected member of Council, the Executive Committee, co-chair of the 1998 Program Committee, and most recently as the chair of the Committee to Review the Archival Education Guidelines. A regular speaker at professional meetings, Randall has made major contributions to archival literature, most recently via American Archival Studies: Readings in Theory and Practice (SAA, 2000), already a best seller, which will undoubtedly serve as a foundation for more than a generation to come.

As an archival educator, Randall has been a consistent mentor and ready colleague as former students make their own roads. His passion for education has been a driving force throughout his career, for example, when he devoted substantial time to a NHPRC-funded project to provide basic training for curators of small, but important, New England historical records repositories or as he has devoted his energies to build a consensus in the often divergent Committee on Education and Professional Development to develop revised guidelines for graduate archival education, ensuring that all perspectives received a complete hearing and consideration. A colleague noted has noted: "Rand's thoughtful, well reasoned points of view have always been a welcome balm on the sometimes contentious discussions surrounding archival education."

All of these accomplishments justify his election as Fellow, but the nomination cannot be complete without acknowledgment of his personal character that has contributed so much to professional deliberations. As another colleague noted: "Rand is a good person. He is living proof that soft-spoken but dedicated individuals can make a difference. Our profession and the collections in our care are the beneficiaries of his labors."

—William J. Maher, University of Illinois at Urbana

---

Deborah Skaggs

Deborah Skaggs' supporters describe her as an "archivist's archivist," a consummate professional who has graced the profession with her diligence, wisdom, and commitment. One of her outstanding qualities has been her versatility and her ability to move, seemingly effortlessly, from one archival institution to another and among various types of archival enterprises. She has served in university, state government, and corporate settings and has been an effective advocate for archival concerns in all venues.

Deborah has had considerable impact in shaping archival programs at the grass roots level. Deborah served with distinction at the University of Louisville and then at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, where she developed records management programs as well as important initiatives in the area of preservation, local records, and electronic documentation. She was a pioneer in the field of electronic records and digital technologies and directed an initiative to promote better understanding of these new technologies and their impact on public records. Her technical leaflets for state and local governments have been described as models of clarity. Since 1996, Deborah has been at the Frank Russell Company in Tacoma, Washington, where as manager of corporate records she has continued her leadership in records and information management, bringing to bear her experience with functional analysis and wise use of electronic technologies within the corporate environment.

Throughout her career, Deborah has also demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the archival profession, serving with distinction in a wide variety of roles. She served as treasurer of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators and as vice-president of the Academy of Certified Archivists. More recently, she has been a member of the Emerging Technologies Advisory Committee of the Association of Image and Information Management (AIIM). She has been involved in some aspect of SAA work almost continuously for the past twenty years, including membership on many different committees and as chair of the 1995 annual meeting Program Committee. Deborah has also been a frequent and effective presenter at many professional conferences.

In all of her positions, Deborah has been able to successfully adapt core principles to widely different work environments, enriching the institutions she serves as well as the archival profession. Along the way she has mentored a new generation of archivists and promoted the development of archives throughout the nation. The accomplishments of her long and varied career, performed with creativity and distinction in every venue, merit her election as Fellow of the Society of American Archivists.

—Susan Davis, University of Wisconsin, Madison

---

Peter J. Wosh

Dr. Peter J. Wosh is an archivist who has built and strengthened programs throughout his career. He has been a vital contributor to religious archives and to archival education and a leader in various SAA committees, sections, boards and roundtables.

For the first 16 years of his career, Peter worked in religious archives and, in 1993, SAA recognized his outstanding contributions and commitment by honoring him with the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award. In 1994, the History Department at New York University named Peter director of its Archives Program, and he proceeded to revitalize that program. His students consistently cite him as an exceptional teacher, a valued mentor, and someone who constantly promotes the involvement of new archivists in professional organizations.

While maintaining high academic standards for the NYU program, Peter pursues his own scholarly work, publishing in both the archival and historical literature. He has published three books, and has two more forthcoming, along with numerous articles and book reviews. Peter's writings are graced by a keen professional insight and a sly sense of humor. In 2000 he received the SAA Fellows' Posner Award for an article he wrote for the American Archivist.

One of Peter's nominators commended him for "keeping alive the vision of the archives profession as a humanistic enterprise." For this important vision, for his outstanding work as an archivist and educator, for his writings, and for his professional service, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Peter J. Wosh as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists.

— Robert Sink, Center for Jewish History