The Society of American Archivists celebrated outstanding achievement in public service, outreach, and publishing, and also awarded scholarships to students during an August 31 ceremony at SAA’s 71st Annual Meeting in Chicago. Hundreds of conference attendees packed the grand ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel Friday evening to honor their colleagues and salute their successes. The annual competition recognizes accomplishments of the preceding calendar year. The Awards Committee worked with sub-committees in the selection process for each award. SAA congratulates the following award recipients and extends its thanks to all who participated in the competition.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’"
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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.