SAA 2000 Ballot Results

Hensen is Next Vice President/President Elect

STEVEN L. HENSEN led the race to victory in the election for SAA's vice president. Hensen will begin his one-year term in August and become SAA's 57th president in 2001-2002. Hensen is the director of planning and project development at the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library at Duke University, where he has served since 1986. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

A member of SAA since 1971, Hensen has served the association in a variety of capacities: on Council; part of the NHPRC-funded description curriculum revision project; Encoded Archival Description Working Group; Fellows' Posner Prize Committee; Nominating Committee; Editorial Board; Committee on Archival Information Exchange; and the Working Group on Standards for Archival Description. He was named an SAA Fellow in 1991.

Hensen is the author of the best-selling archival publication, Archives, Personal Papers and Manuscripts (SAA, 1989), for which he was awarded SAA's certificate of commendation for writing of superior excellence. He has also written more than 50 papers, articles and lectures in the area of archival description and standards and digitizing of archival materials. In 1998 he was a co-recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award (as a member of the Bentley Finding Aid Project).

Candidates for vice president were required to answer the following question posed by the Nominating Committee:

"In this era of stagnant SAA membership and an increasingly compartmentalized profession, what would you like to see as the main accomplishments of SAA and the archival profession by 2005?"

In his response to the committee's question, Hensen stated that he is optimistic about the future of SAA and the profession in general. "As a profession, we are poised to assume our rightful and integral place in the burgeoning 21st-century world of information management and dissemination, and public awareness and appreciation of the profession is steadily increasing," Hensen said.

In terms of what he would like to see as the main accomplishments of SAA and the profession by 2005, Hensen advocates the following: "...leadership and staff increase their efforts to reach out to various student chapters. Somehow the inherent vitality and enthusiasm of these new archivists are not translating into professional identification through SAA membership. Second, I would work with the leadership to establish patterns of greater utilization of new and younger members in task force and committee appointments. Third, while one of the greatest strengths and successes of [SAA] over the past years has been in the associations it has built with allied organizations, more must be done in this regard; to the extent that we now have a higher public profile, it often has been through these relationships and the concomitant public alliances that have emerged...a more focused program on attracting new members...will stand us in good stead for the next few years. Finally, the efforts surrounding the development, promulgation, maintenance, and internationalization of EAD have brought [SAA] a great deal of respect and credibility and can provide a model for future efforts."

Dooley, Battle and Connors Join Council

SAA membership also elected Jackie M. Dooley, Thomas Battle and Thomas Connors to Council. Their three-year terms will begin this August following the conclusion of the 64th annual meeting in Denver and serve through the conference in 2003. They will succeed outgoing Council members Fynnette Eaton, Karen Jefferson and Helen Tibbo.

Candidates for Council were required to answer the same question posed by the Nominating Committee to the vice president/president elect: "In this era of stagnant SAA membership and an increasingly compartmentalized profession, what would you like to see as the main accomplishments of SAA and the archival profession by 2005?" Responses along with brief biographical sketches follow.

JACKIE M. DOOLEY is the head of special collections and university archives at the University of California, Irvine. She holds an M.L.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. from University of California, Irvine.

A member of SAA since 1987, Dooley has chaired the Program Committee, Publications Board, and Nominating Committee. She is a members of the Encoded Archival Description Working Group and is an EAD workshop instructor. In 1998 she was a co-recipient of the C.F.W. Coker Award (as a member of the Bentley Finding Aid Project). Dooley is the editor of the fast-selling Encoded Archival Description Application Guidelines Version 1.0 (SAA, 1999) and Encoded Archival Description: Context, Theory, and Case Studies (SAA, 1998).

Dooley's professional activities also include active participation in the American Library Association's ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, where she has served as chair, executive committee member, secretary, and on the editorial board.

In her candidate statement, Dooley asked, "How can we reach out to members of regional archival societies and groups, such as ACRL's Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, to ensure that professionals with other primary organizational allegiances are aware of the richness of SAA's offerings, such as publications, continuing education workshops and conferences? Can we do more to market our services and expertise to them, and possibly gain members in the process?"

Dooley further stated that "It is also important that SAA begin to look more seriously beyond our own national borders... Our national society must take a stronger leadership and participatory role internationally, encouraging U.S. archivists to understand the relevance of international professional affairs and creating opportunities for participation. In addition, I would like to see [SAA] develop and even greater commitment to development and promulgation of technical and descriptive standards than it has in the past...Successful deployment of new standards such as Encoded Archival Description, both nationally and internationally, will help archives become and even stronger presence in shared information systems such as the World Wide Web."

THOMAS BATTLE is the director of the Moorland-Springarn Research Center at Howard University, where he has worked since 1986. He holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University, M.L.S. from the University of Maryland at College Park, and B.A. from Howard University.

Battle has served SAA as chair of the Task Force on Minorities; chair of the Nominating Committee; Awards Committee co-chair; Committee on Goals and Priorities; co-chair of the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable; and member of the Publications Board. He is also active in MARAC and has served on the Advisory Board of the Cooperative Historically Black Colleges & Universities Archival Survey Project. The author of numerous articles and presenter of lectures and papers on archival development, he currently is editor-in-chief of HUArchivesNet, an electronic journal.

In his candidate statement, Battle noted that "Early archival development focused on the historical and intellectual value of documents and involved librarians and historians... Technical discussions now dominate our work instead of discussions about the content of our collections...In addition to improving the preparation of archivists and developing sound archival education guidelines and programs, I would hope to see a return to the discussion of research value and the utilization of collections."

THOMAS CONNORS has been archivist/curator of the National Public Broadcast Archives of the University of Maryland since 1993. He holds a B.A. in anthropology and M.A. in American civilization from Brown University.

He has served SAA as editor of the World View column in Archival Outlook; member and chair of the International Archival Affairs Committee and Roundtable; and member of the Program Committee and Labor Archives Roundtable. Other professional activities include membership in the Academy of Certified Archivists and MARAC. His articles have appeared in The Midwestern Archivist and The Public Historian.

In his candidate statement, Connors said that "First, SAA should use its legacy as the original national association for archivists to present the profession in all of its complexity and diversity back to professional archivists...Second, SAA should...speak out and lead on political and legislative issues affecting archivists...Third, SAA should...be a stronger presence in the global archival community...Fourth, a stronger sense of organizational continuity will be needed in [SAA]"

Connors concluded that "These four points may or may not be realized in the next five years. As a member of Council I would work for their realization and would be keenly interested in other ideas that would help us sharpen the image of archivists and help [SAA] to be truly responsive to changes in the profession and to the professional needs of archivists."

Adkins Elected Treasurer

ELIZABETH ADKINS, manager of archives services at Ford Motor Company, was elected treasurer. She will begin a three-year term this August following the SAA annual meeting in Denver and serve through the conference in 2003. She will succeed outgoing treasurer Robert Sink.

Adkins holds an M.A. in history from Carnegie-Mellon University and a B.A. in history from SUNY-Binghamton. A co-instructor of the SAA Business Archives workshop, Adkins has also served on SAA's Program Committee, Committee on Public Information and has been chair of the Business Archives Section and the Acquisition and Appraisal Section. She is a past president of the Academy of Certified Archivists..

Candidates for treasurer were required to answer these questions posed by the Nominating Committee: "How would you balance the needs of the membership against the limited budget of SAA? How would you move beyond membership dues and locate other areas of possible revenue sources?"

In her response, Adkins noted that "Limited resources are a fact of life in SAA...I favor the idea of working through the sections to understand diverse interests of our members, and trying to address those interests by allocating a small budget to each section." In terms of locating other possible revenue sources, Adkins suggests that "One possibility is to intensify fundraising efforts for corporate and institutional support of SAA projects and programs, including the annual meeting." She further states that "We can also market SAA publications, workshops, and the annual meeting more aggressively to allied professions" as well as "vigorously marketing the annual giving campaign."

Neal, Anderson and Landis to Serve on Nominating Committee

The SAA election also yielded three members to serve on the 2001 Nominating Committee: Kathryn Neal, Joseph Anderson, and William E. Landis. The committee is responsible for identifying and selecting next year's slate of candidates as well as drafting questions posed to candidates. Two members of Council, appointed by the president, also serve on the committee.

All candidates for the Nominating Committee were required to respond to the following questions posed by this year's committee: "What kind of leaders will SAA need in the coming years? Based on your answer, how will you locate these leaders and ensure that they represent SAA's diverse membership?"

KATHRYN NEAL is the curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature, Special Collections & Rare Books at the University of Minnesota Libraries. A 1994 recipient of the SAA Minority Student Award, she currently chairs the Archivists & Archives of Color Roundtable.

In her candidate statement, Neal stated that "SAA leaders need to possess... an ability to assess and respond to members' needs, an ability to represent SAA in a variety of arenas, a blend of vision and flexibility, and a sound knowledge of how the organization functions." Neal further noted that "Future leaders will need to pave the way toward creating an inclusive atmosphere for... diverse groups to thrive within the profession...A systematic method and creative committee members can easily produce a lengthy list of potential candidates. The greatest but not insurmountable challenge lies in persuading them to run."

JOSEPH ANDERSON is the head of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives and assistant director of the Center for the History of Physics, American Institute of Physics. A member of SAA since 1978, he is also active in the Academy of Certified Archivists and the Midwest Archives Conference.

In his candidate statement, Anderson noted that "the Nominating Committee has to be able to clearly articulate the traditional skills and new requirements for the positions being filled and make a persuasive case for the value and the professional benefits of seeking office in SAA." Anderson added that the committee has to "have a wide familiarity with the members of the profession and energetic networking skills. SAA's sections and roundtables remain one effective leadership ladder, allowing members to come to the attention of their fellows and be recruited for elective office."

WILLIAM E. LANDIS is the manuscripts librarian in special collections at the University of California, Irvine. He serves on the SAA Task Force on Continuing Education, vice chair of the Description Section and is a member of the EAD Working Group.

In his candidate statement, Landis asks, "How to find committed, willing, inventive, collaborative, industrious, fun archivists to run for SAA office who aren't already so oversubscribed in their lives to be immobilized? ...the Nominating Committee...need[s] to utilize colleagues and other contacts for ideas and feedback in assembling a slate of willing, eager volunteers who represent the diversity within SAA's membership and are willing to invest some of their precious time, for a year or for three years, in insuring that archivists in the U.S. continue to have an active, visible, inventive and responsive professional organization."