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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”