 |
Awards Acknowledge Outstanding Achievements—2007 SAA Award Recipients
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.
For more information about SAA’s awards competition, click here.
Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award
C.F.W. Coker Award
Waldo Gifford Leland Award
Preservation Publication Award
Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award
Theodore Calvin Pease Award
Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award
Colonial Dames and Donna Cutts Scholarship Awards
Council Exemplary Service Award
J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award
Donald Peterson Student Scholarship
Spotlight Award
Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award
Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award
See also Six New SAA Fellows Honored (August 2007)
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.
Click here to subscribe to 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.”
Click here to subscribe to American
Archivist.
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.
|
|
