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.
For more information about SAA’s 2004 awards competition, click
here.
J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award
Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award
Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award
Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award
Waldo Gifford Leland Award
Theodore Calvin Pease Award
Oliver Wendell Holmes Award
Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award
Colonial Dames Scholarship Award
Council Exemplary Service Award
See also SAA Names Two New Fellows (Aug 2003)
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.
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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.
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Archivist.
For more information on SAA student chapters, please click
here.
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.
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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.
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