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SAA Names Two New Fellows
Ian E. Wilson (left)
and Philip Bantin (right)
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Philip Bantin and Ian E. Wilson were
named Fellows of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) on Aug. 22, 2003,
during an awards ceremony at SAA's 67th annual meeting at the Century Plaza
Hotel in Los Angeles. 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. They join 142
current members so honored out of a membership of 3,600.
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—Leon J. Stout (chair), Steven
Hensen, H. Thomas Hickerson, Luciana Duranti, William J. Maher—and three
Fellows selected by Council—Valerie Gerrard Browne, Megan Desnoyers,
and Deborah Skaggs.
Following are citations given by presenters during the awards ceremony.
See also "And the 2003 SAA Awards
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PHILIP C. BANTIN is university archivist for Indiana University
at Bloomington. He has been a leader in tackling the brave new world of electronic
records outside of government archives. In 26 years of professional service,
he has developed an excellent understanding of the academic environment and
its organizational dynamics. His entire career has been spent in universities,
first at Marquette in the 1980s, where he was assistant and then associate
archivist and conducted a National Endowment for the Humanities grant project
to survey Catholic Indian Mission and School Records in the Midwest. At the
University of California-Los Angeles he served as university archivist and
studied collection development practices in academic archives. At Boston College,
he was head of archives and manuscripts, and, for the last decade, he has served
Indiana University at Bloomington as university archivist and director of a
series of National Historical Publications and Records Commission-funded projects
in electronic records.
In each of his posts he has taken on new challenges and educated himself
in new fields. His work at Indiana University is the most notable of these
efforts. His leadership and knowledge about IT systems design, auditing, and
transactional systems have convinced high-level administrators to pay attention
to archival issues in systems redesign. The electronic records project is ongoing
and built on previous work in other projects in which Bantin has shared widely
through his project Web site, award-winning articles in professional journals,
and numerous presentations at professional conferences.
Bantin has generously served on a variety of advisory committees, including
the University Archivists Group of the Big Ten Schools, where he has assisted
his colleagues in moving electronic records issues forward on their own campuses.
He has taught archival courses at Bloomington and given many guest lectures
in other classrooms. He has been an active professional at all levels, serving
SAA on steering committees for both the College and University Archives and
the Electronic Records sections, on program and local arrangements committees,
and in a variety of posts for regional and state associations.
— Leon J. Stout, Pennsylvania State University
IAN E. WILSON is the National Archivist of Canada and vice
president of the International Council on Archives. His career is exemplary
and his contributions to archival practice and the archival professions in
Canada, the United States, and worldwide have been outstanding. Under his leadership,
the National Archives of Canada exercises its archival mandate within the unique
concept of “total” archives, in which the national repository is
charged with acquiring the full range of the documentary record, ranging from
public to private and from historical to artistic. The National Archives also
operates the national portrait gallery, and current plans will unite the archives
and the national library in achieving a common mission in preserving and providing
public access to the cultural heritage of the peoples of Canada.
Wilson began his career in 1966 as an assistant archivist in the university
archives of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. During the late 1970s and
early 1980s, when he was the Provincial Archivist of Saskatchewan, Wilson chaired
the work of the Consultative Group on Archives of the Canadian Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council. Its report, Canadian Archives, set
forth a strategy for a national archival system. This groundbreaking effort
was recognized by SAA in 1981, when it was awarded a Waldo Gifford Leland Certificate
of Commendation for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field
of archival history, theory, or practice. This report, combined with another
visionary statement, Report of the Advisory Committee on Archives,
issued by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 1985, charted
the development of the Canadian Archival System, a network of more than 800
Canadian archival programs linked together for common purposes, including public
advocacy, fundraising, and sharing knowledge of their combined holding through
the use of common descriptive standards. As a principal author of both reports,
Wilson sketched out a vision that, in his succeeding professional assignments,
he has been able to exercise a prominent role in realizing. After leaving Saskatchewan,
he served for thirteen years as Archivist of Ontario, during which he also
managed the Ontario public library system for three years and served as an
adjunct associate professor on the faculties of Information Studies and of
Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto for seven years. He was named
National Archivist of Canada in 1999.
Wilson joined SAA in 1967 and has been a continuous member for thirty-five
years. He has been a regular speaker at SAA conferences since 1975 and has
also spoken at meetings of the National Association of Government Archives
and Records Administrators, regional archival associations, and university
forums in the United States. He has served on SAA’s Techniques for the
Control and Description of Archives and Manuscripts Committee, Program Committee,
and Task Force on Goals and Priorities, which set a strategic course for SAA
during the mid-1980s. His extensive writings have appeared in a broad range
of historical, archival, library, and museum publications.
His appointments to Canadian public and professional boards and committees
are numerous and his awards include being named a Member of the Order of Canada
in 2002; receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from York University
in 2001; and, in 1983, receiving the W. Kaye Lamb Prize for the best article
published in Archivaria, the journal of the Association of Canadian
Archivists.
His record of contributions to the work of archivists and archival agencies
in North America is remarkable. Wilson has also addressed his attention to
archives worldwide. Principally through the International Council on Archives
(ICA), he has devoted his abilities and his time to efforts seeking to strengthen
archival programs and improve the quality of archival practice globally. In
addition to his current service as ICA vice president, he also serves on the
Executive Committee and chairs the International Conference of the Round Table
on Archives. In the complexities of the international arena, he exhibits the
same organizational and political intelligence that has brought him such success
in many other endeavors. Wilson truly is a world leader in the archival profession.
— H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University
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