Erin Lawrimore is the senior co-chair of SAA’s Awards Committee. Read her invitation to submit nominations by 28 February and help recognize your outstanding colleagues!
Hot on the heels of the Oscar nominations comes the 2013 call for nominees for SAA’s awards and scholarships. Do you know of an individual or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the archives profession? Or promoted greater public awareness of archives? Have you authored or read a groundbreaking book, written an outstanding article, or developed an innovative finding aid? Do you need financial assistance to attend graduate school or SAA’s Annual Meeting? Consider applying or nominating someone for one of the awards or scholarships offered by SAA.
On each individual awards page, you’ll find a detailed description, a list of past recipients, and a link to a nomination form. Please note that the nomination forms vary from award to award, so be sure you’re using the right one! The deadline is February 28.
I’d like to highlight a few of SAA’s 21 awards:
Fellow: Established in 1957, the distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archival profession. The total number of Fellows may not exceed five percent of the SAA membership. A member of SAA may be elected a Fellow if he/she has been an individual member in good standing for at least seven years.
The Archival Innovator Award: This award, first available (but not awarded) in 2012, honors archivists (an individual, group, or organization) who think outside the box by demonstrating creativity in approaching professional challenges, the ability to translate innovative ideas into workplace solutions, and a commitment to advancing professional knowledge.
The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: This award supports students and recent graduates who would like to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The award, initiated in 2005 to honor SAA student members, requires involvement at the Annual Meeting as either a presenter or an active participant in a committee, section, or roundtable.
The Diversity Award: First awarded in 2012, the Diversity Award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. The award honors those whose activism, education, outreach, publication, or service in the archives field will have long-term impact on improving and promoting diversity as defined in the SAA Statement on Diversity.
After you make your nominations and the winners have been selected by the hard-working members of the Awards Committee, we hope you will join us in honoring them at the 2013 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The detailed schedule is not yet available, but we will once again honor most recipients at our Awards Ceremony and the others throughout the Annual Meeting (although, as we learned last year, the All-Attendee Reception isn’t the best place–and this is especially true since we’ll be in New Orleans!).
In the meanwhile, please take some time to think about nominating a colleague (or yourself!) for one of our awards. Questions? Feel free to contact me, and remember that the deadline for nominations is February 28. And go ahead and start piecing together your red carpet look for when we honor SAA’s crème de la crème in August.
Off the Record 