News & announcements

MAC is soliciting applications for the 2025 Mark A. Greene Award for first-time meeting attendees (https://www.midwestarchives.org/mark-a-greene-award). The scholarship provides financial assistance for travel and conference expenses to individuals who have not previously attended a MAC meeting. One $500 scholarship or two $250 scholarships will be awarded. To be eligible for the scholarship, an applicant must be attending their first MAC meeting. It is not necessary to be a MAC member, or to reside in the thirteen state MAC region.

Information about the 2025 MAC Annual Meeting may be found here. The Schedule-at-a-Glance provides the most current information about the meeting program. 

Applications are due by February 28, 2025 (extended from the original deadline of February 14) and must include the following documents:

• Completed application form, available at https://www.midwestarchives.org/mark-a-greene-award
• Statement of intent, an essay of no more than 500 words briefly describing the importance
• of this opportunity for your professional development and summarizing the financial requirements of your attendance
• One letter of support

Completed applications should be sent to Colleen McFarland Rademaker, Senior Archivist, Disciples of Christ Historical Society colleen@discipleshistory.org. 

Applicants do not have to be MAC members or reside in a MAC state.

Are you in the early stages of an archives career (2-10 years of experience) and do you demonstrate excellence in leadership? Do you have an archives colleague that exhibits great leadership skills? Please consider nominating them or yourself for the Society of American Archivists' Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award.  

The nomination deadline is February 28, 2025.

Awarded for the first time in 2012 and renamed in 2017, the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, performed commendable service to the archives profession, or a combination of the above. Nominees must have more than two years and less than ten years of professional archives experience at the time of nomination. The award is given based on the total experience and contributions of the awardee, including knowledge, leadership, participation, and achievements in the profession.

The Preservation Publication Award Committee welcomes nominations of outstanding preservation-related works of relevance to the North American archives community that were published in 2024. 

Nominated works may include articles, reports, chapters, or monographs in an audiovisual, digital, or print format. Works may cover topics related to analog or digital preservation, and the award includes a cash prize of $750.

To learn more about this award and to apply, please visithttps://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-preservation.

Browse SAA's many opportunities for professional recognition and financial assistance. Then click on the award's application form for a preview and/or to create a profile, and follow the directions to complete your submission. The deadline is February 28.

MAC is soliciting applications for the 2025 Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship for Students of Color (http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley). The scholarship is designed to provide financial assistance to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival administration and to encourage ethnic diversification of the MAC membership and of the archival profession. Two $1,500 scholarships, accompanied by one-year memberships to MAC, will be awarded. 

To be eligible for a scholarship, the applicant must be of African, Arabic, Asian, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, or Latinx descent; must be a student currently enrolled in or accepted in a graduate, multicourse program in archival administration; and must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in their academic program. If the program is not listed in the SAA Directory of Archival Education, http://www2.archivists.org/dae, the applicant must provide proof of the multicourse standard by submitting copies of course descriptions from the institution’s current departmental catalog.

Applications are due March 1, 2025 and must include the following documents:

• Completed application form, available at http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley
• Current resume that includes education, work history, involvement in campus or community organizations, membership in professional organizations, and any honors or awards received
• Transcript from the applicant's most recent academic program (unofficial transcript is acceptable)
• Essay of not more than 500 words outlining the applicant's interests and future goals in archival administration
• One letter of recommendation  (may be submitted separately by recommender).

Please send all materials (application form, transcript, and essay) as one single file. Completed applications should be sent to:

Megan Keller Young
Senior Instructor and Special Collections Librarian
University of Illinois Chicago
megank@uic.edu

Applications must be emailed by March 1, 2025. 

Awards will be announced no later than June 3, 2025. 

The Scaling Community Through Archives project team is excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for the project learning cohort. Eight public library staff will be selected to participate in the cohort which will provide mentoring, resources, and funding for a community archives project in the selected participant’s community.

https://tascha.uw.edu/cohort-applications-now-open-for-scaling-community-archives-project/

The J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award Subcommittee of the Society of American Archivists is asking you to submit a nomination for the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award!

Established in 1989, this award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archival activities or programs. The individual's or institution's contributions may take the form of advocacy, publicity, legislation, financial support, or a similar action that fosters archival work or raises public consciousness of the importance of archival work. Contributions should have broad, long-term impact at the regional level or beyond.

Eligibility: Nominees must be from outside the archives profession. Individuals directly involved in archival work, either as paid or volunteer staff, or institutions or organizations directly responsible for an archival program are not eligible for this award.

Nominations should be sent through the online submission system by February 28, 2025 at https://app.smarterselect.com/programs/45853-Society-Of-American-Archivists

Recent winners include:

·  2024: Dr. Elaine Carey

·  2023: The West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection Advisory Team

·  2020: Brad Pomerance, CJ Eastman AND Council of Independent Colleges' Humanities Research for the Public Good Program

·  2019: Tempestt Hazel AND The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva)

·  2018: Yvonne Lewis Holley AND Brad Meltzer

·  2017: Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI)

·  2016: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ron Chernow

The Preservation Publication Award Committee welcomes nominations of outstanding preservation-related works of relevance to the North American archives community that were published in 2024. 

Nominated works may include articles, reports, chapters, or monographs in an audiovisual, digital, or print format. Works may cover topics related to analog or digital preservation, and the award includes a cash prize of $750.

To learn more about this award and to apply, please visithttps://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-preservation.

Browse SAA's many opportunities for professional recognition and financial assistance. Then click on the award's application form for a preview and/or to create a profile, and follow the directions to complete your submission. The deadline is February 28.

MAC is soliciting applications for the 2025 Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship for Students of Color (http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley). The scholarship is designed to provide financial assistance to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival administration and to encourage ethnic diversification of the MAC membership and of the archival profession. Two $1,500 scholarships, accompanied by one-year memberships to MAC, will be awarded. 

To be eligible for a scholarship, the applicant must be of African, Arabic, Asian, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, or Latinx descent; must be a student currently enrolled in or accepted in a graduate, multicourse program in archival administration; and must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in their academic program. If the program is not listed in the SAA Directory of Archival Education, http://www2.archivists.org/dae, the applicant must provide proof of the multicourse standard by submitting copies of course descriptions from the institution’s current departmental catalog.

Applications are due March 1, 2025 and must include the following documents:

• Completed application form, available at http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley
• Current resume that includes education, work history, involvement in campus or community organizations, membership in professional organizations, and any honors or awards received
• Transcript from the applicant's most recent academic program (unofficial transcript is acceptable)
• Essay of not more than 500 words outlining the applicant's interests and future goals in archival administration
• One letter of recommendation  (may be submitted separately by recommender).

Please send all materials (application form, transcript, and essay) as one single file. Completed applications should be sent to:

Megan Keller Young

Senior Instructor and Special Collections Librarian

University of Illinois Chicago

megank@uic.edu

Applications must be emailed by March 1, 2025. 

Awards will be announced no later than June 3, 2025. 

The application period for SAA's 2025 Josephine Forman Scholarship is now open!

The purpose of the Josephine Forman Scholarship is to provide financial support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, to encourage students to pursue a career as an archivist, and to promote the diversification of the American archives profession.  The scholarship is given to applicants who demonstrate excellent potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archives profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it.  The scholarship was established by the General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) of The United Methodist Church and named for Josephine Forman, archivist for 18 years of the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The recipient of the award will receive a scholarship of $10,000.  Awardees also may be invited to attend the annual meeting of the General Commission on Archives and History and/or the Quadrennial Historical Convocation, with funding provided by GCAH.  Also included is complimentary registration to the SAA Annual Meeting in the year in which the scholarship is received. All applications must be submitted by February 28th. 

Eligibility:

• The applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
• The applicant must be of American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern/North African, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander descent.
• The applicant must be currently enrolled in a graduate program or a multi-course program in archival administration, or have applied to such a program for the next academic year.*
• The applicant shall have completed no more than half of the credit requirements toward her/his graduate degree or multi-course program at the time of the award (i.e., June 1).
• The applicant must be enrolled in a graduate program and begin school no later than September 1 or the fall semester/quarter immediately following the award.  Otherwise the award will be rescinded.
• Applicants may have full-time or part-time status. 

*The graduate program or multi-course program must offer at least three courses in archival science or be listed in the current SAA Directory of Archival Education.  The applicant must provide proof of the three-course standard by submitting copies of course descriptions from the institution’s current course catalog.

The Society of American Archivists has received a $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant program to establish a prioritized research agenda for the archives profession that builds upon SAA’s recently adopted Research and Innovation Roadmap. Spearheaded by the Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment (CORDA), SAA is convening 35 archival experts, educators, community leaders, and grantmakers–archivists from across key sectors and professional positionality as well as relevant non-archivist stakeholders–to be part of a professionally facilitated two-day forum to take place in Chicago on May 1–2, 2025. The convened archivists will transform the recently adopted SAA Research and Innovation Roadmap into a research agenda and a framework for wider implementation and adoption.

We hope you will consider applying. Though only 35 attendees can be selected, we have designed a selection process that is open to self nomination and will adhere to the criteria presented below. We seek archival experts, educators, community leaders, and grantmakers from across key sectors and professional positionality, as well as relevant non-archivist stakeholders who can distill from the roadmap a research agenda to shape the forward-looking work of our profession. We are specifically seeking an applicant pool that will allow us to appoint individuals representing the following:

• Archivists affiliated with allied professions including the American Library Association (ALA), COSA, Regional Professional Associations, foundations and funders, as well as international organizations including either IFLA or UNESCO, grant makers, and educators.
• Participants will primarily represent the United States of America (West, Midwest, Northeast, South, Pacific, Caribbean).
• We will allocate space and budgetary funds for one international participant (e.g. IFLA, UNESCO).
• The Collective will represent different race/ethnicities and gender, related to individual and community identity, including the attributes mentioned in SAA’s Equal Opportunity/Non-discrimination Policy.
• We seek to include archivists that are individual contributors/solo archivists, managers, and senior administrators/executives in the profession.
• Archivists that are both contract/limited term vs. permanent. Archivists that are entry level (0-5 years), mid-level (6-14 years), and senior (15+ years) in their respective careers.
• Participants representing all sectors of the field including: Academic, Government Agency, Non-profit, For-profit, Self-employed, Community Archives, and Religious Archives.

From the applications received, the CORDA grant project team will make the most strategic selection it can from among the full population of applicants, based upon the publicly available criteria drawn from the SAA Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and utilizing a weighted rubric developed in consultation with the agenda facilitator, RMC Research Corporation (“Research Making Change”).

If interested, please review the grant proposal, and the Research and Innovation Roadmap. Applications are due December 20, 2024.  The application itself will take approximately 40 minutes to complete. Applicants selected for the 35-seats will be required to spend two days at an in-person facilitated retreat in Chicago IL on May 1–2, 2025. Travel and lodging expenses are funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

We thank you for considering offering to participate, and we hope that you will submit your application. If you have any questions or feedback about the application process or the project, please contact Chris Marino, Project Director, at cmmarino@stanford.edu.

With kind regards,

Gwen Higgins

Archivist, Archives & Special Collections

UAA/APU Consortium Library

University of Alaska Anchorage