SLIS student and Society of American Archivists (SAA) Student Chapter member Bergis Jules has won the Harold T. Pinkett Award. This award was established by the national "SAA - Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable, in honor of archival pioneer Harold T. Pinkett, the first African American to be appointed an archivist at the National Archives, where he served for more than 35 years as a specialist in agricultural archives, senior records appraiser, and chief archivist of the Natural Resources Records Branch. An SAA Fellow, he served as editor of The American Archivist from 1968 to 1971."
The award provides Jules with full registration and related expenses to attend this year's SAA Annual Meeting in Chicago. It is the 71st meeting of the association.
Jules is pursuing the dual Master of Library Science/M.A. African American and African Diaspora Studies program, and the SLIS Archives and Records Management Specialization. He states that "the Harold T. Pinkett award is very important to me and will allow me to attend the SAA conference in Chicago this August. I am proud to be one of the people to have received this award, and I hope to learn a lot at the conference. I would like to thank SAA for making these types of opportunities available to students."
Additionally, Jules recently participated in a panel discussion with four other Diversity Scholars at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Washington, D.C. on June 24. He discussed his experiences with the program and the impact it has had on his career. [See panel description below.]
Jules notes, "ARL's Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce has given me a really good introduction to the field, and I hope to remain involved with the program and to help promote it more in the future."
Panel Description:
Minority Recruitment in Research Libraries: A Model of Success
The US population is becoming more diverse with each new generation and the profession is faced with the issue of the lack of increased numbers of librarians from underrepresented groups being effectively recruited and retained in the profession. The Association of Research Libraries' Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce program has worked diligently to recruit librarians from underrepresented groups into careers in research libraries. This session will discuss ARL's Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, its program model, funding, future goals, and program success.
Posted July 06, 2007