Finding Aids Award Committee

The Finding Aids Award Committee was established by a vote of the membership at the Spring 1982 MARAC Business Meeting. The C. Herbert Finch Online Publication Award was established to honor the memory of C. Herbert Finch, former Assistant Director of Cornell University Libraries, who died on April 27, 2005.

Mission and Goals

The purpose of the Committee is to recognize outstanding achievement in the preparation of finding aids by institutions within the MARAC region or by MARAC members and to promote improvements in this area of archival work by drawing attention to characteristics of successful finding aids. The other purpose of the Committee is to recognize high quality in the creation of online publications. It is the responsibility of the Committee to publicize the Finding Aid Awards and the C. Herbert Finch Award and to solicit entries from the membership.

Operations

Entries for these awards are reviewed independently by the Committee members and the results are sent to the Committee Chair. The Committee usually conducts its work by email or telephone although the Committee Chair may convene a meeting should it be necessary to reach agreement on the awards. The awards are decided by a majority vote of the Committee members. Committee members affiliated with an institution that submits entries for the awards should abstain from voting on the submission.

Entries for the awards are judged on a variety of criteria, including scholarship, relevancy, innovation, quality of writing, and presentation and layout. Finding Aids Awards are presented at the Spring MARAC Business Meeting and C. Herbert Finch Awards are presented at the Fall MARAC Business Meeting.

See a list of previous Finding Aid Award winners.

Membership

The Committee consists of six members who each serve for a term of three years. Two are elected each year by the MARAC membership. The elected member receiving the most votes becomes the Junior Co-chair of the Arline Custer Committee in their second year of service. The Junior Co-chair shall become the Senior Co-chair in their third year of service. The MARAC Chair shall fill any vacancies on the Committee.

The Senior Co-chair of the Committee reports to the Chair of the Awards Committee and also serves on that committee to share information and coordinate activities with the chairs of the other awards committees.

Contact

Contact the Senior Co-Chair, David Grinnell at [email protected].

Last revised July 2024