The Board of Regents and the New York State Archives have selected the Rochester Museum and Science Center and the Latino Alliance to receive the 2006 Debra E. Bernhardt Annual Archives Award for Excellence in Documenting New York's History.
The award will be presented to Kate Bennett, President of the Rochester Museum and Science Center; John Rodriguez, President of the Latino Alliance; Lea Kemp, Librarian/Archivist at the Rochester Museum and Science Center; and Susan L. Costa, Vice President of the Latino Alliance at a luncheon ceremony at the State Education Department in Albany on October 23, 2006. The award is named after the late Dr. Debra E. Bernhardt, former Director of the Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, who was a staunch advocate of documenting the history of groups who traditionally have been omitted from the historical record.
This year's award recognizes the Latino Documentation Project as an innovative and successful partnership between a community organization and a repository that has made great strides in documenting the Latino community in the Rochester area. The award commends this remarkable collaboration between the Rochester Museum and Science Center and the Latino Alliance for raising the consciousness of the Latino community as a whole, and records holders in particular, regarding the importance of preserving their collections as part of Rochester's history.
Previous winners of the Debra E. Bernhardt Annual Archives Award for Excellence in Documenting New York's History include the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives of New York University (2001) the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY (2002), Consumer /Survivor/Ex-patient (C/S/X) Oral History Project (2003), and the Marist College Archives and Special Collections (2005).
The annual Archives Awards program recognizes outstanding efforts in archives and records management work in New York State by a broad range of individuals and organizations. A complete list of this year’s award recipients follows:
William Hoyt Advocacy Award
Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York
Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of the State Archives
Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Department of History, Loyola University, Chicago
Debra E. Bernhardt Award for Excellence in Documenting New York’s
History
The Rochester Museum and Science Center and the Latino Alliance
Program Excellence in a Historical Records Repository
Huguenot Historical Society, New Paltz, New York
William H. Kelly Award for Excellence in Local Government Archival
Program Development
Saratoga County
Cheryl Steinbach Award for Excellence in Local Government Records Management
Town of Cheektowaga
Excellence in State Agency Records Management
New York State Emergency Management Office
Bruce W. Dearstyne Educator Award for Excellence in the Educational
Use of Local Government Records
Susan Stessin-Cohn, Ulster County
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using
Historical Records, Grades 4-5 and The Regents Award of Distinction for Student
Research
The Walden History Group, Walden Elementary School, Walden. Educator: Nancy
Phelps
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using
Historical Records, Grades 6-8
Edward Bugniazet and Nicholas LaSorsa, Windward School, White Plains. Educators:
Marjorie R. Gleit and John Manganiello
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using
Historical Records, Grades 9-12
Lauren Koenig, tenth grader at Solomon Schechter High School, Glen Cove. Educator:
Dr. Linda Rubino