UW's Greene Takes Over Presidency of SAA

Sept. 13, 2007 -- Mark A. Greene, director of the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center (AHC), recently assumed the presidency of the world’s largest organization of archivists.

Greene, who has been a professional archivist for 23 years, was elected vice president/president-elect of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in 2006 and began his 12-month term as president in August.

“The balancing act is day-to-day and week-to-week,” says Greene, who became director of the AHC in 2002. “The work at the AHC has to get done and it has to get done by deadline, and I work my presidential responsibilities into my schedule the best I can.”

While Greene will shoulder a heavier workload the next year, he says it’s worth it because being president of the SAA “brings an additional level of visibility to the University of Wyoming.”

As president, Greene will guide the activities and policies of the organization with assistance from a small professional staff at the SAA’s headquarters in Chicago and an 11-member governing council. He also will serve as the primary spokesperson for archivists in the United States.

Greene says his chief goal is to better define and strengthen the identity of the archival profession.

While serving as president is a “huge personal honor,” Greene calls it part of his “responsibility to give back to my profession, and to promote the work of archivists to my best ability.”

He believes his affiliation with the AHC, a nationally renowned archival repository located at 2111 Willett Dr., was probably partly responsible for his election as president.
“Even if people don’t know me,” he says, “they certainly know the AHC.”

Archivists are responsible for identifying, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, preserving and making accessible the primary sources of historical scholarship and the public records essential for ensuring an informed citizenry.

To learn more about the AHC, visit the UW Web site at http://ahc.uwyo.edu. To learn more about the SAA, go to the Web site at www.archivists.org.

Photo:
Mark A. Greene, director of the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center.

Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2007