2009-06-30

Christopher J. Prom, assistant university archivist and associate professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has received a 2009-2010 U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award.

Prom will spend the next academic year on sabbatical as a research fellow at the Center for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where he will pursue a project titled “Practical Methods to Identify, Preserve, and Provide Access to Electronic Records.”

“I’m excited about the opportunity to learn from my international colleagues.  In my project, I’ll be working with many people and organizations to identify the best practices and software that archivists can use to preserve a vast amount of materials, including e-mail, Web sites, documents, media, and other electronic records.  The most significant and valuable records are especially vulnerable to loss or deletion,” said Chris Prom.  “It’s a complex area to navigate.  I hope that my project will play a useful role in helping to identify approaches and software that archivists can use easily and effectively on a day-to-day basis.”

For his project, Prom plans to use several sets of records, including the files of a Nobel Laureate and those of a prominent champion of intellectual freedom.  He is also interested in working with the records of community organizations in Scotland, where he will live with his family for 10 months.

Fulbright Scholar Program Award recipients are judged on several criteria, including professional qualifications, lecturing activity, research activity, language proficiency, previous experience abroad, and personal qualities.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. Government’s flagship international exchange program, is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), under a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of State, administers the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals. Each year, the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program sends some 800 U.S. faculty and professionals to 140 countries to lecture, research, or participate in seminars. At the same time, approximately 800 faculty from foreign countries come to the U.S. each year.

Information about the Fulbright Scholar Program is located at www.cies.org .

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