Nationality American Name Helen Samuels Known for Documentation Strategy | Years active 1965 - 2006 Occupation Archivist | |
Notable work Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities Books Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities | ||
Helen Willa Samuels (born 1943) is a noted archivist and scholar in archival studies.
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Biography
Helen Samuels was born in 1943. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Queens College in 1964, and her Master's in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in 1965. Her first library position was as the Music Specialist at the Brookline, Massachusetts Public Library from 1965 to 1967. She then worked as the Music Librarian at Radcliffe College/Harvard University from 1967 to 1972. She first worked in archives at the University of Cincinnati where she held the posts of Assistant Archivist (1972 to 1973) and Head of Special Collections (1973 to 1977). After Cincinnati she moved back to Massachusetts to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she held the title of Institute Archivist and Head of Special Collections from 1977 to 1997. Her final professional position was at MIT in the role of Special Assistant to the Associate Provost. In that position she worked in research and writing for numerous campus policy and information issues. She retired in 2006. During her time at MIT, she established herself as a respected voice in archival theory, particularly for the development of appraisal in an academic setting and processing science related collections. She emphasized a “documentation strategy” for appraisal and intake of collections that became an ideal for archives to strive for that consists of researching and documenting society and its institutions in an active, systematic, and comprehensive way.