Carbondale Reporter

The Society of American Archivists recently named Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC) archivist Matt Gorzalski its 2016  Emerging Leader Award winner for his work in promoting archives and historic records as a resource in classroom instruction and hands-on activities.

The Emerging Leader Award is in its sixth year, and is presented to relatively new archivists who distinguish themselves with leadership, archival work or outstanding service to the profession.

Matt Gorzalski | Contributed photo

In addition to Gorzalski's duties as a university archivist, he chairs the Society of American Archivists' Collection Management Tools Roundtable and the Career Development Subcommittee. Gorzalski also has published a number of articles archivist publications, including his award-winning “Reimaging Record Groups: A Case Study and Considerations for Record Group Revision” in Provenance.

Among Gorzalski's projects is the 2015 Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Virtual Museum exhibit "The Last Steam Engines of Illinois." The late Ben Gelman, who was an SIU public information specialist, took a series of photos of railroads and steam engines in the 1950s. Gelman's photos were published in The Southern in 1959. By the end of that year, the entire Illinois Central had converted to diesel.

Gorzalski had the black-and-white photos scanned and organized for the virtual exhibit. The photos documented the Carbondale rail yard, roundhouse, engines and railroad workers.