Montana State’s Jodi Allison-Bunnell to be inducted as fellow of the Society of American Archivists

BOZEMAN — Jodi Allison-Bunnell, head of Archives and Special Collections at the Montana State University Library, will be inducted this summer as a fellow of the Society of American Archivists, or SAA, the oldest and largest archivist association in North America.

The distinction of fellow is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession and is the highest honor SAA bestows on individuals. Allison-Bunnell will be honored during a July 27 awards ceremony at the joint annual meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, D.C.

Allison-Bunnell is one of four new fellows being named in 2023. That will bring the number of fellows for the SAA to 199.  

Doralyn Rossmann, dean of the MSU Library, said Allison-Bunnell is deserving of the prestigious award.

“I am thrilled to see Jodi recognized for her contributions to the archives profession with an award of the highest honor for an archivist,” Rossmann said. “During her time at MSU, Jodi has demonstrated a depth of knowledge and expertise with archival practices that have resulted in great improvements to the management and discoverability of the MSU Library's Archives and Special Collections. Resultingly, we are seeing more and more people interested in trusting MSU with their archives because they know that we will be responsible stewards of their materials."

Throughout her nearly 30-year career, Allison-Bunnell has been a champion for the discovery and use of archival collections, according to a press release from SAA announcing Allison-Bunnell’s fellowship.

“Her work is undergirded by inclusive and collaborative partnerships, a solid foundation in descriptive standards, and a focus on pragmatic solutions that have assisted archives of all types,” SAA noted.

Allison-Bunnell came to the MSU Library in 2020 as assistant professor, senior archivist and head of Archives and Special Collections, where she manages an academic repository and its staff. During her three years at MSU, she has focused on increasing the efficiency of the department’s work. In particular – and with the support of a Faculty Excellence Grant – she led a process to implement Lean, a method from industrial manufacturing that focuses on minimizing waste while maximizing productivity, for the library’s collection preparation. Allison-Bunnell said the work, which involved three departments in the library, resulted in higher quality, shorter and more predictable project timelines, and increased employee satisfaction. As part of the efforts, the library has also implemented new systems that help describe its collections in a way that can increase discovery and use.

“Underlying all of that is my sustained commitment to building a cohesive and functional team in the department and being part of doing so for the library leadership team,” Allison-Bunnell said. 

She noted that Archives and Special Collections has increased the number of classes that are invited to come into the archives and explore the collections as part of their research methods or other courses. This spring, Allison-Bunnell said, she taught or co-taught sessions for 23 classes.

Since her arrival at MSU, Allison-Bunnell has also published articles on the Lean process with colleagues at the University of Washington, as well as a paper on the future of increasing access to heritage collections nationally and a book chapter in a Stanford University Library handbook.

She previously worked as a consultant to cultural heritage organizations, including libraries, museums and archives, in the United States. In 2007, she became a program manager at the Orbis Cascade Alliance, where she led a regional program for archives and other cultural heritage institutions in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Archives West, as it is now called, is one of the largest U.S.-based finding aid networks, representing more than 50 contributors and 35,000 finding aids, and serves as a model for other regional, consortia-based archival description work. Finding aids are tools that help a user find information in a collection of materials, such as card catalogs, inventories and institutional guides. 

She has master’s degrees in library science and American history, both from the University of Maryland at College Park, as a well as a bachelor’s degree in English from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Allison-Bunnell said a “desire to time travel” is what led her to her career. After graduating from Whitman, she considered graduate school in English. But then she spent a summer working as a fire lookout in Washington state, a job that led her to produce an article on the experience for a local newspaper and to write about fire lookouts, culture and communication within the U.S. Forest Service.

“I had a thirst not just for old things, but to understand: ‘Why does this place look like this?’ What made this place?’ I had a desire to put the pieces together.”

Allison-Bunnell credits her adviser in graduate school, Frank Burke, with helping launch her career. Burke, the national archivist under President Ronald Reagan and an SAA fellow himself, encouraged her to revitalize the student chapter of the SAA at the University of Maryland and mentored her along the way.

Throughout her career, she has worked to increase access to content in archives, such as unpublished, original materials.

“This could be entirely unique, like a diary or a letter, or an author’s research papers, such as Ivan Doig’s notecards. He would overhear someone and say to himself, ‘This is an interesting phrase,’ and then write it down,” Allison-Bunnell said. “Those unique materials were created for one reason, such as an author’s research, and then brought into a research institution like MSU and used for another purpose.”

Allison-Bunnell said deciding what to collect poses many challenges for an archivist. She expects her next stage of scholarship to focus on this question.

“We have focused a lot on collecting the past. We’re thinking together about collecting more of the present,” Allison-Bunnell said. “Where will our efforts go? That’s a direction I’m really interested in exploring.”

Allison-Bunnell said it’s an exciting time to work in special collections and archives.

“We think the past is just gone and it doesn’t matter and we’re moving forward, but it’s always with us. It doesn’t ever really go away,” Allison-Bunnell said. “And we might as well understand it, because the world is a richer and more interesting place when we understand it.”