To receive one major award in a lifetime is special but to receive two awards in one week is amazing! This week Mary Grace Kosta, Archivist for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada received The Archives Association of Ontario’s (AAO), James J. Talman Award at their annual general meeting. She also was the recipient of The Sister Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award to be presented virtually in August 2021 at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists. This is the biggest award for religious archivists in North America.
The Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P. Memorial Award, created in 1974, recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives. In Mary’s case, she continues to be involved in three religious archival organizations in the U.S. and Canada and has shown leadership within the wide-ranging religious archival community.
In being chosen for The James J. Talman Award, Mary showed an exceptional level of imagination and innovation in establishing and managing a student practicum program at the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Archives. In presenting the award, Rodney Carter, Chair of the AAO Awards Committee commended Mary for “providing invaluable hands-on experience to over a hundred students and (her) program is worthy of praise and emulation as a model for other archives of how practicums can benefit both institution and students”.
In addition to the work Mary undertakes for which she received these esteemed awards, she shoulders mounds of archival work every day. Most recently, she has been responsible for successfully amalgamating the archives of three of our four congregations, which involved travelling between London, Hamilton, and Pembroke as well as supporting the Peterborough archives. We are proud to sing Mary Grace’s praises and call her our celebrated archivist.
-Sister Jean Moylan, csj
Below, pictures from our CSJ Archives. Please visit the CSJ Archives website for more!
