Christopher Prom

Assistant University Archivist and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Prom holds a PhD in history from the University of Illinois and also studied at the University of York (United Kingdom). Prom is a Distinguished Fellow of the Society of American Archivists and has received several other research fellowships including most recently a 2009-10 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award. In this capacity, he directed a research project at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee, Scotland, concerning "Practical Approaches to Identifying, Preserving, and Providing Access to Electronic Records." He is currently working on a tech watch report for the Digital Preservation Coalition (UK) concerning email preservation. He maintains the Practical E-Records Blog and an active publication portfolio. His research describes the ways in which archival users seek information relevant to their needs and assesses methods that archivists can use to efficiently meet those needs. Chris is also co-director of the Archon™ project, which developed an open source application for managing archival descriptive information and digital objects, and he is a member of the ArchivesSpace planning group, which is developing a next-generation archival management system. He has served the Society of American Archivists in several capacities, currently as a member of the Encoded Archival Context Working Group and the editorial board of The American Archivist.