Hynda L. Rudd History M.A.

Hynda L. Rudd was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she attended public schools, and graduated with a Master's degree in History from the University of Utah.

While pursuing university studies in Utah, Ms. Rudd established the Jewish Archives in the Marriott Library at the University of Utah; Ms. Rudd also worked for the University of Utah's records management program.

In 1978, Ms. Rudd moved to Los Angeles and continued her post-graduate education at the University of Southern California where she earned another Master's degree in Library Science. She also published her Master's thesis from the University of Utah on the Jewish pioneers of the Intermountain West.

Ms. Rudd was recruited by the City of Los Angeles, which acquired a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant, in 1980 as the City's first Archivist, whereupon she proceeded to establish an archival program within the City Clerk's Records Management Division.

In 1986, Ms. Rudd was promoted to Records Management Officer and placed in charge of the City's Records Center and Archives where she administered the City of Los Angeles' records management program for over forty-five departments, offices and bureaus.

Ms. Rudd, under the sponsorship of the Los Angeles City Historical Society, undertook to compile and edit a comprehensive bibliography of books, periodical articles and theses written about the Los Angeles region between 1970 and 1990.

While preparing the volume, the project won the support of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation which underwrote the first printing.

The resulting 541-page bibliography, containing nearly 6000 citations, has been hailed as a boon to researchers in the history of our City, and is itself an important document on history of our region.

Since the 1996 publication of the bibliography, Ms. Rudd has received commendations and awards from the City and County of Los Angeles, the California Heritage Preservation Commission, the Conference of California Historical Societies and the California State Archives.

As Records Management Officer for the City, Ms. Rudd was involved in rebuilding the City Records Center which was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The rebuilt racks increased the storage to approximately 190,000 cubic feet. The City Archives was also be rebuilt; and

Ms. Rudd was working with California archivists from universities, colleges and the private sector to prepare documentation to prevent government officials from depositing their work papers in repositories other than their government institutions.

In 1998, Ms. Rudd, once more became project director for another volume on Los Angeles. She was responsible for having an anthology written on a history of Los Angeles City Government from 1850-2000. The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation once again funded the project, which will be a two volume work, published in 2004.

Ms. Rudd in 1999 was elected to the Board of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA). Her responsibilities included proposals and initiatives to promote understanding and cooperation of historical and operational records from the National Archives down through all levels of government across the nation; and

In 2000, Ms. Rudd with the University of Southern California prepared for digitization the above mentioned bibliography with a prior work by Dr. Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. covering the same Los Angeles area from 1900-1970. The two volumes were combined and to be produced for use electronically.

In 2001, Ms. Rudd retired from the City of Los Angeles. Since retirement, Ms Rudd worked as a consultant at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation. Once again, the above noted bibliographies were combined and converted into the LA Comprehensive Bibliographic Database, at The University of Southern California, http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/lacbd