Resources

History of RAO

Ellen Swain, former Chair of the Reference, Access and Outreach Section, has completed a history of the Section and a list of our former officers. These documents tell the story of the evolution of the Section from a committee to a Professional Affinity Group to its current incarnation as a Section. We invite you to learn (or reminisce) about our Section's history, and we welcome your comments, corrections, and additions. Please contact Jill Severn, RAO Chair, with your suggestions.

SAA RAO Blog

Archivists and National History Day

One of the activities on which the SAA Reference, Access & Outreach Section has recently worked was a task force (2008) that aimed to build a bridge between archivists and the teachers and students who participate in National History Day (NHD). The work led to the creation of the section’s Web site that provides information for this interface.
This area of the site, developed as a follow-up to the task force’s work, provides perspectives on National History Day by every day professional archivists who are involved with NHD in ways such as providing reference service to student researchers or volunteering to judge at NHD competitions. We hope viewers find these perspectives both useful and illuminating, and may add more such statements by other archivists in the months ahead.

Experiencing National History Day: A Judge's Perspective. Jerry Simmons

Judging National History Day in Pennsylvania. Doris Malkmus

Reaching Out to Young Scholars in Minnesota. Kathryn Otto

National History Day Activities at the Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library. Tanya Zanish-Belcher