31 Earn Digital Archives Specialist Certificates from Society of American Archivists

CHICAGO—Congratulations to the 31 new Digital Archives Specialists (DAS)! These archivists, who represent a variety of repositories around the country, earned a DAS Certificate from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) after completing required coursework within twenty-four months and passing a comprehensive examination in January 2024.

The innovative DAS curriculum, developed by experts in the field of digital archives, is structured around seven core competencies: understanding the nature of records in electronic form; defining for a variety of audiences the requirements, roles, and responsibilities related to digital archives; formulating strategies and tactics for appraisal, description, management, organization, and preservation; integrating technology to provide access to digital collections; planning for the integration of new tools for successive generations of technology; curating, storing, and retrieving original masters and access copies of digital archives; and providing dependable organization and service to designated communities across networks. Participants complete nine required courses from four tiers addressing these competencies.

The new Digital Archives Specialists are:

Matthew Beland; Alexandra Bisio; Victoria Castañeda; LI Chun-wai; Sarah Cruz; Jacqueline Deveraux Asaro; LeAnn Fawver; Mia Ferm; Emily Galgano; Stephanie Garafolo; Kaitlin Garman; John Gurchik; Emily Herron; Bree Jennrich; Christopher Kinner; Katelyn Legacy-Roulston; Patrick LEUNG Sze-lok; Stephen Logsdon; Andrea Matlak; Justine Melone; Mckenzie Morse; Tom Nguyen; Elizabeth Nosari; Traci Patterson; Bethany Reiswig; Paula Roque Rivera; Shannon Schwaller; Mary Silverstein; Heather Smith; Erica Taylor; Challen Wright.

A total of 882 people have earned Digital Archives Specialist certificates since the program began in 2011. For more information, visit www2.archivists.org/prof-education/das or contact SAA Education (education@archivists.org).