Rep(s) to ICA Experts Group on Archival Description

International Council on Archives (ICA)

Experts Group on Archival Description (EGAD)

Group Web Page: https://www.ica.org/en/about-egadhttps://www.ica.org/en/about-egad. https://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section11/representatives/ica-experts-group-on-archival-description

I.  Background

The Expert Group on Archival Description (EGAD) was established by ICA's Executive Board in 2012 and is part of ICA's Professional Commission (PCOM).

Expert Groups consist of “a selected number of professionals with proven expertise in the issues or concerns of a particular sector, including leaders, activists, senior professionals, and representatives of international organizations”. Members of EGAD must be employed by ICA member institutions or be individual ICA members.

EGAD is charged with developing a formal conceptual model for archival description that “identifies and defines the essential components of archival description”. This model, called Records in Contexts, replaces previous ICA standards on which several SAA-maintained standards are based.

EGAD has a single chair who is appointed without a term. New members to EGAD are appointed by the chair at their discretion, by invitation only in some years or via a public call for volunteers in others.

EGAD conducts its regular business virtually and occasionally in-person Working Meetings.

 II.  Purpose of SAA Representative:

SAA and ICA EGAD have a joint liaison who is expected to share information on both EGAD and SAA Standards development with both groups to support parallel and complimenting standards development.

III. Logistics

  1. Number of representatives and length of terms: 1 representative, 3-year term    
  2. Specific qualifications/areas of expertise that representative(s) should have for appointment: Membership in SAA and sustained experience participating in standards development.
  3. Participation expectation: The EGAD-Standards liaison is expected to attend and participate in committee meetings for both groups, which are expected to be primarily virtual events.
  4. Reporting expectations for the external group and to SAA stakeholders, including frequency, extent, and format. SAA reporting requirements and procedures are specified in the liaison charge: The liaison is expected to attend and participate in the committee meetings, providing feedback and updates during the meetings. An annual retrospective is encouraged to be drafted and shared with both the chairs of EGAD and Standards to articulate successful outcomes and pain points for the relationship over the year. This retrospective can be incorporated into the annual report from the Standards committee to the Council.
  5. Anticipated costs (institutional membership, travel expenses, event registration, etc): Committee work is expected to primarily be virtual and, unless a special funding request is generated for exceptional circumstances, funding to support international travel is not anticipated.

IV. SAA Stakeholders: SAA Standards Committee

Revised: June 2026