Evaluation and Assessment

Data about American archives and archivists that evidence the value of archives for society. 

 

 

Archivists

Predigested quantitative and qualitative information gathered together/curated from diverse sources.


General

  • A*Census (Archival Census and Education Needs Survey in the United States), Society of American Archivists.
    • Special section on A*CENSUS, The American Archivist. 69, (2), 291-527
    • A*Census Dataset in SAA's Dataverse.

      The A*CENSUS, the first comprehensive survey of individuals in the archival profession since 1982, was designed to collect baseline demographic data on archivists in the workforce in the United States, identify the knowledge and skills archivists need to do their jobs and adapt to future demands, and gauge the capacity of graduate and continuing education programs to deliver the necessary knowledge and skills. Detailed information was collected from all respondents in the following subject areas: basic demographic information (age, gender, race/ethnicity), employment (full/part-time, average hours per week, type of employer, years employed, functions), education (degrees, majors, years awarded), training and continuing education (sources, delivery formats and methods, support from employer for obtaining, barriers to obtaining, topical priorities), career paths (impetus for first archival job, careers prior to entering archival work, plans to leave archival work including retirement), professional association affiliation (membership in archival and other associations, support from employer for participation, impetus for joining), leadership/professional involvement (conference attendance, presentations, publications authored, teaching experience, leadership positions in archival and nonarchival organizations, strength of ties to archival profession), and issues of greatest importance.


  • A*CENSUS II: Your Story. Our Future. (Archival Census and Education Needs Survey in the United States), Society of American Archivists.
    • A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report. Skinner, Makala and Ioana Hulbert, Ithaka S+R. 

      The All Archivists Survey, fielded 17 years after the original A*CENSUS collected foundational data for the field, provides a measure of how far the field has come in nearly two decades as well as introduces new or expanded areas of exploration, including sections on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, community archives, and student loan debt.

    • A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey Report. Skinner, Makala, Ithaka S+R. 

      Seven hundred and forty-six archives administrators representing academic institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations, and community archives across the United States shared information about their organizations and their perspectives on key issues in the field by completing the A*CENSUS II Archives Administrators Survey. This report shares findings on archives’ budget and collection sizes, staff recruitment and retention, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility practices. It examines the perspectives of archives administrators on the strategic directions of their organizations, the most significant challenges they are facing, as well as their own role within the organization. As a major nationwide survey of administrators within the archives profession, the findings in this report offer data on institutional as well as administrator demographics.

Employment

  • SAA Employment Survey (2015). Survey Data.

    Results from a survey of SAA members launched to gather employment data relating to archivists and the archives profession. A total of 3,976 individuals responded to the 23-question survey.

  • Rebecca Goldman and Shannon M. Lausch (2012) . Job search experiences and career satisfaction among recent archives program graduates.

    In June 2012, Rebecca Goldman and Shannon Lausch conducted a survey of recent archives graduates to investigate job search experiences, career satisfaction, satisfaction with archival education, and overall life satisfaction. They presented the results of their research at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting in San Diego on August 9, 2012. Included here are the survey questions, anonymized versions of the survey data, and Goldman and Lausch's presentations from SAA.

Equity

  • Women Archivists Section (2002). Survey Results .

    In 2000 and 2001, the WAR Steering Committee and membership devised a survey that sought to explore the relationship between women archivists and their profession, highlighting the issues critical to women archivists and proposing a statistical analysis of those issues. Questions related to respondents' work (including their geographic location, work "climate," professional activity, education, training and responsibilities), and the balance of work and home (flextime, child and elder care, professional and personal leave), as well to working with "women's collections." The questions were then compiled and reviewed by the Steering Committee, and a final survey was established in August of 2001. The survey was completed by a total of 227 women archivists.

Salary

  • Women Archivists Section/SAA Salary Survey (2017). Initial Results and Analysis.

    The Women Archivists Section Salary Survey, created by the Women Archivists Section (WArS) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and funded by the SAA, inventories salary, employment, and leadership in the archives profession. The survey was developed in response to member interest in salary data about the archives profession and, in particular, in data about women archivists across intersectional identities.

  • SAA Salary Survey (1996).  Survey Results.

    Detailed results from a comprehensive salary survey of SAA members conducted four years in advance of A*Census. The very granular breakdown of results is organized into 36 tables by job category and job characteristics.

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Archivists.

    May 2020 National, State, Metropolitan, and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.

SAA Membership: Sections and Roundtables 

  • Design Records Section. Member Survey Results (2019).

    A Survey of DRS members about the scope of design and architecture records in their collection, the type of work they do, and the support that they need from the section to successfully carry out their work.

  • Public Library Archives/Special Collections Roundtable. Member Survey (2018).

    o A survey developed to gather information from former and current Public Library Archives/Special Collection (PLASC) section members to determine member needs and how PLASC can best serve them.

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Repositories

 

Access and Collection Management

  • Acquisitions and Appraisal Section (2017). Development Policy Survey.

    Summary responses and full but redacted data is provided in this report.

  • Collection Management Tools RoundtableSurvey on Needs for a Documentation Portal (2015).

    The Steering Committee surveyed the roundtable membership to gather data on: 1) which tools are being used, 2) how long institutions plan to use these tools, 3) issues encountered in implementing these tools, and 4) to identify the most desired support documentation for specific tool functions.

  • OCLC Research (2010). Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives.

    This extensive research report (129 pp.) this OCLC Research report concludes that much rare and unique material in US special collections remains undiscoverable, and monetary resources are shrinking at the same time that user demand is growing. The report contains extensive analytics and tabular data.

Corporate Archives

  • Business Archives Section.Survey of Business Archives (2017).

    A survey gathering information on United States Business Archives. Questions were divided into three categories: 1) Information about the broader corporate entity; 2) Information about the archives department; and 3) Information about the collections. A final free response question asked respondents to share their greatest challenge.

  • The Society of American Archivists, Business Archives Section. Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada.

    Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada includes companies that maintain their historical records themselves, as well as companies that contract with historical consulting firms to maintain their archives collections for them, and libraries that contain business records. Those businesses that contract outside the company for archival services are marked by an asterisk. This directory also includes the archives of professional associations as these collections document various industries and companies that may be of use to corporate archivists.The Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada contains complete entries arranged alphabetically by name of corporation.

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Education

Library & Archives Graduate Programs

Professional Development

  • SAA Membership Committee Survey on Professional Development (2018)

    Thorough analytics from survey of professional development opportunities available to members, which gathered 1,006 responses, or 18% of SAA’s total individual membership.

Economy