- About Archives
- About SAA
- Careers
- Education
- Publications
- Advocacy
- Membership
Predigested quantitative and qualitative information gathered together/curated from diverse sources.
General
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.
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.
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.
American Archivist article (2010) 73 (2): 600–625) which analyzes, but does not include dataset from, survey of archivists under age 35. Contains helpful tabular data.
Analytics from a survey distributed to the general membership to obtain more comprehensive data on barriers to participation in the association; 1200 responses.
Article presents and analyzes survey data on reading and publishing habits of archivists.
Employment
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.
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
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
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.
A survey conducted by Bennett that examines archivists’ salaries broken down by institutions, geographical region, experience, and more.
A survey looking at the unpaid academic internships phenomena in graduate level library science and history programs.
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.
May 2020 National, State, Metropolitan, and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
SAA Membership: Sections and Roundtables
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.
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.