Recent posts from groups

Registration is now open! Join the Collection Management Section for a spring webinar panel on April 28, 2025 from 3:00-4:30 pm Eastern. This panel will feature presentations on setting strategic priorities and decision-making for collection management with a focus on tools and workflows.   Steven Gentry of the University of Michigan, will present a weighted scoring model that informs processing prioritization.  He will talk about the project’s inception, an overview of the model, its various...
In 1995, when the Willard Psychiatric Center, located in the Finger Lakes region of N.Y., closed its doors, an incredible discovery was made in the attic: hundreds of suitcases, untouched for decades, filled with the most important belongings of their former owners.  These suitcases tell the stories of the lives that were left behind when patients entered the center, many of whom never left. They tell of dreams and aspirations. Of futures unfulfilled. Of incredible accomplishments. Of love...
The SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force seeks member comment on the revised Guidelines on Access to Research Materials in Archives and Special Collections Libraries. These guidelines outline the responsibilities for researcher access, as well as legal and institutional obligations, for a repository in preserving collections for use.  The SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task force to Revise the Statement on Access to Research Materials was convened in 2017 to review, update, and expand the Statement on Access to...
Samantha Bradbeer, Archivist and Historian, Hallmark Cards, Inc. Samantha Bradbeer spends her days at Hallmark making sure that an accurate and varied record of company, family, and product history is preserved for future generations.  As the company archivist and historian, Bradbeer oversees the preservation of advertisements, audio visual materials, chromolithographs, company records, greeting cards and other products, original artwork, postcards, progressive proof books, rare books, prints...
Feb 4, 2018   Business Archives Section
Institutional practices during the pandemic have undermined job stability in more subtle ways as well. In a survey by the Archival Workers Emergency Fund, respondents expressed concern about the elimination and consolidation of positions, reduction of contract lengths, inability to find new positions, and distribution of the impact along gendered and racial lines.Crowdsourced reporting in Google Docs and mutual aid requests further documents the systemic pattern of furloughs, forced retirements...
Open Positions Co-Chair, vote for two Steering Committee member, vote for one Co-Chair (3 candidates) Alphabetical Order   Mary Grace Kosta Archival Consultant   Bio Mary Grace Kosta obtained her MA in linguistics from the University of Calgary, and worked for 25 years as a linguist, museum registrar, government manager, and teacher. She then obtained her MLIS with a specialization in archives from the University of Western Ontario. She worked as an archivist for 13 years before retiring and...
Jun 3, 2024   Women Archivists Section
The Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) invites all to join us for the 2023 Annual Meeting and Marketplace of IDEAs on Friday, July 14, 2023 @ 4pm EDT/3pm CDT/2pm MDT/1pm PDT. Registration: https://societyofamericanarchivists-316.my.webex.com/weblink/register/r71b585693f72fb4cead69ac4c688f207 Proposals to present as part of the Marketplace of IDEAS are still being accepted! Topics focused on the RAO sub-committee areas of Teaching with...
There are two ways to submit comments on the Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessionng.   1. Review the attached PDF here and submit feedback to luglean@uwyo.edu. 2. Go to http://rddrt.forens.es/ and post your comments directly online.  Please note that comments posted here will be seen by anyone who visits the page.   Comments must be received by October 16, 2011.  The RD-DRT will discuss all comments after this date.
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) wishes you all a happy new year and hopes you have had a good start into 2022!    Tapping into the spirit of new starts, we would like to pick up on the call for comments to improve the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) that we initiated at the end of last year. TS-EAS wants to hear from you in more detail what you are missing in the current version of EAD and what you would like to see in a future version of the standard. We...
The Functions Team within the Technical Committee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is happy to announce the release of a new white paper introducing EAF, a draft XML encoding standard based on the International Standard Description of Functions (ISDF) that can be incorporated into the EAS family of standards. The white paper describes the work of the subteam and its proposed encoding solution, along with a number of examples. The white paper also includes some context about the draft and...
The Reference, Access, & Outreach (RAO) Section of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) is seeking nominees for election to the following positions:      (2) Steering Committee Member-at-Large - two year commitment    (1) Vice-chair/Chair-elect - three year commitment All positions begin at the 2024 Annual Meeting. Nominations can be made via the Google Form link below by May 30, 2024 Extended Deadline for Elected Positions: June 7, 2024. For more information and details on roles and...
Please join the Science, Technology, and Health Care (STHC) section of SAA for a special webinar on April 24, at 1pm (central).  Dr. Trevor Owens, Chief Research Officer at the American Institute of Physics, will present From Collections to Connections, Centering Belonging in Work with STEM Collections. For additional information about this free webinar, visit the registration page at the link below:  https://wustl-hipaa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WZ3VE0uHQt2gAFB6qlhwHg
"Preserving Voices: A Community Conversation on the Oral History Transcript Lifecycle from Creation to Preservation"   With Speakers:  Yolanda Hester is an independent public historian. She is Project Director of the Arthur Ashe Oral History Project at Arthur Ashe Legacy of UCLA. Yolanda is invested in fostering collaborative relationships with narrators at all points of the project.    Kopana Terry is the Oral History Archivist at the Nunn Center, University of Kentucky. She manages access and...
Mar 21, 2025   Oral History Section
The Reference, Access, & Outreach section of the Society of American Archivists seeks additional nominees for election to the following roles: Chair, incoming replacement for Vice-Chair resignation 2 year commitment, chair role to start by Jan 2024 Steering Committee Member-at-Large 2 year commitment Vice-chair/Chair-elect 3 year commitment, chair role to start August 2024 All roles begin September 2023 or at the conclusion of the election. Nominations can be made directly via...
The Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) seeks proposals for the 2024 Marketplace of IDEAs to be held during the Virtual Annual Meeting on Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 4pm EDT/3pm CDT/2pm MDT/1pm PDT. Topics related to the sub-committee areas of Teaching with Primary Sources, Exhibits and Events, and Public Services Assessment are encouraged.Proposals addressing topics or themes related to the following will also be prioritized:- evolving the...
Thank you to all of our excellent candidates standing in the 2024 Business Archives Section (BAS) election. Please take some time to review their statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.  You will be voting for one candidate for each of the following positions: Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, three-year term Secretary, one-year term Vice Editor/Editor-Elect, two-year term Education Chair, one-year term Member-at-Large, one-year term Ballots will be managed by SAA staff;...
May 31, 2024   Business Archives Section
By Meredith Torre, Archivist, Atlanta Housing Authority The archival program at Atlanta Housing (AH) began October 2014. The AH Archives collects and preserves records of permanent and historical value dating back to the 1930's. These records document the history of public housing, the history of the United States' first federally funded public housing projects beginning in Atlanta, and the innovative role AH played in shaping public housing policy and history To find out more, check out the...
May 10, 2018   Business Archives Section
March 18, 2025 - The SAA Foundation is excited to offer support for attendance at ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2025 in Anaheim, CA. Join us on August 25-26, 2025, for a gathering of like-minded professionals and to enrich your knowledge in archives and records management.   Our awards cover conference-related expenses, including registration fees, travel, lodging, and meals. We prioritize applicants with demonstrated financial need, in line with our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion...
In this coffee chat Felicia will discuss the use of Airtable for managing complex data sets and workflows for audio and moving image materials; after the presentation the discussion will be opened up to the group for questions, or other solutions for managing a tracking AMI. Felicia Boretzky is a Media Collection Specialist for the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI) within the Smithsonian Libraries & Archives, Felicia is also the vice chair of the AMI section. 
Thank you to our candidates for standing for the 2024 Manuscript Repositories Section election. Section members, please review the candidate statements below and get to know the candidates so you can make an informed choice. You will be voting for: One Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, for a two-year term; and Three (3) Steering Committee members (two-year terms). Ballots are open June 24 - July 15, 2024. Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidate The following candidate is running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect...
Please find below the slides for Deborah Hakes's presentation and a link to the partial recording of the meeting.
If you missed the annual section meeting on July 24, catch-up with the chair’s report slides, minutes, and presenters’ slides from our program on reparative description of institutional records. Full Winter 2024 survey results are also online. The meeting featured presentations about steps archivists at three museums are taking to implement reparative description practices on institutional records. Though the principles discussed in articles and conference presentations apply to and inform...
Jul 31, 2024   Museum Archives Section
The Archival History Section steering committee invites members of the section and SAA to attend a virtual lecture on February 11 at 12 PM EST, by Heather MacNeil. MacNeil is a professor in the Faculty of Information of the University of Toronto, Canada. In her article, “Tacit Narratives in the Manuscript Collections of Matthew Parker and Robert Cotton,” which was published by Archivaria in 2024, she explored the ideologies that shaped the collecting and ordering of knowledge in two early...
Jan 15, 2025   Archival History Section
The SAA Oral History Section invites you to join us Friday, March 7, 2025, at 1-2 pm EST for a community chat with oral and public historian Yolanda Hester and oral history archivist Kopana Terry on producing and managing oral history transcripts.  "Preserving Voices: A Community Conversation on the Oral History Transcript Lifecycle from Creation to Preservation" Date: March 7, 2025 Time: 1-2pm EST / 10-11am PST Speakers:  Yolanda Hester is an independent public historian. She is Project...
Feb 11, 2025   Oral History Section
Submissions are invited for the Case Studies on Teaching With Primary Sources series sponsored by the Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Section of SAA. This open-ended series of case studies is designed to illustrate the application of the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. To date, seventeen case studies have been published since December 2017, covering many of the objectives from the Guidelines. While submissions addressing any of the objectives are encouraged, we are particularly...