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...
The Society of American Archivists Museum Archives Section welcomes your comments on a draft of revised Museum Archives Guidelines. These guidelines have been created by the Section to assist all types of museums in the development and administration of archival programs.
You can view the draft Guidelines here and submit feedback by accessing this survey: https://forms.gle/xNp3Ad9QRYwHokX97
Please note that you can sign off on the Guidelines as written using the radio buttons in the first...
Nominees for Vice Chair:
Tori Maches, Digital Archivist, UC San Diego
Running for Vice Chair of SAA’s Web Archiving Section represents an opportunity to use my past, local-level leadership experience, as well as my current role as UC San Diego’s digital archivist, to support the section’s internal efforts, and its collaborations with the wider professional community. In addition, my work managing UC San Diego’s web archiving program has given me a sense of both the progress the archival ...
The Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists is seeking two new co-chairs to lead the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Subcommittee.
The TPS Subcommittee advocates for the active and interactive use of primary sources in teaching and learning as a core component of archival work. The co-chairs work together with the RAO Steering Committee to plan and develop different programming opportunities throughout the year, such as the Article Discussion Club...
Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2023 Accessioning, Acquisitions, & Appraisal Section election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.
You will be voting for:
One Vice Chair/Chair-Elect for a three-year term; and
[2] Steering Committee members (two-year terms).
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
Vice...
Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2024 User Experience Section Special Election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.
You will be voting for:
2 Steering Committee members (term ending August 2024).
We are also voting to approve our Section standing rules, as detailed below. The proposed rules are an important step to formalizing governance of the User Experience Section and were open...
Title: Creating and Conducting Focus Groups for Archivist Researchers
Start date: March 19th 1pm Eastern
End date: March 19, 2:30pm Eastern
Location: Virtual (Zoom)
Workshop description:
This workshop introduces how to design and conduct focus groups on topics relevant to archivists who are interested in conducting research. The workshop helps participants understand qualitative research basics with emphasis on what kinds of research projects benefit from the focus group method. Participants...
by Dave J. Moore, Heritage & Brand Asset Manager, Carhartt
Hey Midwest business archivists!
We’re excited to announce we’ll be reprising the Business Archives Preconference at this year’s Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) Annual Meeting. We were at capacity last year in Detroit and we hope to do it again! The preconference will take place from May 6 in Des Moines, Iowa. Preliminary information on the MAC Annual Meeting is available here: https://www.midwestarchives.org/2020-annual-meeting....
This report examines the encryption that protects meetings in the popular Zoom teleconference app. We find that Zoom has “rolled their own” encryption scheme, which has significant weaknesses. In addition, we identify potential areas of concern in Zoom’s infrastructure, including observing the transmission of meeting encryption keys through China.
Read more here.
A group of "engineers, designers, business executives, and others" created and signed a pledge vowing not to create a database of individuals based on their religious beliefs. In doing so, the writers of the pledge acknowledge the role of technology in human rights abuses throughout history and vow to identify and advocate against the targeting of marginalized communities such as Muslims and immigrants.
The full pledge can be found at http://neveragain.tech/
By Kerri Anne Burke, Global Curator, Citi Heritage Collection
Bob Clark of the Rockefeller Archives Center, L.J. Strumpf of the IBM Archives and I spoke at the Spring 2018 joint meeting of the New England Archivists and Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York. The panel was organized and moderated by Jamie Martin of the IBM Archives. The panelists spoke on the value of business records and how business archivists must advocate the worth of business records to internal audiences,...
A recording of the annual meeting of the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Description (TS-EAS) is now available to the community on SAA’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcl1AzCciZs. The meeting provides an overview of work from the 2023-2024 term, including a review of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) revision process as well as work on associated standards. Additional updates about these standards revisions are expected in the coming months, and will be...
“The pandemic has been a horror,” says Rachel Mattson, Curator of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. One of the projects that has kept the Tretter staff connected, supported, engaged — and able to support a wide range of research inquiries — throughout the pandemic is a project organized around a Twin Cities public access television show, GAZE-TV.GAZE-TV ran from 1986 until Pride season 1992, and then as Green And Yellow (GAY) TV until Pride...
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...
The SAA Performing Arts Section is happy to announce our next Meet & Greet on February 6, 2025 @1:00PM EST / 10:00AM PST with Melissa Ziobro, Curator of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM).
Join Melissa Ziobro for Meet the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, an overview of the Center's history, programmatic and exhibition efforts to date, and an inside look at ongoing efforts to manage a major traveling exhibitwhile planning for a...
2024 Election Candidates
It is that time of the year again, SAA election season! Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2024 Oral History Section election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.
You will be voting for:
One Vice Chair/Chair-Elect; for a three year term
Two Steering Committee members; for two year terms
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff; keep an eye on your inbox for when...
Hello everyone. The Oral History Section's Annual Meeting is on Wednesday, June 28th from 12pm-1:30pm EDT/9am-1030am PDT.
You must register to attend the meeting, which you can do by going to the event page for our meeting here: https://connect.archivists.org/events/event-description?CalendarEventKey=3e726686-f4b8-494d-8982-01879f4ab9cd&Home=%2fhigherlogic%2fccadmin%2fadmin%2fevents%2fmanagecalendarevents.aspx
The agenda for our meeting is as follows:
1. Business Meeting (12-12:15...
We are in need of a new Digital Archivist here to manage our DSpace repository, as well as support our other technology needs. Here is a piece of the job description:
Reporting to the Director of Archives & Records Management, the Digital Archivist holds primary responsibility for the implementation and maintenance of all in-house programs and databases used by the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives, including the DSpace digital repository and the Inmagic DB/TextWorks image database. The...
Created in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020, the Archival Workers Emergency Fund was established to provide financial assistance for archival workers experiencing acute, unanticipated financial hardship due to the crisis.
The number of recipients and award amounts will be determined by the SAA Foundation AWEF Grant Review Committee in collaboration with the SAA Foundation Board of Directors based on need and available funds. During the initial period (April 15 to December 31,...
In April 2019, the Joint Working Group on Issues and Awareness offered the webinar "Archival Advocacy at Home Preparing and Messaging for Visiting District Congressional Offices."
To view this webinar, please click the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-qUNEi-K3Vm8SIqAY0XUM3MJ-BRMnkHU/view?usp=sharing
The SAA Oral History Section invites you to join us for a collaborative talk to help you decide if oral history is right for you!
Taking a Step Back: Guidance for Determining Oral History Project Goals and How to Reach Them
Thursday December 5, 11:00am PST / 2:00pm EST
Register at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElc-GpqDstG9NsNQJFPCFXxw3BLNVPqshr#/registration
Please contact Kristin Morris with questions about this event at kristinmarie.morris@gmail.com.
This talk will help you...
The Winter 2024 Newsletter includes:
A letter from the MAS Chair, Laura Uglean Jackson
Digitizing the Russell Barnett Aitken Collection by Charlotte Kaczmarek
“A Kind of Love Match from the Beginning”: Helen Frankenthaler and the National Gallery of Art by Kelly Burton
Hello Everyone!
Please join the Annual Business Meeting of the Oral History Section on Tuesday, July 9th at 11-12:30 pdt/ 2-3:30 edt. We will review the Oral History Committee's work over the past year before turning over the floor to our speakers, Dr. Tyler Reed, Doug Boyd, and Jennifer Keil, who will speak about utilizing AI in oral history work. We will conclude the meeting with announcements and our agenda for the coming year!
Please be sure to register here.
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...
On December 5, 2024, the Oral History Section Steering Committee hosted "Taking a Step Back: Guidance for Determining Oral History Project Goals and How to Reach Them" with presenters Natalie Milbrodt and Kristin Morris.
Thank you to all who could join. A pdf of the presentation slides is available.