On May 27th, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of an unmarked burial site of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) wishes to express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the survivors, and all Indigenous peoples impacted by the discovery. We recognize that the findings serve as yet another example of the atrocities committed and enabled by white settlers, their churches and...
Academics continuously loosen the concept of the archives in vigorous debate and flowery speech, while hundreds of linear feet of Black history are stacked in secure shelving, unbeknownst and inaccessible to implicated communities. “Why do we even have this?” is a recurring question whispered across institutions as complex histories of provenance and acquisitions lead to single box collections with titles like “Miscellaneous Slavery Documents,” a collection of Freedman’s Bureau papers and Bills...
Twenty-two years after the National Security Archive published the notorious “Death Squad Dossier” of Guatemala – which chronicled the kidnapping and disappearance of 183 people by government agents over a period from 1983-85 – police arrested 11 former military and security force officials on varying charges of forced disappearance, torture, rape, and assassination connected to the document.Read more here.
Given the use of social media by people living in areas of armed conflict or severe repression, social media platforms have become accidental and unstable archives for human rights content. The last two decades have witnessed a fundamental shift in how people around the world communicate. During this period, the proliferation of smartphones and the rise of social media platforms have enabled increased identification, collection, and sharing of digital information related to international crimes...
Every Friday for the past nine weeks, artists and activists have been carrying on weekly rallies, assemblies and teach-ins in front of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Building on several years of earlier organizing work calling out the ties of board members at the Whitney Museum and MoMA to carceral violence, war and climate crisis, the Strike MoMA initiative was sparked early this year by revelations about the close association between museum chairman and private equity...
In March 2021, Lecturer-rank employees at the University of Michigan Libraries—specifically the Librarians, Archivists, and Curators (LAC)—voted to form a union as part of the University of Michigan’s Lecturers’ Employees Organization. This involved coordinating among the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn campuses and setting standards and goals for all three work environments.
The members of SAA’s Issues and Advocacy section stand in solidarity with the union and, beyond signal boosting their...
Many archivists are reevaluating workflows and practices in order to create more equitable, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist metadata in their repositories. This important work is foregrounded by the Anti-Racist Description Resources, authored by the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s (A4BLiP) Anti-Racist Description Working Group.
Archives in Context spoke with A4BLiP’s Anti-Racist Description Working Group members Alexis A. Antracoli, Annalise Berdini, Faith Charlton, Valencia...
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 Nelson Mandela Foundation has acquired an archival document with great historical significance. Dating from the final stages of the Treason Trial (1956-1961), it is an open letter by the trialists to the people of Britain calling for support in their defence against the apartheid state’s charges of treason. The letter features original signatures by the trialists, including Nelson Mandela, Lilian Ngoyi, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada.Read more here.
The One Book, Many Communities has 3 digital book discussion events in the month of August. This project draws inspiration from the “one book, one town” idea, wherein people in local communities come together to read and discuss a common book. Librarians and Archivists with Palestine invites readers, librarians, and others to organize gatherings to discuss Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. This campaign is designed to introduce readers to the richness of Palestinian literature, and create a...
Ensuring that all histories – especially the most marginalized – are preserved and shared is a priority for Sites of Conscience around the globe. To support this, in partnership with our Asian and Pacific Sites of Conscience Network, we are pleased to launch “Shared Journeys,” a virtual exhibit that showcases the hidden, lost, or sidelined histories of the Asian region. The project is a collaboration between 12 Sites of Conscience in the region and is curated by Radhika Hettiarachchi.Read more ...
Crafting Resistance challenged the idea of political prisoners as ‘passive victims’ which fails to recognise the degree of agency many prisoners retain despite the horrific circumstances they endure. During the military dictatorship of General Pinochet in Chile (1973-1990) hundreds of political prisoners were held in concentration camps throughout the country. In a number of these camps, prisoners organised themselves and crafted items from the very limited materials and improvised tools...
The latest episodes of the Lost in the Stacks Podcast features Colleen Marquis discussing archivists, librarians, and curators joining the Lecturers’ Employee Organization union at the University of Michigan.
Listen here.
Abolitionist Library Association is a collective of library workers, students, and community members taking action to divest from all forms of policing in libraries and invest in our collective liberation.We envision a world without policing or prisons. Our goal is to create libraries that are rooted in community self-determination and intellectual freedom through collective action.Read more here.
This will be my last newsletter as Web Liasion/Newsletter Editor. I am happy to answer questions about the position and give lots of info to whomever is chosen to replace me. I can be contacted via hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com
I am very grateful to current and previous chairs and steering committee members for making this an excellent section to be a part of! As I've mentioned before, I am stepping down for no other reason than it feels like time (I've been doing this for more than 4 years) and I...
Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2021 Human Rights Archives 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 two Steering Committee members (three-year terms).
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
The following candidates are running for the section steering committee:
Katherine...
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards is holding an open working meeting on Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 9 AM PDT / 10 AM MDT / 11 AM CDT / 12 PM EDT / 5 PM BST / 6 PM CEST/ 2 AM Friday AEST (https://sched.co/dQd6).
The meeting is open for all to attend, and will cover our new outreach work, the on-going revision of Encoded Archival Context--Corporate bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), and an update on current Encoded Archival Description (EAD) work. We will...
SAA's Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is pleased to highlight the following new resources in our GitHub repository, following on the SAA 2020 annual conference:
We've updated our procedural handbook, to include a set of design principles that we began to formulate in early 2020 -- and codified at the conference. The design principles reflect recent decisions and will guide future discussions for the development of EAD, EAC-CPF, and any other schemas that might be...
Where do you see yourself professionally in 2021? Appointed to a relatively new technical subcommittee, perhaps? Working to improve and influence the role of encoded archival standards — including EAD and EAC-CPF — throughout the world? If so, now is the time to volunteer!
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is seeking volunteers to join our group.
Next year, the committee will be focused on the following major areas of work:
Finalizing a major revision of...
We hope you have had a good start into the new year. The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) would like to kick-off 2021 with an update on some of our recent as well as upcoming activities.
Encoded Archival Context - Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF)Since early 2019, TS-EAS has been working on a major revision of the EAC-CPF standard. This revision -- EAC-CPF 2.0 -- addresses bug reports and feature requests from the implementer community -- and also...
Noah Huffman of the EAD Subteam reports that EAD3 v1.1.0 has been released. EAD3 Version 1.1.0 represents the first minor revision to EAD3 since its initial release in 2015.
Schemas
EAD3 v1.1.0 is available for download from Github at: https://github.com/SAA-SDT/EAD3/releases/tag/v1.1.0. The release package can be downloaded as a .zip or .tar.gz, and contains the full set of EAD3 v1.1.0 schemas: Relax NG, W3C, and DTD; the ancillary Schematron schema for validating external code lists,...
The Society of American Archivists’ Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section Steering Committee and the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) are excited to announce the availability of “Encoded Archival Standards: A Primer”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYWQeBRnhz0
This brief video tutorial introduces new users--archivists, curators, administrators, educators, and beyond--to Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Contexts - Corporate Bodies, Persons...
The Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), in collaboration with the Encoded Archival Standards Section Steering Committee, will be hosting an April webinar to introduce proposed changes to the EAC-CPF standard.
Encoded Archival Context - Corporate bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF) is an international standard maintained by SAA for encoding contextual information about persons, corporate bodies, and families related to...
The Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), in collaboration with the Encoded Archival Standards Section Steering Committee, will be hosting an April webinar to introduce proposed changes to the EAC-CPF standard.
Encoded Archival Context - Corporate bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF) is an international standard maintained by SAA for encoding contextual information about persons, corporate bodies, and families related...
The Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), in collaboration with the Encoded Archival Standards Section Steering Committee, will be hosting a June webinar as part of the upcoming major revision of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD).
EAD 2002 and EAD3 are currently used by a global community, and TS-EAS aims to get a better understanding of the landscape of EAD use and the needs and requirements of the EAD community with regard...
