Recent posts from groups

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...
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 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...
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards is pleased to release Encoded Archival Context - Corporate bodies, Persons, Families (EAC-CPF) 2.0, a draft updated version of the standard for public review and comment. To ensure the greatest possible input from EAC-CPF users around the world, the subcommittee is calling for comments on the proposed changes to the current version, EAC-CPF 2010. The deadline for comments on the change proposals is June 30, 2021. For details on the new...
Greetings,   On behalf of the Society of American Archivists Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section Steering Committee and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), I am excited to announce that registration is open for our joint EAS Section and TS-EAS annual meeting, to be held on Tuesday, July 6, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM CDT/11:00 AM-1:00 PM EDT/17:00-19:00 CEST. This meeting is being held as part of the broader SAA Virtual Annual Meeting.   Please see the event...
Greetings,   On behalf of the Society of American Archivists Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section Steering Committee and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), I would like to remind everyone that registration is open for our joint EAS Section and TS-EAS annual meeting, to be held on Tuesday, July 6, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM CDT/11:00 AM-1:00 PM EDT/17:00-19:00 CEST. This meeting is being held as part of the broader SAA Virtual Annual Meeting.   Please see...
The EAC-CPF Tag Library of the current Schema version EAC-CPF 2010 revised 2018 is now available in Chinese language as a Website and as a PDF document, along with English, Spanish and French. TS-EAS sends its thanks to the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist Yanlin Li, Librarian Xinxin Hou, Librarian Qing Miao and Librarian Wei Xue at Fudan University Library, for this translation. EAC-CPF 2010 revised 2018 is currently undergoing the revision to the next version. A draft for the new...
As part of the major revision of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD), the Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS), in collaboration with the Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section Steering Committee, will be hosting a webinar in March to introduce the main aspects of the revision and the process to getting to a new version. We invite everyone who works with archival description in whichever format and context to join us and to be...
  The Society of American Archivists' Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) are excited to announce the availability of "Records in Contexts (RiC) Update":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlZN1CQ2lVk This webinar was originally held on December 13, 2021, and provides an update on work on the Records in Contexts (RiC) model. Daniel Pitti and Florence Clavaud of the International Council on Archives Experts Group on Archival Description (EGAD) present a brief overview of...
Registration is now open for the joint annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists'  Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) and the Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section. The meeting will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, August 3, 2022 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (CT).   Please see the event listing on SAA’s website or use this direct link to register for the joint TS-EAS meeting / EAS Section. There are no costs to attend the session and it is open to all; SAA...
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards is pleased to release Encoded Archival Context – Corporate bodies, Persons, Families (EAC-CPF) 2.0.   The process for a major revision for EAC-CPF started in 2017, following the 2015 merger of the Technical Subcommittees on EAD and EAC-CPF and the Schema Development Team into the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) and was finalized in early 2022.    The main updates to the standard are  changes 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 a webinar in November 2022 to introduce the new version of 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...