Regardless of what institution we work for, we all have the shared experience of archives education. Those long days (and nights) of studying archival theory and principles. What most of us found, however, is that when we started our career in business archives, we had to adapt what we’d learned to the needs of our particular organization. The realities of the corporate world, more often than not, require us to take our knowledge of archival best practices and customize solutions that fit our...
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 for Encoded Archival Description (TS-EAD) and the Schema Development Team welcome comments on the beta release of the revised EAD schema.
The beta release is a completely re-written Relax NG schema. A W3C schema version is also available for testing. This version addresses most of the feedback received during the alpha comment period. A few unresolved issues remain, all of which can be reviewed on the project's GitHub repository issue tracker.
The schema versions...
A press release announcing the approval of the Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries was jointly issued by ACRL and SAA on January 25, 2018.
The new document was approved by the ACRL Board of Directors in October 2017 and by the SAA Council in January 2018. Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries is available on the ACRL...
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...
We would like to thank everyone who attended the annual meeting of the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards this past Tuesday. The presentation slides for the event are now available in the committee’s GitHub repository at https://github.com/SAA-SDT/TS-EAS-subteam-notes/blob/master/TS-EAS-Notes/2025/TS%20EAS%202025-07-22.pdf.
As mentioned, a follow-up community session on the ongoing standards revision process will be held on Thursday, August 14 at 12:30 PM ET. A link to...
Last call for nominations! Please send any nominations by Thursday, May 31st!
Are you seeking an opportunity to expand your network and get further involved in the business archives community? If so, come join the Steering Committee and see what the fun is all about! Joining the Steering Committee is a small-time commitment, providing you with valuable experience as you contribute to vital services for your colleagues.
Please consider nominating yourself or a colleague for one of these...
Join us for a joint meeting of the Museum Archives (MAS) and Science, Technology, and Health Care (STHC) Sections on July 23, 2025 from 11am-12:30pm (central). Following brief section business meetings, we’ll hear from two speakers on the topic of incorporating archives into exhibits and leave plenty of time for questions.
View the Recording here:
Science, Technology, and Health Care and Museum Archives Sections | 2025 Joint Annual Meeting | SAA
Agenda (central time):
11:00-11:05 -...
Colleagues,
Registration is now open for the annual Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) meeting to be held online on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 11 AM to 12:30 PM CDT (12-1:30 PM EDT). This meeting is open for all interested parties, and will include an update on all TS-EAS activities, including the EAD 4.0 major revision, the alignment of all our standards (EAC-CPF, EAC-F and EAD), and an overview of the TS-EAS annual meeting scheduled for August.
To attend, please...
Algoma University’s Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) has been awarded the National Trust of Canada Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Resilient Places Award for their impressive work on the Shingwauk site.
The Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Awards bring national attention to exemplary projects and places that contribute to quality of life and sense of place, and illustrate the viability of heritage buildings and sites for traditional or new uses. The awards are presented in...
The final session of the SAA’s Description Section and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards webinar series on controlled vocabularies is today, April 12th, for North American audiences at 12 PM ET. This final session will present use cases for the application of controlled vocabularies in practice, for example with reparative description projects. It will also focus on options for selecting and revising controlled vocabulary terms in archival descriptions.
Speakers for...
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...
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....
Dear IAAS Members and SAA Community,
Please give a warm welcome to our newest International Archival Affairs Section (IAAS) Member-at-Large: Elaine Akin!
Thanks to everyone who voted in the special election, and a big thank you to all the candidates. We really appreciate your passion and desire to contribute to the IAAS!
Thanks again for all your support and participation! If you are not yet a member of IAAS, please join us by becoming an SAA member, navigating to your profile, then selecting...
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 members of the Technical Subcommittee on Archival Facilities Guidelines seek public comment on its proposed revisions to the Archival and Special Collections Facilities Standards.
Last published in 2009, the committee has worked diligently over the last several years - navigating numerous unforeseen circumstances - to update and revise the entire standard. This has been a mammoth undertaking, and we're excited to finally share the draft for public review!
Here are a few highlights of our...
The Functions Team of the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) has extended its call for comments on the its white paper introducing Encoded Archival Functions (EAF) until October 20th. We invite comments on this draft XML standard for encoding descriptions of functions, which will be used to determine how TS-EAS should move forward in refining the current preliminary version of the XML schema and tag library.
The documentation under review includes:
White paper (...
We are very excited to announce the details of our meeting at SAA 2013 in New Orleans. Our time slot is Friday, August 16th from 4:00-5:30.
This year we are experimenting in a joint program with the Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable. Our joint program is a memorial to Joan Warnow Blewett, documentation strategy pioneer, and SAA Fellow: http://www.aip.org/history/historymatters/warnow.htm
Speakers include Jennifer Head (Blessed Virgin Mary Congregation Archivist); Tanya Zanish...
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...
What is an RAO Hot Topic?
An RAO hot topic is an issue, a concern, an idea that has sparked recent attention in RAO circles. It can be something that seems novel or cutting-edge; it can be an enduring issue that is garnering new attention or approaches.
What Makes an RAO Hot Topic HOT?
An RAO hot topic can be provocative and even fractious; it can also be surprising and funny. Above all else, a hot topic should engender passion, engagement and excitement.
What is an RAO Cool Demo?
An...
I am happy to announce the beta release of the EAD 2002 to EAD3 migration style sheet.
The beta release is available on GitHub at https://github.com/SAA-SDT/EAD2002toEAD3/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.
Style sheet documentation is available in the README file, which is included in the release pckage and is accessible at https://github.com/SAA-SDT/EAD2002toEAD3/blob/master/README.md.
The style sheet has been tested extensively against a wide variety of instances of EAD 2002. It is, however, a beta...
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,...
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...
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...
The Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the SAA was established in 2005, supporting students and recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The goal of the scholarship is to stimulate greater participation in SAA events, such as presenting research or joining a committee or section.
Inoue is the Pratt Archives and Digital Initiatives graduate assistant. In this role, she processes archival collections, digitizes black and...
