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The election is now open! You can view the candidate statements here. Important Dates:The elections will open on Monday, June 23 and remain open through Monday, July 15. When you're ready to vote, please use this link and click on the Native American Archives Section ballot. Please note that you must be a current member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) to participate in the election. Thank you for supporting NAAS leadership. Your voice matters!
Registration is now open for the joint annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS). The meeting will be held via Webex on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM (CT). Please visit the event listing on SAA’s website to register. There are no costs to attend the session and it is open to all; SAA membership is not required. While you do not need to register for the...
  SAA’s Description Section and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards invite you to a three-part webinar series on controlled vocabularies. This series will review the purpose of data value standards, how to approach their usage, and the current encoding options in Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Context (EAC-CPF). Along with other technical aspects of their implementation, the sessions will provide examples of the practical application of controlled...
Visit the PLASC Blog, The Finding Aid, to read a new post about establishing a digitization memory lab at Midwest Genealogy Center at the Mid-Continent Public Library! The Memory Lab is a tool that democratizes access to the equipment and knowledge needed to archive personal collections at no cost.  Read the full Story: Demystifying DIY Digitization - An inside look at the public library memory lab Links Below!
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,...
Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2025 Visual Materials 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 (or Co-chair), for a three-year term; and Two Steering Committee members (one three-year term, one two-year term).  Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot...
Jun 2, 2025   Visual Materials Section
2025 IAAS Special Election: Slate of Candidates The ballot will open on Monday, September 29, and remain open for 2 weeks, closing on Monday, October 13, 2025. Please find the 2025 IAAS Special Election Candidate Statements below:  Open Position: Member-at-Large (3-year term ending on 9/1/2028) CANDIDATES (3 TOTAL): 1. Elaine Slayton Akin Biographical Statement: Elaine Slayton Akin holds a master's in art history from the University of Memphis and has been the Archivist of Riverside Avondale...
TS-DACS is thrilled to announce that SAA Council unanimously approved their proposal for two new required elements for DACS.     Chapter 8 (Description Control) will now include required element 8.2, Rights Statement for Archival Description. Chapter 13 (Authority Record Management) will include a new required element 13.10, Rights Statement for Archival Authority Records. Chapters 1 and 9 will also be updated to reflect the new required elements.  TS-DACS will begin work to add the new...
Co-chair Candidates Stacie Williams: Stacie Williams is the Learning Lab Manager at the University of Kentucky's Special Collections Research Center, coordinating an undergraduate archives research internship, and she additionally teaches the graduate-level archives and manuscripts management course in UK’s School of Library and Information Science. She has previously worked at Tufts University's Digital Collections and Archives, the Harvard Medical School's Countway Library, and the Lexington...
Jun 13, 2016   Women Archivists Section
The Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of EAD and EAC-CPF as well as the development of future companion standards, such as Encoded Archival Context for Functions.  We are seeking self-nominations from the international community to join TS-EAS. Anyone outside of the United States who has experience working with or implementing archival encoding standards is encouraged to apply as an international member.Next year, the...
Please find the 2025 IAAS Special Election Candidate Statements below:   Open Position: Member-at-Large (3-year term ending on 9/1/2028)   CANDIDATES (3 TOTAL):   Elaine Slayton Akin Biographical Statement: Elaine Slayton Akin holds a master's in art history from the University of Memphis and has been the Archivist of Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) in Jacksonville, Florida, since March 2024. She currently serves as an Early Career Member of SAA's International Archival Affairs Section (...
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...
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.
The Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section co-chairs are proposing changes to the standing rules of this section. General changes throughout the Standing Rules: Inclusive pronoun usage modify LGBTQIA to LGBTQIA+ Changes regarding Article 4. Governance include: Defining the Social Media / Web Liaison(s) position and responsibilities Establishing a Program Coordinator position Establishing an option for past-chairs to join the Steering Committee and serve a term of two years ...
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...
Dear members of the Encoded Archival Standards community: TS EAS is seeking to fill three international and four SAA based vacancies in TS EAS during the fall of 2022. We seek new members through open calls and will evaluate all applications. There might be an on-line call performed after we have gone through the applications.  TS EAS meets four times a year (committee members must attend at least two of these) and also has smaller teams working with specific tasks like the maintenance of the...
We are pleased to announce that the WCRT Bylaws Committee has completed our first draft.  We are asking for member feedback on this draft before we send it in to the council for approval. Go here to read the draft and please comment on the blog, below this post or email alexandra.krensky@gmail.com or enovara@umd.edu.  We would like your comments by April 15, 2013. 
Mar 25, 2013   Women's Collections Section
As a part of the celebration of National Archives Month, archivists around the nation are encouraged to use Twitter to promote a discourse with the public about archiving and the important role of archivists in society. For more information, please click here.
Vice Chair / Chair-Elect: Lisa Sjoberg Bio:  My current position is the College Archivist and Digital Collections Librarian at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Since I joined SAA in 2005 as a graduate student, I have been a member of the Reference, Access and Outreach Section. I have been fortunate to serve on RAO task forces (National History Day and currently as co-chair of the Teaching with Primary Sources working group). I have also served as the RAO Communications Liaison for two...
The Winter 2012 RAO Newsletter is now available! Kathryn Otto, Chair, thanks past officers, introduces current members, and provides an update on the section’s ongoing progress on its work, including, the National History Day and Archives Toolkit, the newly renamed Working Group for Data-Driven Decisions in Processing and Public Services, the Teaching with Primary Resources group, results from the Skill Survey, and outreach efforts with C-SPAN. Read more about it on the newsletter! Kathryn...
We are accepting content and images that focus on highlights, practices, and institutions that are relevant and of interest to RAO members.  What types of material are you interested in seeing?  Events at other archival institutions?  Tips and hints?  Photos or other images?  Please send your content to Lisa Sjoberg, RAO Communication Liaison, at sjoberg@cord.edu.
    With fall unfolding, now is a great time to focus on developing wonderful RAO-related session proposals to submit for the 2013 SAA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.  For information about how to do this, see: http://www2.archivists.org/conference/2013/new-orleans/call-for-session-proposals-archives-new-orleans-2013.  The deadline to submit your proposal to the SAA program committee and to sections and roundtables for endorsement consideration has been extended and is now Monday, October 8,...
We are conducting a survey to identify trends in instruction services, successful methodologies and resources, and needs for tools and professional support for teaching with primary sources. The survey will take about 15-20 minutes. Respondents who complete it will be entered in a drawing to win one of five copies of the recent publication Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, courtesy of ACRL. The survey will be available until...
Attendees of the 2015 SAA Annual Conference in Cleveland will have a fun opportunity to give back to the host city by participating in a charitable service project.  We will be partnering with Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4K) to provide a volunteer opportunity for interested meeting goers. Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4K) is the only non-profit organization in Greater Cleveland providing new shoes and clothes at no charge throughout the year to thousands of children in need.  For the past 46...
The BAS Steering Committee organized the Business Archives Section Colloquium as part of the 2017 Society of American Archivists Conference in Portland, Oregon. This year’s theme was “Finding Inspiration in Your Company History Using Media and Design.”                   Eric Chin introduces the team from Wieden+Kennedy. Following introductions by Past Chair Jamie Martin (IBM) and incoming Chair Eric Chin (NBCUniversal), Thomas Harvey & Britton Taylor of Wieden+Kennedy led a vivid...
Aug 17, 2017   Business Archives Section