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...
These case studies are drawn from real life. They address one or more of the areas covered by the Code of Ethics for Archivists: professional judgment in carrying out basic archival tasks, protecting records authenticity, access to and use of records, professional relationships with donors or users, privacy issues, ensuring security against theft, and questions of trust in archivists’ conduct. (For information on how to submit a case study, see our Call for Case Studies.)
Case 1An Online...
Help Update the Labor Archives in the United States and Canada: A Directory...Again
By Conor Casey, LAR Co-Chair
The Labor Archives in the United States and Canada: A Directory is an important topical listing of labor and labor-related collections that is valuable to both labor archivists and to scholars and researchers. Initial work on the directory was done in the early 1990s by the Wagner Labor Archives in New York City. A survey then conducted identified "archivists, librarians, and labor...
This is a spring 2026 update from the SAA Section Health Working Group.
As you may recall, our group is charged with envisioning a new model for Sections. We are charged through fall 2026 and are preparing now to deliver our final report and recommendations to the SAA Council.
As part of our envisionment work, we reviewed the full spring 2023 section health survey responses, and conducted focus groups this past spring. These focus groups -- of which there were four -- included 28 member and non...
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 Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) invites all to join us for the 2023 Annual Meeting and Marketplace of IDEAs on Friday, July 14, 2023 @ 4pm EDT/3pm CDT/2pm MDT/1pm PDT.
Registration: https://societyofamericanarchivists-316.my.webex.com/weblink/register/r71b585693f72fb4cead69ac4c688f207
Proposals to present as part of the Marketplace of IDEAS are still being accepted! Topics focused on the RAO sub-committee areas of Teaching with...
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is exploring community implementation and use of archival encoding standards and systems. The purpose of this study is to help TS-EAS better understand the usage of these standards and to guide its outreach and communications program.
Your experience as an archives professional would provide valuable insight. The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete, and all responses are anonymous and will be kept...
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...
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 Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) seeks proposals for the 2024 Marketplace of IDEAs to be held during the Virtual Annual Meeting on Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 4pm EDT/3pm CDT/2pm MDT/1pm PDT.
Topics related to the sub-committee areas of Teaching with Primary Sources, Exhibits and Events, and Public Services Assessment are encouraged.Proposals addressing topics or themes related to the following will also be prioritized:- evolving the...
Join us for an informal meeting to discuss Section updates, Archives Month, and share your latest news!
When: Friday, October 27 at 2pm Eastern / 1pm Central / 12pm Mountain / 11am Pacific / 10am Alaska / 8am Hawaii
RSVP: https://tinyurl.com/57nsh98f
In the November/December "Archival Outlook" (see "A Call to Action: The Cultural Heritage Working Group Seeks Your Input," page 11) we highlight the recent work of the CHWG and encourage all members to take a brief survey to gather baseline data about your largest concerns and needs regarding cultural heritage archives to determine new initiatives and projects.
UPDATE: Due to other SAA surveys underway, the CHWG survey has been postponed to Fall 2015. The link to the survey will be included...
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...
During March and April this year, the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) conducted a community survey of the application of the standards it supports. The results of the survey were discussed at the committee's component group meeting in May, but a written report is now available through the SAA Description Section's Descriptive Notes blog at https://saadescription.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/standards-in-practice-findings-from-a-community-survey-on-encoded-archival-...
The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) wishes you all a happy new year and hopes you have had a good start into 2022!
Tapping into the spirit of new starts, we would like to pick up on the call for comments to improve the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) that we initiated at the end of last year. TS-EAS wants to hear from you in more detail what you are missing in the current version of EAD and what you would like to see in a future version of the standard. We...
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...
Ballots are now available for the 2023 RAO Steering Committee election.Candidate bios and election statements can be found on the RAO website: https://www2.archivists.org/groups/reference-access-and-outreach-section/2023-steering-committee-nominees-and-biographical-statementsElection Timeline + LogisticsRAO ballots will remain open until Tuesday, October 24. All ballots will be listed on a common page on MySAA, the SAA user profile space.
How to VoteLogin to your SAA account and visit this...
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...
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...
Thousands of digitized records reflecting major historical events of the 20th century related to PEN International, a global writers’ organization, are available online beginning this month. A project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and completed by the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin has resulted in a new online finding aid for researchers, as well as access to teaching guides and nearly 5,000 digitized records.
PEN, an acronym for Poets,...
A Talk by Karolina Hedström, Stockholm County Museum, Sweden and Bente Jensen, Aalborg City Archives, Denmark
Wednesday, May 14th 2025, 11am EDT (8am PDT; 4pm BST)
Register for the online event
This talk will present the Connect to Collect, a collaborative network of museums and archives dedicated to collecting and preserving social digital photography. Through the development of the innovative web app Connect to Collect, we aim to explore new methods for gathering and curating this vital form...
Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidates
Ying-Ying Han
Bio
Yingying recently earned her Ph.D. from the School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Starting from August, she will be a faculty member at the School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee. Her research and teaching interests focus on critical archival studies, digital preservation, and community engagement with marginalized groups.
By integrating critical theories such as feminist ethics of care,...
Just a reminder that the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is currently accepting public comments on the final draft of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) 4.0. Please note that there are some updated links below for accessing the draft and related documentation.
The draft includes newly proposed changes based on suggestions and comments received from the community (https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/FeedbackReceived_1stCallForComments_EAD4.0.pdf) during the...
Hello RAO Members!
Are you looking to shape the future direction and activities of the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section? Put yourself forward for an elected RAO position!
The RAO Nominations and Elections Committee is seeking nominations to fill vacancies on the RAO Steering Committee; we invite you to volunteer yourself or someone you know as a candidate! We value a variety of ideas and perspectives in RAO, and we encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds, institutions,...
The Science, Technology, and Health Care (STHC) section will be hosting a 1-hour virtual open discussion session on the topic of challenges and solutions to generating student interest in STHC collections on Tuesday, November 12 at 11am (CST).
This discussion will be moderated by Allison Fischbach (Chesney Medical Archives, Johns Hopkins) and Stephen Logsdon (Becker Medical Archives, Washington University in St. Louis). All are welcome to attend the discussion, and attendees are encouraged to...
