Dictionary Working Group

The SAA Dictionary Working Group, established by the SAA Council in 2011, produces the Dictionary of Archives Terminology. The group’s charge is “to establish and maintain mechanisms and procedures for allowing periodic updates and contributions of new content to the Dictionary and to ensure that this important resource adheres to the highest quality professional standards.”

The Dictionary Working Group launched the Dictionary of Archives Terminology in April 2020. DAT picks up where A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology by Richard Pearce-Moses (SAA, 2005) left off and uses a syndetic structure where each entry is based on actual usage in the professional literature.

Dictionaries are never truly finished, so DAT is a continual work in progress. The Dictionary Working Group adds new terms and updates existing terms every week. Users are encouraged to suggest a term or provide feedback on a term.

Word of the Week is an e-newsletter produced by the Dictionary Working Group. It delivers a new or updated term from the archival lexicon straight to your inbox every week. Expand your vocabulary and subscribe to Word of the Week today.

Read more about the Dictionary:

• “The Words Archivists Use.” Off the Record (blog), 5 March 2014.
• “Uncontrolled Vocabulary.” Archival Outlook (March/April 2017): 11.
• “SAA’s New Dictionary of Archives Terminology Launched.” Archival Outlook (May/June 2020): 13.
• Council Exemplary Service Award: Dictionary Working Group. Society of American Archivists, August 2020.
• “We’re All Word Nerds Now.” Archival Outlook (July/August 2021): 14, 23.