14 Earn Digital Archives Specialist Certificates from SAA

Congratulations to the fourteen newly minted Digital Archives Specialists (DAS). These archivists were the first to earn a DAS Certificate from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) after completing required coursework within twenty-four months and passing comprehensive examinations in August 2013.

The innovative DAS Curriculum, developed by experts in the field of digital archives, is structured around seven core competencies: understanding the nature of records in electronic form; defining for a variety of audiences the requirements, roles, and responsibilities related to digital archives; formulating strategies and tactics for appraisal, description, management, organization, and preservation; integrating technology to provide access to digital collections; planning for the integration of new tools for successive generations of technology; curating, storing, and retrieving original masters and access copies of digital archives; and providing dependable organization and service to designated communities across networks. Participants complete nine required courses from four tiers addressing these competencies.

The new Digital Archives Specialists are:

• Kate L. Blalack (Woody Guthrie Center, Oklahoma State University),
• Jennifer Eidson (University of Maryland),
• Joseph Fisher (University of Massachusetts Lowell),
• Nancy Hadley (The American Institute of Architects),
• Cynthia Harbeson (Appalachian State University),
• Jennifer Hecker (The University of Texas at Austin),
• Benn Joseph (Northwestern University),
• Susan Miller (Cleveland Museum of Art),
• Pamela Nye (The Westminster Schools),
• Matthew Pearson (Stanford University Libraries),
• Robin C. Pike (University of Maryland),
• Cyndi Shein (J. Paul Getty Trust Institutional Archives),
• Alesha Shumar (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), and
• Christina J. Zamon (Emerson College).

“I’m happy to have earned the Certificate,” said new Digital Archives Specialist Nancy Hadley of The American Institute of Architects, “As a lone arranger, DAS courses filled my knowledge gap and I’m now working toward designing a digital archives for my organization.”

Currently, there are 858 participants in SAA’s DAS program who are working toward earning a certificate.