13 Earn Digital Archives Specialist Certificates from SAA

Congratulations to the 13 new Digital Archives Specialists (DAS). These archivists, who represent a variety of repositories from around the country, earned a DAS Certificate from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) after completing required coursework within twenty-four months and passing comprehensive examinations in February/March 2017.

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: Katherine Barbera, Carnegie Mellon University; Sarah Cain, Northern Illinois University; Dennis Daily, New Mexico State University Library; Jill Hawkins, The Biltmore Company; Karla Irwin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Jonathan Manton, Yale University; Caitlin Patterson, Montana Historical Society; Alice Sara Prael, Yale University Library; Katie Rudolph, Denver Public Library; David Sharron, Brock University; Lindy Smith, Bowling Green State University; James Thull, Montana State University; and Hannah Wood, Harding University.

A total of 325 people have earned Digital Archives Specialist certificates since the program began in 2011. For more information, visit www2.archivists.org/prof-education/das or contact SAA Education (education@archivists.org).