32 Earn Digital Archives Specialist Certificates from Society of American Archivists

CHICAGO — Congratulations to the 32 new Digital Archives Specialists (DAS)!  These archivists, who represent a variety of repositories around the country, earned a DAS Certificate from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) after completing required coursework within twenty-four months and passing a comprehensive examination in January 2020.

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: Emily Antoville; Leanna Barcelona; Jada Bradley; Tiffany Criswell, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; Nancy Edge, Texas Wesleyan University; Marielle Gage, History Associates, Inc.; Rachel Gattermeyer; Shelley Gayler-Smith, University of Dallas; Kimberly Gianfrancesco; Julie Hawks; Cristina Horak, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Jason Kauffman, Mennonite Church USA Archives; Scott Kirycki; Jackson Klinefelter; Daniel Lavoie, Northeastern University; Michael Lear; Andrew Meyer, North Park University; Andrew Miller; Colleen McFarland Rademaker; Meredith Rector, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Shelley Respondek; Katie Rojas; Diane Russo; Jay Sager, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Robert Schimelpfenig, Washington State University – Vancouver; Kylie Schmitt; Karen Seong; Angela Swift, Texas State Library and Archives; Agatha Torku; Sarah Wade; Adam Wallace, California State University - Fresno; Sara Zimmerman; Sanford Health.

A total of 502 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).