37 Earn Digital Archives Specialist Certificates from Society of American Archivists

CHICAGO — Congratulations to the 37 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 September 2021.

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: Kathryn Casey Antonelli; Megan Aranyos; Janna Avon; Catherine Bell, Fairfax Water; Nicholas Caldwell, Tara Sims Carron, Kenamore & Klinkow, LLC; Jessica Cebra, Stanford University Libraries; Barrett Codieck, UTSA Libraries Special Collections; Jane Cross, Library of Congress; Jessica DePrest, Academy Film Archive; Cynthia L. Engle, Hawaiian Historical Society; Gregory D. Farr, Episcopal Church in Connecticut; Brenda Flora, Amistad Research Center; Marta Fodor, Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives; Jennifer Halpern, National Archives at College Park; Elysia Hamelin, Naval History and Heritage Command; DiAnna Hemsath, University of Nebraska Medical Center - McGoogan Health Sciences Library; Jessica Solene Heys; Jaime Karbowiak, Palmer School of Library and Information Science LIU Post; Kristi A. Kohl, University of Central Oklahoma; Jessica Sin Kwan LAU, The Government Records Service of Hong Kong; Anna M. Lucas; Ann McShane, Pitts Theology Library; Juliana Millbern, University of Virginia Geospatial Engineering Services; Madeline Morehouse, National Archives at College Park; Gayle O'Hara; Charity C. Park, Arkansas Tech University; Trista Raezer-Stursa, Minnesota State University Moorhead; Cara Marie Ramsey, Pikes Peak Library District; Alicia A. Ryan, Jockey International, Inc.; Amy E. Sherwood, Clerics of St Viator; Devon Elizabeth Stivers, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives; Jasmine Sykes-Kunk, New York University, Division of Libraries; Steven Szegedi, Dominican University; Marie Valigorsky, Pennsylvania State Archives; Jessica L. Walker, US Army Heritage and Education Center; Sarah Wycoff. 

A total of 753 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).