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Re: Archival Certification Comments to ACA President



12/12/01

I have recently been corresponding off-list about the certification discussion with ACA Pres. Lee Stout and thought that excerpts from my recent message to him might be of interest to archivists still discussing the validity of the CA exam process--especially Craig Wright (who opened up discussion on this again) and Katherine Hayes and Rebecca Fitzgerald, who all made vary salient points on the exam.

Excerpts from 12/18/01 email to Lee Stout:

   "   Hi Lee--

      Thanks for your thoughtful response to my earlier comments related to the certification discussion this fall.  Although I do agree, in general, that "good people can disagree" (I'm paraphrasing your comment about having a right to individual opinions) there is the question at the heart of all this discussion which has not been answered by those promoting the certification exam/process.

      The simple question that I, and others, have been asking all along in its many variants:  What *exactly* are the benefits to be derived from being certified?  What does ACA believe the exam will accomplish for an individual?  What exactly is gained from an exam that can't be gained from graduate academic programs of archival study?  Do certified archivists have more prestige/status, higher salaries, greater employment opportunities, or show evidence of greater on-the-job competence?

      I guess the nitty-gritty of  this discussion has always been that rather than debate a general perceived need for the credential by ACA, who after all is invested in the continuance of the process, show me (show us!) the concrete and verifiaable benefits of being a certified archivist.  How can you convince archivists or employers of the importance of the CA designation it it doesn't provide material benefits?

      If there are no tangible, i.e. substantially real, benefits to an exam credential--then the need for the exam is moot.  My own work and professional experience with certified versus non-certified archivists has shown me that certification seems to be basically meaningless related to archival expertise or qualifications for the job.  How can anyone argue for an exam credential if most professional archivists already have  one or two advanced academic degrees (here I'm talking about SAA members--not all people out there who call themselves archivists) which included in-depth academic study, archival internships, and final research papers or exams?  And most well-qualified archivists are not certified. (Note:  There are only 700 archivists who are members of ACA while there are over 3,500 SAA members, so that is only 19% of SAA's membership.  This assumes, of course, that all certified archivists are SAA mem! bers which I think is probably a false assumption.)

      If ACA requires graduate archival education/degrees,  then why don't archival educators require the exam?  In my experience in ART and MARAC (local and regional archival organizations) the majority of archivists, including archival educators, don't believe that the CA designation is useful and don't recommend it.
...It would be interesting to have a regional breakdown of your ACA membership.  Do you know your functional and geographic membership breakdown?  Are there more corporate members?  More southern members?  Just curious--

      I think that you misunderstood my point about grandfathering--I meant that *initially* there were hundreds of archivists grandfathered into ACA around 1989...I well remember the debate over grandfathering and its requirements because I decided against becoming a member then.  (And I had 11 years of archives experience at that point.)

      I'm curious about the recidivism rates of certified archivists declining to be re-certified?  Do you have a statistic on this loss of ACA members?  Anyway...if ACA's sole mission is "to define the knowledge and skills archivists should know, test them on it, and promote the hiring of Certified Archivists," then ACA must be able to explain the "why" of the credential controversy as mentioned above.  What are the specific benefits of having CA after one's name?  For the life of me, I just don't see any benefits individually, because I don't think that a 100 question exam is a useful or accurate indicator of overall archival competence.

      ...So, thanks again for your response to my earlier points (in other emails) about the CA exam, etc.--  (Contrary to your belief that you don't need to "proselytize" about ACA--)   I strongly believe that you do (as ACA Pres.), in fact, need to be able to convince me and others like me, both entry-level and long-time SAA members, of the desireability of the exam (by showing us any concrete benefits to having the credential).   "
      
      Best wishes to the list--hope that everyone has a good holiday break and a happy new year.                 Sincerely yours,   Lucinda

Lucinda Manning, Director
UFT Archives & Records Center
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Ave. South
NY,NY  10010
212-598-9213