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Re: SAA is useless



Good afternoon,

Since most of my colleagues on Council are flying into DC for tomorrow's
Council Meeting as I write this, I will try to answer your questions and
respond to your comments.

At present the Committee on Education and Professional Development has
completed work on a document providing the Guidelines for a good graduate
archival education program. You can read the first draft at
<http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/masreview/guidelines-new.html>.
Council will be discussing the revised draft during this weekend's
meeting. What CEPD hopes is that the new organization that ALA is working
to creating to accredit Library Science and related programs will be able
to use this in their work to accredit these programs. It is also hoped
that archival graduate education programs will use this as a model to
improve their programs and that students will be able to use these
guidelines to determine if they are entering a program that will help them
to learn what they need to know to enter the archival profession.

One of the major reasons that SAA does not accredit nor do I believe will
ever work to accredit Archival Studies programs is because of cost. The
proposal that ALA made for an independent organization to accredit had an
extremely large budget. I don't have the budget in front of me but I seem
to remember it being close to the same amount as SAA's annual budget. It
is simply financially impossible for SAA to accredit graduate archival
education at this time.

At present graduate archival education and certification are trying to
find ways to co-exist. In fact a few years ago the ACA changed the
guidelines allowing those with the appropriate education background to
take the test upon the completion of the master's degree and then become
certified upon completing the appropriate number of years of professional
experience. I believe that the ACA will continue to work to find linkages
with archival educators and their students. The students are the ones who
if interested will push certification and I believe that as more and more
students enter the profession that certification will become more
acceptable and desirable.

In terms of your comments regarding SAA, I am sorry that SAA has failed to
meet your needs. To answer your questions regarding how we have spent the
money of our members we have worked to provide workshops and other
educational opportunities to members and non-members. The education
officers are not only offering in-house workshops but are also looking at
using alterntive delivery methods to meet the needs of those who cannot
travel to workshops. The publications arm of SAA is working to create
high-quality publications on a wide variety of subjects. SAA is working to
lobby for and against issues relating to the management of records. The
orgaization has participated in the creation of an amicus brief in the
case of Eldred v. Ashcroft relating to issues of copyright and the public
domain. Many saw SAA president Steve Hensen's column in the Washington
Post on the Bush Executive Order blocking the release of presidential
papers. We have also sent a comment on NARA's document on electronic
records which was cre
ated by members of the Electronic Records section and is available on the
SAA website. Yes we do spend a fair amount of money to provide an annual
conference but I believe that this year's conference had a tremendous
number of sessions that were of interest to members of the archival
community. And the fact that over 1500 archvists came to the conference
says that we are providing a conference that is interesting and provides
information that meets the needs of those archivists who are able to
attend.

Instead of saying I quit SAA doesn't work for me and not telling the
organization why, tell someone. Why doesn't SAA work? What should it be
doing? If you think something is wrong instead of running away join a
committee, run for office, do something instead of just saying SAA stinks.

These are my personal comments and I'm sure that if I'm off base my
colleagues will tell me tomorrow during our first meeting.

Danna Bell-Russel
Member of SAA Council
Digital Reference Specialist
Library of Congress


mrobyns@nmu.edu writes:
>Many opponents of the CA argue that SAA needs to develop and certify
>appropriate graduate programs in archival management.  Their argument
>seems
>reasonable to me, but I don't see how it detracts from those, such as
>myself, who argue for the CA.  I also don't see how their argument
>precludes the need for the CA.  Why can't the two programs coexist?
>
>I am not a member of SAA (actually, I only just ceased being a member
>after
>many years), so I don't know if the organization is currently working on a
>project to certify graduate programs.  If they're not, why not?  ACA has
>been around for ten years, so what has SAA been doing other than throwing
>a
>lavish party once a year that costs hundreds of dollars to attend.
>
>Could it be that SAA is useless and a waste of money?  Uh, oh, here we
>go........
>
>Marcus C. Robyns, CA
>Team Leader, ACA Recertification Petition Review Team
>_________________________________
>Marcus C. Robyns, CA            To be and not do is not to be at all
>Assistant Professor / University Archivist
>Vice President, NMU-AAUP
>Northern Michigan University                    mrobyns@nmu.edu
>1401 Presque Isle                               (906) 227-1225
>Marquette, MI 49855                             (906) 227-1333 (fax)
>
>First they ignore you.
>Then they laugh at you.
>Then they fight you.
>Then you win.---Gandhi
>
>Visit the Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University
>Archives at:
>http://www.nmu.edu/archives/archives.htm
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>
>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
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>
>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>mrobyns@nmu.edu writes:
>Many opponents of the CA argue that SAA needs to develop and certify
>appropriate graduate programs in archival management.  Their argument
>seems
>reasonable to me, but I don't see how it detracts from those, such as
>myself, who argue for the CA.  I also don't see how their argument
>precludes the need for the CA.  Why can't the two programs coexist?
>
>I am not a member of SAA (actually, I only just ceased being a member
>after
>many years), so I don't know if the organization is currently working on a
>project to certify graduate programs.  If they're not, why not?  ACA has
>been around for ten years, so what has SAA been doing other than throwing
>a
>lavish party once a year that costs hundreds of dollars to attend.
>
>Could it be that SAA is useless and a waste of money?  Uh, oh, here we
>go........
>
>Marcus C. Robyns, CA
>Team Leader, ACA Recertification Petition Review Team
>_________________________________
>Marcus C. Robyns, CA            To be and not do is not to be at all
>Assistant Professor / University Archivist
>Vice President, NMU-AAUP
>Northern Michigan University                    mrobyns@nmu.edu
>1401 Presque Isle                               (906) 227-1225
>Marquette, MI 49855                             (906) 227-1333 (fax)
>
>First they ignore you.
>Then they laugh at you.
>Then they fight you.
>Then you win.---Gandhi
>
>Visit the Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University
>Archives at:
>http://www.nmu.edu/archives/archives.htm
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>
>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
>                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
>To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
>Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
>     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>