Author Archives: Danna C. Bell

My Presidential Address

Posted on August 16, 2014 | 1 comment

As I finish my term I wanted to let you know that you can view my presidential address here. I hope you enjoy it and perhaps get some ideas you can use now and in the future.

I have tried to do my best to support the Society, its members, leaders and staff. I hope I have done some things that will help us move forward.

Now I turn Off the Record to Kathleen Roe, who has some amazing ideas for her year of advocacy and living dangerously with archives. She will be a spectacular leader and I look forward to seeing what she does with her 525,600 minutes.

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Posted in Annual Meeting, Communication and SAA, K-12 Education, Member Needs

Improving SAA’s Affinity Groups: Your Chance to Contribute to the Change

Posted on August 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

This post was written by the members of the Task Force on Member Affinity Groups. I hope you will attend their forum during the conference or respond to this post in the comments.

Since last year’s SAA Annual Meeting, a task force has been working to determine how the Society’s member affinity groups (that is, its Sections and Roundtables) can better serve the membership as a whole. While nothing has been finalized, the task force has been exploring several recommendations largely based on a survey completed this spring. The task force would like to take this opportunity to share some of these findings and to ask for general feedback on preliminary recommendations. Continue reading →

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Posted in Annual Meeting, Communication and SAA, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction

Planning for D.C.

Posted on July 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

It’s only two weeks to the joint CoSA/NAGARA/SAA meeting and we are thrilled to announce that this will be our largest meeting ever. My compliments to the Host and Program committees for creating excellent programs and activities for conference attendees.

Here are a couple of quick suggestions to insure that you have a great time in D.C. Continue reading →

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Posted in Annual Meeting, Communication and SAA, Member Needs

The Library of Congress presents Recommended Format Specifications

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

I hope you will take a look at the new Library of Congress Recommended Format Specifications. These specifications focus on both analog and digital acquisitions and recommend the best formats to use to collect items to insure preservation and access. You can learn more about these specifications from the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program’s Signal blog.

I’d also like to put in a plug for the Signal blog itself. It is full of information on digital preservation and includes interviews with digital pioneer and digital innovators and is written by some of the coolest people I know including this year’s winner of the Archival Innovator Award, Trevor Owens.

Happy reading and have a good weekend.

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Posted in Access, Born-digital records, Digital Collections

Your Chance to Comment on the Archives and Archivists List

Posted on July 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

I have been in awe of all the comments following my post on the Archives and Archivists list. Now here is your opportunity to make comments. The committee studying the list (incoming SAA Vice President/President-Elect Dennis Meissner, new archives professional and SAA member Samantha Winn, long-time SAA and listserv member Christine Di Bella, and SAA Web and Information Systems Administrator Matt Black.) have put out a request for comments as well as a survey to learn more about list users. You can see their announcement and request for comments here.

Here is your opportunity to express your feelings about the Archives list. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

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Posted in Access, Communication and SAA, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction

The De-Evolution of the Archives and Archivists List

Posted on June 27, 2014 | 73 comments

Back in the late 1980’s I made the decision to leave archives for a bit and start working reference at a college or university library. I’ve always loved reference and had I not discovered archives while in library school I think I might be working reference at a college or university. However after a couple of years the desire to go back to archives hit me hard. The university where I worked did not have archives and I made it my goal to start the university archives. I did take a few courses at another college but the thing that got me excited about archives again was the Archives and Archivists list. Continue reading →

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Posted in Communication and SAA, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction

Insuring a Safe Place to Share Diverse Opinions

Posted on June 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

This post was written by SAA Council Members Terry Baxter and Lisa Mangiafico.

The Society of American Archivists Council has discussed a code of conduct for meeting and online spaces at its most recent two meetings. The resulting draft is available for comment and comments will still be accepted until June 22, 2014. The intent of the Council is to revise the draft based on member comments, discuss and vote on the revised draft, and, if adopted, have an official code of conduct available by the annual meeting in August. Continue reading →

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Posted in Communication and SAA, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction

Our Continuing Experimentation to Improve Our Annual Meeting

Posted on June 2, 2014 | Leave a comment

This post was written by council member Michelle Light with assistance from council member Tim Pyatt. I thank them and the other members of Council made suggestions for this post and who have responded to questions and concerns from section and roundtable leaders about forthcoming changes for the 2015 annual meeting.

In 2013 the SAA Annual Meeting Task Force submitted a thoughtful and forward thinking report that gave the Society a number of recommendations for improving our annual meeting. If you haven’t read the report, you should! Continue reading →

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Posted in 2012 Member Survey, Access, Annual Meeting, Annual Meeting Task Force, Communication and SAA, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction, SAA component groups

A Few Words on Diversity

Posted on May 21, 2014 | 5 comments

In a couple of hours I’ll be heading to Chicago for our next Council meeting. This time we will be spending part of the meeting focusing on the issue of Diversity. Diversity is a hard topic for us. We’ve been wrestling with it as long as I’ve been a member of SAA. It is also an extremely difficult issue for me both as an African American female member and as a leader of the Society. Continue reading →

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Posted in Communication and SAA, Diversity and Inclusion, Member Needs, Member Satisfaction, Strategic priorities

With UELMA, Lots of Legislation Keeps Stuff Safe

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

This post was written by William “Butch” Lazorchak. Butch is a Digital Archivist for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress. Continue reading →

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Posted in Access, Advocacy, Born-digital records, Digital Collections, Member Needs