Post No. 2 SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS

http://www.archivists.org/
It is difficult to talk about any significant archival resource without at some point discussing the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The SAA is the seminal organization for archivists in the United States. Its journal -The American Archivist- is a key source of professional information for anyone working in the field. In 2008 SAA awarded the Archivists Toolkit with the C.F.W. Coker Award. As written on the website: “The award recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids.”

The SAA also provides a forum for those in the profession to help each other learn and understand this important tool. There is a recently formed (February 2009) roundtable dedicated to the Archivists Toolkit. Another place to find information is in a roundtable focused on “Lonearrangers” or independent working archivists. At the moment the comments of the discussion board is limited, however this is not meant as a criticism of the SAA nor of the members who participate on its website. If anything the discussion board points to the fact that Archivists Toolkit is but one of several programs both open source and on the market that is being used by smaller members of the profession. The comments on the discussion board indicate that some like it, some don’t, but the same can be said for Past Perfect or any of the other programs. A review of the SAA website reveals-at least to this aspiring archivist- that Archivists Toolkit is but one of many choices that archivists must face when making decisions for their organization. But that if one has questions, there are resources out there in the form of help from fellow professionals.


(n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2009, from Society of American Archivists : http://www.archivists.org/