STiL Casing Solution is happy to be a member of the SAA, so this week I thought I’d write my post about this association.
Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America’s oldest and largest national archival professional association. SAA’s mission is to serve the educational and informational needs of more than 5,500 individual and institutional members and to provide leadership to ensure the identification, preservation, and use of records of historical value.
Taken from their website: http://www2.archivists.org/
Perhaps inevitably, as a result of the greater recognition and support that archival activity was receiving within the government at this time, the members of the Conference of Archivists realized that a distinction should be made between the historians and scholars who used the archival materials and the archivists who were responsible for the material’s care, organization, and management. The archivists believed that their field was a particular science for which a professional association was needed in order to continue the growth and advancement of the profession. The Society of American Archivists (SAA) was founded in December 1936, “…to promote sound principles of archival economy and to facilitate cooperation among archivists and archival agencies.” A more democratic body than its predecessor, it opened its ranks not just to directors of large archives institutions, but to all “who are or have been engaged in the custody or administration of archives or historical manuscripts.” This included archives of all sizes and orientation, from small private and business archives to large historical collections.
Once born, SAA acted quickly. A president, A.R. Newsome, and a board of directors were elected by its initial 124 individual and four institutional members. In its first full year membership increased to 243 archivists and institutions, and SAA began the practice of holding an annual convention at which professional papers were delivered, information was exchanged, and philosophies of archival organization were discussed. At the Society’s first convention in June 1937, President Newsome outlined a course for SAA that has been followed to the present day: “to become the practical self-help agency of archivists for the solution of their complex problems” and “to strive to nationalize archival information and technique”; to seek “the solution of archival problems involving external relations with all archival agencies, with learned societies, and with the public”; and “to encourage the development of a genuine archival profession in the United States” in which SAA would “set training standards and advance archival administration through its meetings and publications.” Primary among these publications was the Society’s journal of record, the American Archivist, whose premiere issue appeared in January 1938.
SAA developed a strategic plan in 1993 to define the organization’s direction and purpose, and at that time established the following mission statement: The Society of American Archivists serves the education and information needs of its members and provides leadership to help ensure the identification, preservation, and use of the nation’s historical record. SAA today numbers approximately 5,000 individual and 650 institutional members. The Society maintains offices in Chicago’s Loop. Foremost among SAA’s many activities are services that the Society provides to members.