The Society of American Archivists (established 1936) is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual and institutional members. It partnered with the Library of Congress in developing Encoded Archival Description - an XML Document Type Definition - a standard for encoding archival finding aids, allowing them to be made accessible online.
The Society supports its members and the archival profession through strong publication and professional workshop programs and semi-annual meetings. The publication program is responsible for putting out a semi-annual refereed scholarly journal, the American Archivist, and many books and manuals addressing aspects of the archival profession. Workshops are given all across the United States and attend to current archival concerns and issues such as Encoded Archival Description, the digitizing of archival materials, and preservation and conservation of materials, among others.
The programs it offers include: Online On-Demand Programs, Online Real Time Programs and Face to Face Programs.
In 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as an honorary member of the SAA due to his commitment to archiving federal, state and local government documents.
Famous quotes containing the words society of, society and/or american:
“The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“As long as you don’t fly openly in the face of society, society doesn’t ask any inconvenient questions; and it makes precious short work of the cads who do. There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“There is hardly an American male of my generation who has not at one time or another tried to master the victory cry of the great ape as it issued from the androgynous chest of Johnny Weissmuller, to the accompaniment of thousands of arms and legs snapping during attempts to swing from tree to tree in the backyards of the Republic.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)