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.
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