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New Skills for a Digital Era

A colloquium exploring the skills
librarians, archivists, and records managers
need to flourish in the digital era

31 May – 2 June 2006
The National Archives
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC

Sponsored by
National Archives and Records Administration
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
Society of American Archivists

In the digital era, librarians, archivists, and records managers must be able to work with digital media as easily as they have worked with paper. They must be able to curate electronic collections, including the ability to select, acquire, describe, organize, reference, and preserve these digital works.

The colloquium will consider the question, What are the practical, technical skills that all library and records professionals must have to work with e-books, electronic records, and other digital materials? Certainly they need skills that go beyond those of the consumer of records, but it seems unreasonable to expect them to have the skills of a professional programmer or systems administrator.

The National Archives, the Arizona State Library and Archives, and the Society of American Archivists are hosting this colloquium of diverse library and records professionals to help answer this question. Participants will include individuals with different perspectives, including those with experience managing collections of digital materials, educators, managers, and technologists. The colloquium will focus on practical, rather than theoretical, aspects of working with digital materials. The discussions will focus on materials in digital formats, including born-digital and digitized materials; the programs will not address techniques of digitization.

The colloquium will begin Wednesday evening, 31 May, with a welcome by Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States. Richard Pearce-Moses, President of the Society of American Archivists and Director of Digital Government Information at the Arizona State Library and Archives will help frame the question and set the stage for the discussions. Keynote speakers include Margaret Hedstrom, professor at the University of Michigan and Stuart McKee, National Technology Officer for Microsoft.

The heart of the colloquium will be series of small group discussions. Each discussion will begin with at least one case study to ensure those discussions are grounded in real world experience. Participants will be asked to assess the technical skills used in the case study, suggest other technical skills that might be useful, and to determine if those skills are essential, desirable, or a specialization for library and records professionals working with digital materials. Separate discussions will touch on the basic functions of libraries and archives:

• Acquisition. How to acquire publications and records from creators’ custody into a repository? For example, archivists used to use boxes and kept the records in original order; what now? Records managers used to survey file cabinets, but how will they identify records in computer file systems.



• Processing (arrangement, classification, description, housing). How are digital materials prepared for long-term storage? Librarians used to put call marks on books to associate the physical item with its storage location. Archivists used to pull staples, perfect order, refolder, and stabilize fragile materials. What’s the digital equivalent of these activities? In the paper era, archivists wrote finding aids with folder lists; librarians cataloged using AACR and MARC. Today, they may need to think in terms of Dublin Core, full-text search engines, and SQL queries. They worried about temperature and humidity; what do they need to know about digital storage systems?



• Reference and Access. Not only do library and records professionals need to learn new skills, they need to help patrons understand how to use digital materials. They brought documents or boxes to reading rooms, but today patrons may access content directly through the web. They conducted reference interviews, but digital-era patrons prefer self service; library and records professionals’ role may be evolving from gatekeeper to guide.



• Preservation. In the past, many reformatting projects were one-time efforts to protect fragile materials by moving them to a stable media such as microfilm. In the digital era, where there is no stable medium, librarians and records professionals may need to develop ongoing programs to counter recurring technical obsolescence.



• Management. Not all library and records professionals work directly with holdings. Managers need to know enough to ensure that the work is being done well. When repositories contract work to information technology specialists, it’s essential to know how to manage those projects so that the work is robust and fits into a larger program.

Participants will be provided and expected to read case studies before the colloquium so that face time can be spent in conversation, rather than listening to extensive presentations. The packet will also include suggested readings. Participants should be prepared to share ideas, opinions, and experiences.

Proceedings, to be published by the Society of American Archivists, will include the keynote address, case studies, and a report that articulates the participants’ discussions and recommendations.

There is no registration fee for the conference.

Space is limited, and participants will be selected to ensure a diverse balance of knowledge and experience. Submitting an application does not guarantee registration. Successful applicants will be notified as soon as possible.

The Academy of Certified Archivists will award ten Archival Recertification Credits (ARCs) to Certified Archivists attending the colloquium. These ARCs should be listed under Section B.3.b of the Application Form for Certification Maintenance.

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