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NFACE
Common Ground Presentation
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Nancy
Zimmelman
California State Archives & Administrator, Western Archives Institute
The "common ground" speakers have been asked to "characterize and connect" the groups that we represent. We have been asked to identify our group’s needs, barriers and where we can interact with other groups. Finally, we have been asked to identify the role of NFACE and to find the "common ground" within our group and connect our group to other records keepers.
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NFACE is concerned with the continuing educational and informational needs of all individuals who care for historical records. As part of the data gathering efforts to identify those needs, NFACE distributed a survey of individual needs via newsletters, the Internet, and at various regional meetings. In addition, the NFACE Program Committee members held 24 focus groups nationwide.
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The largest number of respondents to the individual needs survey (31.3%) identify themselves as archivists. (For the purpose of this summary, the term "archivist" should be understood as including those who are "manuscript curators".) For professional archivists, there has been much discussion and occasionally heated debate over what makes someone an archivist. An entire program could be devoted to an examination of this question. The NFACE survey only asked that respondents identify their principal work.
Professional archivists have a wide range of education. There is no formal archival degree, although, there are guidelines for a "Master’s in Archival Studies" (MAS) degree. A review by the Society of American Archivists Committee on Education and Professional Development found that only a few graduate programs fully follow the MAS guidelines. There are increasing numbers of graduate programs with archival components, including a few Ph.D. programs. More archivists have a graduate degree in history or library or information science that may or may not include courses in archives management. There are many archivists who have been trained "on-the-job" or through institutes such as the Modern Archives Institute, Georgia Archives Institute, and Western Archives Institute which provide basic instruction.
Given the wide range of education among professional archivists, there is a need for a wide range of continuing education. For some, like the "on-the-job" trained archivist or archivists whose graduate programs did not include an archives component, there is a need for formal, basic, core training. As our profession is one that is changing, continuing education will have constant importance in the future especially in areas of electronic records, Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and facilities planning.
According to the 1998 report of the Council of State Historical Records Coordinators (COSHRC), "Where History Begins", professionally trained archivists and manuscript curators, work in a variety of repositories, including college and university archives and special collections departments, historical societies, state and local government archives, federal repositories, research libraries and other cultural institutions, and for corporate archives serving businesses and religious organizations. "Where History Begins" characterized the repositories employing professional record keepers as the "professional core", the repositories whose major or only focus is the collection, care and research use of historical records. The "professional core" also includes smaller repositories staffed by professional archivists who work alone or with limited technical and clerical staff as well as archival departments within larger organizations. Most of the archivists responding to the individual needs survey work for colleges and universities.
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Having characterized who professional archivists are, how they receive their education, and where they are employed, the next question is where do they obtain professional support?
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For assistance, colleagues and professional associations are the most frequent sources of assistance for professional archivists. Of the professional associations, the Society of American Archivists and regional archival associations are the most frequently cited as providing assistance. There is value in our professional associations since 85.6% of the archivists responding to the NFACE survey indicate that they seek assistance from SAA or regional archival associations.
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Professional archivists are most likely to attend workshops that are local either in city, in house, in state or from professional organizations in their region or state, or use on-the-job education services. ("Local" can have a broad definition. In the case of someone in Northern California, "local" may be 400 or 500 miles away in Los Angeles or San Diego.)
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Having identified "professional record keepers", what are their needs for continuing education? The NFACE survey of individuals listed 32 topics for training opportunities or information resources. For archivists, the highest priority was placed on training or information concerning the uses of technology. Other "top ten" topics are 2) preservation and conservation, 3) appraisal, 4) finding aids, 5) arrangement and description, 6) electronic records management, 7) copyright, 8) privacy and access laws and regulations, 9) disaster preparedness and 10) storage and environmental standards.
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What the survey suggests is that there is need for more specialized and advanced education and training.
Connecting the needs of archivists and manuscript curators to that of the other groups surveyed, six of the ten topics given the highest priority by the professional record keepers were in the top ten for other record keepers.
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If there is any surprise in the survey, it is probably the degree of agreement in the needs of the different types of records keepers.
The interest in local, state or regional education services relates to the top reasons why archivists don’t try to acquire additional training or education. Put simply, respondents to the NFACE survey indicated that additional training is too expensive for institutions or individuals with limited budgets, particularly where it is too far to travel for the training or education.
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Other barriers identified by the survey are that the archivists or their institutions have other priorities, insufficient staff coverage or are not aware of the opportunities. The survey found that employers could be barriers to additional training if the employer won’t pay or if additional training is not important to the employer.
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So, not only do professional archivists and other records keepers share many of the same needs, they face many of the same barriers to obtaining continuing education. This is probably not as much a surprise as the fact that the needs of professional archivists and other records keepers are so similar.
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With many of the same education and training needs and many of the same obstacles to obtain education and training, it would seem that there would be a natural desire for professional archivists and other records keepers to work together to meeting their needs and overcoming the obstacles. The vision of archivists and other record keepers collaborating and cooperating on continuing education efforts is an attractive vision. However, there have been barriers to collaboration between records keepers.
First, within the group of professional record keepers, there is the wide range of educational backgrounds. There are different traditions among professional archivists and manuscript curators. It is only with the increased use of technology and the move towards standardization, MARC format, EAD, and so forth that there has been greater coordination among professional archivists.
Beyond the professional archivists, there are conflicting traditions between professional archivists and other records keepers. For example, recently there were lengthy postings on the Archives Listserv about the differences between how museum professionals and archivists catalog records.
There is often limited communication and lack of interaction between the various records keepers. How often do we see, for example, ARMA or ALA-sponsored programs at SAA or SAA-organized sessions at ARMA or ALA? Interaction between organizations has not been on a regular basis.
Geography is a significant barrier for continuing education, both in terms of cost of obtaining continuing education and in terms of accessibility. In addition, individuals often don’t have very much interaction with national organizations. National organizations can’t always serve members in more remote locations. Speaking as a Californian, and as someone from the west, there are geographic barriers related to continuing education. Opportunities for continuing education programs are fewer in the west than elsewhere.
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It appears that since there are shared needs and concerns between archivists and other record keepers, there would be possibilities for "shared solutions". There is much that professional archivists can learn from other groups, and there is much that professional archivists can provide to other groups. One possible way of achieving shared solutions would be through joint programs where professional archivists could train alongside other allied professionals. An example might be a joint program on electronic records for archivists and records managers. Joint programs would help to reduce the costs that are a barrier to individuals seeking continuing education. Joint programming would also have the benefit of reaching a larger audience at a lower per-person cost.
Cross programming might be another method of interaction. Professional archivists could provide museum professionals with training concerning handling of documents and museum professional could provide professional archivists with training concerning handling of objects.
Local and regional programming and better distance learning offerings are also essential for future continuing education. More effort must be made by all records keepers to improve the accessibility of continuing education.
Barriers between groups may be less important as there is greater movement towards electronic records. Walls are also coming down as more materials are available electronically.
The barriers to continuing education and training for individuals as well as between the various types of records keepers will not go away unless there is improved communication. The message needs to be sent and reinforced that continuing education is important and that it should be a priority for ourselves as records keepers, for our employers and for our institutions if we are going to make a difference in the management, preservation and accessibility of our records holdings.
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NFACE is only a beginning. NFACE can make a difference by opening the opportunities for communication among the various groups of records keepers. NFACE is important in overcoming the barriers between professional archivists and other records keepers. It is an opportunity to identify needs of records keepers, look for shared solutions for meeting the needs and achieving the shared solutions. NFACE is also important because it touches records keepers regardless of their previous education, in all types of repositories, regardless of size, focus of the repository, or placement within an organization. NFACE crosses all geographic lines.
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For professional archivists, many of the NFACE incubator and information sessions are intended to give participants opportunities to discuss common concerns with other records keepers.
The "common ground" is that records keepers have common needs for education and training as well as similar reasons for not seeking training. All share a commitment to historical records. The "common ground" can be defined by the program description for the upcoming meeting of the National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators (NAGARA) to be held in July in Columbia, South Carolina. Coincidentally, "Preparing for the 21st Century: Education as the Foundation" is the theme for the meeting.
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"The archives and records management fields are rapidly changing. Now, more than ever, records’ professionals need to know more about new technologies and changes to standard methodologies and their impact on the creation, management, and preservation of records. It is vital for archivists and records managers (and other records keepers) to educate themselves to meet the challenges that the 21st century brings. This year’s NAGARA program centers on the theme of continuing education and how we can prepare to meet those challenges." NFACE is one of the first steps for record keepers to prepare to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
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Last updated:
November 13, 2005