New Issue: American Archivist

In issue 88.2 of American Archivist, Alex H. Poole and Ashley Todd-Diaz evaluate the efficacy of North American graduate archival education curriculum; Elizabeth Joffrion considers the history and current situation of state archives; and Sonia Yaco, Bala Desinghu, Claire Warwick, and Richard Anderson share their research findings after testing thirty-three software tools to explore how AI can be used in special collections to improve accessibility and discoverability.

This issue also includes seven reviews of recent publications in archival literature that explore historical collecting around the Panama Canal, the development of archives on the internet, disability and archives, and much more!

From the Editor

No Time (Not) to Read
Amy Cooper Cary

Articles

“Putting It into Practice Is the Best Way to Really Learn Something”: Evaluating the North American Graduate Archival Education Curriculum
Alex H. Poole and Ashley Todd-Diaz

Charting a Profession: A Comparative Analysis of Seven Regional Archival Journals and American Archivist, 2013–2023
Daines, J. Gordon, Coulter Gill, Ryan K. Lee, and Cory L. Nimer

The State of American State Archives (Revisited)
Elizabeth Joffrion

Instilling Primary-Source Research Confidence in Undergraduate History Majors: Insight into Instructional Impact and Student Preferences
Matthew Gorzalski

The Mumia Rules for Carceral Collecting
Murphy, Mary O., and Amanda M. Knox

“I Despise It, But It Works”: Social Media Outreach in Special Collections
Thomas, Nikki Lynn, Colleen Theisen, Juli McLoone, and Sean Heyliger

What Can AI Do for Special Collections?
Yaco, Sonia, Bala Desinghu, Claire Warwick, and Richard Anderson

Reviews

From Local to Global: Variety in the Archival Literature
Rose Buchanan and Stephanie Luke

Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers, and the Panama Canal
Katie Sutrina-Haney

Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History
Gabrielle Dean

Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory
Kailyn Slater

Beyond Evidence: The Use of Archives in Transitional Justice
Sarah R. Demb

Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession
Moira Armstrong

Records and Information Management
Brady Kal Cox

The Handbook of Archival Practice
Audie Robinson

Call for Nominations: SAA Publications Awards

More information

Call for Nominations: LAMPHHS Publication Awards

Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences (LAMPHHS) is seeking nominations for the Publication Awards. These awards will be presented at the 2026 LAMPHHS annual meeting.

Nominations can be in one of three categories:

  • Monographs published by academic or trade publishers for the LAMPHHS Best Monograph.
  • Articles published in journals, trade, or private periodicals of recognized standing for the LAMPHHS Patricia E. Gallagher Publication Award for Best Article.
  • Online resources produced predominantly by LAMPHHS members for the LAMPHHS Best Online Resource.

All nominations must meet the following criteria:

  • Published within 3 years of the award date.
  • Author(s) must be LAMPHHS member(s) in good standing for the past 12 months.
  • The nominated monograph, article, bibliography, catalog, or electronic resource is related to the history of the health care sciences or works on the management of historical collections in the health care sciences.

Nominations that meet each of the above criteria will be considered by the Publication Awards Committee. The Committee will look for the following benchmarks of excellence when evaluating qualifying nominations:

  • Quality and style of writing
  • Contribution to the field
  • Relevance to the profession

Up to one Publication Award in each category will be presented at the 2026 annual meeting. Winners do not need to be present to win.

Each nomination should clearly identify the work being nominated, the author(s) of that work, and an address at which the designated nominee(s) can be contacted. Self-nominations are encouraged, and re-nominations are allowed if the publication date falls within the current three-year period. For electronic submissions, please include all relevant URLs. For printed nominations, one copy for each member of the publication awards committee will be required. Appropriate mailing addresses should be provided to nominators (or publishers) once a nomination to review a physical format is received.

The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2026. All nominations, along with any questions, should be sent to the 2026 Publication Awards Committee chair, Jason Byrd, at jbbyrd@uab.edu.

LAMPHHS Publication Awards Committee

Gabrille Barr, Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum

Jason Byrd, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Chair

Brooke Guthrie, Duke University

Beth Kilmarx, Boston Medical Library

Jason Byrd, MA, MLIS | Associate Dean of Historical Collections

Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences | Reynolds-Finley Historical Library | UAB Archives

CFP: SNCA/SCAA Annual Meeting Advocacy through Community

SNCA/SCAA Annual Meeting 

Call for Proposals

Many Voices, Stronger Archives: Advocacy through Community

UNC-Charlotte | Charlotte, NC | May 28-29, 2026

The Programming Committee encourages you to submit proposals for the SNCA/SCAA Joint 2026 Annual Meeting. This year’s theme, “Many Voices, Stronger Archives: Advocacy through Community” calls us to reflect on the roles and impacts of advocacy and community within the archival profession.

We encourage submissions that address a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to:

  • America’s 250th
  • Reflections of past communities
  • Outreach to communities: engagement and partnerships
  • Community-driven projects/exhibits
  • Community among archival professionals
  • Various aspects of advocacy
  • Support for small archives/lone archivists
  • Grant writing
  • Inclusive metadata and description practices

Proposal Form

Proposals are due by February 6, 2026 at 5:00 pm

CFP:  International Conference on Archives Management – Digital Governance and Smart Services 

The first National Archives of Taiwan opened its doors in November 2025, as part of the celebration of the new National Archives, an international conference will be held in June 2026. We sincerely invite your proposal for the conference. 

As information technology plays an increasingly vital role in the development of the public and private sectors, it has brought about significant changes in archival management automation processes and digital governance. This includes the application of Artificial 

Intelligence (AI), digital archives management, archive retrieval and open access. These digital technologies are transforming how archival value is created and transmitted, bringing benefits to the archival management field. 

In anticipation of the inauguration of the first National Archives, this bureau plans to hold the International Conference on Archives Management – Digital Governance and Smart Services on Wednesday, 10th – Thursday, 11th June 2026 at the National Archives, Linkou, New Taipei City. The conference will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, presentation sessions, and poster presentations. 

The National Archives hereby invites your proposals for presentations and posters related to the theme, and subthemes are described below. 

Subthemes 

1. Emerging Information Technology 

How is the new information technology used in archives management, access, and use of archives? 

• Blockchain 

• Big Data 

• Artificial Intelligence 

• Next Generation Wireless Technology 

• Digital Communication Tools 

• Machine Learning 

• 5G Internet of Things (IoT) 

• Text Mining 

2. Digital Transformation of Archives Management 

Digital transformation and its influence on archive management, including the digital transformation of the archival workspace, management, smart appraisal, and the use of mobile devices. 

• Evolution of Archives Digital Transformation 

• Digital Transformation and Organizational Adjustment 

• Digital Archive Professional Work Space 

• Management of Electronic Archives 

• Public Participation in the Digital Age 

• Creating Archive Value through Digital Transformation 

• Smart Archival Management 

• Smart Review and Appraisal 

• The use of Mobile Devices 

3. Smart Archival Services 

Discussion and experience sharing on applying digital tools to archive-related service, including access, value-adding, personal information protection and curation, promotion, and customer service on archives. 

• Archive Access and Digital Innovation 

• Digital Value-Adding of Archive 

• Personal Data Protection in Archive Application 

• Digital Curation and Promotion of Archive 

• Smart Customer Service on Archive 

4. Digital Resilience and Security 

How to protect and manage the risk of information security in archive management. 

• Digital Policy and Legal System on archive 

• Information Security on Archive Management 

• Digital Risk Management of Archive 

• Digital Ethics of Archive 

5. Digital Archival Competency 

How to empower archivists and archives management field with digital ability. 

• Digital Strategy Planning for Archives 

• Archivists’ digital training 

• Collaboration with Digital Tools 

• Use of Digital Data 

• Mobile working on archival workspace 

• Digital Communication on archival service 

6. Cross-disciplinary Archival Development 

How do digital tools and technology play a part in the cross-disciplinary archive use and promotion? 

• Digital Sharing on Archival resource 

• Digital Innovation and Cooperation on Archive 

• Promotion and Exchange of Digital Skills of Archive 

• Collaborative writing of Audio-Visual Archives 

• Digital Marketing of Archive 

Submission form (bottom of page)

New Issue: VIEW, Journal of European Television History and Culture

Volume 14 – Issue 28 – 2025
With and Against the Grain: Creative Dialogues with Broadcast Archives

Editorial

With and Against the Grain: Creative Dialogues with Broadcast Archives
Bas Agterberg, Lisa Kerrigan, Dana Mustata, Alistair Scott

Enthusiasms

More Than a Game: Television Archives in Two Acts
Nevena Popović

“They Lack Imagination…” ─ Valérie Wilson and Trans Life in the Audiovisual Archive
Christopher Wolff, Jesse Blanchard

‘Angélica la palenquera’: Collective Memory and a Decolonial Reimagining of Archival Futures
Laura Alhach, Rodolfo Palomino Cassiani

Decolonising the BBC Radio Archive: Challenges, Opportunities, Ethics of Care and Access
Sylvie Carlos, Matt Green, Eleni Liarou

ATLas Chronicles. Designing and Valorising an Italian Archive of Past Local TV Channels
Luca Barra, Diego Cavallotti, Emiliano Rossi

Coventry Cathedral: Exploring Reflexivity in a Collage Film
John Wyver

Lockerbie Pan Am 103 – Tracking the Evolving Re-Use of Archive Broadcast News
Alistair Scott

“Preserving Atrocity”: Mental Health and the Broadcast Media Archivist
Michael Marlatt

Expanding the Small Screen: Exhibiting Northern Irish Television Archive
Rose Baker

Academic Research Articles

Caring for Past Media from Below: Bottom-up Practices and Networks Supporting Obsolete Broadcast Technologies
Sergio Minniti, Roberta Spada

Broadcasting from Below: Television Archives, Microhistory, and the Many Voices of 1990s Sicily
Vladimir Rosas-Salazar

From the Culch: Lost in the Archives, Found in the Community
Paul Mulraney

Open Contributions

Pingu and the Emergence of Merchandising within Swiss Public Service Television
Chloé Hofmann

Call for Participation: practices and attitudes of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) refusal amongst academic library workers in the United States

We are a faculty member and graduate student in the Information, Library and Research Sciences Department at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, and we are conducting a research study to explore the practices and attitudes of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) refusal amongst academic library workers in the United States. This survey will ask you questions about your attitudes and practices related to generative AI at your workplace.

The survey is open to anyone who works in an academic or university library in the United States. If you are a paraprofessional, student worker, or professional librarian in an academic or university library, we welcome your participation. Employees at university, college, community college, and special or branch libraries at an academic institution qualify to participate in this survey. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate.

The survey is expected to take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Participation is totally voluntary, and respondents can stop filling out the survey at any point. At the end of the survey, you will be asked if you would like to participate in a follow-up interview to further elaborate on your thoughts on this topic; participation in the interview is also entirely voluntary. Respondents will not receive any compensation for filling out this survey, though this information may contribute to the development of policy recommendations to support AI refusal in academic libraries. Responses will be anonymized to protect participants’ privacy.

Please review the full information sheet on the next page. After reviewing this sheet, we will ask you to agree to participate in the survey.

Survey form

Call for Participation: Food in Collections Survey

We are a group of archivists and librarians at Oberlin College working to quantify the impact of food in collections. We are asking you to consider participating in a brief Qualtrics survey about food in museum, library, or archival collections. The purpose of the survey is to assess inherent vice within different types of collections and its impact on preservation and conservation priorities. We are surveying librarians, curators, collections managers, conservators, and archivists from collecting institutions who are at least 18 years old and who currently work in the United States. 

Participation in this survey is entirely voluntary. Should you agree to participate in the survey, your responses will be kept confidential. Your anonymized data will be used for analysis. This study, Protocol AY25-26-ER-02, has been deemed exempt by Oberlin College’s institutional ethics board. For questions related to this survey and your rights as a participant or information about its IRB approval, please contact Associate Archivist Emily Rebmann (erebmann@oberlin.edu) or the Oberlin College Institutional Review Board, Cox 101, (440-775-8410) or email: ocirb@oberlin.edu.

To learn more about the project or to take the survey, please use this link. The Qualtrics survey will remain open until February 28, and we anticipate that it will take no more than 10 minutes to complete. 

Thank you for your consideration,

Emily Rebmann, Eugénie Fortier, and Gena Reynolds

Call for Chapters: Book — “Documentation of/as Violence” by Liu & Liu

Overview:

We are soliciting chapter proposals for an edited volume titled “Documentation of/as Violence.” In this volume, we seek to explore how documentation, or the lack thereof, can function in capacities that both enforce and protect against violence. We understand documents, and documentation, through two primary functions: surveillance and preservation. The collection of materials capturing violence enacted upon marginalized communities, as well as how the practice of documentation itself can be a violent action of surveillance experienced by marginalized communities complicate the function of representation in library and archival collections.

Throughout this volume, our goal is to encourage readers to reflect on the role(s) of violence in the preservation of history. We seek to map out a range of perspectives that critically engage with how professional practice addresses the documentation of violence, as well as how documentation itself enacts violence on marginalized communities. We welcome contributors writing from critical theoretical, Black, feminist, abolitionist, Indigenous, post-colonial, and liberatory perspectives, as well as contributors working outside of libraries and archives (such as community organizers and activists, and public historians).

Proposal Submission Deadline:

February 18, 2026

Sample topics:

Examples of topics include, but are not limited to:

Documentation and Surveillance Technologies

• Histories of the surveillance of marginalized communities

• Documentation of activism and activist groups

• Absence of documentation as protection (e.g., public libraries)

• Impact of technology/technological developments on documentation and ethics

• Access to and engagement with documentation of violence

Ethical Quandaries

• Agency and consent of the subject of documentation

• Who is entitled to documentation of a community?

• What is the value of documentation of violence?

• Preservation of documentation of violence

• Impact of one’s identity and positionality relative to the content of documentation

What is the value of documentation?

• Differences in the function of documentation for institutions and communities

• Gaps in documentation

• Archival silence

• Does loss of documentation equal violence against a community / history?

Proposal Guidelines:

Proposals should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (APA-7).

Proposals should include:

• Primary author’s name, email address, position title, and institutional affiliation

• Co-authors’ names, email addresses, titles, and affiliations

• Brief author(s) biography (100 words maximum per author)

• Proposed chapter title

• A 300-500 word chapter proposal

Submit proposals via Google forms at https://forms.gle/Tb8hNu2WEQBmig6o6

Communications from the editors will be going to primary authors.

Proposal submission and timelines:

• Proposals for chapters due to editors: February 18, 2026

• Notification by editors of proposal acceptance: Late April

• Authors submit completed chapters: Mid-November 2026

• Anticipated publication is 2027 or 2028

• Additional key dates will be sent to successful proposal authors

Email questions to:

1. Tina Liu, Cataloguing Librarian, tina.liu@mcgill.ca

2. Tellina Liu, Archivist and Liaison Librarian, tellina.liu@mcgill.ca

CFP: Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026

Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026

Digital time: show me how you do it!
Recipes for audiovisual content longevity

The FIAT/IFTA Preservation & Migration Commission (PMC), in collaboration with RTÉ and the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), will host the first on-site edition of the annual PMC Seminar at the Royal Irish Academy on June 4-5, 2026.

The call for proposals welcomes submissions that explore both theoretical perspectives and practical experiences, presented as presentations (30 min), discussion panels (45-60 min), or demos (20 min), within the scope of preservation, migration, and digital preservation of media content.

The deadlines to submit your proposal are:

  • March 2 – Presentations and Discussion panels
  • March 30 – Demos

Submit proposal