Category: Research

Seeking study participants: “Emotional Responses and Experiences in the Archival Donation Process” (UVA IRB-SBS # 7278)

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to invite you to participate in a study investigating emotionally adverse experiences among individuals donating personal materials to archives and special collections departments in the United States, as well as the emotionally adverse responses archivists observe during the donation process. By examining the nature and causes of these perspectives, this research seeks to expand the understanding of donor-archivist interactions and inform more empathetic, trauma-informed archival practices.

Survey Details

·       Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes

·       Format: Online survey

·       Eligibility: To qualify as a participant, you must have donated materials to an archives or special collections department in the United States or must be an archivist who has worked with donors in an archives or special collections department in the United States (an archivist can also be a donor). Participants should be between 25 – 75 years of age.

·       Security: The information that you give in the study will be anonymous. Your name and other information that could be used to identify you will not be collected or linked to the data. Raw data will be stored on UVA Box, a secure file storage system managed by UVA IT.

·       Survey period: The survey will close on June 30, 2025.

Begin the survey here: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bxTbH3l64LIPDng

If you have any questions about the study or the survey, please contact me at agreenwood@virginia.edu.

With warmest regards,

Amanda Greenwood

Archivist, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

University of Virginia

CFP: Request for Speakers: Libraries in Unexpected Places – 2025 ALA LHRT Research Forum (Library History Round Table)

Libraries are not confined to traditional institutions; they exist in a myriad of unexpected places, serving diverse communities in innovative ways. From lighthouses and artists’ studios to mobile book vans and digital platforms, libraries continue to evolve, offering knowledge and resources in creative and unconventional settings. This call for papers seeks to explore the rich and often overlooked world of libraries that exist outside the norm—whether in remote villages, repurposed structures, personal collections, or virtual spaces.

We invite scholars, librarians, historians, and researchers from various disciplines to present their research at the 2025 LHRT Research Forum, which will focus on how libraries in unexpected places serve communities, preserve history, and expand access to knowledge. The forum aims to highlight historical studies of library outreach and development, including 20th and 21st-century topics. Single-case studies, theoretical perspectives, and other approaches are welcomed, but use of primary sources is expected. Each speaker will be asked to present for approximately 20 minutes, with a 10-minute Q&A to follow.

To accommodate as many attendees as possible, the 2025 Research Forum will be held virtually after the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition, on Wednesday, July 23, 2:00-3:30 EST.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Libraries in Unconventional Spaces

  • Libraries and library collections housed in unique buildings or premises.
  • Personal and private libraries with public impact.
  • Community-based initiatives such as Little Free Libraries and other book-sharing projects.
  • Rural and mobile libraries that reach remote and underserved populations.

Library Outreach and Collaboration

  • Librarians bringing books and services to nontraditional settings.
  • Novel partnerships between libraries and other institutions and organizations.
  • Efforts to preserve and document library collections that exist outside formal institutions.

Access Beyond Physical Spaces

  • Online and open-access libraries in areas lacking traditional library services.
  • Hybrid models that combine physical and digital library services to reach broader audiences.
  • The role of technology in expanding knowledge beyond geographic and economic barriers.

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome submissions from a variety of perspectives, including historical studies, case studies, ethnographic research, theoretical analyses, and reflective essays. We will consider research projects already underway or, if at the beginning of the project, a discussion of new methodologies to be used in the work. Please note that projects or project plans should include a primary source research component.

  • Each proposal must include the paper title, an abstract (up to 500 words), and the presenter’s one-page vita. Please indicate in the abstract whether the research is in progress or completed.
  • Proposals are due March 15, and decisions will be communicated shortly thereafter.
  • Completed papers are due May 31.

Please submit proposals and direct inquiries to Jennifer Bartlett, LHRT Vice Chair/Research Committee Chair, at jen.bartlett@uky.edu.

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches and diverse voices to contribute to this exciting exploration of libraries in unexpected places. If you have a unique perspective or case study that falls outside these categories but aligns with the theme, we welcome your proposal! We look forward to your submissions and to celebrating the vast and varied ways libraries continue to inspire, adapt, and serve.

Research Committee Members:

Jennifer Bartlett

Bernadette Lear

Catherine Minter

Deborah Smith

Rachel Trnka 

CFP: 2025 SAA Research Forum

MAY 2 DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS FOR THE SAA RESEARCH FORUM 

On behalf of the 2025 Research Forum Committee, we invite you to submit abstracts (of 300 words or fewer) for either 10-minute platform presentations or 5-minute lightning talks. Topics may address research on, or innovations in, any aspect of archives practice or records management in government, corporate, academic, scientific, or other settings. 

The 2025 Research Forum will be conducted as two Zoom-based virtual sessions, each four hours long, on July 23 from 12:00 – 4:00 pm CT and July 30, 12:00 – 4:00 pm CT. 

The 2025 Research Forum will be made up of 10-minute platform presentations and 5-minute lightning talks, extended from 3 minutes. A limited number of presentations will be accepted to allow for longer presentation times, extended Q&A periods, and opportunities for discussion between attendees. An abstract submission rubric will be used by the Committee to evaluate submissions. The 2025 Research Forum webpage provides additional information about the schedule and links to past Forum proceedings.

We invite presentations on research results that may have emerged since the 2024 Joint Annual Meeting Call for Proposals deadline, as well as reports on research completed within the past three years that are relevant and valuable for discussion as defined by the rubric. On the submission form, please indicate whether you intend a platform presentation or a lightning talk. See the full call here: https://www2.archivists.org/am2025/research-forum-2025. 

The Research Forum Committee and CORDA encourage submissions on a range of topics, which may include:

  • Global challenges and their implications for archives and archivists, such as climate change, armed conflicts, environmental disaster, and human rights; 
  • Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (EDISJ) as a core value for archives and archivists; 
  • Collaborating across domains-archives, libraries, galleries, and museums; 
  • Repository-level data: how archives measure their output, outcomes, and activities over time;
  • Centering users in the design of archival systems for discovery; and/or, 
  • Building audiences to increase the impact of archives on society. 

These themes can be found in the SAA Research and Innovation Roadmap (v1.4). 

Abstracts will be evaluated by the 2025 Research Forum Committee convened by Chris Marino (Stanford University) and Emily Lapworth (Kennedy Presidential Library).

Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 2, 2025. You will be notified of the Committee’s decision by June 2, 2025.

Proposals should be submitted here.

Call for Participants Special Collections Catalogers and ILS/LSP Migrations

Dear Colleagues,

Special collections catalogers (those who spend at least 30% of their time cataloging special collections and/or rare materials) are invited to participate in a survey related to Integrated Library System (ILS) or Library Services Platform (LSP) migration and special collections data.

To participate, individuals must be over the age of 18 and currently employed as a special collections cataloger. Participants must have migrated Integrated Library Systems (ILS) or Library Services Platforms (LSP) in the last 5 years.

Participation within this survey is voluntary. Participants may stop completing the survey at any time. The survey will be anonymous but not confidential. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8U2I30vUZ49hum

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact

Libby Hertenstein

hertenstein.9@osu.edu

614-247-9802

Office of Responsible Research Practices

hsconcerns@osu.edu

(614) 688-8457

(800) 678-6251

Call for Participation: Survey on Archival Collecting Reflex

Colleagues,

I’m seeking archivists who have participated, or declined to participate, in rapid response collecting in the aftermath of a tragic event at your institution or in your community to complete an anonymous survey for new research on the archival collecting reflex. 

Do archivists have a collecting reflex, an embedded professional drive to collect material, especially to document tragedies in the immediate aftermath of them. What fuels this reflex? From where does it come? Is it possible to privilege the personal over the professional in situations where the tragedy happened in your institution or community? These are basic questions in my research on how archivists manage their professional obligations to gather and preserve with their personal emotional needs to grieve with their fellow community members in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy.

The following is a link to a Qualtrics survey that launches my research exploring the “archival collecting reflex.” The survey should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. The survey will close on February 23, 2025.

The Qualtrics link: virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Hs5t4KH6eEd44m
Participants must be 18 years or older to take the survey. 
With appreciation,
Brenda Gunn, Principal Investigator
UVA IRB-SBS 7274

Call for Participation: Survey re: ILS and Special Collections Data

Dear Colleagues,

Special collections catalogers (those who spend at least 30% of their time cataloging special collections and/or rare materials) are invited to participate in a survey related to Integrated Library System (ILS) or Library Services Platform (LSP) migration and special collections data.

To participate, individuals must be over the age of 18 and currently employed as a special collections cataloger. Participants must have migrated Integrated Library Systems (ILS) or Library Services Platforms (LSP) in the last 5 years.

Participation within this survey is voluntary. Participants may stop completing the survey at any time. The survey will be anonymous but not confidential. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8U2I30vUZ49hum

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact

Libby Hertenstein

hertenstein.9@osu.edu

614-247-9802

Office of Responsible Research Practices

hsconcerns@osu.edu

(614) 688-8457

(800) 678-6251

Call for Participation: AI and Scholarly Peer Review

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to request your participation in an online survey on the current state of AI tool use in scholarly peer review. Though the use of AI tools has burgeoned in the past two years, we know exceedingly little about how individuals use these tools for scholarly review, which can have a significant impact on the overall scholarship process, as well as the current structures of editorial boards and academic service.

This research project is being conducted by Principal Investigator Dr. Alex H. Poole, Associate Professor at Drexel University’s Department of Information Science, and Dr. Ashley Todd-Diaz, Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections and University Archives. The questionnaire should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

The survey can be accessed at this link: https://drexel.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5ssGNm8QOknWOW2

Sincerely,

Alex H. Poole

Ashley Todd-Diaz

Call to Participate in a Study: Librarians as Students

Dear Colleagues,

If you are a librarian or an archivists currently pursuing additional degrees, please consider participating in the research study Librarians as Students: A Survey of Librarians Pursuing Advanced Degrees. This study aims to explore the motivations, experiences, and challenges faced by librarians and archivists who pursue advanced degrees while continuing their professional roles. By participating in this study, you will contribute valuable insights into how librarians balance academic and professional responsibilities, manage work/life demands, and shape their career paths. Your responses will also help identify opportunities for improved institutional and community support for librarian/archivist-scholars.

The survey is anonymous and should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. The anticipated sample size is 100 subjects. If you are interested in participating, please click the link below to access the survey: 

Link to survey: rutgers.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1NerrXH33GeE7Qy

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time. If you have any questions about the study, please feel free to contact me at lily.todorinova@rutgers.edu.  

Thank you for sharing your experiences and contributing to this research.

——–

Lily Todorinova

Undergraduate Experience Librarian, Open Educational Research

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

lily.todorinova@rutgers.edu | Meet with Zoom“

Creating a Research Agenda for the Archival Profession: Open Call to Participate

In late July of 2024, the Society of American Archivists received a $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant program to establish a prioritized research agenda for the archival profession that builds upon SAA’s recently adopted Research and Innovation Roadmap. Spearheaded by the Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment (CORDA) and with funding from IMLS, SAA will convene 35 archival experts, educators, community leaders, and grantmakers—archivists from across key sectors and professional positionality as well as relevant non-archivist stakeholders—to be part of a professionally facilitated two-day forum to take place in Chicago on May 1–2, 2025. Travel, lodging, and food for participants will be covered by grant funds. The participants will transform the recently adopted SAA Research and Innovation Roadmap into a research agenda and develop a framework for its implementation and adoption.

Establishing a prioritized agenda is too important to too many stakeholders to consider developing it within CORDA alone, or even within SAA or the larger archival community. This agenda must be the collaborative work of stakeholders representing diverse perspectives in the archival endeavor. It is for this reason that the 35 participants will be selected from an open call application process to form the Research Agenda Advisory Collective.

To ensure the success and thoughtful design of the 2-day in person forum, CORDA in consultation with SAA leadership and funding from IMLS have hired a professional facilitator, RMC (Research Making Change). RMC Research Corporation was our top contender for this project as they worked with the National Endowment for the Arts on a similar project turning a complex strategic plan into a Research Agenda and engaging a diverse group of 46 participants in 7 focus groups. RMC works across education, healthcare and arts industries. Their clients include local, state, and federal agencies; philanthropic foundations; creative services organizations and other nonprofits; higher education institutions; and private businesses. Their research profile, track record of conducting research and program based evaluation, and capacity building across industries, many of which deliver public benefit, is well aligned with the focus and intent of this effort.

Application Evaluation

To select 35 applicants for the 2-day in-person forum, CORDA and RMC have developed an online application that takes approximately 30–45 minutes to complete. The application consists of 9 demographic questions, CV upload, and 2 open-ended questions regarding engagement, experience, and expertise, as well as a positionality statement asking applicants how their lived experiences and/or DEIA-related work connects to the development of the roadmap into a research agenda for the profession.

To ensure an inclusive and diverse group, we have developed a weighted rubric, aligned with the Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to guide the selection of applicants to participate in the 2-day forum, based on the following criteria:

  • In and outside of the profession. Practicing archivists will form the majority of the Collective, including archivists affiliated with allied professional groups including the American Library Association (ALA), COSA, Regional Archival Associations, foundations and funders, as well as international organizations including either IFLA or UNESCO, grant makers, and educators.
  • Geographic location. Participants will primarily represent the United States of America, (West, Midwest, Northeast, South, Pacific, Caribbean). We will also allocate space and budgetary funds for one international participant (e.g. IFLA, UNESCO).
  • Socio-cultural factors. The Collective will represent different race/ethnicities and gender, related to individual and community identity, including the attributes mentioned in SAA’s Equal Opportunity/Non-discrimination Policy.
  • Employment seniority, status, and level. (1) We seek to include archivists that are individual contributors/solo archivists, managers, and senior administrators/executives in the profession. Archivists that are both contract/limited term vs. permanent. Archivists that are entry level (0-5 years), mid-level (6-14 years), and senior (15+ years) in their respective careers.
  • Archives sector. Participants will represent all sectors of the field including: Academic, Government Agency, Non-profit, For-profit, Self-employed, Community Archives, and Religious Archives.

How to Apply

Potential participants will have one month to apply and express their interest, as applications are due on December 20, 2024. Invitations to participate with further details will be sent by late January / February 2025.

Submit Your Application

(1) Classification based on the A*Census II survey and findings, see: https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/acensus-ii-all-archivists-survey-report/

Call for Participation: Research Survey about Copyright

Dear Colleagues, 

I am part of a group of authors that are co-authoring a book on U.S. copyright that explores how copyright has evolved over the centuries and in what types of ways authors, users, and libraries and archives are impacted by it. As part of the project, we are conducting surveys of each of these groups. The survey for libraries, archives and other cultural heritage organizations asks what copyright issues you have encountered and how you’ve managed them. The surveys for general users or users of ephemera ask about how users perceive copyright and use copyrighted works.

I am writing with the hopes that you will: 

1) complete the survey for cultural heritage organizations, and 

2) share the survey for users with your researchers. [I can provide QR codes to the surveys for easy distribution.] 

Note:researchers may fill out either survey, but the ephemera survey is targeted explicitly at those researchers who are utilizing archival collections containing unpublished works. 

A standard disclosure page at the start of each survey provides more information for respondents. The surveys have been evaluated by an IRB and are determined to be exempt. The survey(s) will run through December 9, 2024.

Many thanks to J. Christine Park, Law Librarian in Residence at Gallagher Law Library (University of Washington School of Law) for leading the empirical team handling the survey design, implementation, and analysis. 

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to contact me at hbriston@ucsd.edu

With all best regards,

Heather Briston