ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


November 1991 / 641

in your chapter about how you can individually and 
collectively prom ote the benefits of librarianship.

I f  we all do our share o f lively recruiting, the next 
comm ent we should hear is, “Gosh, I didn’t know

librarians could do all that!”
Ed. note: This article first appeared in the East­

ern NewYork/ACRL C hapter Newsletter, Fall 1991, 
and is reprinted with permission. ■  ■

Literacy and social issues topics at Society o f American 
Archivists meeting

Nearly 1,300 archivists, manuscript curators, 
records managers, and preservation specialists con­
vened in Philadelphia Septem ber 23-29 for the 
55th Annual Meeting of the Society of American 
Archivists (SAA). This record num ber of partici­
pants for an SAA meeting enjoyed a multifarious 
program of 87 formal sessions and workshops, plus 
a plethora of committee, round table, and section 
meetings. The program was complemented by a 
wide variety of tours of Philadelphia’s sights and 
institutions, and rounded out with a large num ber 
of social events, all orchestrated by the Host Com ­
mittee.

SAA president Trudy H. Peterson, of the Na­
tional Archives and Records Administration, chal­
lenged the mem bership with disturbing observa­
tions in her Presidential Address, “Reading, ‘Riting 
and ‘Rithmetic: Speculations on Change in the 
Research Process.” Beginning with a brief historical 
overview of the development of widespread lit­
eracy, Peterson observed that the ability to read and 
write is a comparatively recent social phenom ena, 
one that may well have peaked. She went on to 
speculate on the implications that declining literacy 
may have on public cultural institutions like ar­
chives . Noting that the need for information will not 
decline with the public’s ability to assimilate it 
directly from texts, Peterson posited a growing 
intensity in the services that archivists will be called 
on to provide, and a major shift in the way archival 
materials are organized and controlled. H er sober­
ing reflections are directly relevant to research 
libraries. Many of the program sessions were also of 
direct relevance to  the interests of ACRL members, 
perhaps witnessing the continuing convergence of 
the archival and library professions. Statewide pres­
ervation planning, the ALA Standards for Accredi­
tation, geographic information systems (GIS), ad­
ministering audio recordings, user studies, fakes 
and forgeries, friends groups, women in manage­
ment, copyright, trends in research methodologies, 
information policy development, and preservation 
education were b ut a few of the topics to  which 
program sessions were devoted. A num ber o f the 
SAA sessions m ight easily appear on an ACRL 
meeting program, including those on services for 
genealogists, local and regional history manuscripts,

mass deacidification, and the impact of technology 
on reference services.

Many of the business meetings of the committees 
and round tables were also marked by concerns that 
are of interest to librarians. A few examples: the SAA 
Task Force on Library Archives is attem pting to 
devise strategies for increasing the awareness among 
librarians that the records of their institutions are 
im portant cultural materials, and that the disposi­
tion o f these records is probably governed by state 
records statutes; the NOTIS Users Round Table 
and the RLIN Users Round Table discussed archi­
val aspects of the respective systems that librarians 
may view as their own; and the Archival Educators 
Round Table reviewed a num ber of developments 
in library education th at have impact on still-devel- 
oping archival education.

The SAA business m eeting also touched on a 
num ber o f them es that ACRL mem bers might find 
familiar. One of these revolved around a set of 
guidelines for access to primary source materials 
drafted by ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts 
Section, which SAA has been asked to adopt jointly. 
The issue with the most striking parallel to ACRL, 
however, is the question of taking political and 
social factors into account in selecting m eeting 
sites. Arising originally out of the invitation to hold 
the 1996 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, which 
has been opposed by some mem bers of SAA due to 
Utah’s stringent anti-abortion law, the issue has 
broadened to include other social and political 
factors. SAA’s action in this m atter is still pending; 
a decision regarding the 1996 meeting, and the 
process for selecting future meeting sites, is ex­
pected at the January m eeting of Council. In short, 
the SAA m eeting was chock full o f interesting and 
informative events useful to college and research 
librarians. ACRL m em bers should consider keep­
ing an eye on SAA Annual Meetings in the future, 
and take advantage of the opportunity to attend 
when convenient. Future meetings are planned for 
Montreal, Septem ber 14-18, 1992, and New O r­
leans, Septem ber 2-5,1993. F o r more information 
contact the SAA, 600 S. Federal, Suite 504, Chi­
cago, IL  60605; (312) 922-0140.—Robert S. Mar­
tin, Assistant Dean f o r  Special Collections, LSU  
Libraries, Louisiana State University ■  ■