Council of State Archivists

Last updated

Council of State Archivists
AbbreviationCoSA
Formation1989;34 years ago (1989)
Type Non-profit
NGO
Location
Region served
United States
Membership
56 [1]
Executive Director
Joy M. Banks
President
Kenneth Williams (2022-2023)
Website www.statearchivists.org
Formerly called
Council of State Historical Records Coordinators (COSHRC)

The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) is a non-profit membership association of the United States state and territorial government archives. [2]

Contents

Originally established as the Council of State Historical Records Coordinators (COSHRC) in 1989, CoSA incorporated as a non-profit in 2002. [3] Current program priorities include the State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI), publishing guidance on email archiving, and providing a network of support.

In 2018, the Society of American Archivists recognized CoSA with the Distinguished Service Award for the organization's significant contributions to the archives profession. [4]

History

State Historical Records Advisory Boards (SHRAB) were first proposed in 1975 in a report from Herbert Angel to the recently formed National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), chaired by the Archivist of the United States. [5] Each SHRAB is led by an appointed State Coordinator. [6] After several years of work and recognizing their need to carry out their mandate across the various archival association missions, the State Coordinators formed the Council of State Historical Records Coordinators (COSHRC) in 1989, maintaining close ties to the NHPRC. [5]

In the early years of COSHRC, membership expanded to include State Historical Records Coordinators and the Deputy State Coordinators. These archival leaders issued many reports to document and guide work related to historical records and archives in coordination with their peers in other organizations, such at the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA), and the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). [7]

Under the leadership of Peter Gottlieb (COSHRC Steering Committee Chair, 2000), the Council started planning for its future and its continued relationship with the NHPRC, and in 2002, the work Gottlieb started took shape when COSHRC incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) organization. The shifting mission and priorities of the group also motivated a name change in 2005 to the Council of State Archivists (CoSA). [8]

Today, the Council supports its mission to "provide leadership to strengthen and support state and territorial archives leaders and staff in their work to preserve and provide access to government records." [9] Research, education, and advocacy remain central to all programs, [3] and representatives from member institutions serve on a variety of committees to accomplish these tasks. [10]

Awards

The CoSA Awards Program provides annual recognition to individuals, programs, and institutions for their contributions to the field of government archives, such as those awarded to Jim Condos, [11] Doug Robinson, [12] and the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical Records Survey</span> American New Deal work-relief project (1935–1943)

The Historical Records Survey (HRS) was a project of the Works Progress Administration New Deal program in the United States. Originally part of the Federal Writers' Project, it was devoted to surveying and indexing historically significant records in state, county and local archives. The official mission statement was the "discovery, preservation, and listing of basic materials for research in the history of the United States". The creation of the Historical Records Survey was one of the signal events "in what Solon Buck called the 'archival awakening' of the 1930s".

The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organization serves upwards of 6,200 individual and member institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archival science</span> Science of storage, registration and preservation of historical data

Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings and data storage devices.

The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and dissemination of materials relating to American Jewish history.

Margaret L. Hedstrom, Ph.D., is the Robert M. Warner Collegiate Professor of Information at the University of Michigan School of Information. She has contributed to the field of digital preservation, archives, and electronic records management and holds a doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin.

The National Archives of Nigeria has its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, with branches in Enugu, Ibadan, and Kaduna. As of 2017, the current Director of Archives is Mr. Danjuma Dambring Fer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilary Jenkinson</span>

Sir Charles Hilary Jenkinson was a British archivist and archival theorist, regarded as the figure most responsible for bringing continental European concepts of archival theory to the English-speaking world.

Respect des fonds, or le respect pour les fonds, is a principle in archival theory that proposes to group collections of archival records according to their fonds. It is one of several principles stemming from provenance that have guided archival arrangement and description from the late 19th century until the present day. It is similar to archival integrity, which dictates that "a body of records resulting from the same activity must be preserved as a group." It is also closely related to the idea of original order – the idea that archivists ought to maintain records using the creator's organizational system. However, respect des fonds differs from that other foundational sub-principle of provenance in its concern with the integrity of the collection or record group as a whole rather than the organization of materials within that collection or record group.

Original order is a concept in archival theory that a group of records should be maintained in the same order as they were placed by the record's creator. Along with provenance, original order is a core tenet of the archival concept of respect des fonds. A primary goal of keeping records in their original order is to preserve additional contextual information about the records' creator and the environment of their creation. Original order also encourages the archivist to remain neutral as opposed to applying any interpretation to the records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. R. Schellenberg</span>

Theodore Roosevelt Schellenberg was an American archivist and archival theorist. Schellenberg's publications and ideas are part of the foundation for archival theory and practice in the United States. In particular, Schellenberg is known for pioneering American archival ideas about appraisal.

"More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing" is a 2005 archival science article written by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner that first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2005 issue of The American Archivist. The paper argues that traditional archival processing is too slow, and advocates for the use of minimal processing in order to reduce backlogs and provide access to archival collections as quickly as possible. The ideology presented in the article, abbreviated as MPLP, has since been widely adopted in modern archival theory with subsequent praise directed primarily towards the ability to increase user accessibility without prohibiting the option for future processing.

The Academy of Certified Archivists is an American independent, nonprofit organization of professional archivists founded in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert E. Angel</span> American Archivist

Herbert Edmund Angel was an American archivist, and served as Deputy Archivist of the United States.

Danna C. Bell is an archivist and librarian at the Library of Congress. Bell served as president of the Society of American Archivists from 2013 to 2014 and serves on the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress. Bell has been invited to many national and international events and conferences on archives and special collections, including the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program Leadership Forum in 2016. She is active in the archives profession and writes and speaks on the importance of archival work.

Sue E. Holbert was an American archivist with the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota State Archivist (1979–1993). She is now the owner of Booklady Used and Rare Books in Chicago, Illinois.

Susan Tucker is an American archivist. She was the Curator of Books and Records for the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Library at Newcomb College of Tulane University for over 30 years. She retired in 2015. She is a longtime member of the Society of American Archivists and is active in the Women's Collection Roundtable. She is now an archival consultant specializing in genealogy and family records.

Michelle Caswell is an American archivist and academic known for her work regarding community archives and approaches to archival practice rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression. She is an associate professor of archival studies in the Department of Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles and is the director of the school's Community Archives Lab.

Francis Gerald "Jerry" Ham was an American archivist and educator, and served as state archivist of Wisconsin between 1964 and 1990. Ham also founded the archival education program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as president of the Society of American Archivists (1973-1974).

Edward Weldon was an American archivist and government administrator who served as the 37th president of the Society of American Archivists. He also served as editor of The American Archivist.

Eron Rowland (1861/2-1951), born Eron Opha Moore and also known as Eron Moore Gregory, was a historian, author and the wife of Andrew E. Gregory until his death in 1900, and later Dunbar Rowland. With Rowland, she helped develop the Mississippi Department of Archives and History which holds many of the family's papers.

References

  1. "Directory of State Archives". statearchivists.org.
  2. "About CoSA – Council of State Archivists". www.statearchivists.org. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Who We Are – Council of State Archivists". www.statearchivists.org. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  4. "Distinguished Service Award: Council of State Archivists | Society of American Archivists". www2.archivists.org. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Burke, Frank (January 1, 2000). "The Beginnings of the NHPRC Records Program". The American Archivist. 63 (1): 18–42. doi:10.17723/aarc.63.1.fr07u63646825565. ISSN   0360-9081.
  6. "State Coordinators and Boards". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  7. Cameron, Richard (January 1, 2000). "The Concept of a National Records Program and Its Continued Relevance for a New Century". The American Archivist. 63 (1): 43–66. doi:10.17723/aarc.63.1.f022071t5m16w203. ISSN   0360-9081.
  8. Irons Walch, Victoria (2011). "Introduction to President Peter Gottlieb". The American Archivist. 74 (1): 23–25.
  9. "About CoSA - Council of State Archivists". www.statearchivists.org. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  10. "Committees & Task Forces - Council of State Archivists". www.statearchivists.org. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  11. "Vermont Secretary of State Condos receives Council of State Archivists Advocacy for Archives Award | Vermont Business Magazine". vermontbiz.com. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  12. "Robinson Receives CoSA 2015 Advocacy for Archives Award". NASCIO. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  13. "NHPRC News - July 2015". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2023.