Professional Associations and Archival Education: A Different Role, or a Different Theater?

Abstract

In this article the author contends that as professional associations plan archival education programs they often do so from too narrow a perspective and without sufficient thought as to how their efforts mesh with those of other associations or with graduate archival education programs. He also argues that, because of the murky distinction between preappointment and postappointment education, both SAA and the regional archival associations share a common primary mission: to fill the gaps that exist in the present network of graduate archival education opportunities. To do so, archival associations need to (1) pay closer attention to the graduate programs and learn where gaps exist, (2) examine more closely some of their past assumptions concerning archival education in light of recent information, and (3) take a broader view of how their efforts may contribute to the development of the archival profession generally in addition to serving the needs of their primary constituency.