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Archives&Archivists Survey
A survey to gather data to inform discussion and development of  a new forum following the dissolution of the Archives and Archivists listserv.

Introduction

The Archives and Archivists List-serv working group, a volunteer committee of A&A listserv subscribers, has developed this survey in response to the SAA Council’s November 7, 2017 decision to decommission the A&A listserv by December 31st, 2017.

Like many others who have shared their responses on this listserv, we believe that the SAA Council should have made a more deliberate effort to collect feedback from current and former subscribers on the plan to shut down the listserv in advance of its November 7, 2017 meeting.  Considering the long history and tradition of the A&A list and its large and diverse subscriber base, as well as the criticism about discrimination on the forum, such community input will be vital in the development of a future platform.

The A&A 2017 survey was informed by the subscriber survey distributed by SAA in 2014/2015 (https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/0814-1-IV-D-A&AList.pdf), but places a greater emphasis on questions about the future design and governance of a successor forum. The 2017 survey is composed of 18 questions and should take about 10-15 minutes or less to complete.

Please respond by Friday, December 22nd, 2017.  We plan to write a report summarizing the responses by the end of January 2018, which we will make available to respondents who provide their email address. We will also announce it on blogs and listservs. We also hope to establish a A&A list member group to work with the SAA in developing a new platform.

We also wanted to alert you to another survey focusing on archivists' and other interested parties' use of social media to gather information about archival activities and practice that will be distributed next week by Jennifer McGillan. The Social Media survey and this one were effectively workshopped together, and some of the questions are very similar, however, the Social Media Survey is independent of this project and will have no bearing on or relation to the data collected by this survey

Please be sure to fill out both of them!
Please contact aalistsurvey2017@gmail.com if you have any questions or if you are interested in helping with summarizing and analyzing the responses.

Thank you!

Peter Amsden, Michele Combs, Tonya Crawford, Frederic Grevin, Katharina Hering, Susan Knoer, Jennifer McGillan, Amy Moorman, Chloe Morse-Harding, Peggy O'Kane

Further reading: Off the Record, From the November SAA Council meeting, Dec. 5, 2017 (blog); Eira Tansey, Professionals Without Professionalism, p. 1, Nov. 14, 2017 (blog)

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1. In what country/territory are you currently based?
2. How would you characterize your profession and/or archival interests?  Are you unemployed, or a student?
3. Are you a member of the Society of American Archivists?
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4. If you are, or were, a subscriber to Archives&Archivists (A&A) listserv, how many years were you or have you been subscribed?
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5. If were once subscribed to A&A but now are not, or your subscription was intermittent or brief, what factors made you unsubscribe?
6. Which SAA section listservs, if any, do you use to locate information related to the Archives profession?
7. What informal outlets (aside from or instead of SAA section list-servs or the main A&A listserv) do you use to locate information related to the archives profession?
8. In your opinion, does the archives community need a centralized inter-professional and international forum for disseminating information?
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9. In your opinion, does the archives community specifically need a list-serv as a centralized forum for disseminating information?
10. In terms of content on a general-purpose list, would you prefer:
11. Please indicate whether the following features would make you MORE likely to subscribe to a general-purpose list, features about which you are NEUTRAL, and features that would make you LESS likely to subscribe to a general-purpose list:
A lot more likely
More likely
Neutral
Less likely
A lot less likely
Preemptive moderation (all comments are reviewed by a moderator before being passed on to list)
Post-facto moderation (moderator steps in only when necessary)
Ability to “flag” a post, which would bring it to a moderator’s attention
Ability to “flag” a post, which would bring it to a moderator’s attention and automatically set the flagged poster to “moderated” status
Ability to “flag” a post, which would bring it to a moderator’s attention and automatically set the flagged poster to “moderated” status
Use of the list by SAA leadership for all official SAA announcements
Discussions on specific topics led by SAA leadership
“Three strikes” rule (three suspensions and the person is banned from the list)
Requiring tags in subject line (JOB, PROCESSING, NEWS, etc.)
A “forum” setup where you have to log in to read or post
Requiring 1-2 sentences context for any URL posted to the list
Membership open to all regardless of professional affiliation or membership
Membership restricted to members of SAA
Web access
Digest format available
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12. How important is it that SAA be directly involved with the governance of any future forum?
Not important
Very Important
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13. What suggestions do you have for the governance of any future forums?
14. Some people have suggested that subscribers to any forums replacing A&A should be charged a fee. Would you be willing and in the position to pay such a fee?
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15. Please comment on why you would or would not be willing to pay a fee for a forum to replace A&A
16. Do you have any other comments about the A&A list that you’d like to share?
17. Are you interested in participating in a transition team to prepare the development of a future platform? If so, please share your preferred method of contact.
18. If you would like the final, compiled results of this survey emailed to you, please enter your email address below.
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