This course WILL count towards the synchronous-course requirement for the certificate programs. A minimum of two courses must be synchronous (in person or virtual).
This course will count towards the A&D certificate program (Tactical and Strategic tier).
Course will run two days---December 08-09, 2026 (1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. U.S. central time).
This two-day online course will introduce techniques for effectively processing, arranging, and describing collections of photographs, both analogue and digital. You’ll explore practical solutions to improve organization and access to collections with photographic materials and learn more about the ways in which archival description has adapted to the unique challenges presented by digital resources. Activities are designed to help develop your visual literacy skills, devise practical solutions to processing and digitizing large collections, and to help you become comfortable with the common metadata standards and controlled vocabularies that help to facilitate access.
Note: Although this course will provide some introduction to photo format identification, preservation housing and storage strategies, and digitization guidelines, these topics will not be covered in-depth. This course aims to build competency in the application of archival principles to photograph collections.
Bio:
Beth Knazook is the Research Data Project Manager for the Digital Repository of Ireland, a CoreTrustSeal certified national repository for humanities, social sciences and cultural heritage data. In that role, she is leading a case study on aligning Cultural Heritage image sharing practices with the FAIR Principles for data sharing as part of the WorldFAIR Project, a major global collaboration between partners from thirteen countries across Africa, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America. She previously worked as the Preservation Coordinator for the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and Portage Network, the Digitization Manager for Huron County Library, and Curatorial Specialist for Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) Library Special Collections. She holds an MA in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University and the George Eastman Museum, and she has taught classes on managing and describing photograph collections for Library Juice Academy, University of Toronto Faculty of Information, and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).
Upon completion of this course, you'll be able to:
- Develop processing plans and guidelines to arrange and describe photographs
- Apply principles of arrangement to photographic materials
- Use visual literacy skills to improve description and accessibility of image collections
- Understand the essential elements of common descriptive metadata standards
- Provide subject access to digital collections using controlled vocabularies and authorized headings
Who Should Attend?: Archivists who are new to managing photographs, photo specialists who are new to processing, new archives professionals and graduate students in archival programs who have little or no experience in the arrangement and description of photographs.
What You Should Already Know: Participants should have basic archival training and a working knowledge of the fundamental principles of processing, arrangement and description pertaining to text-based collections.
A&D Core Competency:
1. Arrangement: Understand the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order to protect their context and facilitate access.
2. Description: Analyze and describe details about the attributes of a record or collection of records to facilitate identification, management, and understanding of the work.
3. Descriptive Standards: Apply rules and practices that codify the content of information used to represent archival materials in discovery tools according to published structural guidelines.
4. Management: Demonstrate ability to manage physical and intellectual control over archival materials.
If you intend to pursue the A&D Certificate, you will need to pass the examination for this course.
Registrants of this course may purchase Photographs: Archival Care and Management at a discounted rate of $24.99 (Nonmember) / $19.99 (SAA Member). The eBook is available from the SAA bookstore as a PDF and epub or via Amazon Kindle (nonmember pricing only).
Registration Fee: Early-Bird / Regular
SAA Member: $329 / $389
Employee of SAA Member Institution: $399 / $459
Nonmember: $459 / $529