GENERAL Updates: Join Us in New Orleans
This July, members of the Society of American Archivists community will gather in New Orleans for the 2026 Annual Meeting—and SNAC will be there with exciting opportunities to connect, collaborate, and learn.
Whether you’re already involved with SNAC or simply curious about archival discovery and relationship-based access, we hope you’ll stop by our information table, attend a session, or join us for a special in-person edition of SNACSchool.
SNAC continues to grow as a collaborative platform for connecting people, organizations, families, and archival collections across institutions. This year’s SAA gathering offers a chance to showcase not only the platform itself, but the growing community of practitioners, editors, technologists, and researchers shaping its future.
SNAC at SAA 2026
SNAC Director Jerry Simmons will be representing SNAC in New Orleans with an information table during the conference. If you are attending SAA, we encourage you to stop by to learn more about:
- Current SNAC initiatives and collaborations
- Opportunities for participation and training
- Working groups and editorial projects
- Indigenous description and metadata work
- Technical development updates
- Future events and community programming
In addition, Jerry and Ugoma Smoke will present to the SAA Description Section annual meeting on May 22, helping continue conversations around archival description, authority work, and collaborative discovery systems ahead of the conference itself.
Join Us for an In-Person SNACSchool at Tulane
One of the highlights of this summer will be a special in-person SNACSchool Create & Edit event hosted at Tulane University.
Designed for archivists, librarians, students, researchers, and metadata practitioners interested in hands-on SNAC work, the workshop introduces participants to creating and editing records within SNAC while exploring how archival relationships can improve discoverability and context across repositories.
Event Details
SNACSchool: Create & Edit
July 29, 2026
1:00–5:00 PM Central Time
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
7001 Freret St, New Orleans, LA
Registration is available here:
The course is especially valuable for anyone interested in archival authority work, relationship modeling, and improving access to dispersed collections. Prior archival research or description experience is helpful, though newcomers are welcome. Participants can also access previously recorded sessions and slide decks through SNAC’s training materials.
Momentum Across the Cooperative
SAA comes at an exciting moment for the SNAC community. Recent discussions and initiatives across working groups and committees highlight the cooperative’s continued growth and experimentation.
Expanding Collaborations
SNAC has recently met potential new members and collaborators to plan for future projects.
- Georgia Tech Archives: We hope to work directly with the GT team on the import of more than 670 finding aids and enhanced authority records into SNAC.
- Joan Mitchell Foundation: Is sharing insights about SNAC in a forthcoming publication focused on preserving artists’ legacies and improving discovery around creative communities.
- Music Library Association: Early planning sessions have explored the possibility of a SNACSchool sessions at the MLA conference next February.
- Latin American, Caribbean, U.S. Latinx, and Iberian Free Online Resources: We participated in a lesson offered by the LACLI team and have begun exploring new editorial standards working groups and multilingual linked data capabilities.
Technical Development Continues
Behind the scenes, SNAC’s technical infrastructure continues evolving. Mike Poston and Robbie Hott recently stood up a development copy of SNAC on AWS infrastructure, while ongoing server modernization work is taking place in partnership with colleagues at University of Virginia.
The Technology Infrastructure Working Group is also continuing productive discussions around documentation, uploads, metadata standards, and roadmap priorities—including test runs involving ISO 639-3 language codes on NABS data.
Editorial and Indigenous Description Work
Editorial groups remain deeply engaged in projects connected to ethical metadata, enslaved and Indigenous description, and community-centered archival practice.
Recent conversations across the Editorial Standards Working Group and related committees have included:
- Integrating SEEDS concepts within SNAC’s existing framework
- Event-based metadata for enslaved person data
- TK Labels and community voice
- Indigenous headings review and editorial policy development
- Source evaluation guidance and documentation improvements
We are also excited to welcome Evangeline Giaconia as the new chair of the Indigenous Description Group (IDG). Monthly IDG meetings are set to begin May 19th at 1 pm EST.
