With support from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Foundation and approval from the University of Virginia’s Institutional Review Board (IRB-SBS #4250), we conducted nine one-hour focus group sessions with 42 archive workers via Zoom in September and October 2021. The IRB also vetted project documents, including the consent form, call for participation, and email notification of regret. We solicited and selected participants from the Regional Archival Associations and the SAA Council, Distinguished Fellows, and Sections who were representative of the archival workforce (multi-generational, varying geographical locations, and diverse backgrounds and experiences). Using the funds from the SAA Foundation, we provided an honorarium to the participants and hired a graduate research assistant at the University of Virginia.

During the focus group sessions, we asked participants for their thoughts on what archival revolutions had occurred since David B. Gracy II’s SAA presidency, what revolutions may still be unfolding, and whether some revolutions have not succeeded. Finally, we asked the participants how they would define an archival revolution. To capture the discussions, we recorded the sessions and then hired a service to transcribe all nine recordings. With the transcriptions, we are using the Grounded Theory Methodology to analyze the data. To date, we have conducted an initial analysis, organized the data in Padlet (a web-based tool to visualize information), and identified an initial 18 thematic shifts and transitional moments based on what we learned from the focus group sessions.

We continue to analyze the 18 themes and have reduced that number down to five high level thematic areas.

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