A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey, United States, 2021 (ICPSR 38767)

Version Date: Jan 29, 2024

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Principal Investigator(s):
Makala Skinner, Ithaka S+R; Ioana G. Hubert, Ithaka S+R

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38767.v1

Version V1

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Alternate Title

Archival Census and Education Needs Survey in the United States, A*CENSUS II

Summary

The A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey is a national survey of individual archivists and memory workers in the U.S. that was administered in 2021 and builds on the foundation of the first Archival Census and Education Needs Survey in the United States (A*CENSUS ICPSR 4265), which collected data for the archives profession in 2004 .

Through the All Archivists Survey, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) endeavored to reach all archivists, memory workers, and every person in the U.S. who works with archival materials in any capacity, regardless of employment status or title in order to ask about their experiences in and perspectives on key issues in the archives field.

Citation

Skinner, Makala, and Hubert, Ioana G. A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey, United States, 2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-01-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38767.v1

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Funding

Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-246367-OLS-20)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Region

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2021

Date of Collection

2021-10-19 -- 2021-12-13

Data Collection Notes

  1. In an effort to ensure respondent anonymity and prevent reidentification when certain questions and variables are combined, the P.I. omitted certain questions and/or answer variables from the dataset provided to ICPSR for distribution. Please see the document P.I. Questionnaires for All Archivists Survey to view the questionnaire as it was "Distributed to Respondents" or as it is "Matched to Final Data Values" within the dataset provided.

  2. Given the length of time that passed from the administration of the first A*CENSUS (17 years), the language or answer choices of many survey questions have changed, making comparison across time difficult. However, there are several questions from the first A*CENSUS that were brought forward intact, or with minimal changes, which allow data to be analyzed over time. Additionally, in keeping with the methodology of the original A*CENSUS, retired individuals were directed to answer employment questions from the the vantage of their last position.

  3. For more details, including information about survey instrument development, data analysis and reporting, and survey findings, see the research report, A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report.
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Study Purpose

The purpose of the All Archivists Survey was to compile a comprehensive survey of every self-identified archivist/archive worker in the U.S. to gather information about demographics, education needs, job placement/status, and salaries, as well as perspectives on key issues in the field. A*CENSUS II sought new and actionable information about the current state of the profession, its practitioners, and its supporting organizations by exploring the following research questions:

  • What are the current demographic characteristics of archivists and archival organizations nationally? How has this makeup shifted since the initial A*CENSUS survey of individuals?
  • What are the education needs of archivists and archives workers nationally, to what extent are these needs currently met, and where are the gaps?

Study Design

In order to obtain the broadest possible response, a two-pronged outreach approach was constructed.

First, the SAA collaboratively generated an invitation list through the help of a number of partner organizations. This list was cleaned and deduped and ultimately resulted in 44,884 distinct emails, which received the initial invitation to complete the survey. Of the 44,884 email invitations, 5,401 bounced or failed, bringing the updated sample to 39,483.

Second, since the goal was to reach as many archivists, memory workers, and individuals working with archival materials in the U.S. as possible, open-access links to the survey questionnaire were created and distributed. These links were widely publicized on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn by SAA, Ithaka S+R, the working group, and partner organizations. Some partner organizations, who were not able to participate in building the direct invitation list, generously helped promote the All Archivists Survey by publicizing an open-access link through their membership channels as well. All partner organizations participated in publicizing open-access links through social media channels.

The survey instrument was administered through the Qualtrics platform and included survey logic that activated depending on individual responses to specific questions. Additionally, survey questions without a natural order were randomized to eliminate order bias.

Data gathered through both the direct email invitations and the open-access links is completely anonymous. Names and email addresses were used for the purposes of distribution of the survey only and are not linked to survey responses. Survey platform settings automatically removed names and email addresses before creating the resulting dataset, so at no point was personally identifiable data attached to survey responses. Neither researchers at Ithaka S+R nor project leads at SAA have access to survey responses that are linked to names or email addresses.

Sample

The A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey population includes all archivists, memory workers, and every person in the U.S. who works with archival materials in any capacity, regardless of employment status or title.

Of the 39,483 people who received survey invitations through direct email, 4,362 completed the survey. In addition to these responses, 1,348 individuals completed the survey via an open-access link, providing a combined total of 5,710 responses. After the data was cleaned, the final sample resulted in 5,699 valid, complete responses.

Time Method

Longitudinal

Universe

All archivists, memory workers, and every person in the U.S. who works with archival materials in any capacity, regardless of employment status or title.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey expands upon the first A*CENSUS by including new questions about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, community archives, and student loan debt.

Respondents were asked about employment; sector of work; compensation, including salaries and benefits; education, including degrees and certifications obtained; student loans; training and professional development experiences, priorities, and barriers; their archives career path; professional association affiliation; leadership and conference participation; diversity, equity, inclusion, and access; and attitudes about archivists and the archives field. Demographic variables include respondents' years of experience in the archives field, age, race-ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as whether they are transgender, have a disability, and are a care-giver.

Response Rates

Due to the nature of open-access links (i.e., since it is unknown how many archivists, memory workers, and persons who work with archival materials saw the open-access link and chose not to take the survey) it is not possible to calculate a response rate for the full sample of survey respondents.

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Original Release Date

2024-01-29

Version History

2024-01-29 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.

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Notes