For the next SAA Issues and Advocacy blog series, let's talk about archives and artificial intelligence (the bad, ugly, good, hopeful, scary, or promising)
We specifically invite archivists to a mini-time travel back to the early 2010s when the sounds of a mechanical bird tweeting filled the office air. Just a decade ago social media felt like a space to vent, argue, and hopefully find some understanding or common ground across the vast digital spaces of the world wide web. Today the world, both digital and analog, is different.
Thankfully, we can still play pretend.
The SAA Issues and Advocacy section invites the SAA community and the archival community at large to share hot/mild/spicy takes on the intersection of archives and artificial intelligence, retro Twitter style.
Yes, that's right. For our next blog post for the I&A "Archivists on the Issues" we want to highlight some pressing thoughts on how archivists are feeling, seeing, or integrating AI into their archival lives and work practices. Or if archivists are not, why?
Rules for submission are based on Twitter 2017 posting criteria:
- no more than 140 characters
- hashtags using the character # accepted as part of text
- images and emojis accepted as part of text
- URLs to videos or external content accepted (will not count towards character limit)
- Geolocation can be included (optional)
- "username" can be different from your government name (required)
NOTE: we are asking for any disclosure of relevant positionality that might influence your take on the topic
DEADLINE(s)
Round 1: Submit prior to January 5th, 2026
Round 2: Submit prior to February 6th, 2026
Read more about the SAA Issues & Advocacy "Archivists on the Issues" blog series here