Greeting, SSA Members,

As you all know, the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen J. Shogan, was removed from her position on Friday, February 7th. The reasons for her removal as head, among other things, of the National Archives and Records Administration are unclear. Such a removal requires an explicit statement communicating reasons for such a dismissal to both houses of Congress. No such explanation has been forthcoming.

The Officers and Board of the SSA are confident that our fellow SSA members join us in expressing our profession’s most cherished belief that, as our colleagues in the Society of American Archivists so elegantly state it, “archival records serve to strengthen collective memory and protect people’s rights, property, and identity.” The SSA’s own mission states that we promote sound principles and standards for preserving and administering records. Archives hinge upon the idea that information knows no boundaries; that freedom to access our documentary heritage is key to open discussion in a nation that has enshrined those ideals in its founding documents. Recent events, sadly, have seemed to contravene that.

Yet we are not powerless to address this. As we look toward the future, the SSA’s Officers and Board hope that you’ll join us in support of our colleagues at NARA. Contact your representatives in support of maintaining NARA’s funding, as well as the federal support that dozens of repositories within Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas—and our colleagues outside of the SSA—rely on to stay true to archives’ most fundamental principles. Continue your service to the SSA and the other archival, library, museum, or cultural heritage organizations that tirelessly work to support your fellow archivists and the historical record.

Keep making a difference.

Signed,

Officers of the Society of Southwest Archivists

Board of the Society of Southwest Archivists