To our SCAA membership:

We wanted to reach out to our members to be sure you are all updated as to how SCAA has been handling the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic. We realize that for most, the priority is to keep yourself, your families and your workplaces as safe as possible.

We have been doing the same, taking necessary steps to protect the community at large.

• The Privacy Round-table Workshop that was scheduled for March 27^thand was postponed until a later date, is still being planned. There will be other educational offerings as well in the coming year, and we;continue to monitor and re-evaluate our upcoming programs as necessary and try to gauge the best outlet for their presentation. Our commitment to our mission, vision and values stands; and we strive to offer you the best services and professional development opportunities available under the circumstances. Please watch for further details.
• Our Annual General Meeting was held on June 24^thby virtual means. Thank you to those that attended, and assisted in conducting council business.
• Our Archives Advisor, Cameron Hart, will refrain from site visits for the time-being, but is eager to help by phone at (306) 242-0796 or email, scaa.advisorsasktel.net. When everyone is comfortable arrangements for an in-person visit can be made.
• The back-end work on the SAIN merger project was completed in March, creating a new consolidated database for Saskatchewan archival descriptions. Several contributing institutions have been adding and updating entries through a temporary hosting arrangement. This arrangement was facilitated by USask, which hosts the public database, to minimize further downtime as their IT staff were focused on support required due to the pandemic. We now expect to be able to publicly launch the new MemorySask – SAIN database by mid to late September.

We are also calling on you to work together and share resources. If you have a story or experience you would like to communicate; or  feel the need to connect, discuss and collaborate with peers, consider contributing to SCAA’s Outside the Box Blog. Please contact scaa.advisorsasktel.net for a submission.

It is not too late to renew your memberships if it was not possible to do so previously. Please contact the office at scaasasktel.net or at 306-780-9414 to make a payment, ask a question or express concerns.

SCAA is moving forward with our Institutional Grants Program (IGP) for 2021-2022 and invite member institutions to visit the funding web-page to apply.

The SCAA staff, Board and committees will continue to adapt as the situation changes, and hopefully improves, and will take whatever steps are prudent and appropriate. When the time is right, we look forward to being back up and running as close to usual as possible!

It is done!

It is with great pleasure that SCAA and the U of S announce the launch of the new MemorySask - SAIN database. It may look similar, but now searches of the full shared content of SCAA member institutions can be made in one place, including the ability to search within different photograph collections making MemorySask - SAIN a powerful tool for research.

As part of the SCAA's mission to promote the use of Archives, we have maintained the Saskatchewan Archival Information Network (SAIN) with the help of the University of Saskatchewan. SAIN initially was established in 2000 and has gone through many transformations since. It is a network of information about archival holdings in Saskatchewan and currently consists of two databases, one containing descriptions of archival collections and the other descriptions and digital scans of photographs in our members' collections.

One of the most significant transformations was the deployment of the software platform "Access to Memory" or AtoM.  This piece of software is open-source, developed by Artefactual Systems in British Columbia, and has been implemented by most provinces and territories including Archives Canada at the national level. AtoM allows our members to directly enter their descriptions into the database, with minimal help of SCAA staff.  The ability to handle all the differing levels in archival description with the AtoM software has made it possible to merge SCAA's two SAIN databases into one.

In late 2019, U of S, with funding and staff support from SCAA, contracted Artefactual Systems to merge the two databases. This was a major undertaking involving both custom programming and manual review of descriptions. The work on the SAIN merger project was completed in March. Since then, several contributing institutions have been adding and updating entries through a temporary hosting arrangement. This arrangement was facilitated by U of S, which hosts the public database, to minimize further downtime as their IT staff were focused on support required due to the pandemic.