The employment of term-limited archivists, often called "project archivists," is a frequent labor practice in libraries and archives. The use of project archivists is a topic discussed in multiple professional forums with heightened relevance for future directions in professional career opportunities for archivists.

This dual-survey project invites respondents from

Anyone who is or who has ever been a project archivist

Supervisors, managers, administrators, i.e., anyone who employs now or who has ever employed a project archivist

Responses, collected anonymously, are being gathered in preparation for a panel at the 2019 SAA annual conference.** The information will also be used in a future publication.

The survey should take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. For convenience, a PDF of each survey is available for viewing prior to beginning the survey.

There are no known risks associated with the survey. Participants may refuse to participate or withdraw from the survey at any time. Participants will not be compensated for participating in this voluntary survey. There are no direct benefits to participants, but there is the potential for archivists and employers to contribute to discussions on the design of mutually beneficial short-term employment conditions.

No personal information that could identify the participant is being collected in the survey. Any information revealed in this survey that might identify an individual or institution will be kept strictly confidential. Any information obtained in this study, including qualitative comments from open fields, will be aggregated into anonymous reports and summaries in our presentations and published work.

This research study has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Delaware.

Please proceed to the survey for anyone who is or who has ever been a project archivist.

OR

Please proceed to the survey for supervisors, managers, administrators, i.e. anyone who employs now or who has ever employed a project archivist

Investigators (for questions about the survey):

Rebecca Johnson Melvin, University of Delaware Library LRJM@udel.edu

Sheridan Sayles, Seton Hall University, sheridanleighsayles@gmail.com

Project team:

Rebecca Johnson Melvin, University of Delaware

Sheridan Sayles, Seton Hall University

Amy C. Vo, New York University

The survey team acknowledges the project contributions of Sarah Leu, The Mann Center.

** "Short term jobs for long term careers: designing ethical project/contract positions," SAA annual meeting, August 4, 2019, Austin, TX