Hello,

The Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) are planning a joint meeting for the 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. The EAS / TS-EAS meeting is scheduled for July 6, 2021 at 11:00 AM CT.

EAS and TS-EAS are seeking discussion participants from institutions both within and outside of the United States to provide a broader picture of how encoded archival standards are -- or are not -- being applied and used worldwide. For most of the joint meeting, EAS and TS-EAS will lead an informal panel to bring together a range of perspectives on the current use (and non-use) of encoded archival standards. We are intentionally not asking for prepared talks or presentations, just a willingness to share your experiences with encoded archival standards and engage with our discussion questions and other participants.

We also want to encourage participation from folks who rarely engage with encoded archival standards, or whose institutions have chosen not to do so. The EAS Section conducted a survey <https://www2.archivists.org/groups/encoded-archival-standards-section/eas-2019-2020-section-survey-results> in 2019-2020 on the use of encoded archival standards and close to 10 percent of respondents indicated that they never use EAD in their professional lives and 63 percent of respondents said that they never use EAC-CPF. Given the statistical significance of non-users of these encoded archival standards in the community, we want to prioritize including these voices in the panel discussion.

Some of the questions that we will use to guide the conversation include:
-- How are you using and interacting with encoded archival standards such as EAD, EAC-CPF, and others? If you are not using them, why not?
-- How are you creating your encoded descriptions, and why are you using that method?
-- How are you managing your encoded descriptions? (For example, in conjunction with content management systems such as ArchivesSpace or PastPerfect, as standalone files, or something else entirely?)
-- Are you using a method or set of standards specific to your institution for managing your archival description?
-- What role does your use of encoded archival standards play in making archival description accessible to users? How has this role changed over time?
-- What barriers have you encountered to using encoded archival standards?

If you are interested in participating in the panel, please send an email to [log in to unmask] with the following information:
1. Name
2. Email
3. Institution
4. A few sentences describing how you engage with encoded archival standards

The deadline to commit to participating in the panel is June 4, 2021.

Best,
EAS Section Steering Committee and TS-EAS