Dear Code4Lib colleagues,

I’m writing to share the news that the Best Practices for Archival Term
Positions (https://osf.io/a4zc8/) has been officially endorsed by the
Society of American Archivists (SAA) as an external standard.

The document presents best practices for administrators, hiring managers,
and supervisors to put into action when planning for and employing archival
term positions. At the foundation of this document is the recognition that
temporary labor is detrimental to employees, as well as to sustainable and
holistic collection stewardship. The Term Labor Best Practices Working
Group is pleased that SAA has recognized this important issue by officially
endorsing the best practices, and we hope that the endorsement will lead to
more institutions putting the best practices into place.

To that end, we encourage you to share the best practices widely. Managers
should be empowered by their institutions to contribute to discussions
related to position development whenever possible; supervisors should use
this document as guidance in advocating for more ethical term positions;
and project staff should be empowered to use these best practices as a tool
to advocate for themselves.

Please also be on the lookout for a CLIR Pocket Burgundy publication
<https://www.clir.org/2022/12/clir-announces-pocket-burgundy-awards/> in
2024 which will expand on the Best Practices document with additional
research data, case studies, historical context, and more.

All best and in solidarity,

Alison Clemens

on behalf of the Term Labor Best Practices Working Group:

Alison Clemens, Courtney Dean, Angel Diaz, Margaret Hughes, Monika Lehman,
Lauren McDaniel, Kit Messick, Sarah Quigley, Sheridan Leigh Sayles, Laura
Starratt, Camila Zorrilla Tessler