GENERAL UPDATES:

It’s been a busy summer for the SNAC Cooperative, with new members, successful SNACSchool events, conference outreach, work on the next generation of SNAC infrastructure, and plenty more on the horizon. Here’s what’s happening around the Cooperative as we head into fall.

Pardon Our Dust

SNAC is getting an upgrade!

The SNAC Cooperative website will be undergoing planned maintenance and infrastructure upgrades September 8–11. During this period, SNAC will be unavailable for at least part of the maintenance window, and logins to the production and development environments will be disabled as we prepare for the transition.

The upgrades will give SNAC a more current and sustainable technical foundation. We’re refreshing the underlying servers and software while also introducing improvements to the SNAC portal itself.

Among the changes coming with the new environment are:

• New landing pages
• Variant name searching
• Better ways to report on the data in SNAC
• Descriptive and editorial upgrades, including the removal of the Gender and Nationality data elements across SNAC.

As with any major infrastructure upgrade, there may be a few bumps along the way. Some connected services and tools—including XML ingest, the OpenRefine plugin, automated reports, and the portal—may require additional attention as we complete the transition. We’ll be monitoring things closely and working through any issues that arise.

We’re excited about what these changes will make possible, and we appreciate your patience while we make SNAC a more stable, capable, and sustainable platform for the Cooperative.

A New Model for SNAC Membership

In our last newsletter, we made an announcement about membership billing following some administrative transitions at the University of Virginia, with new leadership across the libraries, university administration, and research offices. All member institutions should have received correspondence and invoices for continuing their memberships. UVA has also shifted away from the more formal “agreement” model for memberships towards an “enrollment” model, which should allow for smoother administration processes for recurring members, and easier onboarding processes for new institutions and independent researchers who may like to join. 

A SNAC membership gets you shared stewardship and ongoing access to:

• 3.5 million+ linked archival authority records
• Technical data and support that you can request
• Professional, scholarly and community engagement opportunities including archival authorities cataloging, policy drafting, and more
• Opportunities for building teaching skills by joining SNACSchool Faculty
• Meaningful partnerships with cooperative members

Email us at snac.cooperative@gmail.com if you’re interested in joining or would like more information.

Fall Events

SNACSchool Fall 2026

• Research and Reference | September 23, 1-3 pm EST Register
• Create and Edit | October 14, 1-5 pm EST Register
• Merging Entities (and Merge-A-Thon) | November 12, 12-1 pm EST Register
• Tech Workshop (topic TBD) | December 14, 2:30-4 pm EST Register

Additional SNACSchool dates are already planned through June 2027! Save the dates for:

• Research and Reference | January 20, 1-3 pm EST
• Create and Edit | February 10, 1-5 pm EST
• State of the Cooperative | March 24, 1-4 pm EST
• Research and Reference | April 14, 1-3 pm EST
• Create and Edit | May 19, 1-5 pm EST
• Train the Trainer | June 16, 1-3 pm EST

We’re also continuing to expand the SNACSchool instructor community and working on updates to training materials to reflect changes coming with the SNAC upgrades.

Merge-a-thon

State of the Cooperative: March 24, 2027

Mark your calendars! The next SNAC State of the Cooperative will take place on March 24, 2027.

The State of the Cooperative will be an opportunity to look at where SNAC has been, where we are now, and where we’re headed next. Planning discussions will begin with the Operations Committee this fall.

We’ll share more information about the program and participation as planning gets underway, but you can register early to save the date now: Register Here!

eLaboratories Presentation

Indigenizing SNAC: Transforming Archival Search and Representation | October 23, 2026 2-3 pm EST

This session offers a practical introduction to the SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) platform, a free digital archival research tool, and a critical examination of how colonial archival standards and descriptive practices shape what users can find in SNAC. Presenters involved with the IndigenizeSNAC Project at the University of Maryland (Scotty Beland, Abigail Hardy, Diana Marsh and Melissa Stoner) will explore ways these standards can limit accessibility and perpetuate inappropriate or incomplete descriptions of Indigenous entities, and discuss work already completed and ongoing efforts to address these issues within SNAC.

Working Group Report Outs

A lot of the work that keeps SNAC moving happens through the Cooperative’s working groups. Here’s a quick look at some of what they’ve been working on.

Technical Infrastructure

The Technical Infrastructure Working Group is continuing work on the new SNAC rollout and infrastructure migration. Recent work includes variant name searching and revisions to OpenRefine documentation. The group is also continuing conversations with ArchivesSpace and other linked-data communities following connections made at SAA.

Editorial Standards

The Editorial Standards groups have been working on SNAC event chronology and data, biographical history structures, and ways that projects might support richer SNAC records. The group is also considering approaches to record correction and review workflows, as well as potential technical integrations and resources.

The Indigenous Description Group has been focused on community partnerships and planning for their next phase of work. Semi-related: Editorial Standards Working Group Chair Ugoma Smoke will also be presenting at the Association of Tribal Libraries, Archives and Museums Conference on September 22 in Spokane, Washington with Diana Marsh and Stephanie Sapienza. The presentation will focus on Wikidata, but fits in with the broader linked data scope of some of our research.

Outreach, Reference, and Research

The Outreach Working Group has been busy with conference and community outreach following a successful visit to New Orleans for the SAA Annual Meeting (see an update here)! SNAC has also been invited to present at a few Fall events, including GenFest on October 17 (in Savannah, Georgia), and the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) Linked Data User Group in early November (virtual). 

 

Thanks for being part of the SNAC Cooperative!

Whether you’re creating records, attending SNACSchool, participating in a working group, joining a Merge-a-thon, or simply exploring the network, your participation helps make SNAC a stronger and more useful community.

We’ll see you this fall!