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ACADEMY OF CERTIFIED ARCHIVISTS
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"Archival certification Philip F.
Mooney
The opportunity at a professional level to express, in such a concrete way, that kind of initiative, self-confidence, and faith in your own abilities, and to do so in a forum governed by the highest professional psychometric and testing standards, is very rare. There is no benefit in letting it pass by.
"The certification program provides a means for employers to identify individuals who have both appropriate academic preparation and documented breadth and depth of knowledge essential to being an archivist. Everyone -- employers and archivists -- benefits." David B.
Gracy II
The certification examination is the archival profession’s most important self-evaluation tool.
Read one archivist's view of the real benefits of archival certification. The answer may surprise you. |
It's Personal: responding to a perennial question... Cindy C. Smolovik, CA, CRM Dear Robert, I hope you don't mind, but I prefer to answer you directly instead of through the discussion list, it's more personal this way, to me anyway. Certification is, of course, a personal choice. For me, certification represents a commitment to our profession because it requires something from me in return. Certification requires professional development--professional development both in terms of the profession itself and individual development. To gain certification requires a test of your knowledge and skills, which in itself can be seen as a personal achievement. However, maintaining the certification is what gives you the satisfaction of expanding your knowledge, contributing your skills as an archivist through attendance at workshops, conferences, and as a leader through participation on committees, boards and other professional activities. Can you do these things with out certification? Of course you can, but having and maintaining certification gives you a more active incentive to do so. So often, we have good intentions to do these things, but our day to day activities tend to push them to the side, having certification maintenance as part of your day to day activity helps keep it on the front burner. In some cases, especially my own, certification maintenance needs have also been recognized by employers when it comes to funding for workshops and other professional development support. In addition, I have found certification gives me certain amount of respect outside of our profession. In the course of our jobs we are often dealing with professionals in other areas (doctors, lawyers, engineers, CPA's, etc...) who also have a certification process of their own. In recognizing that I am certified, they may not understand what an archivist or records managers does exactly, but they do recognize the concept of being certified as a symbol of knowledge and level of expertise. I hope this helps you in some way with your decision. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Cindy
Why Certify? Susan Maclin, CA Membership in the Academy of Certified Archivists signifies that an individual has demonstrated mastery of the fundamental archival principles and practices and is committed to professional goals, ethics and standards. Initial and continuing accountability, responsibility, and competence are the fundamental premises behind archival certification. Certification is the only uniform, nationally recognized credential by which archivists demonstrate – to employers, to peers, and to themselves – evidence of their competency in archival enterprise.
By becoming certified, members demonstrate continuing professional commitment that goes beyond education and experience. Working throughout the United States, in Canada, and several other countries, they possess expertise in and knowledge of all aspects of archival management. By demonstrating mastery of a defined body of knowledge and skills for successful archival practice, Academy members share a high level of professional attainment that has been verified by certification. Certification validates the experience and
knowledge of the archive professional. Employers have found the credential a
useful tool for encouraging staff to assess strengths and weaknesses in
their professional knowledge and as an encouragement, through the
recertification process, to maintain minimum outside professional
development activities. The presence of the CA on a potential employee’s
resume, or the willingness of potential employees to sit for the exam has
become an influential factor in the hiring practices of more and more
employers.
Why take the archival certification examination? Leon C. Miller For reasons I won’t bore you with here (but that involve the Academy spending a great deal of time and money with a professional psychometrician statistically analyzing not only every year’s test, and not only every question on every year’s test, but every option of every question on every year’s test), I’m convinced the test is a solid certification examination. It’s not doctoral comps. It’s not an end of semester exam. It’s not a pop quiz. It is a certification examination, which has a different mission, a different purpose, and a different methodology based on long accepted systematic practices, both professional and legal, in the testing field. But even though the Academy can prove that every year’s exam accurately and fairly tests for what it was intended to test, to me, that is not the most important reason to take it. I think more important reasons for taking the exam are:
Taking the test proves that you have the personal initiative to fill out the aggravating paperwork, catch up on your reading, travel to an exam site (often at significant personal expense), sit down in a room full of strangers and put your knowledge on the line. The opportunity at a professional level to express, in such a concrete way, that kind of initiative, self-confidence, and faith in your own abilities, and to do so in a forum governed by the highest professional psychometric and testing standards, is very rare. I see no benefit in letting it pass by. Why pass the test and then take it again several years later?
Certified Archivists don’t have to take the test again to recertify. We can choose instead to recertify by petition.
But instead of dealing with the petition paperwork, we can opt to take the test again, and that is what I encourage people to do. Simply taking the test, seeing how it has changed since you last took it, reading new questions and thinking about what changes in technology, theory, or practice motivated those questions, reviewing your score report and learning in which areas you were stronger, all of those are invaluable self-evaluation opportunities. Few professions have strong self-evaluation tools. Archivists are fortunate to have one based on consistent standards and created according to a systematic, professional, validated process. I see no benefit in letting it pass by. |
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