Are there really new directions and innovations in archival education?

This essay comments on the various papers presented at the 2004 SAA conference on archival education. The author, after reading most of the papers, asked the conference organizer to change the name of the closing essay from a generic “commentary” to one playing on the announced theme of the meeting, “Are There Really New Directions and Innovations in Archival Education?” The author did not read, and or hear much, about new directions or innovations, and he uses this essay to explain his concerns. This essay considers the challenges of differing cultures in archival repositories and the university where graduate programs reside, the problems of the lack of a critical mass of graduate educators and the creating of the next generation of educators, and the continuing weak performance in research and publishing by the current corps of educators. All in all, graduate archival educators need to be bring creativity and greater dedication to building a solid foundation for such professional education.