Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists

Name

Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists

Legal name

Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists

Website

https://scaa.sk.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Regina

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership dues from institutional and individual members. Institutional dues range from $75-$200 annually based on staff size. Individual dues are $40 per year ($30 for non-salaried/retired/students).
2. Government and Foundation Grants: Primary funding from SaskCulture and Saskatchewan Lotteries Fund for operational support, grant programs, and professional development. Additional funding from Library and Archives Canada Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP). Young Canada Works funding for youth employment in archives.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

SCAA is a provincial non-profit professional association that coordinates, supports, and funds the archival community in Saskatchewan. It delivers the MemorySask unified archival discovery database, distributes grant funding (Institutional Grant Program up to $5,000 per project), provides professional development workshops, and offers an Archives Advisory consultation service to its 53 institutional members across the province.

Product overview

The Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists (SCAA) operates primarily as a membership organization for archival institutions rather than a product company. Its core offering is the MemorySask database (formerly SAIN), an AtoM-based platform enabling searchable access to archival holdings and digitized photographs across Saskatchewan archives. The organization supports members through grant programs (Institutional Grant Program up to $5,000 and Professional Development Fund), an Archives Advisory Service, workshops on archival practices, and the password-protected Members Area portal. SCAA also provides public-facing digital resources including virtual exhibits, the 'Wish You Were Here' postcard collection, 'Our Legacy' Indigenous-focused database, the Northern Research Portal, and the 'Persuasion' advertising archive. Its primary outputs are membership services, educational workshops, grant funding, and collaborative digital exhibitions drawing from member archives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• MemorySask Database (formerly SAIN) A searchable database of archival holdings from Saskatchewan archives, containing descriptions of archival collections and digitized photographs from SCAA member institutions. Allows researchers to search the full shared content of member institutions in one place, built on the AtoM (Access to Memory) open-source platform developed by Artefactual Systems.
• Institutional Grant Program (IGP) Grant program providing up to $5,000 per project to SCAA institutional members for arrangement and description, conservation, digitization, outreach, or other archives-centered projects. Funds can be used as sole funding or as matching funds for programs like Young Canada Works.
• SCAA Workshops Program Educational workshops covering topics including basic archives practice, digitization, copyright, arrangement and description, audio-visual records management, photograph preservation, optical and magnetic media preservation, and public awareness for archives. Delivered in-person across Saskatchewan and via online Zoom sessions with member rates available.
• Archives Advisory Service Consultative service provided by the Archives Advisor offering guidance on archival practice, Rules for Archival Description (RAD), MemorySask database entry, SCAA grant applications, and public awareness initiatives to all member institutions.
• Virtual Exhibits (Wish You Were Here, Our Legacy, Persuasion, Northern Research Portal) Collection of virtual exhibitions and digital projects created by SCAA and member institutions showcasing archival materials from Saskatchewan archives, including the Wish You Were Here postcard collection (4,500+ postcards from 11 archives), Our Legacy Indigenous materials portal, Persuasion advertising archive, and Northern Research Portal.
• SCAA Membership Program (Individual and Institutional) Membership program offering individual and institutional memberships with tiered annual dues. Individual: $40 ($30 non-salaried/retired/student). Institutional: $75-$200 by staff size. Members receive inclusion in the Directory of Archives, list-serv access, professional development funds, member-rate workshops, and voting rights at AGMs.
• Annual General Meeting (AGM) Annual virtual gathering of SCAA members held in June with presentations, volunteer awards, governance decisions, and networking opportunities for the Saskatchewan archival community.
• Provincial Heritage Fair Archives Award Program Annual heritage fair program for Saskatchewan students grades 4-8, with the Archives Award co-sponsored by SCAA and the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan awarding a $500 Education Bursary ($250 each) to the student with the best project utilizing archival primary sources.
• SCAA Members Area Portal (Synology NAS) Password-protected online portal for SCAA board and committee members to access shared files, with a Synology NAS system for file storage and collaboration.
• Outside the Box Blog Official SCAA blog featuring entries about archival activities, events, and member projects to engage the archival community and public.
• Wish You Were Here: Saskatchewan Postcard Collections Digital exhibit highlighting over 4,500 postcards found in eleven archives throughout Saskatchewan, searchable by institution, date, subject, postcard media, style, and location.
• Our Legacy Portal Digital resource containing material relating to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples found in Saskatchewan cultural and heritage collections. Includes archival materials, artifacts, published items, and theses searchable by location, cultural region, treaty boundaries, and subject.
• Northern Research Portal Bilingual (English/French) educational resource portal providing access to northern research materials with sections for children, general audiences, advanced researchers, and K-12 teachers.
• Persuasion: Print Advertising on the Prairies Digital exhibition examining examples of print advertising and advocacy produced by or directed at prairie Canadians, featuring materials from the Diefenbaker Canada Centre, University of Saskatchewan Archives, and Special Collections Department.
• Professional Development Fund and Travel Subsidy Financial support for members' travel to SCAA-sponsored workshops and other professional development opportunities, funded through SaskCulture and the Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to $5,000 per project through Institutional Grant Program for member archives
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• University of SaskatchewancoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2020U of S hosts the MemorySask database (formerly SAIN) on its servers. The university provides IT infrastructure and staff support. SCAA and U of S jointly announced the MemorySask launch in October 2020. U of S Archives co-developed the Our Legacy portal for Indigenous materials.
• Artefactual SystemscoreTechnology or IntegrationDeveloped the AtoM (Access to Memory) open-source archival description software platform used by SCAA and most Canadian provinces/territories. Contracted in 2019-2020 to merge the two SAIN databases into MemorySask.
• Heritage SaskatchewanmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSCAA co-sponsors the Archives Award at the annual Provincial Heritage Fair, hosted by Heritage Saskatchewan. SCAA and Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan each contribute $250 toward an Education Bursary for the winning student.
• Provincial Archives of SaskatchewancoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernment archives institution that co-sponsors the Archives Award at the Provincial Heritage Fair with SCAA. Both organizations contribute $250 annually to the Education Bursary for the winning student.
• Canadian Council of ArchivesmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational archival body through which SCAA accesses Rules for Archival Description (RAD) publications and coordinates with provincial/territorial archives councils. AtoM is the national standard used by most provinces.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Canadian Council of Archives: National umbrella organization for Canadian archives; directly comparable to SCAA's provincial council role but at the national level. SCAA explicitly partners with CCA for RAD publications and provincial coordination, confirming structural equivalence.
• Library and Archives Canada: Federal national archival institution that administers the DHCP program from which SCAA members draw funding. Functions as an upstream funder and standards-setter rather than direct competitor.

Direct peers

• Archives Association of Alberta: Provincial archival association serving Alberta's archival community with membership, professional development, and grants - directly comparable mission, structure, and program mix to SCAA.
• Ontario Council of Archives: Provincial archival coordinating body for Ontario with comparable membership, advisory, and grant programs to SCAA's offerings for Saskatchewan.
• Archives Manitoba: Provincial archival council for Manitoba providing membership, advocacy, and grants to archival institutions - direct peer to SCAA in adjacent prairie province with similar institutional landscape.
• Archives Association of British Columbia: Provincial archival association analogous to SCAA. AABC has delivered workshops for SCAA and shares the same membership/grant/advisory service model for British Columbia archivists and institutions.

Others

• Heritage Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan heritage umbrella organization that hosts the Provincial Heritage Fair which SCAA co-sponsors. Sister organization in Saskatchewan's cultural ecosystem rather than direct competitor.
• Artefactual Systems: Developer of AtoM (Access to Memory), the open-source platform underlying SCAA's MemorySask database. Direct technology partner that built SCAA's 2020 database merger; not a competitor but a critical enabling vendor.
• Canadian Association of Research Libraries: National association for Canadian research libraries with overlapping interest in archival description standards, RAD compliance, and special collections - thematically adjacent to SCAA's professional development and standards work.
• SaskCulture: Provincial cultural funding body that is SCAA's primary financial partner (via Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund). Comparable as a Saskatchewan cultural ecosystem stakeholder, not a competitor, but materially shapes SCAA's operating model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/scaa_advisor
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/ArchivesAdvisor
• Facebookfacebook.com/SCAArchivists

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists