I think a good deal more of this kind of thing-Mr. Gillette's presentation
to middle-school students-has to happen in order to counter what Maarja
rightly talks about as an abysmal public ignorance of archives: what they
are and what we do.
I went into Library School thinking it might be a good way to use what I had
learned as a medical transcriptionist, and I had spent a good deal of time
as a volunteer but untrained librarian or as a librarian without
certification of any kind. Maybe I would be a medical librarian, I thought.
Then I encountered archives. Somehow I had gone my entire life up to that
point without ever really knowing what an archives was. (I'd heard of them,
naturally-The National Archives, The Hoover Institution Archives, etc. Just
didn't have a clue what they were.) It seemed like a natural fit. I
suffer/benefit from chronic (no pun intended) chronodislocation anyway (best
defined as the first sentence of a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. book-"Billy Pilgrim
has come unstuck in time."), so preserving materials for future use is
something I instinctively understand and want to participate in.
As soon as she was old enough (a lot of archives have minimum age limits for
patrons), I took my daughter to the Stanford Archives and Special
Collections, where I worked while a library student. I found things for her
that piqued her interest; she was a high-school student at the time, and
fascinated by "Star Wars," so I found some original manuscripts of Lucas's
there. While in Ontario I worked with a local high school to serve up local
history after giving a white-glove lesson to the students at their school.
They came to our archives/museum, and we made a place for them in the
museum, paged museum artifacts and archival records for them. They had
literal first-hand experience of what archives are and how we operate. They
didn't all fall in love with it-they were high-school students, after all.
But at least they now know what and who we are.
While on a job interview at the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village I learned
that the Ford Archives, as part of their partnership with the school at
Greenfield Village, had renovated its facilities to accommodate
elementary-school students, who used the archives as part of their
schoolwork.
I think that archivists have got to stop thinking of ourselves as an
exclusive club to which only historians, authors, and archivists, with a
sprinkling of others, belong. The buzzword is "outreach." We keep records.
We preserve them. So we got degrees and certification to learn how to do
that. Big deal. Doctors and nurses and lawyers-as has been pointed
out-have to get degrees and spend much time in internships to serve the
public as they do, but everyone goes to them. The entire public is our
clientele. How do we get to them? Presentations on how to keep
photographs, keeping heirlooms, teaching local classes, reaching out to
schools, exhibits in public places and schools. Bringing tour groups into
archives, bringing classes into archives. With proper supervision and
subject matter, I believe that children should be brought into archives,
even if it's only to view photos and papers under Mylar. We need for the
public to know who we are, or why *should* they pay us?
Arel
(the usual disclaimers)
Arel Lucas, C.A.
Archives/Special Collections Librarian
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott Campus
_____
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 1:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Archives as a profession
Yes, something to that effect. Or else a blank stare-with-gaping mouth. I
actually gave a talk once to a group of middle school kids about what I do.
It was career day or something. Anyway, I started my presentation with "I'm
an archivist. Not an architect. Not an archaeologist. Not an anarchist. An
archivist." Then I proceeded to explain what I actually did for a living.
Surprisingly, the students reacted rather well to my presentation and had a
lot of good questions.
Joe Gillette
NARA
College Park, MD
-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Heiss
Sent: Jun 19, 2006 3:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Archives as a profession
I wonder how many other archivists have encountered this line of
conversation at dinner parties, clubs, and social gatherings:
"So what do you do for a living?"
"I'm an archivist."
"An archivist, eh. Have you designed any buildings that I'd
recognize?"
"Probably not."
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
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