I have to agree with Krista and Martha that arguing about what we are called is irrelevant compared to the importance of what we do.  I honestly couldn't care less where my title falls so long as I get to do cultural and historical work.  Preserving and providing access to local and national memory isn't such a shabby day job; in fact, I dare say we perform a vital, if relatively unknown, function in society.  

 

But let's be realistic: calling an archivist a librarian does not bring the salaries down.  In fact, when I went to grad school a couple years ago- for a dual masters degree in archives management and history- the running joke was that archivists had more education but made less money.  Whether that's true or not, it *is* totally appalling that there are job ads out there requiring an MLS or a subject PhD and tossing out pitiful annual salaries like $30,000.  It's certainly not as rewarding, but you can make more money managing a Starbucks.  Could employers who offer such meager wages really understand what an archivist is and what services they perform? 

 

That we work in a somewhat pink-collar profession- by which I mean archives, which I view as often falling under the libraries umbrella, an historically pink umbrella- is a major factor in keeping the salaries down.  That we have not yet embraced technology and made it work its best magic for us also keeps the salaries down.  Finally, that in the mainstream culture most people don't know what archivists do or that many of us have advanced degrees further keeps the salaries down. 

 

To change the public's "so what" attitude and to raise our median salaries above subsistence-level incomes, we'd have to do a kind of proactive public outreach and political advocacy that this profession is unaccustomed to and has until recently been essentially opposed to.  We'd have to decide for ourselves once and for all that what we do matters and why, and then we'd have to shout it to the world until they heard us, and we just can't do that.  Oh wait- yes we can.  This is 2006, afterall.  Let the ban on self-esteem be henceforth lifted in the archives.  If we want better salaries and more recognition we have to fight for them, people.  (Do I hear a new section starting for professional advocacy?)

 

Cheers!

 

Dana Miller

Technical Services Archivist

UNLV Special Collections

Las Vegas, NV