FYI, here are the federal requirements for an Archivist position as of 2006 http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/SEC-IV/B/GS1400/1420.asp . These represent recent modification. Here is what Bruce Craig noted in the NCH Washington Update for 20 April 2006: "Under the previous educational requirement, 18 out of the 30 semester hours needed to qualify as an archivist must have been in American history, political science, or government - a limitation that often excluded highly qualified candidates with other types of history backgrounds from consideration for NARA jobs. Courses in archival science were not mentioned in the previous educational requirement at all. NARA will now be able to recruit candidates from a broader range of history backgrounds, including world and international history, social and cultural history, and public history. This is important because just as the state of archival education has evolved over the past 40 years, so too have NARA's holdings." http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/24287.html Bruce makes a good point - times change. While the discussion has centered on younger people who are working on their degrees or obtained them recently, do keep in mind that some of us entered the profession a long time ago, prior to the availability in academe of so many archival courses. There simply were not the options available that there are now. Nevertheless, a solid grounding in history was and is a big plus for many people working at NARA even now. I had the pleasure of working with some exemplary archivists at NARA and always will appreciate that. Lee, all in all, perhaps you took my reminiscence of what served me and my late sis well back when we were archivists at NARA as somewhat more prescriptive than it was intended -- LOL. Maarja ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>