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

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