Personal Archivist For Hire

Sometimes I feel like a personal archivist-for-hire.

When I was starting along this path and joked with my family "If you need something preserved, you know who to ask!" they laughed. Okay, not the same as "Now that I'm an accountant, I'll do your taxes for free," but I meant well.

Now I've taken on a project for each side of my family--a photo preservation project from my mom's side and a mixed material collection (cloth, medals, documents, tin-types, etc.) of Civil War era from my dad's side (from Peter Pike, who served in the war).

Recently, my boyfriend has realized the potential of my tech side ("Can you look at my printer?" "Why doesn't this file work on this computer?"). I de-acidified and housed his newspaper from the Red Sox World Series win for a gift. We've been packing his stuff since he's moving next week, and he found a few magazines from the same time, and he wants those preserved, too. He also has quite the collection of movies on VHS, DVD, and Blueray. Somehow we got on the topic of me transferring audio for work and that somehow translated into me transferring his VHS to a hard drive. I said "Just as soon as I figure out how to do that for work..."

Very Important Archivist

I am having lunch today at the National Press Club for the Committee for Economic Development's Digitial Connections Council new report release "Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching, and Learning in Higher Education."

Pretty cool!

I can't wait to see what this special interest group has to say about open access in higher education, and how it will benefit me as an A/V Archivist, especially when it comes to the copyright issues for recordings of performaces of copyrighted works. (That's going to be my biggest obstacle with the School of Music audio recordings.)

Update:

It was more about openness in digital repositories and creative commons instead of digital and electronic copyright issues in general. Still very cool, and got me thinking about the development of CUA's Institutional Repository!

Fantastic Films

After wrapping up discussions on the reception last night, I erased quite a few things from my to-do dry erase board, and added my new projects. In the next week and two days I will be starting to focus solely on the CUA School of Music audio recordings, and the CUA Department of Athletics films. I made great progress today, which has left me in a super happy mood!

I talked with my supervisor about starting the film preservation/digitization project. Starting is a lose term because I located two collections of severely degraded films a little over a year ago. I had students perform surveys (library students who jumped to have the experience to learn about and survey film, not that were grudingly stuck with vinegar syndrome films) to complete an inventory but to also survey preservation concerns. I met with Russ Suniewick, President (and representative) of ColorLab, a film laboratory and telecine service, who appraised the films, took the surveys, and provided an estimate soon after.

And then we sat on those estimates because we didn't have the money to do either large project. I proposed doing a few films as a pilot project to my supervisors, and then we can use this pilot project to get money from donors who can help us to complete this project. However, I could not pursue this project because of the reception.

Today was a day for new goals.

Today I contacted our sales rep, agreed on a price and type of project we are looking to do, re-reviewed the inventory, selected the five films (based on level of deterioration and potential for popularity and donor appeal), and FedEx-ed them off to ColorLab!

Tomorrow, audio!

Ooops!

The reception went well. The food was out. I made sure no one got too near to the album with food or wine. The lecture started in time. The speaker was great. The questions were really good. And then it was my turn. My talk went well. Questions were going well. But I really should have eaten. I was so pre-occupied during the pre-lecture reception I forgot to eat. This kind of thing could only happen to me... Mid-question I get dizzy, see spots, and crumple, fainting right on the stage, hitting my arm on the podium and head on the wall behind the podium. Thirty seconds later, I'm up, I apologize to the woman asking the question, take a seat, get some water, and continue the conversation.

Embarassing. Ugh.

I will eat before my presentation next time.

Getting Dirty in the Archives

After getting my normal amount of requests filled this morning, and planning a meeting tomorrow, I went back to the Triangle (a nook behind the stacks where the audio visual center was placed) to look at some of the audio visual equipment for a project and then I realized something...

Tomorrow I will have interviewed at CUA two years ago. The equipment has been extremely disorganized since my interview. It has not been organized though it has been on my to-do list for almost two years. The OCD in me can't stand to be around it. Ugh.

After a brief freak-out brought on by the disorganization, I took a deep breath, took off my cardigan and scarf, and went to work.

I arranged some of the audio visual collections that were intermixed on the equipment shelves on the new shelving we received a month ago, and then spent several hours organizing the equipment by genre (photographic, audio, moving image), and then by format (slide, microfiche/film, steroview, phonograph, reel to reel, cassette, 8mm/16mm film, videotape recorder/player, Umatic, Beta, and Laserdisc). The VHS is hooked up to the TV because that's something we use frequently. I started to organize the supplies for the equipment, but then I realized I was dirty and sore, so that's another day's work. At least I can now have my student worker write a complete inventory without moving things around, and we will actually know what we have and where it is!

After the supplies are organized, the next step is to get the new A/V Mac up and running, and to start organizing the most-likely-to-be-used equipment on the heavy-duty A/V desk.

Socializing

I was out last night for a typical Thursday happy hour with my boyfriend, some of my softball team friends, and some of their friends. I met about half of them for the first time. I was the first archivist (or "librarian") any of them had ever met (outside of a library). One girl thought that was a little odd, and I said it's because I was one of the very few social ones. People don't know what to make of me...

Not only is it shocking that I go out for happy hours, it was totally surprising to all of my co-workers that I was on a softball team this spring and summer! But I digress...

Hard Times Cafe's chili is awesome (though their "hot" jalepeno poppers aren't that hot)! I love the Claredon's location new upstairs sports bar! Very fun!

Being the only archivist in a group has its benefits. In DC, most of the people I know work in politics, or as lawyers or government contractors, though last night I was also hanging out with a dentist, too. Once you're past the initial conversation and they realize you aren't boring, you get to talk about what you do because no one knows about your world and they can't wait to escape theirs. And if you say something weird, well, you are an archivist afterall (and only one person commented on the knitting needles sticking out of my work bag last night)!

(And when I arrived home, my new ARSC journal was waiting for me!)

Prerequisites

What are the prerequisites for going to library school and getting your MLIS?

1) Cardigans
Different styles, different colors, different closures. Yes, these are all mine. No, these are not all the ones I own.

2) Glasses
Preferably chunky!

3) A Sense of Humor
My favorite blog: Cake Wrecks

4) The ability to rock all three!
(Archivist, Records Manager, and a Librarian)

*Cat(s) are optional, though preferred (or prefurred)!
Meet Aslan!

Audio Visual? A disclaimer...

My title is "Audio Visual Archivist." What is meant by "Audio Visual?"

It depends...

I work at a small university, where the Archives has a professional staff of 4.5, one (life-saving) paraprofessional, one full-time graduate library professional, and five part-time graduate student workers (history and library science).

My duties include: solicit, accession, manage, process, preserve, serve as reference archivist, and request manager for all non-paper formats except microfilm, but only if the microfilm is a preservation format of a manuscript or university collection (because those fall under their respective larger categories.

I am also the in-house go-to person for any technical questions including computer, hardware, software, and digital formats, though not specifically surrogates or born-digital audio visual formats (even though the main library has computer tech support). I also manage and train students in audio visual knowledge.

Most of my day is spent doing photo requests (corresponding, reference, searching, scanning, metadata). I rarely do anything with audio or moving image media, due to our lack of equipment.

This is my job.

Every Audio Visual Archivist I talk to has a unique experience, and different duties. Every job is defined differently. If you want to be work with any kind of non-paper format, ask a lot of questions first.

Jon Stewart on Archives

I usually love your commentary, Jon Stewart, but this short clip just reinforces my post from yesterday: normal people do not understand the Archives profession, especially the A/V Archives profession! I'm angry they didn't do their research first before making fun of this position, but I can't really blame them. The combination of DeadHead and archivist do go against most societal norms. Despite that, I know quite a few archivists that have applied for this position since it appeared on the ARSC listserv on Monday!

"A Masters in Archives Management? What does that even mean?"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Defining Your MLIS

What can you do with an MLIS? Librarian, Archivist, Records Manager, and if you tweak it just right, Curator. You've decided which direction you want to go based on your specialization, but how do you explain this to the world? That's they first step in explaining yourself to anyone else, making it sound like library and information science is an actual career (not a career to be snubbed), or even keeping your job.

When most people think "librarian" they think of the little old lady with a tight, gray bun, a cardigan sweater, and sensible shoes. There's also the hot librarian. I think we have all seen the "She blinded me with library science" T-shirt (from TopatoCo), which has been posted and re-posted on so many library-related blogs:

And then there's The Librarian, my own personal hero:

(Don't forget that there are three movies now!!! )

People know you work with books, can help them research papers, and if their knowledge is a little broader, they'll know you can help them with databases, new research technologies, and media far beyond books.

And if you're a curator or archeologist professor, there is Indiana Jones to live up to, but people know you work with old objects and create exhibits.

Archivists aren't as lucky to have a sterotype or "hero" so that obviously means no one has heard of us. I live in Washington, DC, the city where what you do is more important than your name. When I introduce myself, I say, "Hi, I'm Robin. I'm an Audio Visual Archivist."

They answer, "A what?"

"An Archivist."

"What?!"

"A Librarian, for old stuff."

"Ohhh..."

My boyfriend is an aspiring politician who works for the government affairs office of a defense contractor so I meet A LOT of people and have had this conversation MANY times. Only one person I've met outside of my field has known what an archivist is, and that's because he was a guy in politics that volunteered for his local museum.

When no one knows what you are, how do you define yourself (without boring someone and killing the conversation)?

Step 1. Start with a reference point of something they know (librarian), and explain what you do as an archivist within that context. It's easier if they know history, which they should if they're in politics, or if they work for a corporation, they understand records management. It sounds too simple, but if you really break things down into overall concepts, it's a lot easier for most people to grasp.

Step 2. Please act normal (not like a normal anti-social archivist).

And you're in. Conversation flows from there. Just don't get into metadata...