Credentials

For the past five years I have worked as a processing archivist for a consortium of four universities and one public library.  I work as an independent contractor, a position funded by a grant that provides monies for digitization of collections.  Each institution chose the collections they wanted digitized. None of the collections had been previously processed.  In archival speak my job has been to gain intellectual control over the collections that were in the various archives.  Basically my job is determine what is in the collection, gain an understanding of how it is organized if it is, and then develop a processing plan.  The processing plan includes supplies needed to house the material and an overview of the collection with an organizational plan that includes articulation of possible groupings, called series.  Examples of series are topics like correspondence, photographs and so on.  The plan provides a roadmap of how to proceed.

            My credentials for that job include courses in archival science and on the job training.  As I mentioned before I am a certified archivist.  That means that I have certification from the Academy of Certified Archivists (www.certifiedarchivists.org).  To be certified you take a test (multiple choice) that covers all of the topics, called domains, relevant to archival practice from ethics and legal to preservation and protection.  If you pass, you are certified for five years before needing to re-certify. For re-certification you can re-take the test or earn 100 points by belonging to archival organizations like the Society of American Archivists (www.archivists.org) or the Society of Southwest Archivists (www.southwestarchivists.org), attending meetings, teaching, writing articles and so forth.   By the way historically you did not need a degree in archival studies to be an archivist, but that is changing as the profession matures.  Now most jobs do require a graduate degree in an affiliated field such as library science or history.  Most require a specialization in archival studies and experience in the field. The University of Texas at Austin and Simmons College in Boston are two examples of colleges that offer specialization in archival studies or science. There are others Archival Science is a growing field of study and it is fun.  You just never know what you might find.  Actually I did find eight dollars once in an envelope.  It had been in that envelope for over fifty years.  The card said it was gas money from a mother to her son so he could come home to Texas from school in California.  He came home, but never spent the money.  In case you’re wondering, I gave it to the library staff because the donor had no remaining family.  As I remember one of the dollars was a silver certificate so the money had even earned some interest over the years.