Library Student Journal Blog

By Erin Lee

Bun…glasses…cardigan…pearls…love of cats… I am sure that we are all aware of the stereotypes heaped on librarians  these days and I feel that archivists are one of the few professions that come off even worse.  I work in the archives at Syracuse University and absolutely love my job.  Not only do I get the chance to be involved in such diverse projects as processing the drawings of a leading nineteenth-century architect to vacuuming our College mascot but I also have the chance to be part of a warm and good-humored team focused on documenting life at Syracuse University.  My background before coming to the US involved Tudor buildings, stained glass, and excitement if I dealt with a document from after 1900.  My experiences here have opened my eyes to the breadth of the archives world and I have recently realized that archives are going some way toward exploding their stereotype through their collection policies.

Ok, so I am well aware of the stereotype of archives as being dusty, usually underground, dimly lit corridors of boxes with seldom seen tweed-clad bespectacled archivists scurrying about avoiding the daylight and forever collecting old tomes that are far removed from modern life.  Indeed, the old collections are important but over the past twenty years the focus has been shifting within archives.  On a recent visit to Cornell’s Department of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Katherine Reagan explained that archives need to consider now what future historians in 100 years will want to look at.  What contemporary items do we need to preserve now in order that they can be studied in years to come?  What contemporary items do we need to preserve now that will not otherwise survive the test of time?

There is obvious difficulty in predicting interests in the future but efforts must be made in order to preserve life as it is today.  Cornell is currently working on their Hip Hop collection, which is the largest in the nation.  This collection is still growing since those creating the content are still alive and can contribute directly.  The collection policy is different for such modern collections since antique book dealers may not be the best way to uncover material.  It is likely that more direct connections must be made with the creators of material and that archivists will need to reach out to potential donors in a more personal manner.  At Harvard, Virginia Hunt, the Associate University Archivist for Collection Development, actively encourages professors and faculty members to donate their papers to the University archive for future generations.  Archivists are taking a more active role in their institutions’ perpetuation; this is the only way that they will stay relevant in the years to come.  It is too easy to believe that contemporary information is nothing special but what would life be like if Xenophon, Augustus Pitt Rivers, or Anne Frank had had that approach?

A job in archives, therefore, is far more diverse than one might think and allows you to be part both of the preservation of history and of modern life for generations to come.

What do you think people will want to know about us in 100 years? Who out there is also specializing in archives?