Some of my favorites!

So many smiles, so little time.

 Cass loves smiling for the camera! 

What is an archivist?

 

When asked the question, "what does an archivist do?" I smile and a million different tasks race throughout my brain. Do I simply say, “We manage collections while keeping them safe, secure, and accessible?” Because the truth is that an archivist does a lot more than simply watch over a collection. They work with preservation, and institution staff, and deal with administrative issues and technological dilemmas. They even deal with digital collections and will often need to know how certain systems work, so they can organize and handle digital content. Additionally, there are two types of archives that an archivist may work for, and sometimes they are combined. The first is an institutional archive where the focus is documentation of an organization, like a company’s employee records. The second is a collecting archive where the focus is beyond the archive and based on a theme, like the Autry Museum of the American West, which holds a vast collection of photographs, maps, art, and books about the American Southwest. So, we can see that there are many different places that need archivists, and they can work in museums, universities, or even businesses. Each archival department has set standards and policies that need to be followed when dealing with collections. While each archive is different and works within its policies, archivists share the task of overseeing the entire life cycle of a record. They are needed anywhere that important records are being kept and used for research.

Someone may ask, “what constitutes a collection?” To better understand archivists, we need to discuss what archives are. Archives are documentation of life. They are collections of documents that help tell the history of whoever created them. They are not a collection of rare books, by themselves. Collections are correspondence, photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, and other valuable records. An important thing to know is that not everything belongs in an archive. It is up to the archivist to determine if a collection needs to be saved. Again, this coincides with the policies set by the archive taking in the collection. For example, the Autry Museum would take in a collection of photographs and letters from 1850 to 1865. They would not take a collection of photographs from Germany during the same time frame. That would go against the archive’s main directive. The items that are being assessed must hold value and worth to the specific archive, in order to be accepted. Another way to think about the role of an archivist is that, while libraries deal with collections on an item level, like a single book, archivists deal with groups. These groups, or collections, have already served their main purpose and can now be assessed by archivists to either be destroyed or saved. While doing their assessment, archivists will look over an entire collection of records, instead of each one. Going over individual records would be tedious and not in the archivist's best interest.

Most collections can also be referenced with additional security measures. Archivists help researchers and patrons to access collections safely and securely. Items in a collection cannot be loaned out, like a library book. They need to stay at the archive. Archivists will use interviews with researchers to better understand what a researcher is looking for and often assist them in understanding and handling a collection. These open-ended questions are meant to help researchers narrow down what they are looking for. The types of questions may include (when referring to a collection), who needed this information? When was this information collected? How was information recorded? How will this information be used? And my favorite question is, how much time is available for research? I like this last question because it benefits both the researcher and archivist. When a timeline is established, we can judge how much time is needed to find collection items, to set up secure viewing, and the pace at which the researcher is working. There may be additional materials that are needed or other collections that could be of use. Archivists will also have continued interactions with researchers and often conduct exit interviews. These exit interviews help archivists understand what was helpful for researchers. They can go over finding aids and evaluate sources that were utilized.

So now that we know what an archivist is, why is it important? Why are maintaining archival collections valuable? Simply, records and collections are a part of us. Every collection created holds information about life, our experience, and our culture. Without records, we wouldn’t be able to look back at examples of life in previous decades. On a smaller scale, records for a company are important so there are examples of staff information and company policies. By holding onto information, we are creating pathways for future researchers and people to obtain knowledge. Archivists help to keep these collections safe for future use. I recently went to the Hans Christian Anderson Museum in Solvang California. This small museum is in The Book Loft, which serves as a local bookstore. The museum holds hundreds of rare and unique Hans Christian Anderson records, but it doesn’t look like researchers would have access to the items. The museum may have an archivist on staff to manage the collection, even if they are not allowing researcher access. The museum still needs someone with archival knowledge to collect, organize and secure a collection of Anderson’s work. This museum holds many rare books; however, it does also include correspondence and other valuable records.  If researchers need access to records, they will likely expand their search, by either traveling across the pond to the Denmark Hans Christian Andersen Museum or through online archival websites. The Library of Congress repository has a web archive for the Hans Christian Andersen Museum website that are easily accessible. The web archive holds access to over 8,800 letters and reflections that belonged to the author. Here, records are still secure but may be viewed all over the world. It is the job of the archivist on staff to oversee the digital collections and field questions from researchers.

In summary, an archivist works to organize and protect valuable collections. They work in institutional archives or in collecting archives and follow set policies to determine collection values. Archivists help researchers access and decipher collection items while keeping records organized and secure. The work that archivists do is important because without them managing important collections, these stories and records would be lost to time and environmental impact.

Here are some references and links for additional information.

Autry Museum of the American West. 2022. https://theautry.org/

Book Loft Solvang. Hans Christian Andersen Museum. 2022. https://www.bookloftsolvang.com/hca-museum

Library of Congress. 2022. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0004039/