Librarians & Archivists

Despite the similarities, I am more and more aware of the lack of understanding librarians have for archives. On Second Life, part of the goal of the Archivists of Second Life is to educate librarians about archives.

Working in an archives previously run by librarians, I am all the more aware of the differences between an archives and library and the lack of understanding by librarians. Most everyone with a college education knows what a library is and most archivists know a bit more about how they operate, but not as many librarians know about how an archives is operated and structured.

As time goes on, and I think of something, I add it to the PowerPoint presentation I'm envisioning giving to my library cohorts. We have lots of professional development classes and if called, I'll teach one. Heck, I'll probably do it anyway, when I'm confident I'll covered everything. Besides which, when I start asking for more materials, I'll need something to inform the rest of the college just what it is I'm doing and why I don't want all the junk they don't have room for in their offices.

So, here's the point. I think part of this blog ought to be a bridge between librarians and archivists. I'll try, as I think of them, to explain the differences between libraries and archives. Many archives are run by librarians without formal archival training. The good ones are run by librarians who read up on archives and even went to a few workshops. Hopefully this attempt will help make sense of all those books and manuals on archives. One skill I have is the ability to simplify technical jargon and boil it down to easy to understand words, or barring that, imperfect analogies.

I'll call on any readers to ask questions or join me in clarifying any points I'm trying to make. Oh, and give me a kick now and then to post. I tend to forget this blog is here.

Uh, right

I just found a box in the archives with the label's date range reading:

1992-current

Good thing it's a legal sized box.

SNCA

Just got back from a state archivist "meeting". More conference than meeting. I mostly went there for a workshop on exhibits. The first half was useful - a step-by-step of how to create an exhibit. But the second half was depressing in a "I wish I could do that" way.

NC State's DH Hill Library just finished renovating and other than the weird, and rather suggestive chairs, it's really cool. For an archivist, what's really cool is their display area. It's a hall between the Learning Commons and the Special Collections reading room. The display cases are custom built into the wall with humidity, temperature, and light control. As if that wasn't enough, they outsourced their banner and background photographs.

I'll be lucky if I can get display cases with UV filters -- which, I found out at the workshop, only last for about five years.

One other thing I noticed. SAA at Chicago had tons of food and SNCA fed us a simple breakfast and nice lunch, but when I went to the Computers in Libraries conference there was one "bar night" and I wouldn't be surprised if you had to pay for the booze.