Hi everyone,
It's been awhile since this wiki was updated so here goes...
We are trying to organize a technical skills workshop (ie. the practical knowledge all archivists are expected to know when starting a new job) and need to know what questions you have about a day in the life of an archivist. Some topics are: how to properly assemble an archival box, how to be reading room muscle and do all archives use RAD?
May I stress that YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION WHEN YOU START WORKING!!! So it is in everyone's best interest to come up with ideas and attend the workshop. It won't be until next year so if we come up with about 10 questions by the end of the first semester we should be well on our way to an excellent workshop.
I'll start:
How important are donor/archivist relations in a private/public archives? What interpersonal skills should an archivist have?
Any more ideas? Post your questions and concerns in the comments of this blog. Hope to hear from many of you soon.
Pam
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Hello future information professional! As such, let me be a pain in your ass and point out that this is not a wiki, but a blog. Completely different - and important to know the difference.
For your technical skills workshop: learning about archival supplies companies (learning the actual cost of how expensive those boxes etc. are will help to treat them with respect - also learning how to repair boxes whose handles become broken), how to assess what you need and if your budget can afford it and how to plan for future purchases, grant writing/applications and how to find grants for your particular archives, basic conservation - when is it okay to use acidic folders/envelopes (blueprints!)and when is it not (pretty much anything else!)...
Technically speaking - interpersonal skills are not a technical skill. Maybe you want to think about re-working that workshop title.
And no, not all archives use RAD, because often they have been staffed with people who have no archives background and don't bother keeping up with the literature or the standards.
One excellent skill for all archivists to develop is to be able to switch between colleague-speak and real-person speak. Telling someone that you are encoding EAD data for a particular fonds will make you sound like an a-hole. Don't ever take for granted that EVERYONE knows what a fonds is. Learn to speak what researchers speak. (Always keep in mind that some researchers are just starting out, and an archives can be an extremely intimidating entity, with a completely bizarre form of organization that is alien and freaky if you are not familiar with it.) This seems to be a big problem with all professions though - knowing the professional jargon doesn't mean you have to use it all the time.
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