It's the most wonderful time of the year

As you and your colleagues duke it out for jobs!! Kidding aside, I am VERY curious to see how this will work itself out for everyone. We have the Job fair this Friday for the U of T students, but with all this talk of recessions and such, I'm curious to knwo if the 30+ organizations are indeed hiring, or are there just to be seen.... I'll be there in suit and heels!

One interesting nugget I found on the archives blogs was this posting about a completely online program from the University of Arizona. It's called the Digital Information Management certificate (or DigIn) and because it's all online, can be done from the comfort of your domicile. Sounds VERY intriguing, but I wonder what they charge for out of country students?? If you're really into web technologies or are usure of how to sell yourself in the profession, this might be a good goal to have in mind.

We had a successful trip to LAC last week. Myself and six other students were in Ottawa to visit the Nation's Capital and see the Preservation Centre out in Gatineau. Although there were few people out on the roads (contrary to my summer experience), we had a superb tour and got to speak with archivists. I appreciated their candour about trying to find a job with the feds as they love what they do but hate the bureaucracy. As someone who just completely messed up a job opportunity, it was nice to know I can still work there. It was also good to know that the Portrait Gallery is not dead; it's just in limbo. We also got to see the Staff Resource Centre and 395 Wellington. It was a BUSY day but worth the trip. I just hope someone will do the same for the new students next year.

I leave you with a spoof on the famous Obama poster, now embroiled in a silly copyright dispute:

Happy 200 years Darwin!!!

Darwin's Birthday

Well I can't pass up a moment to mention one of the greatest minds in science. Today would have marked his 200th birthday (a concept that always makes me chuckle, as no one lives 200 yrs! A Victorian would have a conniption in times like these). Check out this special section at New Scientist for more reading pleasure.

This week saw two postings about digital preservation. Turns out they were about this story from the New York Times which highlight the position of digital preservation officer (or some combination of the words 'digital' 'archives' 'preservation' etc). One of the people profiled feels that barring some gargantuan economic slowdown, there should be huge increases in the numbers of people working in the field. Sounds promising, barring economic slowdowns....

On a similar vein, the BBC is going to try and digitize all publicly held paintings and make them available online for all to see. This would be a real coup for art historians, but more importantly for people who cannot get to England and see them in person. This is truly a herculean uptaking, but this collaboration with the Public Catalogue Foundation would create a fantastic resource.

Just a quick post this week, as I am off to see LAC next week with students from U of T. We should learn a lot.