How did you choose archiving as a career? Did you have a previous one, and how (if at all) has that influenced your archiving work?
My choice of an archival career was a bit petty. Before my senior year of high school I was required to go into our guidance office with my parents to discuss attending college. When I told the counselor that I wanted to major in history, she said I could only be a teacher or lawyer with that degree. I said I didn’t want to do either of those things and you could use a history degree for a number of jobs. She insisted that I was wrong and didn’t know anything and maybe I should consider another major. She even convinced my parents that I had to consider law. This left me feeling extremely pissed off and I was determined to prove her wrong.
What was your first encounter with archives?
My first encounter is a mix of two different things that merged into the thought that maybe I could do this for a living.
Going into college I was determined to find something else to do with my history major. I had volunteered at my local library as a teenager and considered going into the library field. After much internet sleuthing and learning that maybe I didn’t want to be a librarian per se, I found this thing called archives. I went to the Society of American Archivists website and thought maybe this would be a cool thing. I looked into how to get into the field and found a program I wanted to get into. I pretty much worked to get my GPA to match that of the program’s requirements.
Then the big catalyst came during my sophomore year of college. I took a course on historiography and at the end of it the professor focused on different types of careers you could do with a history degree. We visited the archive of a local museum and chatted with one of the archivists there. The next year I started volunteering and the rest is history!
What is your educational background? Undergraduate major?
I have a bachelor’s of arts in History with a minor in Spanish. I also took a few American Studies courses. I got my MSI from the University of Michigan’s School of Information, where I specialized in Archives and Records Management and Preservation of Information.
What is your current position, and what makes it unique?
I’m currently the Digital Processing Archivist at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. There, I am responsible for processing, cataloging, and preserving the historic software collection and digital collection. The time I spend cataloguing and imaging software items has to be the most unique feature of my job. The museum collects published software items, as well as source code, and other home grown software. There’s quite a bit of work to be done with cataloging and determining what things can be made available online.
What is the most fascinating collection you’ve worked with, and why?
The most interesting items I worked with aren’t really items, but a place. I spent time at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Collection for two summers. I truly fell in love with the profession working there and it gave me insights on how small shops run. I was able to do a little bit of everything from shelf reading, transcription, digitization, presentations, building housing, to disaster planning.
Do you have any advice for brand-new archivists and archives students — about the job, professional development, networking?
Don’t make this profession your life. Set healthy boundaries early and stick to them. We only have so much in us to give and the organizations we work for aren’t always there for us. Learn how to say no.
What is a strange or interesting thing you’ve learned from your work?
No one has all the answers.
How do you see archives evolving over the course of the next decade?
This is a hard question for me to answer because I have a rather pessimistic view and don’t see archives organically evolving without a lot of work and intervention. Instead, I’ll share what I want to see evolve in the field over the next decade. Point blank, I want to see our profession dismantle oppression of all kinds: white supremacy, ableism, patriarchy, capitalism, and more.
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