Year in the Life: Elizabeth Shulman, Pt. 5

Elizabeth Shulman is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Elizabeth for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

Greetings from the Mallbrary! In my earlier posts, I addressed some of the issues that exist in my space as a result of the move. The biggest issue we had was how our books were initially shelved in our new reading room. Back when we were planning for the move, the previous head of the North Carolina Collection measured the linear footage we would need in the new space. We sent all of our poetry books and biographies into storage to make the footage work. Unfortunately, she forgot to take into account the height of the shelves when calculating the footage. As most of the shelving we got was used for fiction books, they were much shorter than the books in our collection as well as the previous shelving. The result was that at least half of the collection was sitting on its spines. This made it very difficult for my fellow staff members and I to find books for patrons, especially books that have the same call number (we have a lot of those in the government section). It was even more challenging for patrons. This was a problem that we knew had to be rectified and we calculated we needed to remove a minimum 48 shelves to have the space we needed to get the books off their spines. Weeding the collection was a decision way above my pay grade but needed to get done as fast as we could.

Year in the Life: Adriana Flores, Pt. 7

Adriana Flores is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Adriana for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

July has been a busy month! Between settling back into Washington, visiting as many friends and family as possible, starting my new job, and attending SAA, I barely had time to write this blog post! It’s been an exciting but exhausting month. July was jam-packed with activity, but this post will focus on my transition back to Washington State, starting my new job, and the wonderful time I had at SAA in Portland.

Year in the Life: Adriana Flores, Pt. 6

Adriana Flores is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Adriana for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

If you’ve been following my blog series, you read last month that I was recently hired at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, as their Archivist and Special Collections Librarian. I am incredibly excited for this new opportunity, however leaving my position at Boston University was stressful and emotionally tough. I’ve grown very attached to my job, my coworkers, and the students I supervise so this month has been very hectic. Throughout June I was wrapping up my job, preparing for my cross-country move, and trying to make the most of my last days in Boston. I hope you enjoy reading about the craziness that ensued!

Year in the Life: Elizabeth Shulman, Pt. 4

Elizabeth Shulman is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Elizabeth for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

Happy summer time from the Mallbrary! Last weekend was my first Summer Reading Kickoff for Durham County Library and it was an interesting experience. Summer Reading is the program that most public libraries run to encourage people in the community to read books. People can log minutes they have read and earn prizes along the way. Summer Reading also includes a nice positive catchphrase, which is put onto t-shirts the staff has to wear. This year’s theme is “Build A Better World.”

So how does an archivist end up getting involved in Summer Reading? Well first off, it is an all-hands-on-deck program. Theoretically, people can come to the North Carolina Collection to log points and claim prizes for summer reading. It also happens that the Summer Reading Kickoff was held at Northgate Mall, the currently home of the North Carolina Collection. Right outside our doors there were people making balloon animals, two bouncy castles, a fire truck, and a dunking booth. Recognizing that people would be wandering into the North Carolina Collection out of curiosity, I knew we had to have an event of our own. Rather than explain what the North Carolina Collection has in its holdings, I pulled a sample of materials for people to handle. I called it the “Archival Petting Zoo” since people could touch and “pet” the materials.

Year in the Life: Adriana Flores, Pt. 5

Adriana Flores is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Adriana for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my two-year work anniversary at HGARC was this month. With that anniversary approaching, I gave a lot of thought to my professional and personal goals when the New Year rolled around. Most of my family lives in Washington State, as well as my boyfriend, and being away from them has been difficult for me over the past three years. With two years of professional work under my belt, I was hopeful that I could find a job closer to my loved ones. I made a resolution to find a new job this year and was fortunate enough to have that happen. This post is all about my job search, application, and interview process and I hope it helps other early professionals prepare for the crazy process themselves.

Year in the Life: Elizabeth Shulman, Pt. 3

Elizabeth Shulman is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Elizabeth for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

Greetings again from the Mallbrary!  I figure with it being graduation time for library students, I want to write a bit about the application and interviewing process from the perspective of someone who both just got a job and someone who was involved with the hiring process. That’s right, I was recently on a small committee to hire a part-time librarian to work in the North Carolina Collection, particularly on weekends and for our evening hours. This will take a lot of weight off of myself and the Adult Services Librarian as our schedules are fairly inflexible at the moment. The Adult Services Librarian does programming every other Monday night and every other Saturday meaning he cannot switch Saturdays with me if I need to switch. It will also be nice not to run the risk of being in the mall space at night by myself on Mondays.

Anyways, back to the job application process! For those of you who are currently applying for jobs or students who just completed their first year and that job bug is crawling into your head, I know how you feel. I applied to a ton of jobs and did not start my job until five months after I graduated from grad school. I remember the annoyance and anger I felt, feeling like my applications were going into an empty void of nothingness where they disappeared and how I never would hear back from that institution. It’s frustrating and stressful and not a lot of fun. While I have very limited experience on the other side, I am happy to give a few pointers.

Year in the Life: Adriana Flores, Pt. 4

Adriana Flores is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Adriana for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

I’m coming up on my two-year anniversary as a full-time staff member at Boston University, and with that comes a good deal of reflection. One of my favorite parts of working at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center is the close-knit office environment. I know that many people develop close relationships with their colleagues, but I feel very lucky to have met my amazing group of coworkers at Boston University. Thus, I’m dedicating this post to them and reflecting a bit about the importance of building strong office relationships.