So you want to be an archivist?

The blogsphere is awash with archivists and their blogs. I wonder if I'm adding anything of value by starting up this little project. But first, a brief introduction.

I am a newbie archivist; barely out of nappies so to speak. Last year was spent gaining a masters at one of the institutions in the UK that offer such a course. Prior to the course I spent eleven months as a graduate trainee at a university archive. Going further back I had a year's experience volunteering at another university archive. Before archives took over I wanted to be an actress but that story is another blog post.

When I tentatively asked, via Twitter, about setting up a blog I got a positive reaction. Someone asked if I would be tackling practice, theory, big issues like that. Alas I am a bit grumpy when it comes to theory. It may come from my experiences of a history/sociology undergraduate. You were expected to pitch your camp with a school of thought (sociology in particular was bad for this) and stick to your guns. Sociology put me off theory. History taught me that the very nature of theory means it is an evolving process which can make it difficult to stick to your guns, so to speak. I may post my own slant on theories and I'd welcome any thoughts or opinions on my knowledge.

So what brought me to archives? To cut a long story short: a careers interview. I was in second year of my undergraduate degree and feeling a bit lost. My classes were enjoyable but I could not see how they can be applied towards a job. Except maybe teaching. I'm the offspring of two extremely disillusioned teachers so have never caught the teaching bug. So off I toddled to the university's careers department and had a very interesting interview.

As a teenager I toyed with archaeology then lost interest when I joined the school's drama scene (quite literally). The careers woman brought up archaeology and I explained I had dipped my toe in that pond. Then she brought up archives. That made my ears prick up. History had been a life long interest hence why I was studying it at university. The careers woman printed off the description from the Prospects website. This sounded rather shiny. An archivist looks after the history of tomorrow. And that sounded like a rather cool job.

So I haven't always wanted to be an archivist. True, there were some days I felt like I was way out of my depth and I should consider another career option. As I learned more about archives the more I wanted to work with them. It made some of the days worth it, like the days I would come home covered in red rot or feel itchy because I had been handling newspaper all day. After all, no-one ever said it was going to be easy.

Next time: You've got to get the experience.