AN INTERVIEW WITH…

Can you talk about what ignited your interest in archiving and if it was a field you had known about before, or was it something you stumbled upon?

I would say I had a unique experience as my mom worked in a library for 52 years; she just retired. So, I grew up in a library and knew that’s what I wanted to pursue since I was 12. When I went through my undergraduate program, I got a job at the campus library and because they knew I wanted to do that, for the whole four years, I got to be moved around from department to department. I worked in technical services, interlibrary loan, acquisitions, and then special collections. I really liked Special Collections; it was in Napa County. We had some papers relating to Jack London and old issues of Harper's Bazaar, and women's quarterly. That's really when I knew that I wanted to pursue that. I've always loved history as well. So, it just kind of all melded together and then I went straight from undergrad to graduate school at UCLA.

Well, now I'm interested, because you spoke about having so much library experience, what made you shift from library work to focus on archiving?

Basically, horror stories from my mother.

Okay, that’s fair. Growing up in that environment, I'm curious, how would you respond to someone who asked you what is an archivist and why is their work important? 

Because we have to learn from the past, and the past informs the present. My mantra that I always relay to people in my present position, and all my positions that I've had, is that we need to preserve that history. We also need to preserve the present as well because a lot of people will say, “It's the present, who cares?” But in 50, 100 years, we don't want to have a blank spot in our historical records.

That's why I think it matters because we always want to fall back on our past, and we want to celebrate our past. We don't want to be in business for 100 years, and have nothing to show for it.

You already brought up the fact that you are UCLA alum, which is great. Did you have a favorite class that you took or one that you think best prepared you for working in this field?

I find that really hard because it's been so long; I graduated in 2010. What I view as the archival landscape is very different from the archival landscape that I was given an education on. DAM (Digital Asset Management) was not a thing, and metadata was just becoming big. So, I feel very distant, to be honest. I feel very disjointed from my education to where I am now. I think I've learned from having a lot of interns come work with me from UCLA that the program has changed quite a lot, and I'm really happy to see that. I'm always interested in knowing what classes you're taking because they're light years different from what I was taking. The technical landscape has changed.

It seems like [the archiving field] is adapting very quickly and changing over time. Speaking of interns at your job, can you talk us through a typical day at the American Film Institute?

Yes, a typical day is very varied. I'm very lucky in that the job has really morphed and grown throughout the time I've been here. When I was first hired eight years ago, I was hired to process almost exclusively the paper collections. However, I manage and oversee the print materials, the audio and video elements, the Conservatory Film Archive, the photographic archive (which includes prints, negatives, and color slides), and I also manage the digitization of all of those materials. I manage both analog and digital materials, the digitization process, and digitize all photography.

I manage the born-digital materials, dealing with current items as they come in, and I also oversee the digital asset management system. It’s quite a lot so I basically have five computers that I run simultaneously all day long. I wait for my “boops and bops” and when the noises change I know I need to address something. I am also the liaison for all licensing related to our archival materials, as well as any reference inquiries that come in.

That sounds like a lot, but do you think it's more interesting to have such a wide array of responsibilities? Do you have a favorite part of what you do?

Yes, I think it keeps it interesting. I really like all of the areas, and they've kind of come to me organically throughout the years I've been here. Right now, I'm really obsessed with the photo archive because it was managed by a photography professional previous to me who did a lot of really good work, but there’s a lot of archival things that need to happen. Right now, I've been digitizing 1970s black and white negatives, and I'm completely obsessed. So, that's my happy place at this present moment.

That's cool. In working with such a wide array of different projects and mediums, what specific cataloging standards databases, or metadata tools do you use the most in your day-to-day or find the most valuable?

You can’t reinvent the wheel every time. There were many metadata standards in place before me, and I was able to implement standardizations as I took on different projects. With the finding aids for paper collections, I use DACS most exclusively or Dublin Core. I use our digital asset management system for all our other metadata. This metadata is institution-specific because we have specific needs and specific metadata that we need to capture. It’s about customizing all the fields and all of the controlled vocabularies to fit our needs.

That sounds like a lot of things to cover. Do you have a very big team or is it quite small?

It’s me. I'm lucky I can offer remote and on-site opportunities for graduate-level interns. I average about six to eight interns per term, and they're my bread and butter. I rely on them to help me stay sane and move projects forward.

You also had worked at the Natural History Museum and the Fox Network group. Working in those different capacities as an archivist, I'm curious if you can speak to that more. Did you find one area to be more interesting for a certain reason?

Each of them provided me with a skill set that I'm very grateful to have had. I can point to all of my previous positions as to why I'm a really good fit where I am presently. Fox was a short-lived project in the sports vault, and as I am not a sports person, it was just not a good fit regarding the subject area. I'm very grateful, though, because it helped me understand what I'm looking at when working with tape elements in my current position. Again, very grateful, but sports are not my thing.

The Natural History Museum experience was interesting because that position wasn't strictly archival; it was more of a digital asset management position within the marketing and communications group, rather than the archives. That was really interesting and gave me a different perspective as well, as they needed someone to corral,organize and make accessible all their work products. They were the group photographically archiving the last 10 years of the museum for various repurposing such as bus tail ads, banner ads, street pole banners, and things like that. I was helping them to do that and, again, it was very specific to those users' needs. [The users] were graphic designers and videographers, and marketing professionals. It was important to give them a color story and consider factors like the presence of children, teens, or young adults within the photography, customizing the metadata to the user group.

I was really interested because you have a lot of freelance archival work on your LinkedIn resume, like processing historical correspondence for the Ed Limato estate.  I haven't spoken to anyone who could speak to the landscape of freelance archival opportunities. Is that something that's really challenging to be able to find a stream of projects?

I think those [opportunities] just kind of fell into my lap. It was one thing that led to another. My husband was listening to a podcast by John August, who is a screenwriter, who mentioned that one of his screenwriter friends was looking for someone to work as an archivist or handle licensing for a short video project. I got in touch with Jessica Bendinger, who wrote "Bring It On." We got along really well, and she suggested I work for the Ed Limato estate, managing correspondence from the 30s and 40s.

It's one of those situations where, at certain pockets in your life, you want something more: a side project to fulfill you or to explore a different subject area. That's why I segued [into freelancing] as well. If I find a freelance project, I'll do it. However, during the pandemic, I had to be the interim head of my department for six months, managing everything I just described while overseeing the library space and staff. I had to take a hiatus, but I'm still involved in an ongoing freelance project.

Do you have any advice for individuals considering a career in archival science, especially those aspiring to work in the entertainment sector?

I have two pieces of advice. Look at what skills you have that will be transferable. For instance, I had an intern who had been an editor in a past life. I didn't know that; he didn't put it on his resume. I only found out because we happened to discuss it. I said, "Oh, my God, this is amazing. Don't discount that." I also had a past intern who had been an actress for ten years. So, yes, there might not be a correlation between acting and archiving, but you have attention to detail; you have a great memory. These are all skills that you have that you can bring into [a job].

I know that from personal experience and I'm really grateful to all my past internships and my past positions that have really cued me up for my current position.

Also, don't discount internship opportunities. That is your bread and butter. You can read about DAMs all day long. It doesn't mean that you know how to work within them. It really comes from honing those skills, getting practice in them, and just finding out what you like, but also finding out what you don't like. Finding out what you don't like and you're not good at [is] just as valuable as finding out what you are good at because when you're on the job and you're all of a sudden cataloging periodicals all day long, and you hate cataloging periodicals, that would have been a really useful thing to know before embarking on that journey.