AN INTERVIEW WITH:

Can you share what initially drew you to pursue a career in archival science?

My foray into LIS was a complete accident. I was an Anthropology undergrad, which was in and of itself an accident. I stumbled into Anthro because I hated being an Economics major, and when I transferred to CSUN, I realized that I had inadvertently filled all the requirements for Anthro, so I switched majors. And in one of my museum courses during that time, I encountered archives as a way to triangulate data in ethnographic studies. It was from that point that I decided to dig a little deeper, thinking that that might be a way to participate in applied anthropology, and actually implement my degree in a tangible way. I then applied to UCLA’s program and it all went from there! I did dual specializations in archival studies and rare books/print/visual culture; I’ve worked in all of these areas and enjoyed them all, but archives was the main track that combined all my loves. 

Your research into the notion of graffiti as art and language is something I found really interesting. How did your passion for preserving artistic records lead you to the science sector? Are there unexpected bridges or connections you've discovered?

While my background is in Anthropology, my first love is Art History. Anthro provided me a way to explore art in a new way, and taking that love into archival studies brought even more nuance and interesting angles to explore in my research. Obviously, art preservation is not top of mind when you think of the history of science, but they’re actually quite closely related. I first identified this connection during my time at UCLA, working with the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library’s special collections during a few of my courses; Russell Johnson exposed me to a vast history of visual depictions as text, which drove me to my current research. During my time at JPL, I’ve been lucky enough to see how art and science intersect every day, through both my own archival work and the work of so many other departments across Lab. I've been working closely with one of our visual strategists in the JPL DesignLab to pull together a comprehensive record of NASA art and artists, which has been a true joy for me. NASA and JPL have a long history of relationships with artists, even having an artist in residency program at one point. Additionally, though the subject matter of my work is aeronautics, archival work is often about the format, and I work with physical negatives, digital photos, film, physical artworks, etc. every day, so I still get to experience both sides!

Could you provide an overview of your role as a Processing Archivist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and walk us through what a typical day looks like?

Due to recent staffing changes, I’m basically the Processing Archivist and the Accessioning Archivist (though that was never an official job title in my group). My group is rather unique in that we all have our areas of expertise (i.e., Processing Archivist, Digital Archivist, etc.), but we are extremely collaborative and share in a lot of the archives’ responsibilities. Technically, my role as the Processing Archivist is to primarily focus on arrangement and description, physical and digital processing of incoming and backlogged accessions, and as an expert on our holdings, but in reality, my job includes a lot of shared projects. In addition, the Archives is part of the Records Management and Archives group, so I also have taken on various Records Management related tasks over the years, including managing our paper records storage program. 

Day-to-day, tasks can be wide-ranging; one day might be arranging and describing recently transferred accessions, another might be a working meeting to upload CSV files to migrate our finding aids into Access to Memory (AtoM), another might be going around Lab to perform evaluations on materials people would like to sent to the Archives, another might be filled with research requests. Current tasks depend upon what projects are being worked on, what needs to take priority at a certain time of the fiscal year/funding cycle, and what our user groups are asking of us. 

On your Linkedin you mentioned performing MPLP processing to create DACS-compliant finding aids. In your experience, what cataloging standards, databases, and metadata tools are the most beneficial to know?

DACS is number one for my job. We’re currently enmeshed in a large-scale migration project that is standardizing our finding aids with NASA Archives through an agency-wide instance of Access to Memory (AtoM). Throughout this process, we have updated all of our finding aids and made them DACS-compliant, and crosswalked that metadata from ISAD(G) to DACS elements. While I have an office copy and home copy of DACS always by my side, working with the basic elements and conventions over time has helped solidify them for me and ultimately makes my job easier, as we can standardize from the first step of a project. 

What’s your favorite part of what you do? What aspects of your job bring you the most satisfaction and what is the most challenging?

I love what I do because a) I truly work with the most amazing team; b) even though I feel like the work I put in every day is hard and thoughtful, sometimes like it’s endless and useless, when I’m able to provide access to something that someone has been searching for, it just feels worth it; c) without this work that is just a regular part of my life,

The most challenging part of this job is the constant advocacy. We’re a chronically misunderstood and underrepresented section of most institutions, if we exist at all. We have to constantly fight for labor, funding, and why we need things in a certain way, often to people in upper management who have no understanding of what we are or why we exist. This uphill battle of continually having to justify your job can be disheartening and disappointing, and it never goes away, no matter how hard you work. 

As a UCLA alum, was there any class that best prepared you for work in the field?

“Artifacts and Cultures,” “Description and Access, “and “Archives, Records, and Memory” prepared me the best for my work in that I was given a foundational education in IS theory, which I could then see applied in my own work. Beyond that, I participated in three internship courses and two independent study courses which allowed me to develop the practical skills needed for this career within the safeguards of graduate school. These courses proved invaluable, since the majority of the offered courses do not give students the opportunity to apply theory. 

In what ways do you think the role of an archivist in a science sector, such as NASA JPL, differs from archivists in other sectors like libraries or museums, and are there unique challenges or considerations?

A unique challenge for me working in this sector is that I do not have a science background, nor does anyone in the Records Management and Archives group. Throughout the varied positions I’ve held in the archival universe, I’ve learned that this work is a set of transferable skills that can be applied to any content. It would certainly be helpful for arrangement and description if I could identify the scientific instruments I see in photo negatives myself, but this lack of knowledge about our content is really an outreach opportunity for us to partner with other groups on Lab and learn from them. Likewise in other places I’ve worked, such as universities, film studios, and cultural centers, you don’t need to be a subject matter expert as long as you have a foundational understanding of archival practice and your institution’s mission and functions. 

Images Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Looking ahead, what are your future aspirations in the field of archiving? Any specific projects or areas of research you hope to explore in the future?

I’m in the midst of my two dream projects at JPL, 1) overhauling our collections and finding aids (in preparation for our transition to AtoM, I’ve been working for over three years to update and standardize our finding aids, consolidate like collections, and weed unnecessary holdings; 2) we have an entity called the “History Collection,” which was a collection of reference materials collected by JPL’s first historian, R. Cargill Hall. This collection is massive, and wildly disorganized (and a misnomer in my opinion, aren’t all archival collections history collections!?). My team is currently evaluating every document included in this collection for its merits of inclusion, and digitizing everything that will remain in the collection.

Additionally, in the future I would love to continue hosting and mentoring interns, and allowing our team to grow. While I do not have desires to move to upper management, I intend to continue moving up levels and acquiring a Group Lead role.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering a career in archival science, particularly those interested in working in a scientific or research-oriented setting? 

I would advise anyone earning an MLIS to not pigeonhole themselves; take the time to experience this work in every environment in which you are even remotely interested. If you give yourself the opportunity to explore the field, you may end up somewhere you never expected, like me, an art history loving anthropologist working in the space industry. 

If you’re interested in working in a research-oriented setting, I would recommend possessing an abundance of patience. This is one area in which my Anthropology and MA in Humanities really come into play - reference is its own beast in an archival setting. More often than not, you need to help your researcher figure out what they’re really asking for when they come to you with a request. This takes a lot of patience and the ability to ask the right questions. 

Based on your experience, if someone asked you “What is an archivist and why is their work important?” What would you tell them?

Once you’re a working archivist, you’ll have to answer these questions all the time!