AN INTERVIEW WITH:

Can you share what initially drew you to pursue a career in archival science? Was it a field you were familiar with before?

I first knew I wanted to go to library school during my first year of undergrad. I got a job at my school’s library and loved it. The librarians there told me how they had gotten into the field and so I decided to pursue my MLIS after graduating. While in undergrad I did internships at two different archives: The Center for Sex and Culture (where I helped catalog their zine collection into Libib) and Oddball Films (where I helped catalog and physically process film reels). These were my first interactions with archives and I absolutely loved the physicality of the job, being able to handle these varying objects. While I have always loved books, the variety of objects and types of archives is what drew me to this specific field.

As an Archivist at NBCUniversal, can you provide an overview of your role and walk through what a typical day looks like?

Our department is made up of 6 employees divided between television and feature films. I am on the feature film side with one other Archivist. For the films I am assigned (Universal, Peacock, and Blumhouse titles) I read the script and create a request list of wardrobe, props, art department, hair and make-up assets. Once the film is wrapped I pull the assets, photograph them, rehouse them into proper archival boxes and/or bags, and catalog them into our custom archival database. As a team we handle any requests for assets from internal sources for sequel films or marketing and publicity events. We also handle external loan requests from museums or other institutions. I manage the rotating exhibits at AMC CityWalk where I select, create condition reports, make captions, and dress assets at location. I also manage the theme park collection, where I catalog and rehouse set dressing, wardrobe, prop, and art assets from Universal Studios Hollywood. A typical day can consist of any of those tasks: creating request lists, cataloging, rehousing, and/or handling loan requests.

You’ve created a lot of finding aids across organizations. What best set you up to do that? Was it a course or intern experience?  Are there any cataloging standards, databases, and metadata tools that are the most beneficial to know?

Most of the finding aids I have created have been through ArchivesSpace (or just in a word document). One of the most helpful courses I took at UCLA was Jonathan Furner’s INFS 438B: “ADVANCED ISSUES IN ARCHIVAL SCIENCE: Archival Description and Access Systems” where we learned hands-on experience on all of the elements of ArchivesSpace. We also learned specifically metadata standards like EAD and DACS. While I was taking this class, I was also doing an internship at Go For Broke National Education Center, where I set up an ArchivesSpace instance for them and created more finding aids to be uploaded to the Online Archive of California (OAC). 

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?

My favorite part of what I do and the part that brings me the most satisfaction is when objects I work with are used/seen by our users. This was my big focus while I was in school, providing access to users, however it does not always happen at archives, especially smaller ones. I loved working at Go For Broke where they used their archival objects to educate K-12 students about Japanese American soldiers in World War II and I love my current work at NBCUniversal where we handle a lot of exhibits and loans.

I would say the most challenging part is budget issues. Every archive and library is always trying to juggle a budget, and are usually given quite a small budget, so trying to find that balance with using supplies effectively and tracking metrics to justify your work can be quite challenging and sometimes frustrating. 

Did any specific class at UCLA prepare you for working in the field, especially your current position at NBCUniversal? 

Besides Furner’s class that I already mentioned, Michelle Caswell’s IS 434: “Archive Use and Users” was helpful in terms of learning how to identify the different types of users for archives and adapt your workflow. IS 430 “Library Collection Development,” while geared towards libraries, was helpful to learn how to write a collection development policy which applies to archives as well. While at UCLA, I took a mixture of Archive and Informatics classes, and I think the Informatics courses were helpful for learning more digital literacy which becomes more prevalent every year.

At your time at NASA you processed film negatives in a variety of formats. Is that something you learned to do on your own or through your involvement with AMIA?

While in undergrad I did an internship at Oddball Films where I learned to handle and process film reels. I also took a media archiving California Rare Book School class the summer before I started at UCLA. Those two experiences helped me learn about film handling. 

You have a lot of experience across sectors, from NASA to the Leonard Cohen Family Trust, Go For Broke Education Center. Is there something about working in entertainment archives that spoke to you most?

I started working in entertainment archives through my first UCLA internship at HBO. I really enjoyed the pace of work and types of materials we worked with there (costumes, props, and artwork). Entertainment archives are much more fast-paced than most other archives which I really enjoy and require a lot of creativity (choosing which assets to archive and creating exhibits and exhibit captions) which keeps the day to day processing work more interesting. 

What are your future goals in the field of archiving, particularly within the media and entertainment industry? Are there specific projects or areas of research you're eager to explore in the future?

As you may know, there is not much upward growth in many archives as they are so small. But I am interested in more outward growth, gaining more responsibilities and working on different types of projects. Specifically, I would like to have the experience of supervising an intern, knowing how to create a specific timeline of a project with them and teaching and monitoring their work. I would love to gain more knowledge about conservation, we work with a lot of very unique materials that don’t have a lot of research in terms of their conservation procedures (like latex, wigs, foam, fabric, etc.) And I would love to present at a conference like SCA, SAA, or AAM on a current topic I am working on, being able to share and crowdsource would be very instructive. 

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

I would say make sure to do as many internships and volunteering as you can. I had my two internship/volunteer opportunities I did prior to grad school and then within grad school I volunteered or interned at the Writer’s Guild Library, Go For Broke National Education Center, and HBO. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people for volunteer opportunities and then when you are volunteering/interning somewhere ask about specific things you are interested in learning about/ask for more responsibilities. Archivists love to share and teach others. In terms of entertainment archives, I was never specifically planning on working in this sector, I just happened to get an internship and fall in love with it, so I’m not sure if I have any specific advice while in school. But I would say experience is the key as it is so fast-paced here, so having that knowledge already gives you a huge leg up. So try to find an internship and network with other studio archivists at archival conferences or local events. 

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

Whenever someone not in the industry asks me what an archivist is, I always say it’s like a librarian but for “stuff.” For me, I think this explanation does apply,

Having people see and use (for research, inspiration, etc) items from the archive is so vital. If we are just saving and cataloging things for no one to see, in my mind it defeats the purpose of saving them at all.