THE PROJECT
The idea for this project came from a final assignment prompt for Anne Gilliland's UCLA course, "Archives, Records, and Memory." As a first-year MLIS student concluding my inaugural term, I wanted to explore the fundamental questions surrounding archivists—Who are they? What do they do? Why is their work crucial?
In conversations with my cohort, we shared the desire to connect theoretical knowledge with practical experience. I sought to interview archivists across a variety of sectors and to gain valuable knowledge about archivists from those active in the field. I want this project website to serve as a resource for my peers and those interested in the archiving profession.
While acknowledging that this project doesn't offer an comprehensive representation of all archivists, it remains an ongoing personal initiative. My commitment is to continually diversify and document the experiences of archivists across an even broader spectrum of backgrounds, gender identities, ages, and sectors.
OVERALL FINDINGS
When answering the question “What is an archivist? What do they do, and why is their work important,” there were several key themes: memory preservation, knowledge organization, relevance to the present, public engagement, role in research, and the responsibility as keepers of knowledge.
As for the tasks that archivists typically handle daily, I employed Voyant to produce a visual. This tool provides an excellent means of illustrating that no two positions are identical. You can explore the visual representation here.
A Voyant corpus of the website is here for anyone looking for other specific insights. The most valuable part of this project is the interviews themselves, and I hope you enjoy them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge that I could not have done this project without the archivists who generously shared their time and valuable insights with me. I would like to specifically thank Kylie Neal of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Quin DeLaRosa of Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Nicole McKeon of NBC Universal, Bill Levay of the New York Philharmonic, Emily Wittenberg of the American Film Institute, Jessica Gambling of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Patricia Thibodeau of Microsoft, and Jasmine Larkin of the UCLA Library Special Collections.