Tag: So You Wanna Be an Archivist

So You Wanna Be An Archivist: Kathryn Hoogendoorn

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This is the newest post in our “So You Wanna Be An Archivist,” series, where archivists and other information professionals describe their path to the profession. In this article, COPA member Angie Piccolo interviews Kathryn Hoogendoorn about their path to becoming the Digitization Specialist for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. 

Q: Please describe your current position.

Kathryn: I am the Digitization Specialist for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Basically, I am a program manager for digitization of paper and object digitization. It is a large cross-office effort that requires extensive communication and logistics with all of our divisions.

Q: What drew you to the profession?

Kathryn: I think aspirations toward access and education of the general public were my biggest draws to the profession, as well as the cool stuff you get to see! I have always had a special place in my heart for historical documents and books. 

Q: Can you describe your education background and work experience?

Kathryn: My route into archives is circuitous at best. In the beginning, I had wide-eyed dreams of being a chemist and I hold a BS in Chemistry. I have always been an avid collector of antique books but I never thought I could combine my hobby and degree. One day, I happened upon a historical library where I struck up a conversation with a conservator and realized I could! As I pursued conservation, my mentor suggested a Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). to start as an archivist and obtain certification in conservation. That sounded like a great plan, so I obtained my MLIS. I loved being an archivist so much, I never went back for my certifications. 

Through the years, my career has taken me from working with the archival collection for long term preservation to focusing on digitization and digital access. I have worked as an archival assistant, a lone arranger for a corporation, a paper digitizer and now I am the lead for a digitization program focused on digital access. Digitization provides a rewarding, hands-on approach to the collection and how it is used in real time. 

Photo Description and Credit: ‘One of the Museum’s digitization stations. US Holocaust Memorial Museum’

Q: What skill has been the most valuable in your career?

Kathryn: Picking just one skill is difficult, but flexibility and the ability to turn an idea into real work have been very valuable. 

Archives are at the whim of many outside forces including budgets, Federal direction and donors. It’s important to be able to change priorities or workflows without letting it disrupt your sense of passion for the work. 

Taking an idea like “these departments should work together to achieve a goal” may be easy to say, but difficult to articulate on paper and to implement. This is a project management skill that has been highly valuable in my career. 

Q: What advice would you give to someone trying to enter into this field?

Kathryn: A passion for access, history, preservation and curiosity are key to being in this field. You won’t make millions, but you will have a very rewarding career. 

I always advise students going into archival studies to look at their bachelor’s degree and go for a secondary interest like education, science or public administration. These degrees do not prevent you from obtaining your archives related Master’s degree, but they do provide a foundation of skills and knowledge that will be invaluable. 

Ask around. Archivists love to share! 

Consider the digital side of archives. It may not sound as glamorous, but we have a really great time and there are constantly new developments making the work more and more interesting every day.

So You Wanna Be An Archivist: Nadia Westenburg

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This is the newest post in our “So You Wanna Be An Archivist,” series, where archivists and other information professionals describe their path to the profession. In this article, COPA member Angie Piccolo interviews Nadia Westenburg about their path to becoming the Park Archivist for Yosemite National Park. 

Q: Please describe your current position

Nadia Westenburg: I am the Park Archivist for Yosemite National Park. Our collection is one of the largest in the National Park Service (NPS), and consists of over 3000 linear feet of material, including primarily federal NPS records, but also park records predating the creation of the NPS in 1916, records of the park’s concessionaires, personal papers and manuscript collections relating to the park’s history, and more.

Q: What drew you to the profession?

NW: I first studied the NPS during my graduate program in decorative arts history, for which I wrote my thesis on a series of silkscreen posters the NPS produced during the New Deal. In my research I discovered that most NPS units have their own on-site museum collections and archives that tell the institutional stories of each park. As a major outdoor enthusiast, I thought working in an NPS collection would be the perfect intersection of my skills and personal interests.

Q: Can you describe your educational background and work experience?

NW: My career trajectory is atypical in the archives world in that my educational background is in Art History and my professional experience has largely been in museums and curatorial settings. I lived in New York City for several years, but in my mid-20’s I fell in love with the outdoors and realized the life I thought I wanted—living in a big city and working at a major museum—was not going to fill my cup. I needed to live somewhere with easy access to nature and public land, but also didn’t want to neglect the part of myself that really enjoyed history and museum work.

I worked as a Museum Technician at Zion for two years, and at Yosemite for one year, before landing a permanent job as an Archives Specialist with the NPS’s Technical Information Center (TIC), which manages planning, design, and construction records for the entire NPS. During that time I also did a four-month detail as the Cultural Resources Program Manager at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which was both a fantastic professional development opportunity and an amazing personal experience. After over three years with TIC, when Yosemite’s long-time Archivist took a promotion at the park and his position became vacant, I couldn’t resist applying.

Q: What skill has been the most valuable in your career? 

NW: A desire to be a lifelong learner. A diverse skill set is crucial working for a government agency that is chronically underfunded and in which employees always wear many hats, and I am always trying to learn new things that I enjoy and that may help me in my career. For me this has meant cross-training in things like Tribal consultation, historic preservation, leadership, and more.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who is trying to enter into this field?

NW: First, stay adaptable and don’t be afraid to pivot! For me this has meant stepping outside my comfort zone and sometimes pursuing jobs or experiences that felt new and scary to me. A diversity of experience, and even periods of stepping away from work to pursue personal endeavors, have been major professional assets.

Second, who you work with is even more important than the work you do. Even the most amazing position can look like a dream job on paper but be ruined by a bad supervisor or a toxic work culture. Always try to get some intel on the realities of a position, and build a network you can call on to suss out the vibes of a future workplace. A great job will bring you professional satisfaction and enrichment but also allow you to live your “dream life” outside of work as well.

So You Wanna Be an Archivist: Meredith Lowe & Archives Gig

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In this series, we hope to share information and resources for new professionals or those folks in need of change.
First up, an interview with Meredith Lowe, the creator of Archives Gig, a website devoted to sharing job postings for archives around the globe. At ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2024, Archives Gig and INALJ (I Need a Library Job) received the Exemplary Service Award from SAA.

What inspired you to start Archives Gig? When did you start it?

I started Archives Gig in 2010, when I was relatively fresh out of my library science graduate program and interested in breaking more permanently into the archives field. I worked in an iSchool (and still do – my career goals changed!). We had been doing some career services projects for our students that included posting open positions. I wanted to broaden the scope of the work and make it accessible to alumni and others, so I built the first iteration of Archives Gig on LiveJournal. LiveJournal was maybe not the most logical choice looking back on it, but it was a platform I was familiar with. It moved to WordPress in 2014 and I got a paid WordPress account relatively soon after that, so it’s hanging out at archivesgig.com nowadays and still hosted on WordPress.

The About page from Archives Gig’s website.

How did you choose the platform you post on and has that changed? How many social media accounts do you link to?

I already mentioned the switch to WordPress. People can sign up to get emails when I post positions, and some find me through Facebook. Archives Gig used to feed to X/Twitter as well, but apparently X stopped playing nice with WordPress at some point and connection is no longer supported. If there are other platforms out there that would connect nicely with WordPress I would be happy to consider expanding to those! I am always willing to hear feedback.

Were you aware of any changes during or after the COVID pandemic?

Yes, for sure. 2020 was the lowest annual total posts I have made since I moved to WordPress in 2014. I usually put up 1400-1600ish postings annually; 2020 had 1,061 total postings. I have definitely seen an increase, anecdotally, in remote positions and positions that are explicitly hybrid. People are very interested in remote roles, those are always the ones that get the most engagement from followers. However, very few remote roles are permanent, full-time positions.

Who do you think uses the resource most often? New professionals or folks familiar with the field?

I’m going to hazard a guess on this. I did a brief survey earlier this spring (2024) to get a quick survey for a Council of State Archivists webinar presentation I was working on. I got about 200 responses and when I asked what general level of career experience respondents had, it was about 35% early career (0-3 years), 25% experienced (7+ years), 17% fairly experienced (3-7 years), and 17% grad students. There were some other smaller groups but those were the biggest groups. So the biggest group still seems to be grad students and early career archivists, but I still have a decent number of people who are more experienced looking at this resource.

Does running Archives Gig give you hints about the job market? (For example, jobs in similar positions or certain areas of the country or kinds of repositories)

The biggest concentrations of jobs are unsurprisingly in areas of high population density. For example, New York, California, and the Washington, DC area all are higher in the number of postings relative to other places. I don’t think that’s too surprising. Sometimes state archives positions are more concentrated in a state’s smaller capital city rather than its urban centers (for example, Albany, NY or Frankfort, KY). 

My sense is that another change is that institutions are slightly more transparent with salary listings than they were a few years ago. Finally, I’m seeing many more positions that have particular qualifications in digital archives projects, such as digitization, digital preservation, digital asset management, and so on. I suggest that acquiring skills in these areas will likely make a candidate more competitive on the job market.

Have you always listed international positions? How do you learn about them?

I have always posted international positions, but I have a few caveats. The audience for Archives Gig is based mostly in the USA and Canada, so I require the position description to have an English language version. I used to seek international positions out more intentionally, but in the interest of time and to be most helpful to my mostly North American-based followers, I now usually only post international positions that are sent to me directly.

Do you ever hear back from folks about landing a job?

Yes and I love to hear it! It’s my favorite kind of email to get and I’m so pleased when someone lets me know about their successful job search! I have heard from people at this point who have found more than one job through Archives Gig and it’s amazing to have been a resource during someone’s career journey.