Weird & Wonderful: One Path to Becoming an Archivist

By: Katie Fortier

The majority of archivists I’ve met so far have weird and wonderful stories about how they first became obsessed with archives, and no two paths seem to be the same! For me, I first became introduced to the world of archives through a small radio station during my undergraduate work. I’ve always loved music, and I jumped at the chance to co-host a radio show. We interviewed local musicians and I finally had an outlet to force all of my musical tastes on the public.

During the time I was there, my colleagues were undertaking the process of restoring and digitizing old tape reels of recorded programs from the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the tapes were in adequate condition to convert to digital formats, but some of them were reels of acetate film that had degraded significantly, some suffering from the ghastly vinegar syndrome! We set up a work-flow, tried to salvage tapes to the best of our abilities by carefully baking film reels, slowly set about converting reels to lossless files, and organized them in a database in a user-friendly way. None of the staff or volunteers for this digitizing effort were conservators, nor were any of us archivists. But in a way, we were doing archival work.

I graduated with a BA in 2010, majoring in history, and not really knowing how I wanted to use that knowledge. I’ve always loved history, but I could never seem to focus on one particular topic; every time period and even region seemed to draw me in just as I thought I could settle down with one area of inquiry. In the meantime, I took about three years off and worked in the world of specialty coffee. One of my coworkers mentioned that there was a great history program at UMass Boston, and I applied, and started out on the archives track.

I’m almost done with the program (so close, I can taste it!), and over the course of the past two years, I’ve had a few part-time archival jobs. I have been working for a year and half at the University Archives and Special Collections here at UMass Boston, and have been involved with the UMass Boston Historic Photographs collection, creating an inventory of over 2000 linear feet of UMass Boston records, creating library exhibits, and researching and interviewing staff, faculty and students for UMass Boston’s 50th anniversary oral history collection.

I’m also currently working at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America on a grant-funded project to digitize the Blackwell Family papers that I’ll be using as the basis for a case-study for my capstone project.

I’ll end this with two pieces of advice:

#1. Volunteer. When I first started in the program, I felt excited by my classes, but I also really wanted to be IN an archive. I decided to volunteer at the archive at the Boston Children’s Hospital for a year. Through this experience, I processed my first collection, and I also got a chance to see how a hospital archive operates. Volunteering with different institutions is a great way to see how other archives operate, and it helps you get a feel for what type of archive you would ideally like to work in.

#2. Join NEA. New England Archivists is a great organization, incredibly welcoming, especially to new students. I didn’t join NEA until this year, but I’m already involved in a study project and have met lots of wonderful people in the field. They have an amazing conference each year, and they also have a mentoring program that pairs students with professionals. Do it!