Introduction: When I first became aware of blogs, I viewed them as online diaries. Several of my friends had blogs that I often enjoyed reading, but I had no significant interest in keeping one. Since my conception of diaries was as a place for introspection that you didn’t necessarily want other people to read, it made absolutely no sense to keep your diary in a place that exists to make information accessible. Since I am a rather talkative person, blogging about my daily life also doesn’t make much sense. By the time I actually got around writing about something, all of the important people would already know about it anyway. At some point, I realized that there is a more mature type of blog that focuses on issues rather than events. This other type of blog can be a productive forum for discussion, a place where ideas and issues can be bounced around, gaining or losing steam based on their relevance and merit.
I grew up in rural northwestern Missouri, in a town of about 1200 people. During my undergrad at Truman State University, I worked at the University Art Gallery as Installation Manager and later did an internship digitizing a local history publication called the Chariton Collector. As a result of these experiences, I decided I wanted to work in a museum. In researching Museum Studies programs, I stumbled across the Archives and Records Management program at Michigan and applied on a whim. After talking with representatives of several programs, Michigan seemed like the most practical place to be (they told me I could get a job when I graduated, which was more than the other programs promised). Two years and many papers, projects, and committees later; I have emerged with a pretentious sounding degree (Master of Science in Information) that requires significant explanation whenever I talk to anyone outside my program.
My interests have expanded somewhat during the past two years. With that in mind, you can expect me to frequently discuss issues pertaining to:
- Archival reference and outreach – Where is the best place to put a talkative archivist? In the area where it can do some good!
- Records management – I like the idea of being proactive rather than reactive. I figure that this means I should know something about records management, especially those electronic records that seem like they could cause a lot of trouble down the road.
- Professional involvement – I am involved in as many ways as I can manage. My grad school roommates accused me once of being unable to refuse new commitments. They were probably more right than I should admit in a public forum where people might use this against me.
- Job searching – I am the only poster on this blog who is still looking for a job. Since this is one of my current time sinks, you can expect regular postings on this topic as well.
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