Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 21, 2010 · 10:35 pm

MAC Attack

First off, we are sorry for the lack of updating lately. We will be getting you some fresh new posts next week, scouts’ honor (full disclosure: I was never a scout, I am not really into “nature”).

In the meantime, please check out the blog MAC Deep Dish. Six archival students and professionals (including yours truly) will be providing session synopses from the Midwest Archives Conference, taking place in Chicago April 22-24. You can also follow along with the conference using the twitter tag #MAC10. I for one am really excited for my first regional conference, as I have heard really good things about the advantages of the smaller archives conferences. Not to mention Chicago + archives has to be off-the-hook. Yep, I am so excited I just wrote off-the-hook on the internet.

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February 18, 2010 · 11:00 am

Social Media Savvy?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the different facets of my “online persona.”  It started in mid-December when some of my colleagues and I listened to a webinar on the legal considerations companies face when their employees use social networking tools.  The webinar gave basic advice about how companies need to have a policy that governs employee use of social media, sort of a CYA approach so that the company can’t be held liable if an employee says something online that is in some way damaging to the company.

This made me start analyzing my attitude about my various online presences with different websites.  Some, such as facebook, are more informal.  My chief activity on facebook is checking status messages so I can find out what my friends are up to.  It gives me important gossipy information about how my grad school classmates are doing in their new jobs, which college classmates I should be receiving wedding invites from, and makes me feel good about myself because I can see that I haven’t put on as much weight as that mean girl from high school.  Others, like LinkedIn, are obviously professional.  Twitter, I mostly ignore because I’m honestly just not that invested in participating.  Also, you may have noticed that I occasionally post on this blog.  I was fairly comfortable using social media.

Then, the other day, I stumbled upon my company’s Social Media Policy.  Essentially, it said that I should identify myself using my real name, conduct myself professionally (so don’t say anything I’m going to be ashamed to admit later), and specify that my anything I say here does not necessarily represent the opinions of or constitute advice from my employer (consider this specified).  It took me awhile to reconcile how it’s possible to participate in a blog that focuses on the issues faced by a new professional when I’m not going to talk about work (where I encounter professional issues most often).  (I suppose this post will be my only exception since it explains something about how I’ll decide on topics in the future.)

Eventually, I decided that it is possible to contribute to this blog without discussing work.  There are a lot of issues new professionals face that don’t directly relate to the time they spend in the office, things like professional certification and organizational involvement.  Those are the issues that I’ll be talking about.

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February 17, 2010 · 7:17 pm

Change and Continuity: A Conference for Students and Beginning Professionals

The student chapter of the Society of American Archivists at Indiana University, Bloomington is hosting a conference “Change and Continuity: A Conference for Students and Beginning Professionals on Archives, Rare Books, and Special Collections” on Saturday, March 6, 2010. We think a conference aimed at students and new archivists is a pretty awesome idea and encourage all to check it out. I apologize that this is a bit short notice. Below is their invitation to attend, and you can see the conference schedule at http://www.indiana.edu/~saarchiv/gradconference2010.html. Nice job, IU SAA! ~ ed.

Change and Continuity
A Conference for Students and Beginning Professionals on Archives, Rare Books, and Special Collections

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana University’s student chapter of the Society of American Archivists would like to invite you to attend our second conference for students and beginning professionals, to be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the Lilly Library and the Herman B. Wells Library in Bloomington, Indiana.

The majority of the conference will consist of presentations of papers and projects on topics related to archives, special collections, and rare books by students and professionals from a variety of institutions. It will also include a behind-the-scenes tour of the Lilly Library, Indiana University’s internationally renowned rare books and manuscripts library, and a workshop on digital preservation with Philip Bantin, the director of Indiana University’s Office of University Archives and Records Management and the author of Understanding Data and Information Systems for Recordkeeping. (This book won the 2009 Society of American Archivists Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory or practice. You can find more information about the book here: http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=1555705804). These events will have limited enrollment and will be opened first to conference presenters.

If you would like to attend the conference, please fill out the registration form (which can be found here: http://www.indiana.edu/~saarchiv/conference_reg_form_2010.pdf) and mail the form and a $15 check made out to SAA-SC to the following address by Monday, February 22, 2010:

SAA-SC IUB Conference Committee
c/o Dina M. Kellams, Associate Archivist
Indiana University
Office of U. Archives and Records Mgmt.
1320 East 10th Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405

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February 3, 2010 · 11:08 am

Crash Space for Archivists

Rebecca Goldman of the archives webcomic Derangement and Description began Crash Space for Archivists (CSFA) as a way for people in the profession to find free places to stay (or crash, as the kids say) while traveling for conferences and such. Her inspiration came from a post at Beaver Archivist, which itself was inspired by a generous offer on the A&A listserv! In response to my Mini Rant on the need for more affordable SAA educational options, she graciously offered to share the hosting of CSFA with NewArchivist. We agree with her assumption that we new professionals are most in need of finding free lodging, and are thrilled to add to this archival 2.0 synergy (yes, I say things like synergy).

Please see the Crash Space for Archivists page for more info, to see the list of people who have volunteered space, or to offer your own crash space. We plan on keeping the CSFA page up permanently, so feel free to bookmark it.

Thanks to Rebecca and all of those who have already offered to help out your fellow archivists!

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December 9, 2009 · 11:00 am

Looking for a Job-Hunting Contributor

We here at NewArchivist Headquarters are interested in beginning a series of posts focusing on a job search as it happens. We are all familiar with the drama associated with a job search and think it would be quite valuable for readers to get updates on the sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating job hunting process. This series would be quite useful for those who are currently looking for employment, soon to be entering the job market, or who have not had to go through a search in a while.

helpwanted
Image courtesy of Flickr member Kevin H. / CC-BY-NC-ND

To facilitate the production of this series, we are looking for a current job hunter to regularly add posts to the blog. We would prefer that this person be looking for their first professional position in the archives field, and can be someone in their last year of grad school. The contributor will have the option to blog under their real name or, if they prefer, blog under a pseudonym so they can dish, dish, dish (all names will be changed to protect the innocent, of course).

If you are interested, please contact Lance.

Update: Thanks for all of the responses, the level of interest took me by surprise! We will be making an announcement soon.

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