The confluence of
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day with the library's exhibit
"On the Clock: A Playful Guide to Working Life" inspires me to post today--in the first person--about archivists. With the exception of the venerable professions of doctor, lawyer, or teacher, most professions--and really, most occupations-- are, in the public eye, hazy if not invisible. The archivist is no exception.
If you've seen the recent episode of Modern Family
(Season 4, Episode 19), in which a character mistakenly refers to her archivist sister as an exorcist and the archivist herself responds by mispronouncing the term, you'll recognize that there's a teachable moment here.
What, then, is an archivist? Or, to make the question less existential and more occupational, what does an archivist do?
Here in the
San Francisco History Center, we archivists answer questions about our city and, to that end, help folks find original documents to support their research. We collect, organize, and make these documents available to everyone, which is no small task because, for example, unlike a
book about the San Francisco Fire Department, records
of the SFFD don't arrive in the archive with a table of contents and pages in discernible order.
Plus, the records keep on coming.
So,
we select, we sort,
we explain, we encourage,
we publicize, we educate. We commiserate with residents who want to find out whether
their house is historically significant. We usher out-of-town visitors through the patchy maze of sources that might tell them whether their great-grandaunt died in the 1906 earthquake. And all the while, in response to our stream of call-slips, pages (the even less-visible support staff without whom archivists would be doomed) pull cartloads of files and ledgers and boxes for researchers to pore over. Archivists make trips to attics and basements and soon-to-be-vacated premises to
appraise potential additions to the archives. We host class visits and public programs. We tweet.
Here in the San Francisco History Center, and in many other places, archivists are also librarians. What's the difference, you ask? The somewhat-knotty answer is for another post. For the public, thankfully, there probably is none. Suffice it to say that when I tell people I'm a
librarian, they nod. When I tell them I'm an archivist, they look confused. Either reaction is acceptable to me. At least I'm getting the word out, pronounced AR-chivist, with the stress on the first syllable and a short i. And getting out the materials, too.
For more information about what archivists do, please visit the Society of American Archivists website at
http://www2.archivists.org/profession.
On the Clock: A Playful Guide to Working Life"'
On the Clock: A Playful Guide to Working Life
