Reflective Summary
Courses and Experience to Prepare for the Profession
The program I have taken in the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences (SIS) has taught me basic theory and skills, provided me chances to become involved in student leadership positions, make connections in the community, and opportunities to gain significant practical experience outside the classroom that I wouldn't have been able to do outside of the SIS program.
Coursework
The course plan I have followed since entering SIS has roughly followed three groups of classes: Archives Theory and Practical Experience, Information Technology and Technical Services, and Information Science and Organization Theory.
The archives group includes such classes as Archives Administration, Digital Libraries, Computerized Content Management, Independent Study, and two semesters of Practicum. It includes classes involving the basic theory and practice of archival environments and techniques, issues in and the creation of digital collections, collection project management in an enterprise environment, and practical experience processing 19th and 20th collections in archival institutions in a variety of media.
The information technology and technical service group includes such courses as Database Design and Management, Information Architecture, Human-Computer Interaction, Computerized Content Management Systems, and Cataloging. This grouping of classes increased my proficiency in skills and theory necessary to information environments of all types, such as how to design and implement a database management system, construct and evaluate website interfaces and systems, evaluate user needs, design and evaluate content management systems, distinguish between a variety of metadata schema, and interpret the rules for applying them in different information environments.
Classes in information science and organization theory included courses such as The Information Environment, Information Representation and Organization, Information Access and Retrieval, Development and Management of Collections, Academic Libraries, Cataloging, and Information Architecture. This group focused on the history and field of the information profession and information environments, organization of information across environments, information retrieval systems, user behavior & reference services, how to develop a collection development policy and maintain a collection, apply metadata schema across applications and environments, and learn the basic rules of cataloging in a library environment.
Practical Experience
Paradoxically, it is through the academic program that I gained outside the classroom experience in archival environments. It is difficult to get a library position without significant library experience, which is something I didn't have prior to entering graduate school. My volunteer work at the Tennessee State Library and Archives prior to graduate school helped me know that I wanted to enter the field, but I was in Public Services, not in Archives. I was given a valuable introduction into the types of materials held by state libraries and archives and the types of inquiries they receive, but not yet practical experience within an archival environment. The SIS practicum and independent study courses have been my access points. My first practicum was at the Knox County Archives, where I was able to learn about the records cycle, process circuit court records from the 1850s, and provide reference service to the public. It was an experience that could not have been taught in a class, and I am grateful for what I learned there.
As a practical independent study course, I worked with the Beck Cultural Exchange Center in East Knoxville to assist their Archivist and Historian, Timothy Vasser, in processing their collections and to learn more about archival work in African-American non-profit institutions. My independent study was to assist in preliminary processing of the collections that had just been rehoused in the Beck Center's new archives wing, and develop a finding aid for a set of institutional records in Archivist's Toolkit and EAD. My second practicum, was also with the Beck Center. I chose to process, create a finding aid, and digitize a collection of open reel recordings of a local radio show on civil rights issues, originally broadcast from 1968-1970. These recordings contain a great deal of unique content and are historically significant to the Knoxville community, as well as to researchers on a national level.
This practicum has also provided me with the chance to present my research at a professional conference. I gave a presentation entitled "Collaboration Across Communities: Digitizing Civil Rights Era Black Radio Recordings" at the 2011 Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference. Once again, these courses provided me with the opportunity to gain practical experience and put theory and skills I learned in class to practice in the greater context in the world outside academia and in the professional arena.
My work in The Studio at Hodges Library has also contributed to the change in my goals and plans. In The Studio, we provide project assistance, software instruction, and technical support for multimedia work taken on by the university community. Providing non-judgmental public service to all users regardless of technical ability is something that I strongly believe in, and it extends to users of all libraries and archives as well. I enjoy instructing others in how to construct and complete their projects, whether it is by leading our group hands-on workshops or just guiding a user individually. I learned through this that I enjoy working with the user community of my institution, and this made me realize that I may not want to be in a position that is purely technical services or conservation (as I thought when I started the program). This interest in users combines with my interest in evaluating user needs and designing for those needs as taught in Human-Computer Interaction and Information Architecture. I want to focus on the user and interact with them, to consider what they want and need, and to design, assist, and instruct with that in mind rather than working toward a more universal and less human goal.
My duties in The Studio also allowed me to take on a variety of roles within the department and experience what it is like to work in an academic library: whether on a planning committee for the Documentaries in the Library film series, managing collections in the institutional repository (TRACE), planning the current course offering and schedule, or scheduling and planning the most recent Free Range Video Contest; I have been able to experience a diverse set of functions and expand my understanding of academic libraries' operation, service work, and how a department such as The Studio fits into the larger picture of its institution.
The program at SIS also gave me the chance to participate in student leadership at a high level, giving me opportunities such as being elected President of the University of Tennessee student chapter of the Society of American Archivists for 2010 or representing the SIS student body as On-Campus Student Communications Liaison for the academic year 2010-2011. Serving in these positions gave me opportunities to learn more about the professional organizations and make important connections among people in the community and profession that I could or would not have otherwise made. I feel that I am ready to build upon this work and increase my knowledge in archival theory and preservation skills, and can represent the profession well.
Self-Assessment and Professional Philosophy
The program I have taken in the School of Information Sciences (SIS) has taught me basic theory and skills, provided me chances to become involved in student leadership positions, make connections in the community, and opportunities to gain significant practical experience outside the classroom that I wouldn't have been able to do outside of the SIS program.
I now have a command of the profession's theory and vocabulary so that I can intelligently relate the work I am doing as well as the issues that face our professions. I believe with this grounding I can further develop my understanding of the profession to continue to understand where we stand and what the future holds for information professionals, and provide guidance to future information professionals. I also feel that I understand the differences between information environments much better than before, so that I know what systems, tools, and vocabulary are appropriate for each. I have focused on one area more than others (archives and special collections), but I am aware of where that area fits in the scheme of the larger information picture, so to speak. I understand how archives differ from special collections, and how they both differ from general library environments.
I can apply what I have learned across these environments, as shown by the contrast between my digitization project for my current Practicum, and my digitization work assisting users in The Studio. I am following International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) best practices when possible for the archival copies of the open-reel tapes for my practicum, but Studio users are not generally interested in archival copies. I listen to the user or institution and apply techniques for the situation as appropriate: in an archival context, I use the appropriate best practices and standards; and in a non-archival context, I use our standard presets and make sure that the user's needs are met.
I understand differences between types of archives and what type of work goes on in them so that I can better choose which I want to specialize in for the future. The program in SIS has expanded my knowledge base in a variety of areas, both practical and theoretical, so that I feel confident I can go out and contribute in these areas. This does not mean I know everything these fields have to offer; but rather I know what I know and if I find something I don't, I have the tools to get the answer or assistance I need.
Archival Environments, Community Interaction, and the Future
I hope to be able to use my degree to further progress any institutions that I am involved with towards "...what society expects of archivists: that archives as storage memory are secured, and that archivists use their power for empowering, so that society can be confident of the future." 1
The existing power structure and institutions of that power structure cannot accurately portray, represent, or preserve the experience of minority groups in their own terms as they are still largely dominated by members of the majority groups. "Records, then, may be instruments of power, but, paradoxically, the same records can also become instruments of empowerment and liberation, salvation and freedom." 2
In this light, we as archivists must think of new ways to work both with materials, and with people, and fundamentally change how we look at archives. This means allowing those involved with the collection into the process, even allowing them more access with regards to creating metadata, assisting in processing, and giving up some level of control overall. Community archives (also known as participatory archives) are one powerful way of achieving this connection with user communities. A chance remark from a colleague started me collecting articles on community archives. My further experience at the Beck Center, at the SAA Annual Meeting, in conversation with colleagues, and in experiences at the university continued the development of this interest and solidified my conviction that there was a need for this type of change and development within the archival community. I was pleased to be able to offer remarks and insight on the model of community archives and other current topics in the profession at the Society for Tennessee Archives Annual Meeting in November 2010. This model of greater user participation in archival environments is especially useful for community non-profits and smaller cultural heritage institutions which can create new models within their own institution more easily than those in larger or academic institutions. Working more closely with community members provides such benefits as gaining information from the memories and histories of those community members who can give context to archival materials, as well as creating a greater sense of connection between the community and the archive, so that the community members are telling their own story and keeping their own history alive, rather than having their story told for them by an institution. Additionally, the sharing of best practices amongst user communities and groups can lead to the spread of that knowledge and community members taking better care of their own historical materials, becoming more knowledgeable about what an archives does, as well as becoming more inclined to donate their own materials to the archives in the future. 3
I have read the professional literature and spoken with archivists, and know that my position on this is by no means uncontroversial. However, I believe it is our responsibility as archivists and information professionals to make sure that voices other than our own groups are heard, especially if we belong to a majority group. For, as Audre Lorde says, "...we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them and examine them in their pertinence to our lives. That we not hide behind the mockeries of separations that have been imposed upon us and which often we accept as our own." 4
That is our greater responsibility, beyond the problematic idea of the objective archivist and politically neutral institution. We must preserve and provide access for all of our collections, but also be sure to serve populations other than our own and seek to build bridges and connections between communities to enrich all of our histories.
1 Ketelaar, Eric. 2002. "Archival Temples, Archival Prisons: Modes of Power and Protection". Archival Science. 2 (3-4): 238.
2 Ketelaar, “Archival Temple, Archival Prisons,” 229.
3 See also Shilton, Katie, and Ramesh Srinivasan. 2007. "Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival Collections." Archivaria no. 63: 87-101. and McKemmish, Sue, Shannon Faulkhead, Livia Iacovino, and Kirsten Thorpe. 2010. "Australian Indigenous knowledge and the archives: embracing multiple ways of knowing and keeping." Archives & Manuscripts 38, no. 1: 27-50.
4 Lorde, Audre, Sister outsider: essays and speeches. (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984), 43.
My original ePortfolio self-assessment and application is available as a PDF. There have been a number of changes in my course plan, career goals, and outlook since the time of that application. However, some things have remained constant, such as the desire to combine traditional methods with digitization initiatives and my interest in addressing the needs of underserved populations via archives and special collections.
May 2011
