Archives Found

Hi, I’m Heather Soyka, and I’m a doctoral student in Archival Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. My most recent post was that of archivist/head of preservation at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. I finished my master’s degree through the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in December 2006 with a concentration in archives and records management, and I moved across the country to take a job that really interested me.

The previous incarnation of this blog was called Uncommon Librarian. After moving between several free blog hosting sites for years, I finally decided to settle down on my own domain. During the change process, I thought about a lot of different things that I wanted for this blog, and one was a new name.

I wanted to choose a catchy title, something that spoke about the experiences that I’m having, and that I hope to have in the future. An overgeneralization that works here– when I meet people for the first time, and we do the dance of the “what do you do? I’m in marketing, blah… how about you?” and I mention that I am an archivist, the general response is to ask what, exactly an archivist is. The same reaction happens when I mentioned that I was attending graduate school for library science– not only is there confusion about what an archivist is, but there’s also the much-hated response of “You need a master’s degree to check out books?” It seems that there is a need for general education regarding the fields of librarianship, archives, and even records management.

Archivists are a relatively small portion of the library world, and some are technically special librarians, records managers or conservators as well. Archivists are relatively uncommon when compared to other varieties of the librarian- thus the original title of “Uncommon Librarian.”

About the blogroll: I try to only list the few blogs and sites relevant to this blog; these sometimes shift as my reading interests change. If you know of a blog that I should check out, please let me know– however, I do try to be a bit selective about the short list on this page. There are many other blogs that I read on a weekly basis that are perfectly wonderful, but outside the scope of this project.

I’m particularly interested in topics relating to archival issues and advocacy, access and use of digital and non-digital records, and preservation topics. I’m always ready to meet archivists and others engaged with the preservation and use of records that have enduring value. Please feel free to join the discussion!