As a result of my post on the certified archivist exam, I’ve been receiving some email about study groups for the CA exam in August. I’m not taking the exam this year (I’m already a CA), but for those who want to study, I understand that there are forums over at the ACA website for that purpose. If you’d like to link up with someone, that’s probably the best place to do so. There are fourteen test sites this year, and so I’d guess that there are a lot of potential “study buddies” out there.

Something I’d like to mention on the personal front– I’ll be leaving my archivist job at the end of August, and starting in the doctoral program at Pitt in the fall.  Never fear, dear readers– I’m certain that I will still have things to talk about here. In fact, as I’ve started to clear out my inbox, I’ve found that I have lots and lots to talk about– as soon as I have time. Fingers crossed for at least one new post this week, and for a few more prior to SAA- Austin. Thanks for reading along!

Well, how did we get here in the first place?

One of my earliest school memories is a trip to the Bennington Museum, which was across the street from my elementary school. There’s no telling when the visit took place, but my class went to the museum somewhat bi-monthly over the five years that I attended there. I’m guessing that my first visit was somewhere around 1985, but the date doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the extent to which my imagination was piqued by the artifacts in the museum and by the stories behind them.

After seeing the Bennington Flag (also known as the “Fillmore Flag,” after the donor family) and the flag of the Green Mountain Boys, I started to become interested in Vermont history and the Revolutionary War. While reading everything I could find on these topics, I also talked my parents into taking me to visit many other New England museums. (I may have also wanted to dress up as Ethan Allen for Halloween. But I digress.) While the historical accuracy of the storied Bennington flag may now be the subject of some disagreement, what is indisputable is the impact that these items and their carefully curated stories made on at least this impressionable youth.

How can we make this happen with archives? What sort of evaluation are we doing in our repositories when it comes to intended audiences for exhibits, collections policies, and scope? How are we marketing ourselves, and how are the collections being used? Is the result different from the intent?

How are you marketing yourselves? What have the results been? I’ll be talking about American Archives Month and our results in the next post, and I encourage you to think about that as well. What do you think the point of AAM is, and does it help your institution? How?

Library of Congress Web archive of September 11, 2001

The September 11 Web Archive

Last Saturday, the world of bibliographic control lost a giant, and librarians everywhere lost a friend and mentor. Professor Allen Smith will be remembered by me as a gentle man of many talents, with a wicked sense of humor about the subjects he taught, and about life.

From the notification that was sent out to Simmons students, adjuncts, and alums:

In his life at Simmons, Allen’s contributions were many and his dedication was great. Allen joined the GSLIS faculty in 1978, served as Associate Dean from 2006 to 2007, and was recognized just this past spring for 30 years of service to the College. He lectured in reference, humanities, oral history, and computer programming, and was devoted to those he taught. To many of his students, the words “bibliographic control” will forever live on in their memories, despite the decades it has been since they sat in the seats of C101.

A man of many hats, Allen was a blacksmith (he put himself through graduate school shoeing horses), a folklorist, a librarian, an author, and an expert on the Appalachian dulcimer.

A former student has set up a wiki of Allen-related quotations, and others are swapping Allen stories on Facebook, through email, or by phone.

May all of us have such a huge impact on those we teach and serve.