Thanks to Jan Zastrow, Archivist, Office of Senator Harry Reid, U.S. Senate, for the this article: The Embedded Archivist, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Change. This article was originally published in the 2009 Best Practices for Government Librarians: Change: Managing It, Surviving It, Thriving on It. The 2009 edition includes 60 articles and other submissions provided by more than 50 contributors from librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, LexisNexis Consultants, and more.
Read on...
Foreword
No doubt about it, the whole world has gone digital. Last week in the Washington Post, writer Monica Hesse recommended text-messaging as the best way to get your partner's attention! (“Text Is Cheap,” The Washington Post, April 8, 2009, p. C1/C9.)
Digital has changed everything …
I am an archivist in the office of a U.S. senator, employed to ensure documents of historical value are preserved for future research. This was relatively easy in the world before email, websites, MS Word documents, spreadsheets and databases. But now an archivist needs to be on the scene almost at the point of creation of a record—at the veritable birth of a file!—in order to ensure its preservation beyond the next Congress.
"Embedded" Archivists
I recently attended a Computers in Libraries conference and learned a new term, “embedded.” The concept of an "embedded librarian” came from the distance learning sphere, where librarians and faculty partner to serve online students. I’m going a step farther: as curators of digital collections—whether librarians, historians, archivists or IT professionals—we should be embedded in the process. Our “collaboration with creators is essential to effective curation of digital materials … Illustrations of such early partnerships include the sustained conversations between expected donors of personal papers, such as elected officials or authors, and curators to discuss and influence the scope and organization of the materials to be deposited." (Association of Research Libraries, Special Collections in ARL Libraries: A Discussion Report from the ARL Working Group on Special Collections, March 2009, p. 26).
On Digital Preservation, e-Records Management and Expectations
Despite its convenient searchability and sexy paperless allure, digital "preservation"—and here I mean digitizing documents or collections to ensure their long-term durability—is actually the most fragile means of saving a file. Platform changes and hardware/software upgrades make migration of electronic formats obligatory every 3 to 5 years. Imagine having to re-bind or re-photocopy every book and document on your library shelf that frequently!
I blame the advent of the desktop PC, which ironically led to the easy creation of electronic documents and at the same time diminished their chance of being saved. Gone are the days of the centralized filing system with its designated keeper of the approved Master File. Today's information117 savvy workforce saves their own files as they will, often without guidance on file structure, naming convention or backup. And thanks to cheap computer storage, the ability to "save everything" does away with the need to weed out the junk—the personal emails, the redundant versions, the spam—and actually appraise digital documents for their permanent historical value. The expectations of digital customers are way up too. Social networking trends and instant, ubiquitous tech tools lead Digital Natives to wonder why everything’s not online.
Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes
These changes in how information is created, stored, backed up, accessed and preserved should put archivists at the center of decision-making for the entire organization: on systems, policies, hardware and software at least, not to mention training and outreach (no more mousing around in dusty corners!). "The dynamic nature of digital materials requires effective partnership with others, especially including information technology specialists" (ARL Report, 2009). Collaboration and teamwork are now imperative in the digital environment. We are participating in project groups—assisting, evaluating, advising, problem-solving, partnering. At long last, we’re on the team …. how exciting!
Or is it? Many of us went into our professional fields thinking we'd be sheltered from the hurly-burly concerns of the marketplace. We could focus on lofty ideas, conduct research and work with objects—books, journals, manuscripts, photographs, in a word, analog stuff. Yet now more than ever we are in the People Business; digital information and its management has thrust us into the very visible forefront of information technology, business innovation, records management, collaborative relationships, “social software,” you name it. How digital formats have rocked our world. Stressed? Maybe just a little …
Here’s How I Manage
A few years ago I was asked to describe—“in 99 words or less”—my techniques for dealing with change for a class of Special Library students. I think these tips are still applicable for anyone who works in our profession...
Read the entire article starting on page 117 of the 2009 Best Practices for Government Librarians: Change: Managing It, Surviving It, Thriving on It.
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