What's an Archivist?
What's an Archivist?
An archivist is a trained professional whose job is to preserve, organize, and store historic records. And an archivist helps people find and use these records.
What's an Archives?
An archives is a place where historical records are saved. At the National Archives, we save America's official records so they don't get lost and so Americans can use them. Forever.
What Does an Archivist Do?
The archivists at the National Archives keep the permanent records of our country safe so that they'll last forever.
- Organize them so that people can find what they need
- Bring them out for people to see and use them
- Fix them if they are falling apart
- Scan them, so that they can be accessed electronically
- Put them away carefully, so we can find them again easily
- Store them in clean, safe conditions to preserve them
How Do You Become an Archivist?
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Spend time at your library.
Libraries protect and organize their holdings and make them available to the public, just like an archives.
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Try to volunteer or work at a library; it's very similar work.
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Go to college.
You might consider majoring in the arts and humanities such as history, English, or political science. Conservation/preservation requires strengths in science, especially chemistry. Your college will have an archives; get to know it!
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Go to graduate school in archival studies with library science, public history, or history.
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Do internships to find out what parts of the work you like best and to get to know various archives.
Are There Different Types of Archives?
There are lots of types of archives. Your own records-photos, souvenirs, report cards-constitute your personal archives.
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Private, public, any place where history lives can have an archives. Even Harley-Davidson, the Red Sox, and Malto-Meal have archives.
For More Information, check out these links:
- The National Archives What's An Archivist
- Society of American Archivists So You Want to Be an Archivist
- Cool old video from the National Archives
- Democracy Starts Here video from the National Archives