What is it like being an archivist? I understand the concept, but I've never known anyone who could tell me what it's about in reality. It sounds really interesting! Do you like it? Is it something you planned to do, career-wise?
I’m 30 now, and I only started studying for it in 2011, so it was a late decision for me. I always liked organizing information and documents, and after spending a year in Finland I was coming home without a diploma. Library & information technician classes were available, I have a friend in England who’s an archivist, so I visited her, tried it out at her workplace, and fell in love.
It’s like history, but brought back on an almost purely human level. It’s not just ‘how people lived’, it’s specific individuals’s lives reflected in what they left behind. The first time I visited my friend in England, she had me sort through collections of weekly parish pamphlets to weed out doubles when possible. I could see what kind of issues were discussed, little events mentioned, notes written in the margins… I’ve always loved history, but the… personal level was new. I love to understand how people see life.
Currently I’m the archivist and records manager for a private Inuit company, and I was hired to organize the documents one of the founders accumulated. I have thousands of photos, journals, documents related to the company, audiocassettes… The man was sick but alive when I started, and passed away last December, before I got to meet him. Many of his children work at that company as well, and as I had a lot of personal pictures among the collection, I was able to pass them back to them for the funeral and for memories. I was a pretty special feeling, I don’t think many archivists get to work so closely with people associated with their collection.
I also take care of the small documentation center we have, which contains mostly literature on Inuit issues and culture, and I will be in charge of organizing and maintaining the administrative records of the whole company (once we get to it, it’s a process :3)
(Edit to add: I have to mention that while the organization is Inuit, I’m white with no Inuit, Cree or First Nation ancestry at all [sadly]) (and so was the man whose archives I’ve been organizing)
