1)      Is your job ever confusing dealing with all those files?

 It can be.  That's one of the reasons we set standards and develop
 procedures.
 
 2)      How hard is it to organize so many records into files that make
 sense?

 Actually, most of the time, the files, or records most archives receive,
 are fairly well organized.  Those that aren't take some (sometimes a lot!)
 time and patience to organize.  But, for most archivists, that's part of
 the fun and satisfaction of the job.
 Even for the records that arrive well organized, we put a fair amount of
 effort into describing them - so that we and our customers can find and
 use the right records to answer their questions.
 
 3)      Are the files stored on computer or kept in shelves?

 Most of the records in this Archives, and in most other Archives I'd say
 at this point, are paper-based, and therefore kept on shelves.  We also
 have film and video, photographic prints, artifacts and memorabilia (from
 company signs to T-shirts and baseball caps and toothbrushes, with the
 company logo).
 We, and most other Archives, are beginning to acquire and keep electronic
 records.  These provide something of a challenge.  You need a machine
 (sometimes a particular machine) and particular software to access the
 records and the information contained therein (eyes and some light are
 generally all that's needed for most other records - paper, photographs,
 even microfilm and microfiche).  For example, say you have a favorite game
 for your original Game Boy.  But say you just got Game Boy Advance - and
 your favorite game won't play on that system - because the cartridge won't
 fit, the systems are incompatible....
 Here's a link to an article in a London, England paper, about a computer
 project that was supposed to make information available for 1000 years.
 12 years later it's a failure - the old system was not kept up and now its
 obsolete, and the information is inaccessible.
 
 The Observer 03/03/02
 Digital Domesday Book lasts 15 years not 1000
 Robin McKie and Vanessa Thorpe
 It was meant to be a showcase for Britain's electronic prowess - a
 computer-based, multimedia version of the Domesday Book. But 16 years
 after it was created, the £2.5 million BBC Domesday Project has achieved
 an unexpected and unwelcome status: it is now unreadable. The special
 computers developed to play the 12in video discs of text, photographs,
 maps and archive footage of British life are - quite simply - obsolete.
 http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,661093,00.html
 
 Archivists are developing ways to deal with the issues raised by
 electronic records.
 
 4)      Who has used the records you keep? Can you give an example?

 Most of our users - or customers - are employees of my company, although
 we do answer questions for the general public.  On the general public
 side, we get a lot of questions about the company's various office
 buildings, general information about company history, the address and/or
 telephone number of our headquarters (this information is on our website,
 www.cigna.com, though not easy to get to).
 
 Our main purpose is to help company employees use the company's history in
 current business.  Company employee customers range from executives to
 mail delivery people.  Most of our company customers come from
 Communications / Public Affairs, Legal, Marketing, and Human Resources.
 We just provided several images from the 1910s for a video to help launch
 a new type of insurance.  We help celebrate product and employee
 anniversaries, and employee retirements.  We demonstrate how the types of
 risks people insured against in the 18th and 19th centuries relate to the
 types of risks they insurance against today.  Yes - our company is that
 old - it's "grandfather" was founded in 1792 - check out the history
 section on cigna.com:
 http://www.cigna.com/general/about/history/index.html.  We create webpages
 to get historical information and images to employees' desktops.
 
 5)      Do you think archivist will always be necessary?  Why?

 Yes, I do.  You've probably had the experience of sifting through a
 zillion hits from a web search to find a link to get you where you
 actually wanted to be.  Archivists, and librarians (for published
 materials), with their training and experience, act as a filter to help
 locate reliable information, and help interpret and understand that
 information.
 
 6)      How does somebody become an archivist?

 Two ways.  Some people know this is what they want to do, so they go to
 school to learn.  Some colleges and universities now offer degrees in
 Archives - either as part of a Master of Library Science or Master of
 Library and Information Science program, or part of a History program.
 This is the way most people, especially younger people, now become an
 archivist.  Others "back into" the profession - assigned the
 responsibility at work, volunteer work they take on, or something like
 that.  They learn professional standards and methods through workshops
 offered by and books published by professional organizations, through the
 help of colleagues and friends, and also college courses.
 
 7)      Where do you work and what are your hours like?

 I work in an office building, in the center of Philadelphia, where many
 other employees of my company work as well.  I work about 8-10 hours a
 day.  I and all my staff (2 other full-time professionals, 2 part-time
 clericals) put in the time to get the work done, and meet our customers
 deadlines.  Right now we're working on a couple big projects for our
 company's so we're working long hours.
 
 8)      Is it a well paying job? 

 Some would say yes, some would say no.  For many, the "pay" includes the
 satisfaction of doing a job  they really enjoy, and doing it well.  I've
 provided links to a couple of websites that give salary ($$) information
 from surveys undertaken by various professional organizations.  You can
 draw your own conclusions about how "well-paying" the profession is.  A
 qualification - the data from these surveys, except from the 2001
 Corporate Archives Forum, is rather old, in salary terms (most companies
 like to use data that is no older than 6 months to determine the current
 "market value" of a job or position.)
 http://www.certifiedarchivists.org/html/results.html - by the Academy of
 Certified Archivists; scroll down, you'll find several graphs comparing
 reported salaries different ways.
  http://www.archivists.org/catalog/survey96/toc.htm - by the Society of
 American Archivists; many tables comparing results different ways.
 http://www.hunterinformation.com/caf2001.htm - by the Corporate Archives
 Forum, an informal group; scroll down to the very end of the page.

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