last post..

a little frustration...sorry. But I seriously am reconsidering my decision to leave Boston and do the UMD program and not, say, the Simmons. The paper I refer to in an earlier post has to do with the state of archival education. Is it serving new archivists. We started this paper out thinking that what is lacking in graduate archival education is hands-on experience. But, while I still believe that, I think the problem is more that we are so subsumed by the library part of library school that they overlook our uniqueness. Our unique archival identity. I have to argue with people when I tell them what I do, that I am not a glorified librarian. I am proud of my profession, but this academic experience makes me think I might, indeed, be a glorified librarian.

LBSC 670

Information Access Midterm. I here and now call for the archival community to demand that we be recognized as something other than glorified librarians. I call for our educations in archival science to be based in courses that are archives centered. I call for a divorce from Library Schools. I resent taking a course in which I ask the professor what possible relevance his class has on my future as an archivist and he can't tell me. I spent a day in my reference rotation at NARA today and asked how library and archives reference are similar. What part of my reference class applies to what they do. They seemed puzzled. Two different beasts, two different approaches. UGH. I hate library school.