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sigh, the job market



Dear List:

I believe that rather than sniping we all need to thank Dr. Cox for
straightening us out on this whole business.  Some of us get confused at
times (hunger will do that to you) and maybe we just need a long detailed
self-referential letter to keep our spirits up.

I know I feel better after reading it, and personally, I didn't find it
condescending at all.

So thanks, Dr. Cox (HE has a PhD, you know!) for the boost.

Sincerely,

Elmwood Lockridge





------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 29 Mar 2000 09:26:42 -0500
Reply-to:      Archives & Archivists <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
From:          richard cox <rjc@LIS.PITT.EDU>
Subject:       sigh, the job market
To:            ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU

The conversation about the "job market" started out with Jill
Jackson's statement and questions: "Because we are hiring, I have been
watching job announcements a lot lately. I have noticed that quite a
few archivist positions (of various types) keep getting re-advertised
or the searches extended.  This is both exciting and unsettling
depending whether one is a prospective employer or employee.  I am
wondering whether there is a skill deficit, or whether more jobs than
applicants.  Thoughts?  Are there fewer students going into archives
at the library schools?  And is it just my imagination, or are grant
funded positions more plentiful and harder to fill these days?"

In typical fashion for this list, a posting about hiring and jobs
started a string of messages in which individuals complained about
salaries, etc.  Steve Fisher attributes the problems with a "booming
economy" and also wonders if "We are also asking employees to do more
with technology. The skills required are increasing, while perhaps the
salaries are not keeping up accordingly."  Michael Miller adds, "Jobs
in other fields, both private (corporate) and public, requiring
similar skills (markup languages, db management, etc.) easily pay much
more than beginning library/archive jobs (and often do not require a
Masters, either)." Jacquelyn Saturley  wonders, "The pay that is being
offered across the board is so absurdly low. I can think of no other
profession, except librarians, that have such an extremely low pay
scale. It is absolutely ludicrious."  Ronnie Cunningham laments, "I'm
earning under $12 an hour for what was recently referred to as my
'professional expertise'.  But that was when I was being volunteered
as a participant in a program to help other organizations.  I must
take on two and sometimes three jobs, even though this one is full
time, in order to pay the mortgage *and* eat."  JHF bluntly states,
"The typical advertisement for an archives position calls for an
individual who has at least one master's degree, and usually two,
would prefer someone with three to five years experience, and is
willing to to work for less than an assistant manager at McDonalds.
Perhaps jobs would be snapped up more quickly if there were real pay
and benefits attached to them.  As it is, archivists are usually
offered less than librarians...."

I would add to this discussion that there are major problems with how
the ARCHIVAL field is defining and setting standards for entry-level
positions, but there are NOT problems with how society and scholars
and others are viewing the importance of RECORDS.  For the problem
with the remarkably static characteristics of entry-level positions
over a twenty year people, I refer people to my article, "Employing
Records Professionals in the Information Age: A Research Study,"
Information Management Journal 34 (January 2000): 18-33.  For the
growing importance of records, one needs only to read the newspapers
every day, look at the growing scholarship on records such as Donna
Merwick's Death of a Notary (Cornell University Press, 1999), and the
constant debates in Congress regarding records classification,
secrecy, intellectual property.

My two cents?  There are many, many excellent and well-paying jobs out
there for RECORDS professionals, but they may not always be in
archival programs and institutions.  Moreover, if the profession looks
to traditionally low paying positions in historical societies and
other cultural organizations, it will always be whining about a lack
of appreciation.  People who take those positions make a career choice
often having to do with other interests and issues than salary
compensation. Individuals who want to make a career in records work
need to obtain the appopriate education, commit to life-long learning
to retain skills and knowledge, and be open to critically important
records positions in government, corporations, universities, and other
organizations.

Food for thought?  Try reading the Merwick book, following the life of
Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam, a Dutch emigre to New Netherland, whose
career as a notary leads him to an uncertain existence after the
English take over and their language replaces Dutch as the official
language.  In fact, the notary takes his own life in 1686, as his
place in society has all but evaporated.  The historian provides many
insights into the importance and nature of records in the seventeenth
century.  In addition to describing the work of a notary and the
sources for a notary's authority, Merwick discusses how the notary's
papers form a sort of archives and uses considerable iconographic
evidence to reveal how a notary's activities supported both government
and private life in the colonial era.  Merwick relates an ironic tale
as writing and recordkeeping become more important in the growing
colonial settlement but the Dutch notary's form of records service
fades in significance. One of the beauties of this study is the
historian's remarkable indepth research into existing documentation in
both this country and Europe to recreate the struggles of the notary
(as recounted in the detailed "notes and reflections" section at the
conclusion of the study).  For example, Merwick reveals the notary's
struggles with English through the misspellings and other problems
with the documents at the end of the notary's life.  Merwick's book is
a moving story, one with poignancy for today's recordkeeper struggling
with technology, technique, authority, and status. Merwick's book, as
the subtitle suggests, is intended to be an exploration into cultural
change.  The last paragraph of the study suggests that Janse had to
"read the performances of each cultural system in such a way as to
find enough meaning to survive, if not to prosper or acquiesce with
equanimity.  While others could do it, he could not" (p. 186).  While
Merwick wonders about such struggles of three centuries ago, there is
much to ponder for the modern recordkeeper and his or her own cultural
transistions.

More food for thought?  Read John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, The
Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business School Press,
2000), a book that will be widely-read by corporate and government
leaders both because of its accessibility in explaining complex issues
but also because it deals with matters increasingly facing
organizations today.  The book commences with a discussion of the
limits of information, the problems with the over-abundance of
information, and the standard, overly enthusiastic predictions about
information technology and the value of information. Brown and Duguid
emphasize that we need to understand social networks using information
in order to comprehend how information might or should be used.  The
book contains a highly readable discussion of knowledge management as
well as a re-worked version of "The Social Life of Documents," First
Monday 1 (1996) available at
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue1/documents/index.html, an essay
all records professionals will want to read.  In their book, in this
re-worked essay, they write, "Documents not only serve to make
information but also to warrant it - to give it validity" (p. 187) and
"So documents do not merely carry information, they help make it,
structure it, and validate it" (p. 189).  Documents (including
archives and records) structure society.

So, Jill, no there are not fewer archives students these days.  BUT
they may be going into other RECORDS jobs with greater potential for
influence, more compensation, and where they might even be more
appreciated.


Richard J. Cox
Associate Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice:  412-624-3245
FAX:    412-648-7001
e-mail: rjc@lis.pitt.edu
homepage: http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~rjc

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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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     In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                   *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
    http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>