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Re: "Underpaid...and not Well Understood"



An inordinately large percentage of archivists are introverts.  That means that they get their energy from within rather than from other people.  They are most content when they work alone and opposed to extraverts, who seem to be unable to do anything without a crowd around.  An indordinately large percentage of librarians are also introverts, but perhaps more of them get around their natural tendency to desire working alone.
What has always been a problem for me to understand is this.  If the archivial profession and archivists as individuals are so little inown and misunderstood, how is it that individuals, who are in some respects idealy suited to be archivists in that they like working alone, actually become archivists?  Most people never encounter an archivist until after the age at which many people decide what it is they want to do in life.
It seems to me that the profession needs to clone the David Gracy (known affectionately among some of us around here as The Rev. Dr. Gracy) about a thousand times and give those clones the full responsibility on setting the world straight on what archivists do and how important that work is.  Only then will we have a chance of achieving the understanding and stature that we all seek.  Don't see that happening very soon, however.
  

Charles R. Schultz, CA
Professor and Clements Archivist
Cushing Library
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-5000
c-schultz@tamu.edu
979-862-1555
FAX 979-845-1441

State-of-the-art automation will never beat the wastebasket 
when it comes to speeding up efficiency in the office.
Ann Landers Gem of the Day, July 27, 1994

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