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Re: Photograph archivist vs. photograph curator



>          It's the "I don't care what they call me, as long as I get paid
> more" syndrome.  The University Archivist here was officially a "Director
> Unspecified 8."
>

Ain't'dis da'trut!  I started out as a "Manuscripts Processor," which I
didn't like because it sounded like you worked in a food plant or
something, so I started calling myself an "Assistant Manuscripts
Curator."  Which was what I actually did.  Later, when I moved over
to handle the photo/AV end of our operation, they wanted to call it
the--I swear this is true--"Aural-Graphic Archivist."  I'm glad that
didn't fly; now that Utah has a full-time Porn Czar, I'd be in trouble
for sure with a title that sounded so risque!  So I came up with
Multimedia Archivist, to which I still cling, and which also describes
what I do.  And in the University HR system, I was an Archivist
Level 1; but here recently I finally got through a re-class of one of
my employees, moving her up to the Archivist track, and because
of that I could no longer be in the same track, since I supervised
her, so they re-classed me (or I did myself; I did all the paperwork)
to a new level, which is--again I swear this is true--a "BM 1."
(although I didn't get paid more, sad to say!) All kinds of crude
jokes could be made out of that; the most I could get anyone in HR
to admit was that it was a management position, and stands for
"bench mark."  Don't ask me why.  They want to call me an
"Archives Manager" but I'm stickin' to Multimedia Archivist.  That's
what it says on my business cards, anyway.

Speaking of catalog cards, when we got rid of the catalog years
ago I went down to the loading dock where they were getting ready
to recycle the entire catalog and grabbed all the boxes of old cards
that were still left.  I still have tons of them (but I'm not giving them
up, sorry!).  When I grab one out to make a note it's fun to see
what it's for; now and then I still find one of the old hand-lettered
ones from way back when; those I keep.  I have a colleague whose
"day-timer" is a stack about an inch thick of old catalog cards.  If
you ask him about something he reaches into his back pocket and
pulls out this stack, shuffles through it and finds just what he
needs.

Speaking of, since I was sick last Friday and I've got to dash to
catch the bus: a few years ago I had to go to a meeting downtown
at the historical department of the LDS church.  So we all sat down
and the other folks whipped out their great big elaborate day-timers
(those being very fashionable in certain Utah circles; the Franklin-
Quest company, which makes them, is a big industry here).  I laid
down my yellow pad and pencil, looked at them all and said
"Consider the lillies of the field; they toil not, nor do they use day-
timers!"


Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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