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Re: A rose by any other name..



Most of these replies seem only to discuss the differences between reference
librarians and archivists. I am a processing archivist and from my
perspective I see great differences between librarians and archivists.

Archivists take collections of papers (ranging from 1 page to 10,000 pages),
develop a logical order of arrangement, arrange, preserve, reformat,
rehouse, and prepare detailed, informative lists of each item in a
collection. We spends hours doing historical research on our collections, we
write finding aids that number into the 100's of pages, and we have to
describe items so completely and thoroughly that a researcher might be able
to find that one letter in there that will help him complete his thesis or
book. We are working with materials that, although similar materials might
be found elsewhere, are totally unique and one of a kind and must be
described as such. Our cataloging records are very different also. All of
our cataloging is original cataloging, while much of library cataloging is
copied.

While I respect both professions when people call me a librarian I make sure
that I tell them I am an archivist (which gets me a lot more ooohs and
aaahs).


Renee Savits
Private Papers Archivist
The Library of Virginia

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