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Re: Certification Discussion



Well, I'll tell ya, Lee Miller's response is the best defense for the exam I've read thus far.  From this perspective I don't find too many reasons to disagree.  So I'll climb back up on my fence of opinion and mull over the prospects.
 
Until another cynical stoning knocks me to the ground again . . .
 
Susan
 

---
Susan Hamson
Archivist 

Othmer Library of Chemical History
Chemical Heritage Foundation
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA  19106-2702
susanh@chemheritage.org

Voice: 215-925-2222
Fax: 215-925-6195

The views expressed here are those of the individual author only and not necessarily those of the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Miller [mailto:Leon.Miller@TULANE.EDU]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 11:32 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Certification Discussion

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m president of the Academy of Certified Archivists, but this is not an official Academy response to the recent listserv postings. These are my own ramblings. I don’t want to respond to every point, but two issues arose that are interests of mine and I’d like to briefly offer my perspective on those.

 

First, why take the archival certification examination? For reasons I won’t bore you with here (but that involve the Academy spending a great deal of time and money with a professional psychometrician statistically analyzing not only every year’s test, and not only every question on every year’s test, but every option of every question on every year’s test), I’m convinced the test is a solid certification examination. It’s not doctoral comps. It’s not an end of semester exam. It’s not a pop quiz. It is a certification examination, which has a different mission, a different purpose, and a different methodology based on long accepted systematic practices, both professional and legal, in the testing field.

 

But even though the Academy can prove that every year’s exam accurately and fairly tests for what it was intended to test, to me, that is not the most important reason to take it. I think more important reasons for taking the exam are: (1) it shows you have the self-confidence to test your knowledge against a consensus national standard; and (2) it shows that you give a damn. That is, it shows that you have the personal initiative to fill out the aggravating paperwork, catch up on your reading, travel to an exam site (often at significant personal expense), sit down in a room full of strangers and put your knowledge on the line. The opportunity at a professional level to express, in such a concrete way, that kind of initiative, self-confidence, and faith in your own abilities, and to do so in a forum governed by the highest professional psychometric and testing standards, is very rare. I see no benefit in letting it pass by.

 

The other question was why pass the test, and then take it again several years later? Because the certification examination is the archival profession’s most important self-evaluation tool. As someone explained, you don’t have to take the test again to recertify. You can choose instead to recertify by petition, which is the archival profession’s only system for recognizing your participation in activities that help you keep up with the field.

 

But instead of dealing with the petition paperwork, you can opt to take the test again, and that is what I encourage people to do. Simply taking the test, seeing how it has changed since you last took it, reading new questions and thinking about what changes in technology, theory, or practice motivated those questions, reviewing your score report and learning in which areas you were stronger, all of those are invaluable self-evaluation opportunities.

 

Few professions have strong self-evaluation tools. Archivists are fortunate to have one based on consistent standards and created according to a systematic, professional, validated process. I see no benefit in letting it pass by.

 

For information about the Academy, including how the test is constructed, how to qualify to take it, how to hold the examination in your hometown, you are welcome to visit the Academy’s web site at www.certifiedarchivists.org.

 

Lee

 

==--00--==

 

Leon C. Miller, Manuscripts Librarian

Special Collections, Jones Hall, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library

Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118

Ph: 504-865-5685, Fx: 504-865-5761

Leon.Miller@tulane.edu

http://specialcollections.tulane.edu

 

 

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