Due to some rather odd issues I've had with interns from a particular local institution, I recently made a phone call to the 'Archive Program Director'. I asked to be taken step by step through their program and provide me with detailed course descriptions.
My findings are simply put: an archival studies program is whatever an institution wants it to be. After all, SAA guidelines are merely a suggestion until the day accreditation becomes a reality.
Now, when I interview I feel I MUST ask candidates if they've ever actually processed a collection!
Randal Luckow
DreamWorks Archive
----------
From: Dean DeBolt
Reply To: Dean DeBolt
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 9:56 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: A Short Rant for Thursday
I have occasionally taught semester-long directed study
courses in "Introduction to Archives and Archival Management"
for our History Department. Today I get a telephone call from
a history student who says she is taking a summer directed
study from one of the History professors titled "Archival Manage-
ment" but of course, this History professor is going to be gone
much of the summer...but the student should get in touch with
me because he's assigned her the task of locating "some good
books on archival management" and doing book reviews, and
perhaps I know of some good books.
I'm gritting my teeth as I write this because apparently there is
no syllabi for this course; to my knowledge, the instructor has
no background in archival management; and someday this student
will be applying for archival jobs listing this course as her training
as a graduate student.
My normal semester workplan is leading the students through the
development of archival theory (Schellenberg, Norton, et. al.) as well
as divisions of fields--acquisitions/donor relations, processing, preser-
vation, finding aids/cataloging/MARC/Dublin Core, reference services,
copyright considerations, policy development and mission statements,
etc. The next time I see a job application with "archives" education
on it, I'm going to find out who the instructor was, where, and probably
demand a syllabus!!
Dean
Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514-5750
Tele: 850-474-2213; Fax: 850-474-3338
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