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Re: What is a good archivist's resume?



As always, I agree with Lesley Brunet, especially in this instance about the
usefulness of archivists maintaining a c.v. How long should a resume be? Not
more than two pages. Any longer, and you should consider creating a vita. A
curriculum vitae is a complete record of your professional life. A resume is
a summary of your vita. Therefore, a resume longer than two pages implies to
a search committee that either you don't know the difference between a
resume and a vita, or that you're not very good at summarizing.

If I were you, I'd submit a resume that summarizes, for example, your
publications with something like "Seven publications in American Archivist,
Archivaria, and other journals concerning database description, multimedia
metadata, and other topics. My article "Paula Jones and Provenance:
Political Papers and the Perils of Processing" (citation) received the 1999
Gracy Award. A full publications list is available in my vita," or something
like that.

About professional involvement, listing your professional memberships is
fine, but what "cuts ice" are things like archival association committee
appointments, maybe a committee or task force chair or two, maybe even an
elected office. Those kinds of things show that you care enough about the
archival profession to want to try to improve it. They also show leadership
skills, and are evidence that your peers respect you enough to trust you
with responsible positions. Doing well in a nine to five job is fine, but in
the job market, you're competing with a lot of people who do well in nine to
five jobs. Professional activities, the respect of your peers, and working
to make the profession better are the kinds of things that can set you
apart. And believe me, when a search committee is sorting through fifty to a
hundred resumes for a single job, they are looking for things that set
people apart.

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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-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On Behalf
Of Russell James
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 7:29 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: What is a good archivist's resume???

I have applied for 40+ archival positions in the last
six months and have not secured employment. I'm
beginning to think the reason might have something to
do with my resume.  I'd like feedback from everyone,
if possible.

If you were hiring an assistant for yourself (an
archivist), what is a good resume?

If you respond, and I hope you do, please tell me
whether you are with an academic, corporate, museum,
historical society, governmental, or other type of
archival facility.

Is educational background important enough to put at
the top?

When employment history is listed, do you want just
the position and place of employment?  For archival
job history, do you want a summary of job duties?

Are basic archival skills something you want listed on
a resume (MARC, EAD, reference)?

How important, if at all, are non-archival experience
like editing, grant writing, and teaching?

Is a listing of associational memberships necessary?

Do you want publications listed and, if so, how many
and what kind?  What is a "too long" list of
publications?

How important is personal data (SSN, birth date,
marital status, citizenship)?

How long is a good professional archival resume?  In
other words, how many pages is too long?

Is community presentations/memberships something you
want to see or not?

Thank you to all who respond.  If possible, I'd like
to see some resumes/CVs to see what one looks like for
someone who has a job as an archivist.

Russell D. James, M.A.
Milton, Florida
youngarchivist@yahoo.com

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