Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Professional Development

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Professional Development• Increase skill levels• Build a portfolio• Make contacts with other

archivists• Learn about institutions,

collections, and types of jobs• Engage with the archives

community

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Professional Development• Field Experience• Internships• Volunteering• Residencies &

Fellowships•Education• Publishing• Scholarships & Funding

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• Graduate internships • (Usually) unpaid• For academic credit• Supervised by a faculty member

• Independent internships• May be paid or unpaid• May or may not be eligible for academic credit• Usually no faculty supervision• Graduate or post-graduate

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships“Although internships are first and foremost intended to educate archives graduate students, internships are partnerships among students, archives programs, and the sites hosting interns …. It is vital that faculty, students, and onsite staff who supervise interns take the time to discuss the project and to establish clear expectations about what will take place during an internship.”

Society of American Archivists Best Practices for Internships as a Component of Graduate Archival Education

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• Internship work should be professional-level work• Supplements your education• Helps you refine your skills• Engages you with the collections and staff• Develops your theoretical and practical archival knowledge• Teaches you about how archives work in a broad sense

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• There should be a final product• Finding aid• Exhibit• Website• Blog• Digitized collection• Guidelines or documentation

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• Make an agreement with your supervisor about what

your internship will entail• If you weren’t provided with a written description of your

internship, design this so that it serves as one.• What are the objectives? How will the internship contribute

to your education and career?• What is the expected final product of your internship?• Will you receive public credit for your work?• How much guidance will you receive?• Will you get the opportunity to learn about how the institution

runs?

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• Fantastic Paid Internships and

Where to Find Them• Sometimes attached to a specific

project• Often the result of advocacy on

the part of the archivist in charge

• How to get one?• Be geographically flexible• Have an unusual skill to offer• Be prepared and treat it like a

job interview

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships“Graduate internships without any form of compensation should be rare to avoid devaluing the professional nature of archival work.”

“SAA recognizes that some professionals may investigate additional post-graduate internships … and recommends participants receive fair compensation.”

SAA Best Practices for Internships as a Component of Graduate Archival Education

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Internships• Non-profit vs. for-profit private sector institutions and

legality• Fair Labor Standards Act – Fact Sheet 71 • “The Test for Unpaid Interns” at for-profit private sector• Equivalent to educational training• For the benefit of the intern• Employer does not receive immediate advantage from intern’s

work• Does not displace regular employees• No expectation of a job at the end• Both parties understand there will be no compensation

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering“In lean economic times, some institutions might be tempted to turn to skilled but unpaid volunteers to get work accomplished… Volunteers must enhance, not depreciate, the value of professional archival work … Volunteers are distinct from interns. An internship is an education experience designed to benefit the intern and is under mentorship from a professional.”

SAA Best Practices for Volunteers in Archives

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Goals in volunteering• Meeting people in institutions in your area• Learning about different types of institutions• Demonstrating involvement in the profession on your resume• A chance to get involved in a good cause• Potential to gain leadership roles

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Days of Service• Spend a day or a few

hours at an institution• Meet other archivists• Learn about another

archives’ collections• Discover the different

ways that institutions process their collections• Get a chance to do

archival work you haven’t in the past (digitizing, working with photographs, accessioning, etc.)

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Days of Service• New England Archivists Annual Meeting

• Portsmouth Public Library (Spring 2014)• Boston Public Library (Spring 2015)

• Roundtable for Early Professionals & Students Annual Day of Service (this year: October 17, 2015)• The History Project (Boston)• USS Constitution Museum (Boston)• Worcester Refugee Archive (Clark University)• Colchester Historical Society (Connecticut)• Hardwick Historical Society (Vermont)

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Independent Archives &

Volunteer-Run Organizations• Our Marathon:

http://marathon.neu.edu/• The History Project:

http://www.historyproject.org/• Papercut Zine Library:

http://www.papercutzinelibrary.org/

• Prison Book Program http://prisonbookprogram.org/

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Create your own

organization or archives• ProjectARCC (Archivists

Responding to Climate Change) http://projectarcc.org/ • Occupy Boston Archives

http://archive.occupyboston.org

See Meghan Bailey’s (Simmons ‘13!) article about her work with the Occupy Boston archives in Archival Outlook:

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Professional Organizations• NEA (how to volunteer)

• REPS (Roundtable for Early Professionals & Students)• Elections are in Spring 2016!

• Committees•SAA

• ScoSAA, SNAP (Students and New Professionals) roundtable

• Committees, task forces, working groups, etc.

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Volunteering• Time management & Overcommitment• Find a happy medium that works for you• Be aware of how much time the activities you commit to will

take you• Don’t overcommit!• Take care of yourself

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Residencies & Fellowships• Usually paid with a stipend, housing, etc.• Have an end date• Are competitive and have complex

application processes• MIT Libraries Fellows Program

• Current Digital Archives Fellow Jessica Venlet’s blog

• National Digital Residency Program • Association of College & Research Libraries

Residency Interest Group • ARL/SAA Mosaic Program Fellows

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Education• Workshops• New England Archivists

• AV101 – October 22 • Society of American Archivists/Digital Archives Specialization

• Arrangement and Description of Electronic Records – March 31, 2016 – Portland, ME

• Northeast Document Conservation Center• Metadata for Digital Preservation (webinar) – November 10• Caring for Municipal Records (webinar) – January 19

• Association for Library Collections & Technical Services

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Education• MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)• Online only• Usually free (starting to become monetized!)• Course sizes are in the thousands• Taught by professors from regular universities• Some have a rigorous schedule, some are self-paced• Teaching methods include video lectures, readings,

assignments, message board discussions• Some of this can be accomplished on your phone via

apps!• Not a lot of library/archives-specific courses, but

related topics

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Education• edX

http://www.edx.org • Library Advocacy

(archived)• HarvardX’s

“The Book” series – self-paced courses starting September 21• Introduction to Compu

ter Science -- self-paced• Introduction to Project

Management – starts February 17

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Education•Coursera www.coursera.org• Website Development (starts September 14)• Database Management Essentials (starts September

15)• Programming for Everyone (Python) (starts October

4)

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Education• Other opportunities• RailsBridgeBoston

http://www.railsbridgeboston.org/ • CodeAcademy

https://www.codecademy.com/ • DuoLingo

https://www.duolingo.com/

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Publishing• What to publish? • Expand on a paper you wrote for school• Collaborate with another early professional, co-worker, boss,

supervisor• Report on an event you attended• Describe a project you took part in• Promote an archives-related topic or cause you are

passionate about• Write about your experience as a new professional

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Publishing• Where to publish?

Newsletters!• NEA Newsletter

• Meeting Session Reports• “Who’s Missing

From This Table?”

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Publishing• Where to publish?

Blogs!• REPS Blog (submission

guidelines) • SNAP Blog (submission

guidelines)• Hack Library School (

guest post information)• I Need A Library Job (

submission guidelines)

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Publishing• Where to publish? And more!• Places to Publish spreadsheet

• Archival Practice• Journal of Archival Organization• Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies• Archival Practice• The American Archivist

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Publishing• Keep in mind…• Get permission before writing about an institution or their

collections• Be aware of copyright issues• Read what others have published to get a sense of style• If you’re submitting to a publication or blog, be sure you are

aware of their submission rules• Consider workshopping it with other archivists

Career Development Strategies for Early Career Professionals Annalisa C. Moretti - Silvia Mejia

Scholarships & Funding• ArchivesNext Spontaneous Scholarship – for attending

SAA! http://www.archivesnext.com • SAA Awards • NEA • A/V Professional Development Award • Richard W. Hale, Jr. Professional Development Award • Meeting & Travel Assistantship Scholarship • Susan J. Von Salis Student Meeting & Travel Scholarship