Archivist

Overview

The complete career guide to be an Archivist: salary, job growth, employers, best schools, and education you may need to get started.

$53,880

7.2%

Job Growth Rate

Growing Demand

Job Outlook

Archivists preserve original historical material such as maps, films, documents, photographs and computer records. The aim is to either tell the story of a particular community or retain a piece of history for future generations or keep institutions and people accountable for past actions.

Duties

Here are the duties you can expect to perform as an archivist:

• Ensure best practices in preserving archives with regard to handling, arranging and categorising archival materials.
• Manage all permissions involving publishing requests and reproducing visual materials; work with external vendors to create photographic copies once approved.
• Work with other programming staff such as the department manager to write high quality grant proposals and create financial plans as needed for the archives and digital collection.
• Manage reference services for visiting research scholars and make electronic, phone or written requests as needed for in-depth research.
• Process a diverse range of archival collections such as the archival arrangement, finding aids and description.

On a day-to-day basis, much of your work will involve sitting in front of a computer and reading correspondence from email, intranet, newsletters and other announcements. You will be working with indexes, subject files, paper documents, films, maps, computer records and maps as necessary. Since archives are fragile and require close maintenance, it is your job to ensure there is meaningful content in every collection.

Creating easy access for anyone to understand and use the information in archived materials is also essential.

You will spend time with technology experts, conservators, educators and artists to provide reliable and detailed archival collections that are convenient. Finding new materials and supervising their purchase is vital to continuing the process of archiving in keeping with copyright laws, organisational policies and procedures.

Expect to work in a comfortable office environment with good facilities. Your hours will either be in shifts or flexible working times. You might have to work during the day, evening and weekend. Some positions will also need to you pass a criminal background investigation.

Employment growth in this industry will be as much as the average rate of most careers through 2020. There is great demand for archivists as institutions and organisations need to manage large records of information. However, the market is highly competitive and qualified candidates greatly outnumber annual job openings. You will require highly specialized graduate training to stand out and find success.

Most people start their career as an assistant archivist then progress to senior management positions.

Working as an archivist can give you great flexibility in terms of geography and the type of organisation you work for. You can find work at cultural institutions such as art galleries and museums, media organisations, religious foundations, public bodies, repositories in the private sector at large corporations, families, universities, big charities, and government bodies. Examples of employers include universities like Brown, Indiana University-Bloomington, Harvard, Princeton, etc.,

The Getty, NANA Development Corporation, Refinery
29, Inter Systems Corporation, Department of Defense, Tetra Tech, Inc., Randstad Life Services and Pivotal Solutions, Inc.

There are several ways via which you could embark on an archivist’s career path. Many entry-level positions require an undergraduate or graduate degree, along with relevant coursework. You could have a bachelor’s degree in any field but history, political science or library science is preferable. In case you want to get an advanced position with an academic institution, you have to eventually complete a PhD.

In recent years, there are many…