Some Articles and Some Thoughts

The two articles I read were very different from one another, so I will talk about them separately.

First, I read The Historical Profession and Archival Education. This article makes the point that archival students can take two educational paths: history or library science. Since the internet boom, library science has become the most popular route to take for archival students due to its technology focus. History, as I think we all know from being in the history department at UNCC, is in many ways still focusing on traditional research and book/article publishing.

What made this article interesting to me was that it reminded me of how museums are also changing. Anymore, if you want to become a museum professional (like me!), you really must embrace technology and incorporating it into your education, the museum, and outreach. Although I am a self-declared luddite, I still embrace the courses that UNCC have offered that would make me a better candidate for museums today. I took a video editing course, and in this course I am learned about twitter, blogging, and online exhibits.

But back to the article, I believe the author, Joseph M. Turrini, makes a good point when he says that "History departments should continue to be part of archival education." Although they must also adapt to the changing market and techniques in order to give their students the best chance at getting a job, I also believe that history offers special insight to archiving. In many case, archiving deals with very old documents, papers, journals. History will help an archivist take their skills to the next level by interpretation and explanation.

Second, I read Enhancing Internet Use for History by Categorizing Online Resources. More brief and less thought provoking than my first choice, I felt that this was a great resource. The author, Edward A. Riedinger, suggests multiple databases for historians. Among them are JSTOR and Project MUSE, both of which I have used and enjoyed using. There are also many various other sites that I have not heard of and links to them. Go check it out!

Riedinger's emphasis is on organization and categorization throughout the article. I can personally comment on the level of difficulty a person can have on creating a list of keywords to attach to a particular object so that researchers looking for the material can find it with ease. As an intern at the Earl Scruggs Center, I was introduced to the Past Perfect cataloging system. Part of making a complete entry for an item in a collection is by creating a list of searchable terms and descriptions. Not only would you include what the item is, but what it looks like, what it represents, who or what it is associated with, and more. This is where research comes into play. In addition, one must think about what type of person or research would want this particular item and what words would they be using in a keyword search.

I agree that "applying techniques of keyword and subject searching" is a vital component in navigating online databases. Historians need to be broad, but still specific enough, with their keyword searches to find what they are looking for. At the same time, those people inputting searchable terms to connect with an item or written document, must think like a researcher. The terms must be broad enough to encompass a lot of terms but narrow enough so that researchers can find what they want easily. It is a very challenging task.