I have been volunteering a couple of afternoons a week at the Brockport college archives for a couple of months now. It is a great way to get to know the area and the history of the college - both of the collections I have worked on so far have taught me quite a bit. For instance, Brockport hosted the Special Olympics in 1979, and it was a really big deal - Mohammad Ali came, along with other famous athletes. Also, Brockport used to be a Normal School - a school for teaching teachers - and was almost closed down by the state in the 1940s because it wasn't seen as useful, but the school president fought that, and the school survived. In the 1960s it became a liberal arts style institution, as it is now. All this, and more detail, is available on the archives website here.
Volunteering is also a good way to try to make contacts for possible jobs. Yesterday when I stopped by, the archivist invited me to come to a meeting of some of the local university and college archivists. Although there were only 5 other people there, they were all archivists, and it was really nice to talk to other professionals. I had begun to forget, since I am rather away from the field at the moment, that I actually like being an archivist. Two of the attendees had been to the big SAA meeting in Chicago, and were sharing some of their reflections about it. A lot of what they were talking about were things I had dealt with in classes - so it was also nice to know that what I was learning is actually applicable! That is not always the case with classes, and is not always obvious when you are stuck trying to understand something. It also showed me that I know more than I think, when put to the test. Too bad none of the other archivists had any job openings... But, they know who I am now, and might remember me if they hear of something.
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