archives in the spring

This past Saturday was the spring 2010 meeting of the New England Archivists in Amherst, MA. It was a pretty good conference, but until just a few days before it began I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go. The short version is that I thought I had a ride, then, about one week before the meeting, I learned I no longer had a ride and set about scrambling to find one again. At one point I almost gave up and decided not to go, but that would have been the wrong choice. By Wednesday night I had secured my ride again and could rest easy.

Because the meeting was in Amherst, I got up at 5am on Saturday to meet my group at the rental car (by the way, I'm pretty sure ZipCars are the best thing ever for city dwellers). We managed to make only one wrong turn on the way there, for which Christina was demoted from her role as Navigator. She should have kept her position, because on the way back our new navigator failed big time, and only Christina's photographic memory of which stores we had passed on the way there was able to get us back on track.

The campus at UMass Amherst is actually very nice. During our lunch break I went outside and walked around a lovely pond full of ducks and geese. The sessions were pretty good too, for the most part, and I picked up some awesome swag, like tin acid-free boxes big enough only for business cards.

The best part of the day, however, came after lunch at a session on international archives. One of the presenters, who works at Tufts, is from Austria and spent time talking about the state of Austrian archival institutions. How awesome is that? When the session ended I introduced myself and got her card. Later on this spring we're going to meet and talk about libraries and archives in Austria! How much more perfect could that moment have been? I guess I really was supposed to go to this event.

-Kim

finishing

My third semester of graduate school is over! The last class was actually last Thursday, but it took until now for me to really surface again out my exhaustion and busy weekend. The biggest and most interesting thing I did this semester was the ABCFM project at the Congregational Library for my archives internship. To see a few pictures of the displays and read what I had to say about the project, you can read my post on the Congregational Library blog here.

In other news: I'm flying home in three days! Hooray! I am definitely ready to be home for Christmas.

-Kim

Sunrise, Sunset

It's been a whirlwind couple of weekends! Let me get you up to speed.

The dental work is progressing smoothly. Two Fridays ago I went in just for a cleaning/check-up and was told I was doing great. The site was clean, and the healing was progressing well. It's nice to have a dentist tell me I'm doing well for once. I guess you just have to find someone who understands that gum problems can't always be solved just with floss. This past Friday I went in again to get my stitches out. They actually began coming loose on Wednesday, but I decided not to worry about it. A piece in the back came free as I was rinsing out the area Wednesday night, but nothing else unraveled, so I just left it alone. When Fatema saw it on Friday she wasn't concerned at all. As the swelling of the tissue goes away, the stitches always get loose. It's just a good thing I was already scheduled to get them out on Friday, because what was left wasn't going to last much longer.

The removal of the stitches was actually the worst part of the process so far. They used a topical anesthetic so it wouldn't hurt, but I could still feel them pulling. Dr. Chung used a tiny dental scissor to cut the stitches, and Fatema had a long pair of tweezers to pull them out. I don't like having four hands in my mouth at once, so I'm glad it was over quickly. I remember it taking quite a while to put the stitches in, and I know it was a long piece of thread, but I was still amazed at the length of the thread pieces that were coming out of my mouth. It's very disconcerting. But again, afterward I was told that everything looks great and they're impressed with my progress. Good news. Even better it the fact that I won't go under the knife again until after Thanksgiving, so I should almost be able to eat like a normal person. I've moved up from rinsing my teeth with the plastic syringe to gently cleaning them with q-tips dipped in the prescription mouthwash. By next week I should be back to a toothbrush! It's amazing how small things like this can make me so happy.

What else have I been doing?

The weekend between these periodontal experiences was the New England Archivists (NEA) fall conference here in Boston. There was a good talk on monetary appraisal, and the session on whether we consider physical objects to be archival materials was interesting. The keynote speaker was Richard Cox, a big name in the archives world who has a reputation for offending people. My favorite bit from his talk was his comment that archives students "don't come to learn about technology, the come to fondle old stuff." Touche Mr. Cox. But as far as practicality is concerned, I don't put much stock in what he has to say. Apparently he spoke in a friend's class while he was in town and said that Simmons students are getting too much practical instruction and not enough theoretical. Say what? If we are going to be out in the field actually archiving things, shouldn't we know how to do it? The only reason nearly all the members of NEA are Simmons alums is that we have an edge entering the field with our internship experience. We can always add to our theoretical knowledge as we go, through keeping up with the literature and going to events like this one. At least that's the theory I intend to test.

This weekend was even better. On Saturday Adrienne, Kacie and I braved the rain to go to the International Antiquarian Book Fair. We could only stay for about half an hour, because we had tickets for the matinee performance of Fiddler on the Roof. This is the farewell tour for Chaim Topol, the original Tevye, so we wouldn't have missed it for anything! Topol is 74 now, but he's still incredible. His voice is amazing, and his acting is hilarious! Overall the show was great. I especially loved all the impressive dancing. My dad tells me he was one of the bottle dancers in a production when he was in college, and after seeing what these guys could do, I really wish there was a picture of him doing that back in the day. Actually, the whole show made me very sentimental, even a little homesick. I picked up the soundtrack at the show and have been listening to it ever since. Even without the benefit of my iPod, "Miracle of Miracles," "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset" play in my head nonstop. I've decided I should look for violin sheet music for the show--it would be a great thing to add to my repertoire. Do you think they would ever let a woman play the role of the fiddler? Because I could totally do that part and make it look real. At the start of the show I could tell that he was faking and it was the violin in the pit orchestra that was really playing, but at the very end I think it was him. I could do that.

On Sunday I had the chance to hear Ravi Zacharias preach at Park Street Church, but I didn't go. Instead, I joined David and Josiah at Tremont Temple Baptist to hear our dear old friend Roger Fredrickson preach. He had come out from South Dakota to lead their missions conference, and this was his last day in town. You should have seen his face when we went up to greet him after the service--such surprise, followed swiftly by a glowing smile and a warm hug. Roger is one of the sweetest men I've ever known, and it was great to see him as a reminder of home.

The pressure of the semester is starting to get to me, and going home for Christmas break is sounding better every day. Thank goodness next week has a break too.

-Kim

Semester Project

So, when the JFK Presidential Library turned me down for a student position in the Hemingway Archives, I was initially pretty bummed. But I consoled myself with the thought that my required LIS440 internship this semester would just have to be somewhere impressive so I could beef up my resume. But that didn't happen either. As it turns out, there was a project waiting for me that I never would have expected. And just as I had to be rejected by Harvard to spend the summer doing historical ministry at Park Street Church, I had to be turned down by JFK before I could get my dream project.

I'm actually going to be back at the Congregational Library, where I had my first experience doing real archival arrangement and description during my internship last fall. This time the project is quite a bit bigger. Of all the 440 internships available this semester, it is by far the most exciting. Check out the official description:

The intern will assist in researching, developing, and creating exhibits documenting the history of The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.M.). The American Board was the first American Protestant foreign missionary society and will be celebrating its two-hundredth anniversary in 2010. The intern will be responsible for selecting materials, creating labels, installing exhibits, creating publicity materials, and scanning materials for on-line exhibit use on the web site. The intern may write for the blog or the e-newsletter and may lead a discussion on the exhibits at a Brown Bag lunch event.

How cool is that?

As soon as I read the description I contacted my previous supervisor to ask about the project, and the short version of the story is that they are glad to have me back. I'll be starting my research on Monday.

In my research to be a PSC tour guide I read a bit about the ABCFM, as Park Street was one of the churches involved in commissioning the first group of missionaries the group sent out, including Adoniram Judson. Yes, that Judson. The man the best Christian summer camp in the world, where I spent the best weeks of my summers growing up, is named after.

So my job will be to put together both online and physical exhibits that showcase the various missions the ABCFM has supported through the years, beginning with Judson and moving forward through the present. I think that actually sounds far more interesting than sorting through Hemingway's old receipts.

On the practical side of things, this project actually will look amazing on my resume in spite of being at a smaller institution. My project will have a real finished product to show, and is completely different from what I did last year.

And I feel that this is the sort of work I am supposed to be doing. The more time I spend in the archives/library world, the more I think I want to work for a religious institution. It's always been in the back of my mind as a sort of "oh, it would be nice to work for a Christian school/organization someday." But now the thought has made its way to the front of my mind. I still don't know where I'll be going after I graduate next May (side note: I already had to turn in my petition to graduate; it feels far too soon to be doing that! Didn't I just get here?), but the opportunities I have been led to so far definitely have a religious trend. It just makes me wonder what opportunity God will open up for me next.

-Kim