Week 1
2026 June 29-July 2
Currently, I am transitioning out of a position as a technical services archivist. It was my first position after getting my MLIS degree from Kent State University and I was in that position for a year. Now I am jumping into my new role as a special collections and reference librarian. I’ve been told my main task this year is to figure out what on earth is in the archive here! The individual who was in the position before me was here for multiple decades and did not have any archival experience. So, I have been warned that there will be many mysteries to unravel. Including this desk I am going to be sitting at when I’m not working up in the archive.
Starting with the desk made the most sense to me to try and look for any documentation about the materials in the archive and in general just get things cleaned up and organized so I have a place to land in the mornings when I get here! I found myself asking a lot of “do we need this” questions to myself and my new supervisor, and the most common responses from him were “how old is that” and “nope, you can throw it away.” But I did find a hidden treasure, a stack of donor thank you letters! I had been told that there was no documentation on how or when any of the materials had been donated, so this was a great find. Even if I currently have no idea what the letters go with, or if we even still have the materials at all. That’s a problem for future me to worry about. There were other less exciting finds as I cleaned out drawers like the moldy folders, loose rusty push pins, the flashlight with corroded batteries that had begun to eat away at the metal drawer it was in, and a single very dubious looking peanut.
I thought this would be an interesting journey to document in case there is anyone who might find it helpful to know that there are other people who have experienced similar situations. This is not something that I am planning to be very formal or planned out. Just creating a space to talk about what I find as I hunt around the archive and to take note of what works (and what doesn’t) as I try to create order out of chaos as a lone arranger.
Week 2
2026 July 6-10
My first full week and I am getting a chance to poke around a bit up in the archive. They were not kidding about having no idea what’s in here! Sadly, last week I couldn’t find any kind of documentation about what collections or items we have, where anything is at, or any real organization of the archive space at all. Which feels odd because there are a few sticky notes popped onto shelves with a letter number system, but no correlating notes (and honestly no consistency to that system). I asked my supervisor and the 2 librarians that worked with my predecessor to see if they had any ideas on if any documentation existed and that was a big ol’ NOPE.
I reached out to a few people that I had met at MAC this year that had been in similar situations to see if they had some tips. Building community and asking questions has been so incredibly helpful! I got some great tips, advice, and a couple of warnings that got me started. So, it’s time to try to make some sort of order here.
To wrap my brain around the space I was working with I needed to create a visual, nothing too complicated, but enough that I (or anybody else coming into the archive later) would understand where things were at. Currently, there are a lot of miscellaneous piles on the floor, USPS mail crates filled with loose paper and AV, rolled maps laying around, and…a chicken suit in a tote bag. Somewhere under the piles there is a desk workspace that I’d like to get to someday. But before getting too distracted, I did mockup a basic mapping system of the archive and ran it by a few people to make sure that it didn’t just make sense in my mind. This has all been added into my “Step 1” spreadsheet so that I can keep all this stuff in one place and don’t lose any information as I get started. Right now I’ve got different tabs for questions, archive layout, and basic goals to complete. I like the feeling of marking things off a checklist so that last one is good for me. Baby steps!
Week 3
2026 July 13-17
They had cut, glued, and taped newspaper clippings onto colored construction paper. Not what I expected to find shelf after shelf of, but from what I am learning newspapers (and maps…so many maps) were a specific point of interest for the previous individual in this position.
I have to be honest, this week I got a bit overwhelmed. The archive is not huge, but there are so many little things to do. Me from a few weeks ago wanted to dive in head first and immediately start organizing everything. But in talking with a few others who’ve been in similar situations they told me that I needed to start small and not bite off too much at once. This week I focused on making a checklist of priorities and also a list of questions that popped up as I was looking through the archive space. All of this I am throwing into that same “Step 1” document. Knowing me, it is going to be a lot easier to have everything all in one place to start with and break it up as needed further down the road.
So not a massive update, but I felt like I needed to put it out there that this can be a lot. Even if the space or the institution is smaller. Seeing that there is no real order or documentation can be a lot for someone who thrives in lists and organization. But I will get this archive to a manageable level!
Week 4
2026 July 20-24
Working in an institution like this one there are other things aside from locking myself in the archive and getting things organized and described. And this week I have been working on trying to draft up a “performance plan” for this coming fiscal year, and boy I had no idea what all to include. It’s not very profession to say, welp this year I will try to see what the heck is in the archive! But I’ve got a great team and supervisor that were really encouraging and helpful in figuring out what all is expected outside of the archive room from my position. Once the semester starts I think it will all begin to make more sense, hopefully!
This week I also learned that there is archival material all over the place, and of course none of it is documented. There is archival material up in the archive (of course), in the room next to the archive (which is now the “reading room”), on shelved in the staff area, against the wall of windows next to my desk area, in a back hallway by a classroom, and some of it is on display.
Week 5
2026 July 27-31
I am now the proud owner of my very own business card holder! Strange sentence, but I’ve never had a business card before, and when my coworker asked me to pick out a business card holder I got so excited and requested the cute blue one. Fun little bright spot that I didn’t expect. Also not really sure who will be asking for my business card. But, I am setting a goal for this year to attend an archival or library conference which does feel like a place that these might come in handy.
A group of faculty came into the library and were asking for a 4th person to play a few rounds of euchre with them at lunch. One of my co-workers asked if I knew how to play because nobody else did. Well I grew up playing euchre at my grandma’s house. So, she told me to go “network” with the faculty. You just never know what odd skills or knowledge will come in handy in this field. This was the strangest way that I could have imagined to learn more about my predecessor and some history about the campus. Shockingly gained some great resources into learning more about both campuses that I am not in charge of the archives for!
Week 6
2026 August 3-7
Are we supposed to have this? I feel like this has become a common question popping into my head this week as I have been peeking into more boxes. From what I am learning the previous person took in anything and did not really have a process for picking and choosing what would go into the archive. But there is some additional confusion added because there is now a separate archive that used to be housed as a part of our collection and was separated out fairly recently. Now this separate organization has all of the artifacts from the collection, but we have kept the paper documents and books. I still do not fully understand this split in materials. Hopefully I will be meeting with the interim director of that organization soon. Fingers crossed that I will be able to begin to get a clearer picture of what is going on and what the future of these collections might look like. Right now it seems like nobody really 100% knows. And the interim director also started in the position around the same time I started my new position. A lot of new people entering into a situation with a lot of unknowns.
In a tub that I opened up today there was a hand carved antler hand tool among a bunch of other miscellaneous items that I don’t understand how they go together. And I really am not sure if this is an item that we should have or if it is intended to go with the artifacts in the other organization.
Retention schedule? Where is it…do we even have one…if there is one is it updated. All great questions, all questions that nobody in the office seems to have answers to.
Week 7
2026 August 10-14
Will the power stay on? Will there be a tornado? Will we all have to hunker in the stairwell and spend some forced team bonding time? Who’s to say, oh the joys of thunderstorm season in Ohio. Slightly altered my plans for what I would be doing this week based on the weather this week doing its best to kick the power off at the library. Don’t really want to be on my step ladder in the archive and have to power go out on me.
This did bring up some good conversations with the library staff and student workers about safety during severe storms and power outages! I feel like this can be an easily overlooked thing…or easily ignored thing. If it is not reviewed or made to seem important by those in charge then safety will not be taken seriously by the other staff. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh or assuming too much. But I will say that we generally did not agree on a singular location of where we should go in case of a tornado, and that didn’t feel great. Especially since multiple tornados happened in surrounding counties this week!
It reminds me of an assignment I had in grad school about working with special collections and how they can be impacted by different kinds of disasters. Lack of preparation, lack of understanding measures that are in place, and outdated measures all created unsafe environments to collections, people, and infrastructure. I feel like this is applicable to workplaces in general though. Having an outdated sign up that staff have never been told about will not help during an emergency. Not a very archives focused post, but safety is important. And I guess it is technically still important in the archive world, especially as a solo arranger.
Week 8
2026 August 17-21
We are getting ready to have students back on campus next week, and I have no real idea what to expect. A little bit nervous if I’m honest. But the other staff have been telling me that it won’t be too bad, mostly questions about where things are on campus…which great question. I also may have absolutely no idea where it is at this point! With being a lone arranger and reference librarian at a smaller campus library I am getting the vibe that I will be wearing multiple different hats. While the archival stuff is the main part of my job I want to make sure that I can be successful in all the other parts of my job too. So, I’m trying to set aside some time with a couple of our students to walk round campus and learn about it from a student perspective so that I can try to give new students better tips and information. Maybe. Hopefully.
Ready or not, semester is starting!
Oh, also, I did get an update to the retention schedule questions I had pop up during week 6. There is a document that does exist, but it is in fact very much outdated and nobody really knew where to find it. So, this has been added to the list of things that will need to be updated by future me (or it sounds like maybe not me…which I am not upset about at all). For right now though my supervisor is working on managing the retention and destruction processes. There is a chance that this will be passed onto another department to manage in the future, at least that is what my supervisor is hoping will happen. Fingers crossed! But we are sometime (let’s be honest, often times) pushed to the back burner because things in the library may not seem “urgent” or whatever. But that’s a rant or another time.
Week 9
2026 August 24-28
The students have arrived! I’m gonna be honest, I am concerned with some of the questions and comments that I have heard this week. Some of the ones I wasn’t expecting include I don’t know how to read a map, can I read the books in here, how do I charge my laptop, and where is the coldest place I can sit in here. Makes me worried about some of em.
With the students back it meant that this week was also my first time sitting at the reference desk. Which if I’m 100% honest felt terrifying thinking that I might not have all of the answers for students. But so far the questions have basically been “I need a book for my class that starts with a ‘w’ but can’t remember the title, do you have that” “how do I get to my class”, “is this the bookstore”, “where can I get my student ID” kinda thing. Which I have been mostly able to help with right away and that has been good for me mentally. I also asked my manager if I should take any additional trainings for being a reference librarian since I am trained as an archivist, and he said that probably wasn’t something that would be really needed. It sounds like most of the questions I will be getting as the reference librarian are more focused on how to do research or how to find an article and are usually not very complex. We will see as the semester gets going. If that’s true then I think I will have a lot more time to throw into investigating these archival mysteries that my predecessor left behind! I was a bit sad that I needed to put down working on filtering through the archive to prep for the students coming back on campus for the new semester.
I’m also wrestling with trying to decide on what archival or library memberships and conferences might be helpful to go to this next year. My supervisor told me that I would be able to get any membership and attend a conference and get funding from the university to do it. But there are a lot of options… I’ll talk more about this once I do some research into the different options and start to narrow down some stuff, because right now it feels a bit overwhelming.
Week 10
2026 August 31-September 4
Knew that it was bound to happen since I’m public facing…but I got sick. Dang it! I mean when there are a couple thousand people on campus I can’t be too surprised. Gotta get my immune defense built back up since I’ve been getting my master’s online and then working behind locked doors. If I want to get this archive sorted out, well I have to be able to be here first.
I did get a chance to meet with the 3 individuals that work with another archive that is on the campus. This has been a real point of confusion for me if I am honest because there are multiple different archives on the same campus and in the same town that seem to have overlapping collections. I fully admit that I am new to archives and will be the first to acknowledge that there are things about archival institutions and collections that I do not get. Like why are there 3 different archives all with collections of local ancient native tribes. This is not a huge town and I don’t think I understand why there are 3 separate archives collecting the same things. Especially when one of the archives is a UNESCO site (which is neither of the archives on this campus). My first thought is that this would make it more difficult for researchers trying to locate information. And I did meet with them, but I still feel equally if not more confused than before. If anything, I think that I left the interaction with more questions than answers. Which isn’t terrible. Questions are not a bad thing. But also…not great. Especially with the brain fog I’ve got going on from being sick.
I guess for now I will just add to my ever growing list of questions. Just threw on a new section for this specific archive group, because I think there will be a good amount of questions that pop up with them. But I’ve made new contacts that have a different knowledge set than I do and that is also important!
Week 11
2026 September 7-11
Gotta love a holiday week! Plus it’s an extra day off to try and shake off this dumb cold that is wanting to hang on for dear life. Brain fog is gone, heck yeah! Down side is that I still have this gross cough that will not go away. Hopefully it will not hang on for too long because I’ve got a couple of presentations that I am giving to freshman classes at the end of this week that I would love to not be hacking my way through.
There was a really helpful presentation that I went to about teaching information literacy through using speial collections. Seems like something that will be extremly relevant to my position in the future. It was presented by Rose McCandless from over at Ohio State University Libraries, she's the Instructional Services Coordinator and works with the Thompson Library Special Colections. I found out that there is also a certification that I can get for teaching information literacy that I think I am going to go for. It sounds like something that I could knock out next year. Still want to keep my eyes on the organization prize that is currently the undocumented mounds in the archive here. But it is always good to keep building up those new resources and making some new contacts as I'm getting started.
Speaking of, I went over to a staff forum meeting alone and introduced myself to a few staff members that I think could be great sources of information as I begin to uncover little mysteries in the archive. Kim from over in the advancement apartment and Michael from facilities, and they were so excited to have someone wanting to organize the documents over here...which seems to be a reoccuring theme I have noticed. I'm glad that I went to the meeting! It felt a bit scary...sounds silly, but I walked into a room of people who all knew each other and were already sitting in little groups. 100% worth it to take that chance to introduce myself though! I'm getting use to the idea that this role needs me to be able to fly solo, but be aware of the resources that are available around me. Deep breath!
This week was my first experience in giving presentations to college students, and I felt like I was cramming for a test making sure that I knew the slides I had gotten from my supervisor inside and out. It's a basic presentation for freshman in their first semester to help them understand how we can help them with research for their assignments. Gonna be honest though, I do not think most of the students actually paid much attention. There were a few that asked some good questions though and I got to explain how OhioLink works. So, fingers crossed, maybe some information will stick!
Week 12
2026 September 14-18
Now that students are starting to settle into classes I feel like I need to start figuring into what a normal schedule might look like for me. Trying to balance how much time to spend with reference, students, and trying to organize the archive. My position has been changed up from the previous person and in general when I ask people about the guy who had this position before me they don't really seem to know what he did...so tough to find a starting point. I do know my main focus is the archive this year, so I think that between my shifts at the reference desk I am going to dump a good chunk of my time into being up in the archive.
We have a feature on our library website that allows students to ask questions to the librarians, and until this week I had not been able to answer any questions. Either there were not any questions coming in or one of the other 2 librarians grabbed it first. But finally I got to help a student with some research for their thesis! I was a bit nervous at first, I mean I am guiding a student on where to locate resources for their thesis research...that feels intense. They were so thankful and said that the resources I sent them were really helpful. Man did that feel good! It's exciting to be on the other side, after doing undergrad and grad research it is cool to now be the one guiding students to solid resources.
There were some unexpected discoveries while I was looking through the shelves near my desk that are mysteries to my supervisor and the librarian that has been here since the library opened! Might be odd, but I get this little sense of adventure or excitement when I find these items that nobody knows anything about them or where they came from. Like why do we have a museum replica of a shirtless George Washington in a locked cabinet? Or what is a branch university archive doing with microfilm titled "FBI File on Eleanor Roosevelt" stored alongside microfilm labeled "Southern Confederacy"? There is also some formats that I don't think we will get the chance to investigate because we do not have the correct equiptment to view the AV format or the need/funds to send it out. Like the single zip we found in its case only titled as "Archived Files" which is extremly helpful and descriptive. So we will continue to add to the currently unsolved mysteries pile on my excel spreadsheet. But at least there is beginning to be acknowledgement that the archive is not a place to just dispose of old or unused items. Hopefully people will be open to my pushing the archive in a new direction. Fingers crossed!