A Change Would Do You Good: Transforming Archives with Cross-Sector Perspectives

Abstract

The various “sectors” of archives and its related professions, whether functional or institutional, increasingly diverge from each other in priorities, strategies, and constituencies. For the archivist or records manager changing positions across sectors, however, an opportunity exists to bring skills and insights learned in previous field(s) to transform the work being done in these new places. Cross-sector experiences also give archivists and records managers an opportunity to reflect on how their transitions have transformed their outlook on the profession as a whole, and their role within it. In this lightning round session, eight archivists will share how prior experience in a different archives sector—or working outside of an archives altogether—has helped them reshape their skills, positions, or repositories. Speakers have transitioned across a wide variety of archival and related “sectors,” including local and state governments, corporate archives, museums, local historical societies, and academic archives. They will discuss surprises and difficulties encountered during these moves, new skills required to succeed in different roles, what they brought from previous positions that have transformed their new places of work, and how making the change altered their professional self-images. The session will emphasize the commonality of archives work across all sectors, while also suggesting the importance of “cross-pollinating” with new perspectives and ideas. The primary audience for this session is early-to-mid-career archivists contemplating a sector change and wanting to hear experiences of people who have done so, but all are welcome.