In the American Heritage Center’s largest storage area.

Each year, one month is devoted to raising awareness of some of our nation’s most important cultural institutions–archives!  During the month of October, archival institutions around the country are holding special events to reach out to their communities and to demystify the archives, as well as the collections they hold.  Well, we here at the American Heritage Center are hoping to contribute to this effort by providing you with a behind-the-scenes peek at what archivists actually do.  Many of us have been asked the question, over the course of our careers, “You’re an archivist?  What’s that?”   And so, we have opted to share a bit of what we do here at the AHC.  Each of the archives jobs at the AHC is different, since everyone has unique responsibilities.  We hope to shed some light on some of the more traditional duties, as well as job duties that don’t fit within the typical definition of “archivist”–which, according to Dictionary.com, is “a person responsible for preserving, organizing, or servicing archival material.”

During the month of October, you’ll be able to read profiles of many AHC faculty and staff members.  We’ll feature individuals who work in different departments to show the wide range of responsibilities that encompass “archives work.”  If you have questions that you’d like to ask, please feel free to post them as comments on the blog and we’ll be delighted to respond.

Happy Archives Month!

–Rachael Dreyer, Reference Archivist