#mercutiosdiary

[renlyslittlerose]

Hi! Your fics are absolutely stunning but I think your job sounds so incredibly cool! If you’re comfortable answering a slightly personal ask, how did you become an archivist? What drew you to that kind of work?

Thank you for your amazing contributions to the Obikin fandom ❤️

Oh gosh, thank you so much! You're too kind!!! 💗

And I don't mind at all! I actually stumbled into it (mostly) by accident. I was finishing up my double degree at university in the Classics and History when one of my professors said that a local private club (think 'White's' in London - elite, mostly rich members or literal royalty) was looking to take on an assistant to help their lead historian, and they wanted a student from the history department. I decided to apply and lo! I was hired.

So I learned a lot about the basics while working alongside their more experienced archivist and curator who, bless her, really wanted to help me along. She gave me lots of tips, taught me how to carry out the job, while also trying to guide me toward bigger things.

Meanwhile, while I was working that job at the club, I started volunteering at my local RCAF museum where I learned how to accession, archive material, preserve artefacts, etc. I actually networked with my current boss at a Renaissance Fair lol (my boss used to be a professional jouster, if you can believe it).

Then, a few months into my volunteer work with the RCAF museum, they asked if I would be willing to come work for them as an assistant curator. I of course jumped at the chance, and with the blessing of my boss at the club, I quit and moved on to the museum! While working at the museum I went on to receive my Masters in the Classics, while continuing my on-the-job education at the museum. Archival work sort of pivoted to me over the years, so now I split my time between digitizing our archival material, photographing the artefacts in our collections space, and transcribing letters, diaries, etc. While also still accepting and accessioning new donations and trying to find space for them in our very small area 😭

I think I was drawn to the work because it's a real and tangible way to work with history, and to distribute knowledge to the wider world. Working with history can sometimes feel like you're yelling into the void - no one hears you in amongst the rest of the voices. Or, those who do hear you are just part of your very insulare, often times elitist community. Post-secondary education and the trappings that come with such institutions are often times gated to those who don't have the money or the means to attend. Education at a higher level is a privilege rather than a right.

But when it comes to museum work, we get to share our work and our knowledge with the wider community - with those who live nearby, student groups from local schools, as well as with tourists. And the amazing thing about our archives is that they're available online for free. Anyone, anywhere in the world, so long as they have access to the internet can peruse our archives at their leisure. I have spent the last eight years digitizing our archives and putting them online for anyone to use. Our knowledge and the history that is contained within the walls of my office aren't just for me, or for those wealthy enough to access them. They are for everyone.

And I think that's really, really cool. And that is why I love my job.

In the next few years we're hoping to expand the archives to include photographs of our artefacts, so that the material we cannot put on display are still available for the public in some form. And again, these will all be available for free.

I would link to our archives but I don't wanna dox myself (which is a sad statement to make, but that's just how the internet is now a days). But maybe one day you'll accidentally stumble upon my handiwork out in the wild, and if you do I hope you enjoy photographs of airmen and women, ground crew, officers and NCOs, dogs and cats as airbase mascots, or a ventriloquist mummy made by a POW out of cigarette cases :)

#ask #reply #mercutiosdiary #sorry that went on for forever