One comment on the back of Bruce's and Peter's - my 14 year old niece is
just at the options stage of school, working out what she needs to study
over the next 7 years to follow a particular career path. When we looked in
the Careers Advisory Handbook there was nothing for archives or records
management - not under Information Science, Libraries, Record Keeping or any
of the other lateral things we could think of. Perhaps if the profession
wants to attract more "thrusting and brash" candidates for the courses (and
it's not strictly true that the courses pick academic types, more that
academic types come into contact with archives and choose this career over
librarianship or academia itself - you can only pick from the people who
apply to the courses) it needs to be more proactive in advertising through
things like the Careers Advisory Handbook or University Careers Fairs, and
not simply relying on word of mouth or personal interest bringing people
into contact with the profession.

I've had 3 jobs since I qualified, moving on average every 2 years - not
because a contract demanded it but because I wanted to gain a wide range of
experience. My long term view of how my career will progress requires it.
Peter's right, though - it does get harder the more chattels you pick up
(significant-others, offspring, cats, dogs, mortgages,.....)

Jan

Jan Hargreaves
Senior Archivist - Outreach, Publicity and Cross-Sectoral Initiatives
[log in to unmask]
01772 263032



-----Original Message-----
From: Jackson, Bruce [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 2:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Lack of archivists


Peter Emmison is  so right about a lot of points. I suppose the cowboys like
him or I should be grateful that so many of our colleagues are not prepared
to take risks - it does narrow down the competition!

But seriously, there is a real problem in getting people to move. An element
of it is that so many of them seem so unsure of their own abilities! Again I
am back to my old chestnut - I think the problem is in the people that the
Training courses select. Very nice, academically sound, but not brash or
thrusting enough!

Let's face it, if you are at university now and want to follow a career path
where you can be sure of a job when you leave - become a Records Manager or
(even) an archivist. The Local Government Association Conference on FOI in
London yesterday kept coming back to the reality that most authorities do
not have Records Management or Records Managers and that they need them!

Bruce Jackson
Lancashire Record Office
22 November 2001


-----Original Message-----
From: Emmerson Consulting [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 November 2001 14:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Lack of archivists


This mirrors our experience in helping clients to recruit to senior and
challenging records management posts at attractive salaries in well known
organisations.  Either the field is unworkably narrow or there are no
applicants at all.

There seem to be a two or three factors:

Staff at the right level have become deeply embedded in their existing
organisations and view the prospect of a move as professionally and
domestically disruptive.  They've just reached the stage where pensions and
children's schooling have become blips on the personal radar screen.

The dreaded word 'contract' has a much greater psychological impact than
people think - even when it's as long as three years (which some of us might
believe was quite long enough to stay in one job without totally
re-inventing it).

Archivists are not encouraged to recognise, it seems to me, that the world,
even of professional work, has changed and that an interesting and
satisfying career may consist of doing a series of different contract jobs
in different organisations.  Similarly as a manager of professionals in a
flat management structure, I found it increasingly difficult to get people
to recognise that to move up frequently meant moving out to gain wider
experience, rather than dead men's shoes.

The downside is that the log jam of promotion posts is not broken often
enough in established offices to allow a natural progression satisfying the
aspirations of  younger colleagues and allowing them to gain experience and
expertise.  Consequently inexperienced and unsuitable staff eventually apply
for and are given the sort of job to which Janet refers rather than someone
with the appropriate mix of skills, knowledge and attributes.

I'm not sure what the answer is but perhaps I can share my own experience.
I joined Barclays on a three year contract in 1987.  I left in 1999 (before
I needed to in order to set up my own business) having built the largest
integrated corporate archives and records management programme and operation
in the UK and becoming in the process one of the highest paid members of the
profession.  All my  professional colleagues there were recruited to similar
short term contracts and all went on to become permanent employees at the
end of their contract terms.  Even then there was a reluctance of people to
apply for these well paid, potentially exciting, ground breaking jobs - not
only were these contract posts but they weren't 'real jobs' (i.e. in a local
record office).  I can't speak directly for the people who took those jobs,
but my impression was that they thrived on the experience.

Sometimes you just have to step off the edge and see if the wings work!  But
then again, perhaps people who choose archives as a career don't generally
come out of that sort of box.


Peter Emmerson




Peter Emmerson
Director
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