Professional Inspiration

Although I have promised myself that I would keep this blog as non-personal as possible, I went on a journey these last few days that simply could not be put into a technical, cut-and-dry synopsis. It was so much more.

On Wednesday, myself and my dear friends from school, Ronee and Jennifer, set off for Chicago. The Society of American Archivists Annual Conference awaited us there. It was all our first and certainly not our last.

I cannot speak for what anyone else was at the conference for, but the place offered so much to so many, from a Career Workshop, to top-notch sessions, to a glorious reception with booze and yummy eats. I went there for inspiration.

Going in, I felt that I was slowly going into exile as far as the archival profession was concerned. Granted, I'm working on a digitization project at Southfield Public Library, but I felt that I was really wrapping myself more in library work than archival.

Further, I have a directed study as my last course about archival education. About two weeks ago, I started having doubts and thought it'd be best if I just took a regular class and be done with it.

After this conference, both of those last two paragraphs are insignificant. I am ready to get knee-deep in the digitization project and introduce some useful tools. I want to develop our backend capability with the Archivists' Toolkit and begin creating a prototype for a searchable interface for patrons. I want to create a website with a bunch of my own things (resume, blog links, etc) and also for a survey to get my research going. I feel that what I've seen at the conference these last two days (incredible sessions, by the way) that my initial hypothesis is looking like it's on the right track.

I won't blather on (yet). But it is safe to say that I am inspired. I have turned from exile and am returning to the archival promised land. And it's all thanks to Sweet Home Chicago.