Showing My Face

I went to my second archival conference in as many months yesterday. The Society of Ohio Archivists Annual Spring Meeting was held for one day at the OCLC in Dublin. The OCLC is the Online Computer Library Center and has been a big name in the library field for a long time. To go to OCLC was exciting enough, even if they were only hosting the event.

Anyway, not being a member of SOA and not yet an archivist (in the employed sense of the term), I felt a little like I may have been crashing the party, but there was absolutely no basis for it. As I walked past small groups of people, all very professional-looking and greeting each other as colleagues, I tried not to be uptight. Luckily, I didn't have the chance to because at the registration table my supervisor from my practicum the previous summer hopped right up and gave me a hug. I was immediately put at ease, although it did take some time for me to be confident enough to introduce myself to others. When the name tags were available, I still felt I had to offer additional explanation that I was a recent graduate, because unlike everyone else (most everyone else; there was a very frustrated woman who earned her MLS last year and has had no luck), I didn't have my employer's name under mine.

The meeting really felt like an opportunity for colleagues to reunite and catch up, and discuss the current issues in the profession. Maybe that is what all conferences really are. This certainly wasn't a networking event. There were no recruiters, no hopefuls with their resumes in hand. It seems that the Society of American Archivists do have recruiters at their big, national annual conference, but that's big-time, both in the number of people there and the cost to attend. At any rate, I made it clear to those I met that I was in the market for a job, but other than knowing my name, they knew nothing more by which to contact or recommend me.

The information was great. I learned a little more about NHPRC grants, electronic record-keeping, and content management systems (something I would love to have for my dad's office--an agency management system--but the cost can be prohibitive for small businesses). It was all much more interesting than the continuing education courses I occasionally take for insurance. Isn't that why I'm switching careers? Archival issues are issues I want to face and hopefully help to find solutions.

Who knows? Maybe this time next year I will be presenting at one of these meetings.

I'm very optimistic. "Ain't nobody gonna break my stride..."