Hi Karla

As a newbie to the field too, I can tell you that every archivist I've talked
to has said the way to break in is through internships, volunteer work, and
soft money/grant funded jobs.  It won't pay you a whole lot at first.  Right
now Im only working part time as an archivist for a local community college
and volunteering at the Chicago Historical Society on the side.  But, if it
leads into a full time, better paying archival position at a major
museum/research instiutution/archive/historical society/whatever somewhere
along the line then it's worth it.

I also strongly encourage you to network and build contacts as they will help
you find jobs.  They can give you advice on the daily, practical, and
theoretical foundations of archival work and answer any questions you have or
clear up any confusion (and let me tell you, confusion is bound to happen at
first *grin*).

As for archival work vs teaching, I tried teaching at one point, in fact it
was my original goal - to be a high school history teacher; but I realized
that I'm simply terrified of standing up in front of a group of kids and
teaching them about a subject that, in all honesty, many of them dont care
about (sad but true!).  Also you have to deal with discipline problems in the
classroom, and frankly, I equated such experiences with being in Vietnam -
maybe a little bit of a drastic comparison, but at the time I sure felt that
way.  Sure you still have to deal with the public as an archivist, but it's
not quite the same because with archives, the people *want* to be there,
whereas in school the kids don't have a choice.

As for your question about needed a PHd, I would stronly recommend a masters
in library science, and a masters in history would help too (ok, I admit I
don't have that - bad me!); beyond that, I'm not really sure.

Did I answer all your questions?  Hope so.

-Martin Firestein
Adjunct Faculty Archivist, Harper College
Palatine, IL

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