Stranded.

I am in Perth, doing a practicuum for my course. My internet access is limited, but I have managed to control the pain.
I wrote this rant in anticipation the other day...

I am now officially doing the practical part of my qualification to be an archivist. I am working for no money at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. I have been there 3 days. You know when you make a decision and you are not sure if it is the right one? For example, the decision might have been made months ago, lets say, for arguments sake, May 2006, OR the decision might have been made without proper consultation and research. Perhaps you do not know anything at all about the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, even if you had the chance to peruse the very detailed and extensive website. You went into a decision blind. Much like this Masters course inh fact. Anyway, I have also been thinking about how many records (management) jobs there are out there, especially in the mining industry. I then think about how much money there is to be made in records management and the fact that I got a very very good mark for RK in second semester. And it makes me want to cry a little bit, because it is essentially another form of ‘working for the man’ and killing yourself little by little with horrific big corporation butt sucking. And I make a decision to do my placement in an archive, not a corporation (government or NGO) and I wonder why I did this cos it wont give me TRIM training that every prospective employer in RK demands. But then I start at JCPML and I remember that I wanted to be an archivist. AN ARCHIVIST. Not a RK professional. These are SO not the same, but according to my qualification, they are. According to some people’s opinion, the archivists and the RK professionals should be represented by the same organization. Now I am not an expert, especially after three days, but an archive is not about making sure legislative (or otherwise) evidential requirements are met. Take for example the JCPML: it is a research archive. The contents are collected and then arranged and described in order for scholars and other interested parties to discern, disseminate and provoke information and thought. Of course, as part of collecting this archive records are generated and kept in order to maintain the collection. The most important of these are donor agreements and copyright/provenance information/files. At JCPML the Collections Librarian deals with those records. The archives technician works with the actual collection by accessioning the items in it. The archivist in charge of the whole enterprise organizes all of these things and arranges and fosters relationships in order to get more stuff for the archive. This person also decides on how to promote the use and knowledge of the archive. The importance is in the collection, not the evidentiary value of the administration records. This is the job I want to do. Not any bullshit management of records so people are complying with the LAW. So there.