An Archivist's Tale

Gabriella Ivacs, Head of the Archives and Records Management Section of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, discusses her work for the agency, the Roma of Europe, the EU's GDPR, and how archives compensate for lost cultural heritage.

Andy Potter, Electronic Records Policy Analyst for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, tells us about his passion for audio, and his work managing records, working with government agencies, and (soon) helping set records policies for the federal government.

John Slate, City Archivist for the City of Dallas, spins a tale of being caught in the web of archives before his thirteenth birthday, and how he returns to the source of that capture in his first professional job. He ends up in Dallas, providing essential information for the city, its citizens, and users from anywhere else—all while protecting the assets of the city using the city's archival assets.

Joseph Coen, Archivist at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, talks about his beginnings as an archivist working in local government, his professional work in that community, and how he came to work for the diocese, where he has served many researchers and worked to document the diversity of Catholicism in his diverse diocese.

Polina Ilieva, Head of Archives and Special Collections at the University of California San Francisco, tells us how she moved to the U.S. and became an archivist. She also explains how she documents her university as well as the history of medicine and the histories of patients, while also maintaining the Industry Documents Library, consisting of documents created by industries that influence public health.

Kate Goad, the Assistant Librarian at the four-year-old Letterform Archives, discusses her work in a private special collections focusing on books, posters, and other printed material, but also holding archival materials, all documenting the richness of typographical design.

Margery Sly, Director of Special Collections at Temple University, talks to us about her broad and diverse career as an archivist, some of her wide-ranging work for the Society of American Archivists, and the huge collection of archives, manuscripts, and rare books Special Collections manages, even as they prepare for a huge move.

George Blood, President of George Blood LP, reveals how a beginning in music turned him into someone intent on preserving audio-visual records for the future. George discusses his company's small beginnings, its recent move into a large new space outside Philadelphia, the 152 audio-visual formats they can convert, their constant search for old av equipment—and the five Emmy awards he has received for his audio production work.

The married couple, Marisa Bourgoin (Head of Reference Services at the Archives of American Art) and John LeGloahec (Archives Specialist in the Electronic Records Division of the National Archives) discuss their very different career paths, how they met and grew their relationship, and how John managed through the 2019 shutdown of the federal government. You can also learn how Nelson Rockefeller died.

Cheryl Stadel-Bevans, a Records Management Specialist for the U.S. federal government, explains how someone with a bachelor's and master's in mathematics becomes an archivist and records management and loves the work. She also recounts her experiences as a furloughed worker in the record-breaking longest federal shutdown of all times on the day (unknown to her at the time) of the last work day of the furlough.

Chris Muller, founder and former CEO of Muller Media Conversions, tells us how he moved from writing code for Grumman to rescuing data from distressed, damaged, and obsolete media. His story covers the globe and some of the major stories of the recent past (Watergate, Whitewater, and WorldCom). The episode includes an account of his experience in downtown New York City during 9/11.

Jessica Newell, Archivist at the Edgar Cayce Foundation, recounts her movement from history into archives, and tells us what it is like to manage the archives of the famous American spiritualist Edgar Cayce. This episode is filled with parapsychology, metaphysical readings, and the interesting story of an American family preserving its history.

Bob Sink, former archivist of the New York Public Library, begins his story during the civil rights era, when he was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, and he explains how his desire to ensure justice brought him into archives. He discusses the joys of creating and maintaining an institutional archives and of his research into the librarians of NYPL. Alexa makes a brief appearance in this episode.

On their fiftieth episode, Karen Trivette and Geof Huth, hosts of An Archivist's Tale, discuss what they have helped create with the podcast over the preceding year and their plans for the podcast for this year, including travel to San Francisco, Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria. Karen discusses her big project for her institutional archives and her talk coming up in Slovenia. Geof explains why he has begun writing frequent online essays covering various issues in archival theory.

Bonnie Marie Sauer, Director of Archives and Records Management at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, discusses her move from public relations to archives, her career from government to performing arts organizations, and the constant need for inreach and outreach in archives.

David Kay, Digital Archivist for Optimity Advisors and the founder of Digital Archivy (http://www.digitalarchivy.com/), tells the story of his fall into archives (particularly digital archives), his work as an archivist for an animated television program, and his efforts to help design the Society of American Archivist's Digital Archives Specialist certification program. This is the first of our episodes to end with a limerick.

Peter Wosh, retired Director of the Archives and Public History Program at New York University, tells the tale of his early life, how his interest in history was spurred by his interest in the history of his own neighborhood, his varied carreer, his interest in Waldo Gifford Leland, and his work training a generation of archivists.

Toya Dubin, President of Hudson Archival, recounts her early life as the daughter of a microfilming company executive (her father) and a records manager (her mother), and as a girl who learned from ballet the need for excellence, before she describes the interesting collaborations she has had and solutions she has developed for archives, museums, and other institutions interested in memory.

Pamela Cruz, an archives executive, relates the surprising story of her move to New York City to fulfill a goal only to become an asset manager for the records and artifacts of businesses (Polo Ralph Lauren and Miramax) before those experiences helped make her an archivist for various institutions, even Girl Scouts USA.

Ryan Anthony Donaldson, Senior Manager of Heritage and Information Services at the Durst Organization, explains how auctions led him to museums and museums led him to archives, how he accidentally created his own first archives job, and what it is like working for a large real estate firm that is also a family business with a constant eye to the future that is informed by its understanding of the past.