Archivist for hire!

[Scott B]

Headline: Archivist for hire!
Name: Scott Blake
Email Address: scottdblake@hotmail.com
Current Location: Mountain View, California, USA

Preferred Job Category: Archives

Personal Statement:
Having been out of archiving for several years, I want to get back into the field either as an archivist or an assistant archivist in the public or private sector.

Education:
I studied archiving as part of the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. I received my MLS in 2000. Undergraduate studies were at San Francisco State University, with a BA in Psychology in 1998.

Professional Experience:
I did archiving work with the Center for Steinbeck Studies located at San Jose State University. It is the repository of John Steinbeck's collection of letters, photographs, books, even his dining room set. Much of it was obtained from his widow. Many people use it for research. I assessed the storage conditions of the collection and, working within a severely limited budget, improved storage to prevent deterioration. I processed unevaluated collections and created finding aids for the new material.

My other archiving experience was with Bank of America Corporate Archives. This was at the time when the bank had been consolidated with Nations Bank. Many smaller banks nationwide were involved in this consolidation. The result was a huge number of boxed archives of all those banks.

The head Corporate Archivist assigned me to evaluate that material. It was a bit of everything; corporate records, photos, documents, miscellaneous ephemera. Much of it was of historical value as well as its value to the bank. I established each collection's place within the overall Bank of America collection by studying the individual items and researching corporate records. Using that information, I created finding aids. In the rare instances where the sending bank included a finding aid or a similar list, I corrected errors and improved entries.

Applicable Skills:
Skilled researcher.
Strong analytical, planning, and organizational abilities.
Detail oriented, quick learner.
Excellent verbal and written skills.
Microsoft Office Suite, adept with databases.

Other:
None currently.