Job Shadowing Experience

The purpose of the job shadow experience is to introduce the student to the major parts of archival work, give them some opportunity for brief hands-on experience, and to expose the student to various career pathways through 1:1 conversation with team members. Ultimately, we want the student to be able to visualize what working in the career can look like.

Total Estimated Time: 4.5 hours

a. Meet the Team - introduction and overview (10 AM: 10 minutes)

Everyone introduces themselves and briefly describes their position and responsibilities
1. Staff shares specific degrees and background, with opportunity to talk schooling, training, etc. more during 1:1 sessions
Student introduces themselves and their background/interests

b. Tour of the facilities (10:10 AM: 30-45 minutes)

With some emphasis on the more technical bits of the spaces, like how collections are organized, considerations and challenges of storing materials, etc. along with the show & tell of the fun stuff in the collection

c. Appraisal and accessioning (11 AM: 30 minutes)

Overview of how we evaluate incoming donations and materials
Potential for student to assist with a current project or at least be given a glimpse of it

d. Processing physical collections (11:30 AM: 45-60 minutes)

Overview of what processing is, goals of processing, and how to approach organizing collections
Student will spend some time working hands-on in a collection that is currently being processed

e. LUNCH BREAK (12:30 PM: 30 minutes)

Schedules permitting, this can be a team lunch (sack lunches)
Student has access to a refrigerator & microwave

f. Digital records (1:00 PM: 30 minutes)

Show Archive-It (saving website material) and discuss processing born-digital materials

g. Digital UNC (1:30 PM: 10-15 minutes)

Show process of uploading materials and determining metadata for our online collections

h. Reference & exhibits (1:45 PM: 15-30 minutes)

Give an overview of the types of reference requests we get and how we try to assist researchers
Discuss process for creating archival exhibits, show any in progress exhibit work

i. Final wrap-up (2:15 PM)

Chance for student to ask any final questions, or re-visit with any team member they would like to speak to again
Give student an archives magnet/button
Email follow-up survey & list of professional resources