Assignment 10

I looked at padg over the last four months for a general idea of the PA jobs currently available, and from that my impression is that there are not very many (although anecdotally it seems to me that people are saying that there are currently, and will be in the future, many more jobs for preservation than for conservation).  Those that I saw were for a range of levels, and required differing amounts of experience (in addition to the masters degree, which they had in common).  The Head of Preservation job for the U. of Maryland, which we discussed in class, requires 5 years of experience including some management, while a Digital Preservation Librarian position at the U. of Michigan requires 3 years of experience with digital resources.  The Preservation Services Librarian position at Solinet/Lyrasis is open for candidates with two years of preservation education or equivalent work experience.

For conservators, the majority of the jobs posted seem to be for upper level positions with several years of professional experience necessary (i.e. Princeton), although from looking at the NARA jobs that came up in class it seemed that the qualifications were nebulous.  In addition, there are several fellowships available for recent program graduates, for example at CCAHA, NEDCC, or the Morgan Library.  Most of these seem primarily paper-based.  One exception was UVA, which posted for a Collections Conservator a few months ago and specified in the first line of the posting that the applicant should be "digitally savvy and energetic."  This is a completely new job, rather than an established one being filled, and it would be interesting to know if a correlation exists.  Besides the fellowships, it did not appear that most of these jobs involved a great deal of treatment--that treatment experience and knowledge would be necessary, but most of the work would actually be administrative.

Of the job postings discussed in class, the General Collections Conservator for Princeton appealed to me the most because of its focus on paper-based materials, and its emphasis on matching a candidate's skills to its collection.  They will consider candidates with a Book Arts degree as well as the MLIS, which I think is very smart given their proximity to Philadelphia and the Book Arts program at the University of the Arts there, which has produced many great conservators with really excellent hand skills.  Besides education and experience, other requirements include knowledge of a wide range of time periods of books, and the current principles behind decision making and ethics in conservation.  Much attention is also paid to interpersonal skills; the years of experience must include supervision and management, and the posting makes it very clear that the position will involve a great deal of human interaction and maneuvering in a large and complex institution, not isolated bench work.  In the ischool Management class Dr. Frick pointed out that job interviews take place in large part so that it can be determined whether the candidate is a good fit for the culture of the institution, and I think that having those qualifications listed so explicitly is a positive thing.