Archivists, like curators and librarians, work in the field of information. Archivists are responsible for identifying, collecting, organizing, recording, describing, preserving, and displaying historical materials. The main responsibility of an archivist is to present authentic and relevant pieces of history in a coherent manner.
Archivists have a thorough understanding of the time period and/or collection topic they are archiving. They conduct research and gather items to ensure that all archival materials are clearly identified. An archivist chooses items that are appropriate for a given organization’s collection. Archivists must keep meticulous records of the people, places, and dates associated with the items they choose to save. These items could include handwritten notes, photographs, film, and a variety of other materials.
They may post descriptions of the items they collect on company websites or other public locations, or they may use them in museums. The majority of these descriptions are usually written by an archivist. He or she must meticulously document and record all aspects of each archived item in the collection. Archivists are also responsible for preservation. They’re familiar with how to store both flat papers and three-dimensional materials.
The items collected by an archivist must be displayed in a logical and informative manner. According to some archivists, a collection of archival items should always tell a unified story about its subject and time period. Archivists must exercise professional care and ethics in their work, as well as knowledgeable selection when selecting archival quality goods. Archivists are constantly on the lookout for useful items to archive and strive to select historical materials with care.
Circulating and non-circulating collections are the two main types of archived collections. Within a company or organization, non-circulating collections may be archived. The public can view circulating historical collections, but they are usually carefully preserved so that they cannot be touched directly. Archivists are not only responsible for archiving materials, but they are also expected to attend meetings and industry events on a regular basis. An archivist frequently supervises a team of people who assist him or her in recording and preserving historical documents.
Archivist responsibilities are similar to librarian responsibilities in that both collect, preserve, and display materials for organized public or private access. The job responsibilities of archivists and curators are also similar in that they both work with a wide variety of materials in various shapes, sizes, and categories. Archivists, on the other hand, describe materials differently than librarians, and they frequently work with audio-visual formats that curators do not.