Archivist Careers

Archivist Careers Information

An archivist collects and organizes the information that is important to society, both now and in the future. In fact, it is archivists, with their training and discerning eye, who decide what is important enough to carefully preserve for future study.

Archivist Careers & Degrees

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Most archivists specialize in a certain field and/or time period so they may have a better understanding of what is important for its particular archive. Because of the multitude of ways in which we store information, an archivist must be proficient in many forms of information storage, including manuscript, print, photography, audiotape, and digital CD-ROM and DVD.

Archivist Careers Path

An archivist may have a Bachelor’s degree in any number of fields, but most employers look for a graduate degree in library science or history and courses in archival studies. Experience working with archives is also desired. Because new data storage technologies are always emerging, people in archivist careers are expected to be highly skilled with computers and the requisite digital equipment used to transfer older media forms into digital files.

Archivist Careers Salary Expectations

The average salary for an archivist is $40,730 a year, with the middle fifty percent earning $30,610 and $53,990 a year. Those employed by the Federal Government, however, earn an average salary of $79,199 a year.

Archivist Careers: Compatible Personality Traits

Eye for detail, careful, highly organized, good with technology, likes to see a project through from beginning to end, self-motivated, able to make and defend well-reasoned evaluations.

Archivist Interview

Interested in finding out the daily responsibilities of an audio and visual archivist? Read More from an Archivist…

Archivist Careers Job Outlook

Job openings for archivists in a given time period are often much fewer than the number of qualified applicants and so competition can be keen. Archivists with highly specialized skills, including extensive computer training, are the most likely to find a job. Because employers often look for experience, archivists who have completed internships or worked in archives while getting their degrees are also more likely land a job. Those archivists skilled in newer digital forms of information storage are more sought after than those who specialize in older media. For those archivists willing to work outside of museums and libraries, some large corporations, fraternal organizations, and religious groups have begun hiring archivists to organize their records in order to meet legal requirements or to preserve their own history.

Slightly off the Footpath

Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos065.htm