Lydia Spotts
I have a mix of experiences and interests in archives management and librarianship. Most recently, I’ve been working as a “lone arranger”* at a company that never had an archivist before me. In this type of position, you truly have to do a bit of everything and learn on the go. I enjoy both the printed document and digital—I’ve delved into minor conservation treatments and can make a clamshell, but I also like ensuring the metadata for a digital collection is as good as it can be and working to make sure search functionality performs as expected. I like to understand how a database is structured behind the scenes and how metadata is encoded, and always endeavor to learn more. I enjoy behind the scenes work of processing, creating indices, and finding aids, but reference interactions are a thrill that remind me what it is all for. I like improving the veracity of a narrative with obscure digitally available primary sources (thanks HathiTrust!) and helping researchers connect dots and find what they didn’t know they need. *an archivist working alone or in a very small staff situation.
