Archiving Random Thoughts

In 2025, we all have goals that we want to achieve to improve ourselves. For me, I have chosen this to be the year of branding; one of the components is to get back on the speaking circuit. Before Covid, I would often speak at many conferences. The topics would vary. They would include music genres, LARPs, and tips to boost public speaking.

One book on my shelf, Creating Family Archives, gave me plenty to think about. It is a guide that shows how to create an archive for your family history. My intention was to read the book and use it for research in a talk that I am developing. I would have combined this in both a physical and digital space. After reading this book, I have enough to split it into two parts.

For those who know me, welcome back. If you are new here, thanks for stopping by. My name is Patrick Burden; I am currently the Digital Collections Archivist for WVU. I have over 17 years of experience in the IT field before making the jump to archiving.

Whenever I read reviews, the most common thing people do is scroll to the bottom of the page and see the star rating. People often ignore anything that the reviewer commented on. This is a dumb way to get recommendations. You not only need to know the perspective of the person reading the book, but also their rationale. Having them explain the title's core tenets helps. It shows if you will mesh with their thinking.

What you (the reader’s) goal is to figure out where I am coming from and how it applies to me. Comparing our frames of reference to yours to see if this is a title that is worth picking up. This is why I tend to write the same 3rd paragraph in each post I do, to give you a sense of who I am before explaining my opinion. Now onto the book.

This book targets people who want to create family archives “the right way.” As in following standards to pass down the generations. If I were to strip away the subject and get to the point, what would you learn in this book:

• 7% is about where to buy archival supplies.
• 7% is how to display materials to avoid damage (e.g. hanging a picture on a wall)
• 14% is digital preservation.
• 14% is accessioning and creating a finding aid.
• And 58% is about the conservation and handling of materials.

This book goes in depth on handling physical materials and what you can do to not damage things. If you are a member of the NEDCC this is nothing new. As someone who doesn’t often handle physical things, it was a gold mine. I know that I am not going to do the more advanced things (talking to a professional is a common theme). I now know enough to get by on a basic level and do the basics in the future. The material of the book is dense enough to fulfill anyone's appetite.

What I frequently asked myself was who the intended audience was. The author does a great job of explaining concepts to those who have not been to library school. It also tries to explain how to do a scope and context for a finding aid that 4% of people will get around to doing.

I get that this is an SAA-published book. There is a good assumption that there is going to be an archivist reading this. Mainly because, either they have a project or are curious (that’s me). It loses me because it assumes you know nothing. Yet, it talks about archival boxes and the chemistry of acidic materials. While I have seen this practice done before, it is a fine line to walk if that was your intended goal.

If you are reading this and lack a master's degree, much of the book will be too advanced for you. Now, that does not mean you should not read the book. Instead, I would look for simpler techniques and focus on that for your collections. Your rate of return on effort to time will diminish over time to the point where it is not worth it.

This inverted J Curve represents the chess players trying to take their skills seriously. Starting at Game 49 Source: The Leaning Curve for Chess Skill

At first, doing the basic actions will save years in preserving materials. Over time, you are going to hit a point that will require too much effort to save little time. As an archivist, I would say do it all to protect your items forever; I also know that Father Time has a perfect record.

This is the point where one would extrapolate and give you a top X things anyone should do. I am not going to do that. That is like giving away plot details in a movie; some people don't want spoilers. There is GREAT advice given in this book; there is also unique advice as well. If removing dust from a tapestry by using cheesecloth on the end of a vacuum on low power six inches (ca. 15 cm) away from the surface appeals to you, buy this immediately.

If you are going to want to know enough to get started, get it from the library. There are several passages you can skip over and focus on what makes sense to you. The material here is top-notch, and you can ensure that it is well worth reading.

If I were to make a suggestion, I would reorder the tips in each medium from simplest to most complex. This will get people to hit the “I am not doing that” part of the chapter and move on to the next from there. Keep the jargon as a glossary item for those wanting to know the details away from those who want a simple guide.

This technique is not the best way to write a book about this subject. Yet, it would be more approachable to those willing to pick up the book on Amazon. This was a great read and I would recommend people picking it up for their project.

Until next time, take care.

Every so often you get inspired to do a post based on recent events, and this one would fall into that category. I have been getting into a routine where I check SAA Connect about once a week. SAA Connect is a forum site where people can submit various archival discussions. Posts tend to range from webinar reminders to questions in the field. In this case, it is a request for feedback.

I remembered that the Archival Continuing Education (ACE) Guidelines will update in 2025. After reading their proposal and thinking it over, I have a few thoughts.

For those who know me, welcome back. If you are new here, thanks for stopping by. My name is Patrick Burden; I am currently the Digital Collections Archivist for WVU. I have over 17 years of experience in the IT field before making the jump to archiving.

Due to the nature of the request, the focus is going to be on continuing education. We will not mention any discussion on getting a degree or doing an internship. For clarity, I have my Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) certification. I have also attended courses that fit the Arrangement and Description (A&D) as well. Both of these programs are run by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) is another that I am aware of, but I have not pursued that yet.

Avoiding Paper Tigers

Before we begin, I want to bring in my IT side for a moment. Continuing education is not only looked down upon, but you will also get judged for doing it in the first place. In IT, people only value the results of “what you have done lately.” If you can point to something that you have completed and can explain your reasoning, then you have gold.

Yet, Human Resources exists. HR is a group of people that means well. They want to make sure that they can cultivate a team that is able to work together and have the knowledge to excel. The problem is that they do not talk to the people who are going to actually work with them to get whatever they value.

In my old IT job, they were hiring an agile coach (that is a story in and of itself for later), and it came down to two candidates. The first one showed examples they had done in other organizations. The latter was able to showcase their rate in training other coaches. We wanted the former; they chose the latter. It may be a surprise that they did not last long in their position. Although the series of things they did to prolong their time would stagger most people.

There is more I could say on this, but to keep it concise. There is always a leeriness of people who have not applied the knowledge that they are able to learn. So much so that there is a cottage industry for people to jump into IT and make headway in starting their career. Welcome to boot camps!

Imagine four eight-hour days with the most inventive studying that you can imagine. Add on top of that a bar that you need to hit to get a paper showcasing that you passed the course and are ready to work. The bootcamp does not care how well you worked after you leave. Only if you are able to finish a curated project and recieved the proverbial green check mark.

The concept of taking these courses to immediately apply is awesome. Can I change my career in six weeks AND have something to show the person that I am interviewing? Sign me up! The problem is that once you land that job, your ceiling for how far you can go is very limited.

If you get the CS degree from a school, you may start behind the boot camp person. But you will be able to exceed any heights they are willing to go to. By being able to explain why things work, you can catch up to the boot camp person and show value in the company. Over time, you will exceed their capabilities since you can see the bigger picture. The boot camp is good for the trench work; the degrees are for the generals.

This is why they get the nickname of a paper tiger. They are able to do the work in a Goldilocks state where nothing goes wrong. As soon as a wrinkle comes around, they will fold over and be unable to fix the problem.

Reviewing the current state of ACE

As you can imagine, this is something that you do not want to duplicate in the Archives world. The goal should be that anyone taking these courses can get value from them. Being able to learn the skills needed to apply it to their job. In reading over the proposal, I am left with more questions than answers.

First, the good. They provide guidance on how to design a course. They also emphasize seeking feedback to improve the presenter. Getting this feedback will make sure the presenter can catch mistakes early. The comparison between the methods of learning and their advantages is nice. I, unfortunately, doubt many will take the suggestions into account.

When it comes to the qualifications of an instructor, this is where you start to lose me. It's good to ensure the instructor knows the subject before having them teach. The issue I have is that you are relying on factors that do not cross over to the ability to teach. Two criteria that you have mentioned are publications and adjacent knowledge. The most important factor you have not considered is how well they can present their topic.

I recommend a few changes. They should emphasize public speaking, mentoring, and classroom skills more. If I know everything about X, and I cannot communicate that to you, then why should I do it in front of others.

For the course structure, I know that using buckets would be a good metric. Having a quick shorthand to help someone pick out a course would be beneficial. Borrowing the terms from the ACA makes sense. Why reinvent the wheel if someone has already designed it. I would caution you about current descriptions since you do not provide any examples.

This does not have to be a comprehensive list. A simple list of things for each category would help people know what goes where. I would open up to key people in each of the domains to encapsulate where things should go.

When it comes to the specialized courses, this is where things are going to get dicey. The only real way to understand advanced technology is to actually use it. The IT boot camps will create a sandbox to teach skills through repetition. The problem is that if we are teaching toward that scenario, bad habits will develop.

The hidden enemy

In the QA world, we call this testing to a checklist. If your job is to check all the boxes, then what is going to incentivize you to go beyond the boundaries? Why explore when you have hard metrics? Doing the least work to increase efficiency may seem to be good. Over time, someone may find shortcuts to check the boxes. Forgetting that the box is there to remind you to do the actual work.

Instead, what you need to do is have some project-focused work that goes in tandem with the course. A breakdown should be something like this. 25% Instructional, 70% Hands-on a live project, and 5% wrap-up to get everyone’s thoughts. Some projects are good candidates: Wikipedia Editing, Citizen Archivists, and internal database authority cleanup. Working on real projects gives people experience, which they can apply.

While this does broach internships as a topic, I will stop there. Do reach out if you want to know my thoughts on the matter and can do another post like this. Before wrapping up here are some thoughts I had when I was going through these programs.

Selling fool’s gold?

The reason I have not gone for the ACA is that they were unable to explain why it is worth getting the certification. When I attended my first SAA meeting in Boston a few years ago, I was able to talk to a representative of the ACA. I asked him to sell me on the certification. He told me that it was a line to add to a resume, and that was it.

Now, as you can imagine, that was an odd set of circumstances to have in person. But, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I approached him during a quiet period between sessions, and he might not have had his pitch ready.

So, I did what many people would do, ask around. I could find someone during the conference with ACA credentials. Then strike up a conversation talking about their experience. If only past me had that idea.

Instead, I went with the next best thing, my professors! Since their advanced credentials and experience could fill in the missing link. They told me not to go for it. Like me, they did not have the experience of what it would do to advance someone’s career. There were talks of a paper in which they were going to check the ACA, but I have not seen that.

As someone who got out of the job search, I only saw this in a handful of openings. Of those where they listed it, they also asked for 10+ years of experience. It felt like the person writing the job posting threw it on there as an afterthought.

If you are someone who cares about the ACA. My suggestion is to get better marketing to explain to people what value it brings. Once you do that, make it open and accessible to those searching within the field.

The whims of a schedule

As for the A&D certification, I was actually trying to pursue it recently but encountered a pitfall. One example is taking basic fundamental courses. Having a shared foundation will help certified individuals have the same starting point. The issue I encountered is that they need you to go and take a class in person.

Learning in person is, generally, the better option if you can do it. Its an environment that reduces distraction and gets you face to face with your peers. I recently did one at Penn and gained a lot of knowledge that I am applying. Yet, you are now playing roulette with where the class is being held. I was able to make the Penn class since I was living close by. If I have to travel, then we are going to encounter a different story.

Let’s use a current example. Let’s say that I want to do the A&D certification. I have to take a fundamentals course. Currently, students must complete this course in person. If I am eager, I am going to need to book it as soon as I can. At the time of writing, it appears that the next one is going to take place in Austin, Texas.

After doing some back-of-the-napkin math, it would cost me over $1,100 to take this course. Breaking down the costs, $400 would be the cheapest for me to register for a seat. This requires both SAA membership and reserving it early in the calendar year. The rest would be for hotel, food, and transportation with the closest proximity to the venue. Taking one class with nothing else offered in the area is too high to justify the costs.

While I could take other courses in the meantime. The fact is this hard rule is going to limit how fast I can achieve the certification. If I wanted to educate myself, I would need to get into financial hardships to speed up this process. Or hope that an event will occur closer to my geographical location to afford it. If I could have the option to take this course online, I would be able to take it on my schedule at a reduced cost. Yes, there are drawbacks to working from a distance. But, if it saves $700, it may be worth it.

There is an alternative that they are doing to give more bang for your buck. That is scheduling these classes as a “Day 0” workshop at an archives conference. The smaller the coverage area an organization is, the simpler it will be for someone to attend. This means I am no longer paying for a class, but also a public gathering to share ideas with peers.

In a perfect world, you'd have them at regional conferences to boost their appeal. In turn, more people will go to these events, building a stronger network in their area. From a cost perspective, you can now justify a higher cost since you are going to a venue for many things. Because the local organization is going to cover some costs, such as the location expense. You can lower the cost of attending the course so that it could benefit everyone.

An overview on getting my DAS

Since I skirted around the topic, it is time to talk about the process itself. I got my DAS certificate during the pandemic while also going for my masters. Because of this, they waived the in-person class rule and instead had a zoom offering. This made it easier to take these courses and complete them.

The Zoom classes have set start and end dates. With the assumption to be on the call for the entire class. The good news is, if you can't make it, you can access the recording on their platform for a limited time. Once a class starts, you will have 30 days to view all the material and then take the exam to get credit for the course. Doing so will give you a certificate that you can save, and credit gets applied to the exam.

Once you confirm that you meet the requirements, you can prepare for the final exam. SAA will send an email before the testing for you to sign up. This happens in January, May, and October, but this could change in the future. If you score 80% or better on the final exam, congratulations! You have yourself a certification.

Like with most other certifications, there is an education rule to renew it for another cycle. You would need to take some more classes to maintain the certification. The last time I checked, it was five, but check the website in case that changes. You can then select the rest of the courses to meet this rule. The only quirk is that no more than one of these courses can be foundational. Since you have already gone through it, you should know most of the info taught at that level.

What is the goal of continuing education

Outside of the requirements of a job, what would motivate you in taking these courses? The simple answer is filling in gaps that Library School doesn’t have time to cover. A non-tool-dependent explanation lets you go “one level deeper.” It shows you what happens under the hood. You realize this field isn't THAT hard (on a small scale). It also makes you ponder how to improve your organization.

One of the running jokes I would often tell is that you would look at the OAIS model in 75% of the courses. As soon as you ask a question on how to read the chart, the class moves on. I took a class (From Pre-SIP to DIP) to actually have it explained to me in a manner that I could understand. It's annoying. For something core to the field, I had to pay hundreds of dollars to get an answer.

There is, yet, a bit of a downside to these courses. First, they are going to cost you. If you are able to take them on someone else's dime as a formal way of sharpening your skills, do so. I paid about $6,000 to take all the classes and get the materials to get my DAS. I was able to spread this out over the course of a year.

I often wait until the SAA education has its sales on their courses. I saved hundreds by bulk buying per-recorded courses on sale. This won't work with the live Zoom calls. So, be careful when choosing the cheap courses.

Next, prepare to adjust your schedule to these courses. I was able to select courses that were being offered between school. Those windows of time were ideal; I could take the classes with minimal interruption. I did mention the 30-day windows earlier. So you could shift the course by sitting on it for a few weeks. Then completing it when it would be most helpful.

Instead, try to take it right away and then go back and forth with the person who is running the course. You have a rare opportunity to talk to someone on a one-on-one basis. Use it to confirm your understanding of the materials. If there is an assignment, do it, and get it checked over. Download the “answer” and understand why it is different so that you can use it as a reference going forward.

One negative about the course structure was the content in the fundamental courses. The problem isn't requiring them. It's that there's no single course on a specific topic. This is something I like to call the rules lawyer problem.

If I were to sit down and read a tabletop role-playing game. Then point to many areas of the book that covered the same set of rules, it fails. Using many wordings allows a contradiction. It could spark a debate over which section to interpret.

Instead, you should test what the foundation should include. Organize it for one topic only and go deeper in the details. If another course is using part of this, that's okay. Make sure that they mention that the course exists if someone wants to explore further in the topic.

Expanding this to all Continuing Education programs could cause some problems. Since you would need coordination between each government body to follow this structure. Given that only the ACA and SAA are doing this, I would be willing to take that risk.

Final Suggestions

So, with all this context, what would I recommend ACE to do? First, do not rely on surveys to determine how well someone has taught a course. Oftentimes, you will get very positive results if you take a course with no separation. Ask the students six months to a year after they took it if they can apply what they learned. If the answer is yes and they can prove it, then that would be a success.

We need to discourage the one-off class structure. Not everyone has a budget dedicated to taking courses at their job. Consider the location and timing of your class, and rotate its location often. Focus more on local organizations helping to establish that foothold.

Have a bigger emphasis on doing actual work on real projects. Some examples:

• Editing Wikipedia.
• Transcribing Script from documents (see Citizen Archivist).
• Reducing a backlog of work at a nonprofit organization.
• Holding a community digitization event.
• Updating the authority files in a specialized database.

Getting hands dirty is the best way to apply knowledge and gain valuable experience.

Have a centralized body to help create a better roadmap for setting required courses. Ensure a foundational course is suitable for building upon. It should go in-depth into any standard or tool one can use to apply for their job. Explain what popular tools are doing to demystify their process. Knowing the reasons for the steps taken helps one understand the practices.

Work with higher education to come up with a set of things each area should cover. Try to find the gaps that schools are unable to cover and make a course surrounding that. Then let the school inform students on where to get this so that they can pursue it. A school would be the perfect venue for an in-person class for beginners.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful. Reach out if you have any questions. Until next time, take care.

As the year comes to a close, I have reached the end of a stressful few months. Starting a new job, I had to do my first academic evaluation of the work I have accomplished over the past two months. Luckily, I was able to have the time to take care of this before the holiday season. With the extra time, I can focus on some side projects, including starting this blog.

It also marks the end of my annual theme. If you are not familiar with this concept, think of it as a new year’s resolution that you have a chance to complete. 2024 was the year of Openness and 2025 is going to be the year of Branding for me. As I close on the prior theme, and I'm in a self-reflective mood, I thought about making a mixtape.

Now, I know there is a chance that some of you are not familiar with this concept. A mixtape is where you take a list of songs and have some sort of centralized theme around it. The goal is to share this music with your friends to get their approval. While some people used it as sort of a means to flex on their musical knowledge, others wanted to convey a story to them. For me, I grew up in the age of cassettes and CDs, but now we have adjusted this to a playlist. So, indulge me for a moment as I share one with you.

An opening track to me sets the table for what you are able to hear. For me, this is going to be a very brief look at my career. My story is how I went from an Information Technology (IT) professional to a digital archivist. It sets a tone for some events I will describe on this journey.

If you are new here, welcome. My name is Patrick Burden. I have over 17 years of IT experience and over four years in libraries. Most recently at the University of West Virginia as their Digital Collections Archivist. I have set myself apart from other colleagues in being able to combine both of these disciplines. Preserving the past before it fades to bits. If you are not new here, welcome back. Given that this is the first post on the website, I'm glad you decided to check out the first one.

So, it is time to start from the beginning: the origin story of figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

It’s all about the Mechanical Keyboards

A mechanical keyboard is what made me choose to get a career in Information Technology. Sorry for spoiling this section from the jump. Sometimes you figure it out early for the dumbest reaosns. There were three distinct moments in my life that solidified my path down this road.

The first was in third grade. In which I heard the clangs of the 1980s keys. Granted in 1994 you would consider this old then, but as kids we didn’t care. The computer was in the back of the room, and the buckling springs on the keyboard were hard not to ignore. Of course, we played the hit blockbuster at the time, Oregon Trail. I liked it less than learning how the settlers were crossing America. Rather seeing the potential of technology and what it can do to bring people together.

This was short-lived because the following year the Internet existed. Oh I should say the school got a new computer lab and had Internet installed in there. That means in marketing circles I am considered a Xenial. A person that grew up in analog and lived as the transition to digital took place. Unlike many other contemporaries in my group, my parents were not on the cutting edge. I played Crystal Caves in DOS on a Windows 3.1 machine. Later, I went with my dad to the Fort Washington Expo Center to buy a “legally new computer.” It came with Windows 98, Office 97, and a modem. I was online with AOL from the comfort of home. Asking for people's a/s/l in chatrooms and playing Yahoo Pool.

In middle school, I got further exposed to computers by taking electives involving it. Som classes had me making a website using HTML. Learning how to type (I recommend you do so if you haven't). I also made very bad flash pages with sound effects. That was also the first time I was able to see Toy Story and marvel at Hollywood's first full CGI film.

It was seeing the future, and I knew that a computer was going to take me to where I wanted to go. Lumping all these things together allowed me to start narrowing down what I wanted to do. I did not lock it in until 2002.

Writing what was Unwritten

I just found out this song was making a comeback due to it being featured in a romcom and could not be happier for it, it is a good song.

I grew up in the Hatboro-Horsham School District, one of the top 20 places to live in if you are a family. We peaked at number 15 since I saw that number all over the place on lamp posts. In 2002, I was in 10th grade and needed to sign up for classes for the following year. Depending on your age and where you went to school, this might not have been the same. We were one of the first schools to use block scheduling.

The best way I can describe it is having your school year in two distinct halves. You would do four classes the first half of the year, and after finals, the second half would have four more. It was their attempt to get us ready for picking classes in college by simulating the experience. This also meant that classes were, on average, 80 minutes long. There are more details about how this works, but that is enough to tell you the rest of the story.

This is close enough to what mine looked like to convey the idea.

I received a book with the course selection in it. Our job was to fill out an index card with the mock schedule and then turn it in to our homeroom. As someone who wanted to get into computers, I had two real choices to make.

First was to take a Java programming class. The teacher was a nice person, and I remember being in the room where it would take place. It was half a computer lab and half a classroom. Posters covered the walls in the most 90s fashion. From READ, to DARE, to warning people not to touch the film behind the door of your floppy disc.

From what I gathered, the course would have been fine. I would have made a website, added some Java, and then shared it with the class. As someone who had already done that on GeoCities, that would have been the easy choice to go to.

There was another option that required me to talk to my guidance counselor. I would sign up for a two-year course (eight blocks) in computer network administration. This class took place at a vocational school. This would limit the choices I chose to pick to do in high school. The goal was for kids who did not want to go to college to learn a trade and go right to work. The implication was that I would forgo college and take these classes to start a career. I valued learning from people with experience rather than reading out of a textbook.

I was going to make the commitment to take the class for the next two years. While teachers in my school were striking and classmates were on break, I went in for this class. In the end, I graduated with a CNA in Novell NetWare 5.x and 6.1 (this was before SUSE got involved) and an MCP in Windows 2000. I was ready to work. My parents slammed that door on me getting a job after high school and forced me to go to college.

I wanted to go to a community college to get my degree and have the hands-on experience right away. They wanted me to get to a four year school. Since they were paying for half of it, they made the choice. Penn State Abington won. I majored in IT (with a focus on integration) and minored in business administration. This led to the final chance for me to escape. I could have gone to the business school and learned tech there. This would have led me to a more managerial side of technology. I did not care about that at all. I wanted to “do the work” on the computer and locked myself in that path.

The other two decisions had me thinking about the implications of what I was going to do. The last one was more of a snap judgement. I interviewed for a role at PDQ POS Systems. If you have ever gone into a Jimmy John’s before, they are the people who make the point-of-sale systems for them. I was nervous and was being interviewed for a job in which the owner did not care for my degree. Somehow, I did well enough to land the job but had to make a choice at the end of it. I could either be an installer of the equipment or work in a call center with technical support. Since I did not want to travel for a living, I chose the latter and locked myself into my IT career path.

Working 9 to 5

This is the point in the story that I am going to skip ahead a bit. Since it is more on the IT side of things rather than the archiving side. The biggest takeaway you need to know is that I was getting paid an annual salary of $17,500 in 2008. I was also still looking for the office job of the future. While today this is no longer the case, at the time the goal was to work for a company for the long term. I would then grow within the ranks and advance my career. Then, after sticking around for 30 years, I would retire with a pension. Depending on who you follow on social media would gauge the reaction to this ever being a viable option.

I then bounced around IT jobs, getting more money as I went. I was a manager of a call center group before we had those jobs outsourced. I was a remote tech for businesses. I helped make Customer Management Systems (CMS) platforms. I tried to dabble in online media, but didn't get very far. Finally, I landed a senior customer service position in a stable spot.

I thought I had found the place in Global DMS, started working there in 2012. They are a real estate software company. Making online software to help research and close sales with their clients. With my technical skills and being able to learn new programs, I became a good employee. I was happy in my role, now making mid 50k, the highest of my career, and I was able to not work check to check that often. Then two key things happened.

Finding myself on a new path

First, my manager at the time got promoted. She was one of the best people I had worked with. She focused on team dynamics and making sure everyone was able to get their work done. The replacement was another manager that I did not see eye to eye on. They were very metric-focused on calls and callbacks. There were many times when I could not answer the question on the first call. In the land of metrics, this was a bad thing to do. I would rather give them the correct answer the first time rather than make up one for them to callback. This determination also led me to save the company a client since I spent over seven hours with them. That was on a text chat, but nonetheless I took pride in listening and making customers happy.

The second sign was seeing a former colleague join the company. At PDQ POS, I often worked with the installers. As the person they would call if there were any issues with their software. Walking them through those tricky things that often get overlooked. The manager that was with the installers worked next to the call center, and I was able to be friendly with them. I did not work for him, but we knew each other enough.

It turns out that they got hired as the head of QA for Global DMS. It was both an odd feeling and a welcome sight seeing them again in which we would have had the same relationship. After a few months, he asked if I wanted to join him on the QA side. I knew the customer well and knew the intricacies of the application. He wanted a junior QA person to help with the simple tests so that he could focus on the bigger picture. This led to my leaving customer service roles and moving into quality assurance.

The goal was to help him with the new software and work with the development team. I would bring my knowledge as the new software was being developed. I was achieving the dream and doing what was the correct path for my career.

That was until he quit less than a month later.

Turns out he, like many other people in the IT field, was career hopping. A person would jump from position to position, getting bumps in their salary. This happened often in the IT field. I did not recognize it at the time since my goal was to plant roots and build with the business. He had other plans.

After giving me enough time to settle into this new role, he told me flat out that he was going to quit. Before leaving, he gave me some final advice. Make sure I clock in and out when I am working. Doing anything extra would be charity for the company. With the bump in pay, I did not mind it at first, but it would come back to me in the future.

The company realized I did not have the experience to be a senior in the role and hired a manager. They also promoted my colleague from customer service to join the new QA group. I would be responsible for creating automated tests and test cases for the new software. He would tackle the existing platform since the development needed to start over. This time we were doing some agile programming, complete with stand-ups and sprints. I know now that this meant a death sentence.

With the new manager having new expectations. I focused on testing to get the best product to the customers. Their focus was to get the thing done so the company could make money. This led me to be an outsider from my own team. This conflicted with my only working here technique. Some team members were going to be there until it launched before moving to a new company.

The moment I realized I had to leave was when my manager had me sign a probation document. For the next 90 days, they were going to see if I would still be in my role. I also was not told the metrics I had to achieve, so I didn’t know what I could do to improve the situation. With signing away my stability that I thought I had achieved, I knew it was time to abandon ship.

Since things were rocky, I was planning for this to happen and found a new job. They were being acquired by Aimia and had funds to increase their QA from one to two people. Turns out the manager I would be working with had the same values as I did when it comes to testing. Make the best product right the first time and go above and beyond to ensure that customers are happy. Given that I moved to the same state as the company, my commute would be 2 hours faster. This was a simple decision to make.

This may have come as a surprise to you, but my manager “didn’t see me leaving the company.” I held my tongue about the trust issue with being on probation and said that it was the commute. I was there for five years with no plans of leaving. When you don't feel welcome anymore, you know it's time to go. For the first time in a while, I had to start from the bottom up.

We got to get out of this place

I am skipping ahead again. Keeping with the same vision in the past of working in the same company and building up my reputation. I went from real estate to customer retention software. I worked on reward programs and giving coupons to customers. The idea was to remind them that they should shop at their store when they least remembered to. It was hard, challenging, and I put my all into it.

This time I was being rewarded for working the way I did. I was impressing both the owners of the company and my manager by catching bugs. Plus having a team of developers that also care about what they were doing. I cannot emphasize this being a pivotal difference I cannot stress. Groups of two became five, and I would not have changed it. Too bad the company had to screw it all up.

This brings us to the pandemic, March of 2020. Like many others, we worked from home. My manager was able to carve out the last two weeks of the office, with the “move” being an excuse to work there. Our team took advantage. I was glad that we did since that was going to be the last time we would see each other for a while.

There was a second thing that happened: company mergers! My company thought it was the perfect time to merge with a new parent company, Kognitiv. So, imagine you are on a team call with the company hearing your new VP. They talk about giving funds to the sales team and then proceed to make it rain using a stack of $100 bills. Also, you do some research on your new bosses. There are quotes from them saying that they want to go all in with automation.

Remember, this was 2020 and the world at large had not even heard about AI yet. Automation aimed to replace workers with a program. It would repeat tasks without stopping.

That is when I asked myself, “What is that beautiful house?” “Where does that highway go to?” “Am I right? Am I wrong?” Then I said to myself, “My God! What have I done?” Letting the days go by, I knew that I could not let the water hold me down. I needed to leave this field.

I adored my coworkers. I wanted to stick around, but when someone writes on a billboard in front of the house, you have to make plans. While I could try to do the same job in another company, I knew I was going to delay the inevitable. While I was in this depressed spiral, I was looking for anything that would get me out of my funk. My project is to make live movie watch-alongs with friends belly up due to no one wanting to join. Things that I would have got excited about start to convulse in sadness. I needed something, ANYTHING, to get me to not think about the world around me. Then I found it.

It’s time for a change

I came across my copy of a DVD set from PAX 2007. I bought this at MAGFest 9 at The One Ups’ merch booth. For $5 it was a steal, and it was the concert and footage recorded at the event.

Before the age of streaming, it was difficult to record what took place at a convention. The Penny Arcade Expo, aka PAX, contracted various vendors to do so. They would focus on the main events and give some extra recordings to popular events. If you attended the event, you could preorder it and then pick it up the following year. In my case, the band had a case of DVDs, couldn’t sell them, and I bought them at cost to clear their inventory.

As I watch an event that I have never been to, I am reminded of the simpler times that I had with the world. Events like this were the lifeblood of year. It allowed me to get the confidence to let people know about the weird things that I enjoy. Their motto at every event was “welcome home,” and for good reason. The atmosphere encourages people to feel safe and celebrate their passions.

Then I had the vision; if I were able to go and calm myself down by watching this footage, why not other people? This was the origin story of The Unofficial Convention Archive. I am also bad at naming things (points to website name here). I thought if I could make a catalog of these recordings for people to watch, they would go and do so.

Now I could go into great detail about the process, but I am going to hold back on it for now. The reason is that when I go and talk about it, I have a LOT to say compared to what I know now. For the purposes of this post, I will mention that I was able to get back into the flow state of work. I thrive on working in flow. If I am not distracted, I can lock in on a single task and keep going for as long as I had energy. That means I have clocked 12+ hour days where I did nothing but processing. I was a machine, and I was getting better at a skill that is not taught in school.

At the 2000^th^ video processed, I had the idea to go and see if I could get paid to do this. Either by starting it as my own business or leveraging my skills into a new career. I did some research, interviewed people in the profession, and saw the opportunities. I decided to take the plunge.

Going into Overdrive

Once you figure out where you want to go, the next part is getting there. Luckily enough, I knew the plan. School was going to take me a year and a half as a part time student. I would still work my existing job to pay the bills, and the goal was to maximize any opportunity I could get my hands on. When you have a plan laid before you and the determination to start anew, something clicks.

I completed five internships and processed 1,000 more videos. I also experimented with software in the field. I was working on a level that would make any productivity blogger blush. When you are able to narrow the blinders to the point of having a key goal, all the other things melt away. I was not able to complete all the tasks before me, but I was able to excel and meet existing professionals.

I can identify two key moments when I realized that I made it. The first was at the Society of American Archivists' (SAA) Annual Meeting in Boston. When it comes to these conferences, I will go on “day 0” to see if I can pick up the vibe before the event. It mentally grounds me before the real event begins.

I was in a talk with other archivists at a Preservica breakout group before the main event took place the next day. During this talk, we discussed certain design choices that we made. Some people thought it was counter intuative. The point of contention was that the fields you would enter were not in alphabetical order. They suggested that the program was to change it to this to make it easier to enter. I countered with the reasoning that they were in the correct order. I sourced the written standard and had the website on hand.

This is when I got the deer-in-the-headlights look. After a pause that felt like an eternity, someone came up and asked for a suggestion. I listened to what they were trying to do and gave them some ideas. They thanked me for their time and went on their way. It was the first time I was able to give advice to my peers in a new profession and not have to fake it. I felt myself “leveling up” in front of my peers.

The second moment was at my second internship. Yes, you would think the first internship would have had this revelation, but it did not hit me as hard as this moment. I managed to network my way to an unpaid internship by attending a history fair in Philadelphia. I needed to get college credit; they wanted an extra set of hands to tackle the backlog; it worked out for both of us.

On the first day I went there, they gave me a tour of the Old York Road Historical Society. It occupies an arts complex in Jenkintown. It shared the space with a hodgepodge of other organziations. There were art installations, a museum of completely different items, and government offices. After navigating the labyrinth to make the most of the space that they had to offer, I got my first task.

Go into the filing cabinet, digitize a bunch of legal documents. Then take the scans, make the single image, and then import the results into PastPerfect via CSV. She then had to leave to do other tasks, and I was set to work on my own. I prepared the station and got the large-scale flatbed scanner ready. Dusting off the hood, cleaning the glass, and making sure I had enough room to work. The computer model was one that I once administered as an IT professional back in 2007.

Grabbed the first document, unfolded it, and named the folder that the scans would go to. I then named the folder by the date that I could read on the document, 1623. I then jumped when my brain was able to comprehend this. I was in close contact with a document that predated the founding of the United States of America. It was in a folder in a filing cabinet waiting for someone to look at it.

Once the panic wore off, I went to work. I scanned what I could and took the digital files home. After some back and forth, I used a program called Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Engine). It is not supported anymore, and it was able to do exactly one thing. Take a bunch of images and turn them into a panoramic picture. For my purposes, I was able to take about twelve or so scans of a large format document and turn it into one image.

From there, I was able to read the text (which in itself is more difficult than you would have realized). Then I made a CSV file to import. Once I figured out the process, I did what I had always done: write a test case. I documented the procedure in steps and added pictures to guide them.

This was the moment I had the “I made it” feeling. I felt like King Kong on cocaine with the accomplishment of being able to do what I did almost by myself. I still stink at reading old handwriting. I knew I could use my skills and my DAS certification to solve whatever lay before me. All I needed to do was stay on target, do the work, and I could escape in no time.

Of course, it would not be that simple.

Feeling Hopeless when Conflict Approaches

This is the point in the story where I would hit a series of lows that had me questioning my choices. While my better judgment would have me skip this section and only focus on the good things. I know if you are reading this far you want to know the full story. Either interested in what happens next or finding mistakes I made along the way. Buckle up.

It started with the end of that internship. I was getting ready for Thanksgiving and would see my fiancé's family again for the holiday. Right before that, there was an all-employee meeting at the hotel next to the office I worked in. I wanted it to end since I had a project that I was working on and could get back to work. That was until they told me that the company was letting me go, along with 40% of my team.

Now I cannot be 100% confident about the reason I lost my job. Right before this meeting took place, a coworker of mine quit. In their exit interview, they ratted out the entire department out of the door. While there was no negative action that took place then, three weeks later this result came to be. The trust that I placed in my colleague by giving them advice was a literal gut punch.

So out of work right before the holiday, I crashed hard but still had the whole graduating thing to do. While some people had taken time off to mentally recover, I doubled down. I went from part-time to full-time to graduate on schedule. This meant taking three internships while also doing two courses. I was also trying to fill the hole left behind by having no job.

I was able to land a position with the State of Delaware at the Appoquinimink Community Library. The interview lasted 5 minutes, contained three questions, and I thought I did not get the job at the end of it. It was a part-time position that would work for my degree and stop the bleeding with my bills. I had to take a bump at the loans I was getting for school. I could no longer pay half of it while attending school. I also cut any and all edges of my budget to make the most with the least.

I managed to hang on. I said yes to any opportunities that came with this new job and tried to maximize anything I could to pad out my resume. I graduated after a long wait and couldn’t get time off for the ceremony. When I received a diploma in the mail, the impact felt muted, but I bought myself a watch as a token of what I achieved. The job had no plans of going full-time, so my personality became about getting a full-time job.

Now you may hear horror stories about people getting a job in the field. I thought I had set myself up for success. Combining my GPA, DAS, and experience, I set myself up to land a job.

I did land the job. I quit my old role with proper notice and thanked the team for their help. Yet, I still felt empty. You see, while I was making the career change, my relationship with my fiancé was not going so well. As much as I can pinpoint moments now where I should have seen warning signs. I focused on not making the same mistake as their ex.

She left her last partner due to their losing their job and not being able to find work. They became a creative freelancer with no real business skills. I knew that the path was going in that direction, and I wanted to make sure history did not repeat. So I took the first thing they offered me, a technical librarian.

Now here is where I would go and describe the job and how I was able to turn lemons into lemonade and start on a new path. I did not make it past the end of the training period before they informed me that my services were no longer needed.

That feeling when I had to break the news to my fiancé and scrub any mention of this job from my public profile. I managed to get my old job back due to my manager not sending in my registration letter and was able to pick up the pace. I had to turn the page from this traumatic experience and act like this never even happened. I did lose over $1,000 in custom art that I had in my cubicle that exists somewhere, and I am still mad about that.

As I got my access back to the computers at the library, I had the taste of success. While the role was something that, honestly, I did not want to do. I saw it as nothing more than a steppingstone to my true goal, digital archiving. While I did internalize the advice given by career counselors, their words rang in my head. “You did everything you could; it is a matter of time before you get something.”

If you thought I was going to apply for jobs before, you had no idea the fervor round two had on me. I widened my search, added more sites, and applied to all jobs I could qualify for. Knowing that I needed to add more experience, I got another internship. I gained some technical librarianship experience and filled in information gaps.

This allowed me to refocus and get out of the funk that I was in, focusing on a project and enjoying work again. I not only finished the tasks, but I also made sure I jumped at every opportunity that came before me.

Able to write a piece about the project for their newsletter? Check. Created a virtualization lab to analyze digital materials? Check. Document this entire process for others to do going forward? Check. Made the contents available to WorldCat and the Internet Archive for public access. You’re darn right!

I had 300 hours in this role while also working at the library. I was going to maximize what I could do before it ended. I was also lining up between two to six interviews in a week. Refining my pitch to explain how I could impact my new employer. Having tangible evidence showing that I am someone .

It was only a matter of time before I got that yes; I only needed one and knew I was on the cusp of it. My fiancé disagreed with this and wrote a letter to me, ending our relationship of over ten years.

Closing time

The last two weeks of the internship were rough with the new reality. I had a moment when I froze in front of my computer trying to pick up the pieces of what had happened. While you knew not everything was perfect, everything that I did was to make sure I did not repeat the past. Reading the letter over and over again, the lack of a full-time job was the main reason she was leaving me. Other reasons were also stated. I was so focused on the task of getting back to a stable state that I neglected what was right in front of me.

The next day I took the day off because I had already planned to see my family. My parents retired to Florida, and my mom was visiting her friends, and I wanted to see her in person. What I had supposed would be a time of celebration turned into a session where I laid bare my raw emotions. My sister and mom tried to change my mindset that it was not my fault. While I knew that they were telling the truth, I inferred that they saw this outcome coming.

What it did was help me funnel my emotions into a new goal. Getting out and finding stability. I took a break from the job grind and went into roommate apartment hunting mode. Luckily, I was able to find some older gentlemen with a spare room that I could afford with my part time salary. Even if the job had not come around the corner, I had a place to lay my head and figure out where to go next. In the span of a month, I packed up my things, moved closer to the major city, and got settled into the new normal.

While not perfect, I was able to refocus and shuffle what I could. I ended the internship on a high note and left things better than I had when I arrived. I was still rocking the library job and becoming the weekend warrior. I took any and all available hours they could legally give me. Oh, I was still interviewing too. I am now at a two to four interviews a week clip at this point. I had to get creative with booking study rooms across many libraries to take calls from a laptop. I could not guarantee quiet at home, so I had to be creative in balancing my schedule.

Then I got a surprise call. On a day that had three interviews before I started my evening shift at the job. WVU wanted to schedule a quick call to follow up with me. That interview was the second full-on academic job I managed to become a finalist for. If you are not prepared for how the process works, you will stumble. The first time I did this, I did okay but knew what I could have done better, which applied to WVU.

I crushed it in the presentation. Giving my background in an abridged version that I mentioned in this post. I also talked about the future of this field and why I am concerned about the direction it was going. Coombine that with actual examples that I could demo, I felt confident that I was able to impress people.

I managed to get into the study room and got to Zoom on my phone while connecting to the library’s Wi-Fi. It was the Dean of the Libraries. They called to inform me that I got their Digital Collections Archivist job. They would also be willing to cover part of the relocation expenses. Once I was able to recover from those words, I sat with myself for a moment in silence. It took less than a month since I moved out, and I got the job that I was looking for. Yet, things were not done yet.

Exploring new Country Roads

The rest of that month was a blur. After thinking it over, I replied that I would accept the offer. I also managed to book an Airbnb for my birthday. My plan was simple. Rent a storage unit to start moving out (again). Line up as many apartments as I could view, and sign a lease before I left to go back to work the following week. I told WVU my plans, and they offered to use it as an opportunity to have me tour the campus. What was nice was that I would meet the team before starting the job and get a sense of the workplace before I began.

I cannot tell you the stress that trip was. I managed to wake up at 4 AM to head out listening to a backlog of podcasts as I made the trek to Morgantown. I mean, I did my research, but until you see something with your own two eyes, you have no idea what to expect. I still felt the pain of losing my last job. I was waiting for someone to pull the rug out from under me. I felt a sense of optimism while being careful about my expectations.

Right before I started the tour of the campus, I finally got the offer letter. There was no turning back now, and I was able to lock in the apartment that day as well. Heck of a way to start my 39th birthday. From there, I had less than two weeks to close and lock in the apartment, move everything out there, and then start my job.

If you thought I was smooth sailing from there, think again. While I mentioned what took place in the past two months here, I am going to save it for its own story. For now, let’s close this mixtape.

Thank God it’s Over

Like I started, the year of openness is coming to an end. This post shows my growing comfort with being open on the Internet. Talking about both the good and bad times. The beginning of the year started with working a new job, and the end of the year was much along the same vein. As 2025 approaches, I recognize the need to improve my craft and share my knowledge with others.

One of the frustrations I had when going on the journey was the lack of a centralized decision-maker. There was no authority to help with answers to common questions. The amount of mistakes I made in this process cost me months of delays. I do not want that to happen to you.

My goal with this blog is to tell stories from the trenches of doing this work in an honest manner. I was not lied to when choosing this path, but a lot of key facts were withheld. I want you to be better prepared for this than I was. I hope I can carve a new path to be more welcoming than I was on this journey.

The year of branding will begin. In which we encourage others to take the path to raise each other up. To not hide behind gatekeepers in sharing our knowledge with the world. Until next time, happy new year.