Hongbo Xie/Jill Jack

Hongbo Xie and Jill Jack work in the archives at Coe College’s Stewart Memorial Library.

1. How did you get to where you are now?

Hongbo was a meteorologist in China for seventeen years before coming to the United States and subsequently deciding to pursue an MLS at the University of Iowa. She enjoyed cataloging most and found a job at Coe after graduating. She works primarily in technical services, but wears many hats, including reference librarian and archivist. She began working in the archive on small projects with little experience or help until hiring Jill Jack as a consultant.

Jill earned a BA and an MA in History and eventually found herself at library school in Indiana. She had worked in government documents for years, but had decided that she really wanted to work in archives. She also wanted a job. She created her own business and worked as a consultant for archives before finding herself full-time at Coe.

2. Do you feel that your education prepared you for archives work?

Jill felt that her history background was very useful in preparing her for archives work. She is able to more easily picture records that she is working with in the scheme of history and to quickly pick out important names in documents. She feels that it is good to know or to be able to quickly find information such as this when working in archives.

3. What do you do at the archive?

Jill: All of it!

Archivists never get done; there’s always more to do and the best is to simply do what you can.  Unique to a small archive is that the archivist is not always in the archive and must compartmentalize his or her time.

12. How much crossover do you have with other library work and what kinds?

Hongbo spends about 50% of her time in the archive working on the Engle collection.  The rest of her time is divided up between cataloging, tech services and time at the reference desk.  She also works on collection selection.

Jill spends about one day per week in the archive (20% of her time), while her assistant spends most of her time down there.  She spends most of her time on reference and interlibrary loan.

5. What are your collecting policies?

There is not yet a policy; something that Jill hopes to change soon.  At present, departments just dump documents into the archive.

6. How do you decide what to keep?

Jill asks herself several questions:  Is it institutional history? Does it describe controversy, policy decisions, student developments or activities?  Most important is the question of what will be most interesting and useful fifteen, twenty, or more years from now?

When it comes to personal papers, Jill tries to collect the person as entirely as she can.

7. Have you done any digitization work?

Not yet.

8. How do you feel about digitization and the challenges presented by digital record keeping?

Jill feels that digitization is great on one level and a nightmare on another.  As far as accessibility goes, it’s great.  However, there is less permanency associated with digital formats; as technology changes, older formats become obsolete and unreadable.

Additionally, born digital data may be lost; few people print out and save e-mail correspondence.

10. How do you organize incoming documents?

The system of organization in the archive is in the process of changing.  It is not yet organized the way that it should be; for many years archives materials were cataloged by librarians, who think in a very different organizational patten than archivists.

11. What kinds of information do patrons usually come seeking?

Usually patrons are looking for information about events, or for alumni.  Researchers often patronize the individual collections (such as the Engle papers).  Students are often searching for college history.

13. What is the job market like? Are there positions outside of archives for those with archival training that still utilize that knowledge?

Companies are a growing market for archivists; and they can afford to pay you.

15. What do you like most about your job? Least?

Jill likes everything about her job; you can bring anything you want to it.  The thing she probably likes least is taking out staples, but even that is somewhat soothing.

Hongbo likes cataloging and the dectective work aspect of the archive.  In reference work she enjoys finding little bits of knowledges about all sorts of things.

16. How do you store items in the Henry photo collection?

Henry collection items are stored in notebooks; they are primarily contact sheets.

17. How do you organize the Henry collection?

They are cataloged by number, without a description.  The photography has his own system of year/number and the archive has adopted this.

Jill pointed out that as an archivist you cannot judge what you’re archiving or decide that people shouldn’t know about it.  She also pointed out that archivists are the gatekeepers of everything that goes into the archive; and that they can’t let themselves get in the way of being objective about what you’re processing.  You must also be familiar with the law and how what can and can’t be shown to the public, as well as with collections restrictions.