Jen Rouse
1. How did you get to where you are now?
Jen specialized in creative writing and education, earning an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing. When she moved back to the Iowa City area, she found a job as a consultant for the writing studio at Cole Library. After several years, she ended up filling the position for the Consulting Librarian for the Arts and Humanities at Cornell and also began serving as the Cornell archivist. At this point she began work on her Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of iowa.
2. How much crossover do you have with other library work? What other kinds of work do you do?
Jen spends a lot of time at the reference desk and works other places (such as the circulation desk) when needed. She also teaches, which is what she most enjoys about working at Cole Library.
3. How do you decide what’s worth archiving?
Considerations of space and whether or not it will be accessed are what primarily guide Jen’s motivations in the archives. Because of space, she rarely accepts artifacts and has to decide carefully what should or should not be housed in the archive. There is not yet a policy regarding what campus offices should save and send to her, and she tends to get things in clumps from most offices.
4. What sorts of information do patrons usually come seeking?
Patrons usually come seeking information about specific individuals, something that is usually considered sensitive information and is unaccessible without the permission of a family member. Other common requests include information about famous visitors to Cornell, as well as building information and floor plans.
5. What are some challenges present in a small archive that might not be there in a larger repository?
Jen has noticed one definite advantage of a small archive instead of a challenge: it’s easier to find things. Because the archive is so small, finding a specific document is much less difficult than searching for it in thousands of feet of records.
6. How do you feel about digitization and the challenges presented by digital record keeping and storage?
Jen finds digitization project very exciting and feels that it would be great to have online finding aids and/or descriptions for the collection; especially for the items that are accessed the most. She would like to get Social Group records online soon because they are accessed quite often and an interesting part of Cornell history. She feels that online finding aids would be helpful in showing the public just what records are stored in the archive so that it may get more use.
She probably wouldn’t use a specific method such as EAD in creating online finding aids because Cornell’s archive is such a small and specific collection.
