Archivist Career Description
Archivists are responsible for the preservation, care and accessibility to archives in their custody. Archives include official documents, for example correspondence files and registers of government bodies, private collections of personalities or documents of institutions. Photographs, maps, audio-visual material and any other informationbearing media (for example, magnetic and optical computer media) that contains historical information, are also archives.
What am I going to do in this occupation?
Archivists are involved with the collection,
arrangement and provision of archives. Record management (the control over documents which are still in the offices of origin), the computerisation of archives for efficient recovering and the publishing and distribution of publications, are also part of their duties.
To preserve archives for posterity, it has to be protected against theft and damage. For this reason, archives must be kept in strong rooms under optimal storage conditions. This means that archivists have to be up to date with modern techniques with regard to preservation, pest control and the combating of fire and water hazards. As a result of paper's high acidity it is subject to natural disintegration, which requires continual restoration. Archivists therefore also have to have knowledge of this aspect.
In order to be able to recover information efficiently, the National Archives of South Africa conducts a computer-processing project for archives. The computerised information is made available by computer terminals in the National Archives repositories, as well as at various other institutions that are connected to the archives computer network.
The archivists in service of the National Archives are also responsible for a variety of publications, which facilitate research. These include the transcriptions of some of the more important series of documents in the National Archives repositories, as well as computerised guides on collections, lists of archives and inventories. The National Film, Video and Sound Archive is responsible for the restoration and provision of access to all films, video tapes and sound recordings.
Requirements
What kind of personality do I need? Aspirant archivists must preferably have an interest in History, Political Science and Public Administration. They must also have administrative skills.
Where can I work?
The National Archives is the major employer of archivists and has archive repositories.
Can I work for myself in this occupation?
The opportunities for self-employment are limited. Archivists do however offer services as information source consultants for institutions with regard to the compilation of filing systems and practical methods for the storage of documents to facilitate the speedy recovery thereof.
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