In the last two weeks I have slept in my own bed four times and stayed at three separate hotels. One of those hotels was for a concert that I went to, but the other two were for conferences that I had attended. As a Diversity Scholar with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), I was afforded the opportunity to attend a leadership symposium in Philadelphia where the American Library Association (ALA) were holding their mid-winter meeting. The other conference I had the opportunity to attend was the Arizona Archives Summit, an annual meeting of archivists around the state of Arizona.
At the end of the ARL’s leadership symposium, we were asked choose a word that could describe our takeaway from the event. Some used words like empowered or seen to express how they felt as a result of the symposium. The word that I decided to add to the mix of emotions was enlightened. I choose this word to represent my feelings because in engaging with those in my cohort for the program and listening to their stories throughout the workshops I was shown a level of diversity that expands far beyond that of just race. A truer definition of diversity was represented in this group that each brought along their own struggles and journeys in their respective Library Science programs. One reason to hold the symposium during ALA’s mid-winter meeting was so diverse professionals who were already in the field could come and speak to us and share what experiences they had. After the symposium I felt enlightened to a wider group of diversity that was fighting for a spot just like me.
The second conference that I attended was the Arizona Archives Summit. This is a yearly meeting organized by the Arizona Archives Alliance (AzAA). The summit was a two-day workshop event where archivists around the state could listen to the presentations and network with each other. Panels included naming practices that could be found in community based archives and exploring how to describing Native American records in culturally appropriate ways. What I took away most from this conference was how archives and archivists around the state are curating their collections and their methods of description to properly encapsulate the cultures they are engaging with. While I am happy to be sleeping in my own bed, one thing that I will miss is interacting with different perspectives and practices.
Archivist Apprenticeship 