State Records in General: As mandated by the Code of Virginia, all of the Commonwealth?s public records that have historical, legal, fiscal, or administrative value are to be preserved in the archives at The Library of Virginia and made accessible to the citizens of the Commonwealth and other researchers.  State records comprise the single largest archival collection at The Library of Virginia and they document the creation, growth, and ongoing activities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government.  This collection also contains records of the Colonial and Revolutionary governments, records of the various constitutional conventions, and the records of independent state agencies.  We have a complete run of Governor?s papers going back to the first term of Patrick Henry in 1776 and are currently working closely with the Kaine administration on the transfer of gubernatorial records, both paper and electronic, at the end of his term.  We house the archival records of the Senate of Virginia and House of Delegates, the Virginia Supreme Court, and state agencies, including Land Office records dating back to the 17th century.  Many physical formats, including original manuscript documents, microfilm, audio and video recordings, photographs, architectural drawings, maps, and websites and other electronic records can be found in the various state records collections.   

Only 3-5% of all state government records are considered archival and transferred to The Library of Virginia.  These records document government activities, and people and events in Virginia history.  They provide us with primary sources and a historical record of the past that enables the research and writing of history and genealogical investigation, as well as providing educational resources for students.

Typical daily activities: Our primary duties are to collect/acquire, manage, preserve, arrange, and describe/catalog state government records determined to be permanent value/historical importance in order to make them accessible to the citizens of the Commonwealth and other researchers and ensure their availability for future generations.  We create indexes and finding aids that describe collections in detail in order to assist researchers in accessing the information in our state government records, and make these research tools available via the internet. 

We work with state agencies, the legislative and judicial branches of government, the Governor?s office and Cabinet Secretaries to identify which government records have enduring value and should be preserved in the Archives at the Library of Virginia for research purposes.

We generally work individually on processing projects, but have plenty of opportunity for collaborative work on library-wide projects, and more variety of duties now that we have entered the digital age. 

Challenges facing the profession: Technology has changed the way we do our jobs in many ways, but as the focus changes from paper based collections to electronic and digital collections, archivists face many challenges related to the management of these records as we struggle with preservation, migration, storage, procedural and access issues.  The stereotype of an archivist toiling away over dusty documents in a dark basement is definitely no longer true now that we have immersed ourselves in the world of technology. 

Archivists are also trying to meet patron expectations that collections be digitized in their entirety and made available via the internet for instant and remote access, which requires technological expertise and time consuming labor hours, as well as great expense to maintain.

Archivists providing access to public information are also struggling with increasingly complex questions concerning privacy rights and records restrictions and must be ever more familiar with federal and state laws concerning these issues, such as the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and Virginia Public Records Act.

Qualities Needed:  Genuine interest in history, research skills, capacity for highly detailed (sometimes routine) work, computer literacy, detail-oriented, curiosity, good written communication skills, organized, ability to work independently, and patience (since many projects can take months, or some cases years, to complete) .

Education Required:  I have a BA in History from UVA and an MLIS from UNC-Greensboro.  Most archivists are generally required to have either a Master?s degree in history or library science.

Like Best/Most Rewarding:  It is satisfying to be surrounded by history every day and to know that you are making historical materials and government information available to the people who value and need it.  We create order out of chaos every time we process a collection and it is particularly rewarding to find previously undiscovered records that have been languishing un-described on shelves for years and create research tools that make the contents of those records available to historians, genealogists, journalists and other researchers.  The profession may sound somewhat dry and unexciting to some, but to those with a love of history it is a very satisfying and worthwhile career. Also the work we do provides a record of what has occurred in the past and can be used as a guide for future actions ? mistakes need not be repeated and what was successful can be replicated.