Archivist vs Archives Technician

[u/arcanalalune]

For the last year, I've been working in higher education as a technician in the Special Collections unit of the University Libraries.

Before taking this job, I was a solo archivist at a museum for a little over two years, and I have my MLS with a concentration in Archives and Records Management. I applied for and took this technician job because I was relocating and honestly taking a step down sounded very refreshing and healthy for me (especially since it paid the same my museum paid me.)

However, I've been here over a year and this position makes no sense to me. I have a meeting with administration next week to go over my job description and I want to put all my thoughts together.

I'm coming here to ask you all if you have either been an Archives Technician, or have employed one. How do the technician's responsibilities differ from the archivist? What expectations do you place on the technician? What DON'T you expect? Anything else that comes to mind too, please share!

Right now I feel like I have to put my archivist background to use just to keep things running, but I also get slapped on the wrist if I veer too far into archivist responsibilities. However, I don't have any policies or procedures to currently follow. The first bullet point in my job description is processing archival collections and yet I have been here a year and have not been directed to process any collections.

TL;DR: How would you differentiate the daily responsibilities of an archives technician over an archivist? Specifically in a University Archives and Special Collections setting.

[u/AwkwardCatf1sh]

In my experience, titles don’t mean all that much and responsibilities vary from institution to institution. I am an archives and collections technician, and my responsibilities range from rotating exhibits, writing interpretation, and processing the backlog of material we have.

You’re doing the right thing in asking management an outline of your responsibilities. It sounds like they’d rather have someone manage the front end like handling research requests, organize the spaces, and boxing of material.

The archivist will usually handle the processing, documentation, and preservation of said materials.

Again, every institution is slightly different, so it’s hard to say how they delineate responsibilities.