Eureka

1-6-14

Today I learned or had affirmed that what I'm learning in graduate school is IMMEDIATELY applicable to the real world.

Today I sat in a history conference at the General Conference (yes, that General Conference, those of you who might be wondering) and listened to great papers and interesting ideas from historians and teachers and theologians, all the while getting ideas on how I could apply what I have already learned in one semester to the current situations and try to improve what already exists.

Today I saw displays and immediately thought about light levels affecting the items and the books, asked questions about the climate around the White family library (it's ambient because they have so many daily tours) and learned about the fire suppression system. I saw the backlog in the archives and learned that the powers-that-were didn't listen to the first appointed archivist who requested a vault twice the size of the one that was built--and I saw the tiny scanners that they're using to digitize material with. I learned that the first Adventist to gain a Phd. in English (in literature, to boot) did so at the University of Michigan, the university at which I'm currently studying.

I had a discussion with a current archivist about the overwhelming fact that born-digital materials (like early emails) are already disappearing because the creators didn't think they were important, and how not many people know what to do to keep and preserves records before they reach an archives.

I'm finally in the right field and it's a great feeling.