LA as Subject Residency Program

Community archives are increasingly important to emerging areas of scholarship and document less-visible but essential aspects of America's historical record. Yet these institutions often lack the resources to mentor and train the next generation of archivists to take leading roles in preserving and sharing access to local history. Similarly, they lack resources for the continuing education of their existing staff who often do not have MLIS degrees or formal archival training. In partnership with the Autry National Center and California State University Northridge (CSUN), the USC Libraries propose to implement the pilot phase of a residency program that will provide continuing education in archival skills to new MLIS graduates and current staff at community archives throughout Southern California. Like the Autry, CSUN, and USC, these archives belong to L.A. as Subject, an alliance of 230 historical collections hosted by the USC Libraries (www.laassubject.org). Support from the IMLS under the Continuing Education area of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program will enable us to launch a residency program that provides mentoring and hands-on education in 8 skill areas prioritized by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in its guidelines for Archival Continuing Education (ACE). After hands-on training with experienced archivists at the Autry, CSUN, and USC, two cohorts of recent MLIS graduates will complete a series of intensive rotations that will enable them to both learn from and share their expertise with staff at community archives. During the 33-month pilot phase of the L.A. as Subject residency, we will host a total of 6 residents for 12-month terms. Throughout their residencies, they receive mentoring from experienced archivists at the Autry, CSUN, and USC and complete a series of supervised archival projects at home institutions and community archives. During the pilot phase, a total of 18 community archives will offer 3-month rotations to residents that will provide intensive learning experiences for residents and 4-5 of their current staff members in relevant archival skill areas that we identified during a recent needs assessment. In the pilot phase, this will benefit at least 70-90 staff members in L.A.-area archives. Through our evaluation activities, we will measure the learning outcomes for residents and community archives staff and volunteers in the primary skill areas (e.g. creating EAD finding aids) of each rotation. Intensive rotations enable residents and community archives staff to not only learn critical archival competencies but synthesize these areas of knowledge in their practice. The pilot phase will build on our recent IMLS-supported planning project, which helped us develop a unique residency program that transfers skills and knowledge between two generations of archivists interested in community history: 1) those entering the field with MLIS degrees earned within the last two years and 2) current staff and volunteers at community-based archives. We believe these two groups have a great deal to learn from another and would benefit substantially from a sustained, formal exchange of knowledge and skills. Further, our program leverages the expertise of archivists at the Autry, CSUN, and USC to advise on the design of archival projects at community archives. Through our 33-month pilot phase, we will demonstrate the impact of the L.A. as Subject residency on our two target populations to enlist the support of stakeholders at the Autry, CSUN, and USC, as well as donors and funding organizations and the broader L.A. as Subject membership to ensure the long-term sustainability of the L.A. as Subject residency and develop additional workshops and continuing education programs to benefit community archives.