Oh, you're an Archivist? Hi! I'm the president of your fan club.
November 20, 2015 12:32 PM
I recently discovered what an archivist does and have finally found a career path I would love to pursue. The only catch is, I'm still learning a lot and I don't know how to describe what I want my focus to be in my statement of purpose application essay. Help me not sound like a crazy fan girl begging UCLA to let me in. Please?
Details inside.
*I typed this all on my iPhone in notes, so please excuse horrible grammar and stream of consciousness style rambling. I promise I will not type my actual essay like a crazy person.*
After a “successful” but passionless career as a graphic designer I’ve finally found a job I wish my high school guidance counselor had told me about back in 2006… an archivist. Yay for finally figuring out that my weird obsession with the past and desire to make it accessible is more than just a crazy hobby I had on the side! I’ve spent the past year learning what an archivist does and the different types of collections, careers and specializations. After meeting a few students and auditing some classes, it seems like you can be extremely specific with what you want your focus to be in school.
Sooo I’ve been working on my statement of purpose for a few weeks and it’s been difficult because:
1. I have not been this genuinely excited about something legal or healthy for a very, very long time. I have always heard about people who were in love with their jobs or had a passion for a certain type of career and just sort of rolled my eyes at them. But since discovering this career path, I "get it" now. It’s almost like falling in love for the first time. Too much? Ok. I’ll stop.
This enthusiasm should make it easier to write but, I almost feel like a fan girl writing to her idol begging for acceptance. I’m working on this. It’s funny, I think it was easier to write my undergrad essay because I wasn’t really that hot for graphic design so I wasn’t trying as much. Sad but true.
2. In the statement of purpose, I have to mention what I want my focus to be. I know this isn’t set in stone and can obviously be changed once I start school, but I feel like if I don’t get specific enough, it’s going to sound like I don’t really care or know what I’m talking about. My OCD is making this extremely difficult and my initial response is that I want to do it all. Give me all the old stuff. But I know that I can’t. So I’ve started looking into UCLAs specializations and I’ve narrowed it down quite a bit based on my interests. I’m definitely still struggling with how to word it all and could really use some help.
Looking at their specializations, I want to go with the Media Archival specialization with a main focus on the later part of Classical Hollywood Cinema. Tthe problem is, I don’t want to just limit myself to film and would like to work with popular culture, icons and music specifically from the 1950s-1970s. Like working with estates and families of authors, actors and musicians of that time. So not just film but also preserving and making documents, photos, letters and belongings of those people accessible.
My dream job would be working at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives, the Ava Gardner museum or something like the Sinatra family archives... I could go on and on. (Please note: I said dream job. I know that these are probably highly sought after positions that a lot of people want.)
So how the hell do I phrase all of that without sounding like a maniac?
Any help would be appreciated! This world is so new to me and I want to be a part of it so badly. It’s a little scary, though, because it’s been a long time since I’ve tried something I know nothing about. I’ve stayed in my world of graphic design and ad agency life because it was comfortable. But I know I need to do this.
As always, thanks so much in advance!
*I typed this all on my iPhone in notes, so please excuse horrible grammar and stream of consciousness style rambling. I promise I will not type my actual essay like a crazy person.*
After a “successful” but passionless career as a graphic designer I’ve finally found a job I wish my high school guidance counselor had told me about back in 2006… an archivist. Yay for finally figuring out that my weird obsession with the past and desire to make it accessible is more than just a crazy hobby I had on the side! I’ve spent the past year learning what an archivist does and the different types of collections, careers and specializations. After meeting a few students and auditing some classes, it seems like you can be extremely specific with what you want your focus to be in school.
Sooo I’ve been working on my statement of purpose for a few weeks and it’s been difficult because:
1. I have not been this genuinely excited about something legal or healthy for a very, very long time. I have always heard about people who were in love with their jobs or had a passion for a certain type of career and just sort of rolled my eyes at them. But since discovering this career path, I "get it" now. It’s almost like falling in love for the first time. Too much? Ok. I’ll stop.
This enthusiasm should make it easier to write but, I almost feel like a fan girl writing to her idol begging for acceptance. I’m working on this. It’s funny, I think it was easier to write my undergrad essay because I wasn’t really that hot for graphic design so I wasn’t trying as much. Sad but true.
2. In the statement of purpose, I have to mention what I want my focus to be. I know this isn’t set in stone and can obviously be changed once I start school, but I feel like if I don’t get specific enough, it’s going to sound like I don’t really care or know what I’m talking about. My OCD is making this extremely difficult and my initial response is that I want to do it all. Give me all the old stuff. But I know that I can’t. So I’ve started looking into UCLAs specializations and I’ve narrowed it down quite a bit based on my interests. I’m definitely still struggling with how to word it all and could really use some help.
Looking at their specializations, I want to go with the Media Archival specialization with a main focus on the later part of Classical Hollywood Cinema. Tthe problem is, I don’t want to just limit myself to film and would like to work with popular culture, icons and music specifically from the 1950s-1970s. Like working with estates and families of authors, actors and musicians of that time. So not just film but also preserving and making documents, photos, letters and belongings of those people accessible.
My dream job would be working at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives, the Ava Gardner museum or something like the Sinatra family archives... I could go on and on. (Please note: I said dream job. I know that these are probably highly sought after positions that a lot of people want.)
So how the hell do I phrase all of that without sounding like a maniac?
Any help would be appreciated! This world is so new to me and I want to be a part of it so badly. It’s a little scary, though, because it’s been a long time since I’ve tried something I know nothing about. I’ve stayed in my world of graphic design and ad agency life because it was comfortable. But I know I need to do this.
As always, thanks so much in advance!
You might want to check out the AMIA list-serv to see the sorts of questions that come up. Wrangling donors' estates is a very small part of the job.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:20 PM on November 20, 2015
posted by Ideefixe at 1:20 PM on November 20, 2015
I actually got into the MLIS program at UCLA, but I chose UT's School of Information instead (both are excellent programs!) My statement of purpose was not quite so specific as you are describing. Archivists are pretty specific in their focus but people generally start a program with a broad interest that gradually narrows, and often changes, throughout their education and career. So my statement was less "this is specifically what I want to do" and more "this is why I am a good fit for this program." I looked at the mission statement of the program (basically mining the "About Us" material) and tailored my statement to their values. I think if you get too specific you may run the risk of sounding attached to one romanticized idea of where your career can go. From my understanding, programs like to see someone with broad enough interests that they will be employable. Getting to touch a bunch of old stuff is certainly a privilege and we're all passionate about it, but it's best to see that as a perk of the job and not the purpose. It might work better if you work your statement around the Core Values of American archivists that resonate most with you. Accessibility will probably be one - I wrote a bit about history and memory in mine. Focusing on professional values shows that you have an understanding of the field as a whole, and that you're not just doing it to get close to cool stuff. (Which, who are we kidding, that's all any of us are trying to do.)
I will say, emphasize any kind of technological background you have. Design experience will definitely be a plus on your application. Archivists are really trying to embrace technology, which is why so many are taking on that "I" in "MLIS."
Feel free to memail me if you want more of the perspective of a current information student!
posted by rabbitbookworm at 1:28 PM on November 20, 2015
I will say, emphasize any kind of technological background you have. Design experience will definitely be a plus on your application. Archivists are really trying to embrace technology, which is why so many are taking on that "I" in "MLIS."
Feel free to memail me if you want more of the perspective of a current information student!
posted by rabbitbookworm at 1:28 PM on November 20, 2015
Thank you so much, guys. This is totally the information and guidance I needed. I know it's not all excitement and glitz and glamour involved in the day to day work and I never really thought about how too much enthusiasm might come across as almost kind of... offensive... ? to those working in the field. Like it's all just fun and games. Although, not going to lie, deciphering old handwriting sounds really fun even though I'm sure you are so over it right now and hate me for even saying that.
I would have never thought about the cover letter thing and this is so helpful. Overly romanticizing a job would be a red flag. I would feel the same way if I were hiring a design intern and she talked about how! much! fun! designing! is! without any mention of the client edits and endless hours of redesigns. Great way to look at it.
posted by twoforty5am at 1:55 PM on November 20, 2015
I would have never thought about the cover letter thing and this is so helpful. Overly romanticizing a job would be a red flag. I would feel the same way if I were hiring a design intern and she talked about how! much! fun! designing! is! without any mention of the client edits and endless hours of redesigns. Great way to look at it.
posted by twoforty5am at 1:55 PM on November 20, 2015
Don't let your enthusiasm get squashed though! There are a lot of seriously fun parts of the job, and in some ways it is exactly what I imagined. Passion is good for applications too :)
posted by rabbitbookworm at 2:02 PM on November 20, 2015
posted by rabbitbookworm at 2:02 PM on November 20, 2015
I am a medical academic librarian in Los Angeles and I would strongly, strongly, strongly suggest you attempt to contact some students at UCLA GSEIS and ask about whether the archival specializations actually occur and their happiness with the courses before applying.
UCLA's GSEIS class schedule still shows a lot of specialized library classes. But I work with two recent UCLA GSEIS grads (2011 and 2013) and my library hosts an intern a year from there, and the #1 complaint I hear is that they will schedule classes and then cancel them. Take a look at their classes sorted by named offered between 2001-2015 and see if they actually do run the classes you might want to take and not just list them for show in the catalog, and search for the name of the faculty in the UCLA directory to determine if they are still around and might possibly ever offer their class again (class # 289 is a special seminar and is a one-off class, never meant or required to be repeated). Note whenever the course number starts with a letter on that PDF, it's a course from another graduate school. It is a crapshoot whether students from GSEIS can take these; the primary offering school gets to decide if they will run it and if they will permit GSEIS students, plus you can only take a specific number of credits outside GSEIS and still get your degree.
That Health Librarianship class listed on that schedule of fall classes hasn't been run since 2006 and yet dutifully is put onto the calendar each year like it will happen. We run internships because there is a small group of students there who want to be medical librarians but UCLA has nothing but lip service to offer.
I would hate for you to spend this time/effort applying and then not have a school that can meet your needs by supplying the classes you want. An internship is better than nothing but coursework & internship is even better in terms of post-grad jobs. If you have no contacts there I can see if I can rustle up some recent archival grads or archival students from UCLA. Memail me if so.
posted by holyrood at 2:12 PM on November 20, 2015
UCLA's GSEIS class schedule still shows a lot of specialized library classes. But I work with two recent UCLA GSEIS grads (2011 and 2013) and my library hosts an intern a year from there, and the #1 complaint I hear is that they will schedule classes and then cancel them. Take a look at their classes sorted by named offered between 2001-2015 and see if they actually do run the classes you might want to take and not just list them for show in the catalog, and search for the name of the faculty in the UCLA directory to determine if they are still around and might possibly ever offer their class again (class # 289 is a special seminar and is a one-off class, never meant or required to be repeated). Note whenever the course number starts with a letter on that PDF, it's a course from another graduate school. It is a crapshoot whether students from GSEIS can take these; the primary offering school gets to decide if they will run it and if they will permit GSEIS students, plus you can only take a specific number of credits outside GSEIS and still get your degree.
That Health Librarianship class listed on that schedule of fall classes hasn't been run since 2006 and yet dutifully is put onto the calendar each year like it will happen. We run internships because there is a small group of students there who want to be medical librarians but UCLA has nothing but lip service to offer.
I would hate for you to spend this time/effort applying and then not have a school that can meet your needs by supplying the classes you want. An internship is better than nothing but coursework & internship is even better in terms of post-grad jobs. If you have no contacts there I can see if I can rustle up some recent archival grads or archival students from UCLA. Memail me if so.
posted by holyrood at 2:12 PM on November 20, 2015
One of the applications I submitted for an archives program asked me to go tour an actual archives and interview an archivist, then write the essay based on that. I really recommend that you do this, too. First, it shows the admissions people that you have a reality-based understanding of what this career will be, and second, you actually come face-to-face with that reality yourself. It may knock some of the stars out of your eyes, but that is a crucial thing to do when you're potentially going to be spending the kind of money that a graduate program will cost.
I also applied to archival tracks because I fell in love with the idea of working at a film archives or the like. What I wanted to do was to work for the Library of Congress. I lived in DC at the time, so I called up and arranged for a tour and interview, and it was a very illuminating exercise to the point that I wrote about it for each of the 3 application essays I submitted (to 3 different programs) and not just the one that asked for it. YMMV (and this was 12 years ago) but I was admitted to all three programs.
I don't want to squash your enthusiasm, but I think you probably do need a reality check on this profession. It is so far from glamorous. It is dirty (literally, I mean, handling papers and moving boxes; you wear jeans to work constantly) and the thing you will focus on the most will be money. This is a terribly underfunded profession, and penny-pinching and fundraising are a huge part of what you must do to keep an archives running, even if you're part of a bigger system like a university. Additionally, archivists are paid shit. Starting salaries are shit. I really recommend you look into this before you get any student loans, because you really need to make sure that you can pay back any investment you make into this degree program.
None of this is a secret. I ended up in the archives track at University of Maryland and my instructors there beat it into our skulls how we will spend our careers fighting for money. And I think anyone doing any MLS track should get the same kind of instruction. Financing is a serious issue for us. I graduated in 2005, and that was the drumbeat even before the endless budget cutting that began in earnest in 2008. I am now a mid-career professional, and it's all been spent struggling at this point. All that said, I loved my archives classes, learned a great deal, and enjoyed my practicum and field study experiences. Then I graduated and, after some extensive job hunting, landed a librarian position at a university where I do acquisitions of library e-resources. So that's another point, too, whether there are actually jobs to be had in this profession, and how many people you will be competing against for those jobs, despite the shit pay, and whether you want to have any say in where you live or if you'll be ok living where you get the job.
So back to your question. Go call up some archives and arrange some tours and interview some archivists. Get the real dirt. Do more than one. Take their words to heart. Write your essays and temper your reality with enthusiasm, and your enthusiasm with reality.
posted by aabbbiee at 3:11 PM on November 20, 2015
I also applied to archival tracks because I fell in love with the idea of working at a film archives or the like. What I wanted to do was to work for the Library of Congress. I lived in DC at the time, so I called up and arranged for a tour and interview, and it was a very illuminating exercise to the point that I wrote about it for each of the 3 application essays I submitted (to 3 different programs) and not just the one that asked for it. YMMV (and this was 12 years ago) but I was admitted to all three programs.
I don't want to squash your enthusiasm, but I think you probably do need a reality check on this profession. It is so far from glamorous. It is dirty (literally, I mean, handling papers and moving boxes; you wear jeans to work constantly) and the thing you will focus on the most will be money. This is a terribly underfunded profession, and penny-pinching and fundraising are a huge part of what you must do to keep an archives running, even if you're part of a bigger system like a university. Additionally, archivists are paid shit. Starting salaries are shit. I really recommend you look into this before you get any student loans, because you really need to make sure that you can pay back any investment you make into this degree program.
None of this is a secret. I ended up in the archives track at University of Maryland and my instructors there beat it into our skulls how we will spend our careers fighting for money. And I think anyone doing any MLS track should get the same kind of instruction. Financing is a serious issue for us. I graduated in 2005, and that was the drumbeat even before the endless budget cutting that began in earnest in 2008. I am now a mid-career professional, and it's all been spent struggling at this point. All that said, I loved my archives classes, learned a great deal, and enjoyed my practicum and field study experiences. Then I graduated and, after some extensive job hunting, landed a librarian position at a university where I do acquisitions of library e-resources. So that's another point, too, whether there are actually jobs to be had in this profession, and how many people you will be competing against for those jobs, despite the shit pay, and whether you want to have any say in where you live or if you'll be ok living where you get the job.
So back to your question. Go call up some archives and arrange some tours and interview some archivists. Get the real dirt. Do more than one. Take their words to heart. Write your essays and temper your reality with enthusiasm, and your enthusiasm with reality.
posted by aabbbiee at 3:11 PM on November 20, 2015
I appreciate the advice. As far as the lack of glamour I get it. I'm looking forward to the dirty work. I fantasize about digging through grey gardens-esque boxes full of junk. I'm sure this will change once I get into it but I am aware this is not all fun. and I know archivists don't get a lot of credit for what they do. at all. It sucks but it's a reality.
I did contact an archivist who works at a film studio and he gave me a tour. I was ready to be heartbroken but it was exactly as I had thought it would be. really. Even the parts where he was all "here look how shitty this is" I was still all "I get it but it's worth it. "
Talking money I have done research and am aware of the salaries. I'm typing this as I run errands so I'll get right to the point and hope I don't sound like an awful person. I worked as a designer and made a great salary. I had my own office at the agency etc. It may sound cliche but to me it's more important that I am happy and finally feel like I have a chance to do something I feel strongly about and that could possibly make some sort of small difference. I am also lucky that I have savings enough to get me through for a long long time. I'm not worried about careers right now or salary which is why I didn't really post much about it in question. I have spent too much time worrying. I'm genuinely doing this because I really think it's what I was meant to do. as cheesy as it sounds. Not saying I have this all figured out because I obviously am far from it!
posted by twoforty5am at 3:54 PM on November 20, 2015
I did contact an archivist who works at a film studio and he gave me a tour. I was ready to be heartbroken but it was exactly as I had thought it would be. really. Even the parts where he was all "here look how shitty this is" I was still all "I get it but it's worth it. "
Talking money I have done research and am aware of the salaries. I'm typing this as I run errands so I'll get right to the point and hope I don't sound like an awful person. I worked as a designer and made a great salary. I had my own office at the agency etc. It may sound cliche but to me it's more important that I am happy and finally feel like I have a chance to do something I feel strongly about and that could possibly make some sort of small difference. I am also lucky that I have savings enough to get me through for a long long time. I'm not worried about careers right now or salary which is why I didn't really post much about it in question. I have spent too much time worrying. I'm genuinely doing this because I really think it's what I was meant to do. as cheesy as it sounds. Not saying I have this all figured out because I obviously am far from it!
posted by twoforty5am at 3:54 PM on November 20, 2015
I really want to second aabbbiee's point about finances. Student loans for MLS programs are out of control, the ratio of how much you can walk away owing to the ceiling of how much you can expect to get paid is really out of whack. That said, I don't think you need to stress over your application to library school, I have never heard of someone applying to library school and getting rejected. I'm pretty sure they will accept anyone who's willing to pay/take out loans. Sorry for the bluntness, I'm a mid-career law librarian, love my profession, but I think library school is kind of a racket these days. I am really curious about the job market for archivists, because every year I get so many applications from archival concentrators for a totally non-archives paraprofessional internship, it seems like there are tons of newly minted archivists graduating every year, and I am not convinced there are that many archives jobs out there.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 7:38 PM on November 20, 2015
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 7:38 PM on November 20, 2015
You will not dig through boxes full of junk. You will aspire to digging through junk.
There is a glut of archivists right now. Every entry level job is taken by people with years of unpaid intern experience. If you can swing support for those internships, go for it. Nobody will pay you for it, though, as there is cheap as in free interns available.
I'm a librarian who hires other librarians. There is a lie told to new library school students that there are a lot of jobs. There are a few, but they are out in the sticks, far away from the interesting archives you want to rifle through.
My wife, banjo&pork, replied to you above. My sister has a Masters in Museum Studies at a Big Deal school and is trained to go through old papers. She sells tile to hotels now.
So if you have the backing for this? Go for it! Do what you love! But if you might have 30k+ in debt hanging over your head? Nope.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:45 PM on November 20, 2015
There is a glut of archivists right now. Every entry level job is taken by people with years of unpaid intern experience. If you can swing support for those internships, go for it. Nobody will pay you for it, though, as there is cheap as in free interns available.
I'm a librarian who hires other librarians. There is a lie told to new library school students that there are a lot of jobs. There are a few, but they are out in the sticks, far away from the interesting archives you want to rifle through.
My wife, banjo&pork, replied to you above. My sister has a Masters in Museum Studies at a Big Deal school and is trained to go through old papers. She sells tile to hotels now.
So if you have the backing for this? Go for it! Do what you love! But if you might have 30k+ in debt hanging over your head? Nope.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:45 PM on November 20, 2015
No need to apologize for bluntness. This is what I needed to hear! The part about probably being accepted. I have clearly built up this application process in my head because I care a lot about it.
Re: jobs.
I had kind of figured there were very very very few jobs. I have been looking at job and internship posts since deciding I wanted to do this. There are very few and the pay is lower than my first out of college job. I understand completely that a lot of it will be unpaid internships (should I be lucky enough to even get one) and getting coffee for people and not working with my dream collection for years and years or ever. But let's put it this way I have nothing to lose. If I am completely miserable after school and jobless, I can go back to graphic design full time and shut my mouth about following my dreams. no sarcasm. I mean it. but blah blah blah I have to try it. And when I can't get a graphic design job because I've been gone for 2 years and am still not a frank sinatra archivist I will for sure be on here begging for freelance leads ;)
I do have the backing for it right now. I feel really guilty for admitting that for some reason. That does not mean I just randomly decided to do this because "why not?!?! looks fun!!!" or that I appreciate it any less.
…anyways, I cannot tell you how helpful these responses have been. I appreciate it.
posted by twoforty5am at 12:47 AM on November 21, 2015
Re: jobs.
I had kind of figured there were very very very few jobs. I have been looking at job and internship posts since deciding I wanted to do this. There are very few and the pay is lower than my first out of college job. I understand completely that a lot of it will be unpaid internships (should I be lucky enough to even get one) and getting coffee for people and not working with my dream collection for years and years or ever. But let's put it this way I have nothing to lose. If I am completely miserable after school and jobless, I can go back to graphic design full time and shut my mouth about following my dreams. no sarcasm. I mean it. but blah blah blah I have to try it. And when I can't get a graphic design job because I've been gone for 2 years and am still not a frank sinatra archivist I will for sure be on here begging for freelance leads ;)
I do have the backing for it right now. I feel really guilty for admitting that for some reason. That does not mean I just randomly decided to do this because "why not?!?! looks fun!!!" or that I appreciate it any less.
…anyways, I cannot tell you how helpful these responses have been. I appreciate it.
posted by twoforty5am at 12:47 AM on November 21, 2015
I earned my MLIS from UCLA and I am an active alumna who is friends with lots of alums and a few professors from there on Facebook.
The bad news? It is, to be blunt, a lovely program that is dying on the vine from lack of students. I don't think you'd struggle to get in to the program, shall we say. MIAS, moving image archive studies, was also kind of the red-headed stepchild of IS--and IS itself is very definitely the red-headed stepchild of GSEIS. Because there are so few students left, the actual specializations tend to be broader in scope than I heard from colleagues who went to other schools (so, students would have to focus on public libraries rather than specifically YA and children's librarianship). Also everyone has to take the foundational library classes (MIAS students take fewer of them) and you might not be that interested in them. It's also hellaciously expensive.
The good news? There are very few specializations in the program that get enough students these days, but archiving should still be one of them. Dr. Anne Gilliland teaches a lot of the classes for archiving (including moving image archiving) and she is pretty talented. It looks like they've hired Dr. Michelle Caswell and I know they hired Dr. Johanna Drucker and Dr. Ellen Pearlstein who all teach in archiving or related areas. UCLA has pretty good relationships with important players in film preservation (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as in "I'd like to thank the Academy for my Oscar," and Disney among others) so you would be able to wrangle good internships fairly easily.
So UCLA specifically has some significant pluses and minuses. Please feel free to MeMail if you'd like to know more. I can probably put you in touch with some alumni but fair warning we only ever had like 6 MIAS students at a time and I don't actually know any alum from that group.
posted by librarylis at 7:26 PM on November 22, 2015
The bad news? It is, to be blunt, a lovely program that is dying on the vine from lack of students. I don't think you'd struggle to get in to the program, shall we say. MIAS, moving image archive studies, was also kind of the red-headed stepchild of IS--and IS itself is very definitely the red-headed stepchild of GSEIS. Because there are so few students left, the actual specializations tend to be broader in scope than I heard from colleagues who went to other schools (so, students would have to focus on public libraries rather than specifically YA and children's librarianship). Also everyone has to take the foundational library classes (MIAS students take fewer of them) and you might not be that interested in them. It's also hellaciously expensive.
The good news? There are very few specializations in the program that get enough students these days, but archiving should still be one of them. Dr. Anne Gilliland teaches a lot of the classes for archiving (including moving image archiving) and she is pretty talented. It looks like they've hired Dr. Michelle Caswell and I know they hired Dr. Johanna Drucker and Dr. Ellen Pearlstein who all teach in archiving or related areas. UCLA has pretty good relationships with important players in film preservation (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as in "I'd like to thank the Academy for my Oscar," and Disney among others) so you would be able to wrangle good internships fairly easily.
So UCLA specifically has some significant pluses and minuses. Please feel free to MeMail if you'd like to know more. I can probably put you in touch with some alumni but fair warning we only ever had like 6 MIAS students at a time and I don't actually know any alum from that group.
posted by librarylis at 7:26 PM on November 22, 2015
Addendum: I just re-read and they've changed the moving image degree from MIAS (an MA joint degree with the Film and Television department) to an MLIS with a specialization in moving images (and no interaction with FTV). It looks like they've really taken out the core (literally) of the moving image stuff.
I would strongly suggest that you email them and ask what the current degree looks like for students and how it's an improvement from the old one given your specific interests. It doesn't look good.
posted by librarylis at 7:34 PM on November 22, 2015
I would strongly suggest that you email them and ask what the current degree looks like for students and how it's an improvement from the old one given your specific interests. It doesn't look good.
posted by librarylis at 7:34 PM on November 22, 2015
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- that you are interested
- that you have some level of aptitude
- that you want to do something that they do
- that they "like you" in some random way
- that you meet the requirements
Archivist stuff is cool, no doubt. If I were you I'd talk about YOU specifically and why your current background in design makes you really interested in expanding those capabilities to wanting to preserve not just the standard stuff but also the "documents, photos, letters and belongings of those people accessible." (that's a good bit) Talk about why you care. Talk about why you + UCLA is a good fit. Talk about why you are excited and passionate about this. Show (optional) some familiarity with what is up right now (the part about your dream job sounds reasonable and thoughful).
Right now you need to get in, learn the things, meet the people and start your path. This is not your application to run the Sinatra Family Archives, just the first step. Skip all the "I am out of control!" stuff but try to keep your passion intact.
So "I'm really excited to think about working with popular culture specifically in music and film from the 50-70's, not just the main materials but all the associated stuff making sure it gets cataloged and preserved in ways that make it accessible blabitbyblblablenlenlleleelellk" is a really good way to frame what it is that i think you want. Good luck, the profession could use a lot more excited people.
posted by jessamyn at 12:50 PM on November 20, 2015