How long have you worked here?
Since 2014.
What are some of the things you do as an archivist?
I am primarily responsible for processing and preserving our born-digital materials and creating catalog records for all of our collections. I also represent the Tennessee State Library and Archives in the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial Collaborative.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I love making our collections easier to find through good metadata, catalog records and simple but clear organization. I just wish I were this organized at home!
Do you have a favorite collection?
I’m most interested in the history of the state parks and outdoor recreation in Tennessee, so I would probably choose the Department of Conservation Photograph Collection, 1937-1976. It offers more than 11,000 photographs and 21,000 negatives, not just of parks, but also folklife and historic sites. It’s also a great collection if you like pictures of cute animals, and who doesn’t? As far as digital collections go, I really love the Women’s Suffrage in Tennessee collection available in the Tennessee Virtual Archive. It includes digitized versions of materials from a lot of different collections but focuses on the theme of women’s suffrage. It’s especially relevant as we begin to approach the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. We are also hoping to add more materials to this collection before the end of the year, so keep an eye out!
What makes libraries and archives relevant to modern society?
As someone who is responsible for our born-digital materials, I think a lot about the roles that libraries and archives will be serving in the future. While technology has aided the creation and distribution of information, it hasn’t necessarily made it easier to preserve. Bit rot and obsolescence could threaten the integrity of our records as we continue to move away from paper and toward electronic media. Think of old files you can no longer open because the software or hardware doesn’t exist anymore. Sometimes the files can become damaged. Even if you can access the files, without good metadata to describe them, searching through hundreds of thousands (and eventually millions and billions) of files will be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Through best practices and continued research, however, archivists are addressing these issues to ensure long-term access to these records for posterity.
The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
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