A Day as an Archives Technician

Find out what a typical day looks like for our Archives Technician.

By Megan Lockhart, Archives Technician

I’m Megan, the Archives Technician at the Oxford County Archives. I’ve held my role at the Archives for three years, and I’m a self-professed history geek with a professional background in museums, archives, and education. I wear many hats in my role as the Archives Technician (figurative hats, I typically don’t wear hats at work). I work alongside the County Archivist and help with the day to day operations of the Archives. A typical day at my job looks different depending on the day or week.

We are currently working from home in response to COVID-19, but normally when I am in the office I start off my day checking emails for research requests or program bookings. Despite working from home, archives staff are still responding to research inquiries remotely, check out our website for more information on how to get in contact with us while we are temporarily closed to the public. I also help with responding to research requests from walk-in patrons throughout the day (when we are open) but we prefer researchers make an appointment with us so we have enough time to pull and prepare the records and information they are looking for.

Responding to research inquiries can sometimes take up a large part of my day, depending on the amount of information the researchers are looking for, but I take on many other tasks as well. I aid the Archivist in archival record acquisition, and arrange and describe records in collections and fonds. This process includes creating finding aids for the collections, descriptive inventories, and contributing the descriptions to the online archival database Archeion. As I process a collection, I also make note of the condition of the records. If records within a collection are in need of basic conservation work, such as cleaning or repair, I will apply the required conservation work to the records first before I have completely processed them and placed them in storage. If records are in need of more advanced conservation, they are typically set aside in our conservation lab to be further assessed by the Archivist, sometimes we may consult a conservator who specializes in specific types of conservation – such as art conservators or book binders.

Outside of research, and arrangement and description of records, I work on the coordination of our digital engagement, public outreach and educational programming. Public outreach and community engagement is essential for archives and other heritage institutions. We work to raise awareness of the importance of historical records and narratives, and promote our archival holdings to the public. We also provide educational services to the local community and work to interpret our community’s heritage. I work to promote our archival holdings and local heritage through social media (follow us on Instagram: @OxfordCountyArchives), and YouTube videos. I help design and promote our public exhibitions, online exhibits, and maintain and update our website. I also develop and coordinate public and educational programming including virtual and in-person workshops and presentations, school programming, and programming for long-term care centres and other community groups. Part of my role within digital engagement is the digitization of our archival collections. I often spend time scanning and making digital copies of our document and photograph collections for preservation purposes, and to expand the accessibility of our records by making them available online.

As you can probably tell, my position and role at the Archives cannot easily be summed up by one or two tasks. Working in archives, and the heritage/cultural field in general, provides a wide range of experiences and is a dynamic work environment. For more information on the Oxford County Archives visit our website.