Archives: Research Assistants

Sometimes I manage to pick up extra money at my archive by hiring out as a research assistant for patrons. This is a task I jump at whenever I can because it gives me a chance to set my own rate, which is always much higher than I make as a public employee. I find that I can charge $25 an hour and most patrons hardly bat an eye. After all, anyone serious enough about a research project to pursue professional assistance probably recognizes that paying someone a few hundred dollars is a better deal than, say, buying a plane ticket to fly out to Madison, renting a hotel room for a few nights, and paying for food and drinks when not in the archive.

But the monetary advantage aside, I also enjoy research assistance because it gives me a chance to interact with the public. Most of my work involves cataloging new collections, which certainly affects the public because it creates finding aids to help people navigate to our collections. But I seldom get feedback on how helpful the finding aids are, what kinds of projects are bringing people to our collections, or what sort of information is needed but missing from the finding aids. These are all topics I can engage by actually getting in touch with people. 

So what kind of work do I do as a research assistant? Usually a lot of reading, searching, and photocopying. A patron might ask whether we have images in a film's production stills file that relate to the topic of her paper, or whether we have studio correspondence on censorship efforts related to a given movie. These are topics that our finding aids cannot really answer because they are arranged at the folder level. So the finding aid might say we have three folders of studio correspondence about a certain film, but not what the content of each letter is. And ordinarily, a patron would come in and look through the folders herself, find any letters of interest, and make photocopies. But if she cannot come for some reason, she can hire me, tell me what to look for, and let me do the searching and copying.

This is a relationship I want to encourage all around. Archivists, consider taking on research assistant positions whenever possible. Especially if you do not work directly with the public, in which case you can gain valuable reference time. Check with your institution's reference team to see whether they maintain a list of research assistants. This will look good on your resume, boost your profile at your institution, and maybe even get you a recommendation on LinkedIn. And researchers, consider hiring archivists as research assistants. If you are debating a trip to an institution, it might be a more cost-effective option to hire someone to do the legwork. And you will help that research assistant (who is probably an upcoming archivist) gain some valuable experience. Everyone wins.