Scope and Content Note

Hello! Welcome to the start of my blog. In the world of archives, a "scope and content note" is a key part of the finding aid, or catalog record that helps users find a collection. The scope and content note describes what categories of materials are in a collection, what subjects they cover, and how thoroughly a subject is covered. I am opening with a scope and content note because archives-based nerdery is part of who I am, and "Introductions" has been done before.

I am recent LIS grad trying to get my first real job in the archives world. Since the start of grad school I have been working for a film archive in Madison, Wisconsin, first as a student worker and now as an LTE. My job is often interesting, but it is still a low-wage, part-time job. So now I am searching for more substantial work, unfortunately at a time when many LIS grads are all competing for a few jobs. This can make life stressful and frustrating at times; I like to think that my life is like The Hunger Games, except none of us are trying to do each other in, and a battle royale for a Cataloging Archivist job probably would not make for an exciting young adult novel.

I am also a nerd, by which I mean a book nerd. I should be more specific; I am pulp literature nerd. My love for the authors and magazines that filled newsstands in the first part of the 20th century--and offered endless combinations of monsters, detectives, zeppelins, flapper girls, and the occasional Satan. Accordingly, I sometimes have that dream where the Weird Fiction Archive desperately needs me to be their lead archivist. Also, they have money with which to pay me. Also, they actually exist. Well, maybe one day.

That is how I came by my blog title. It is a little like "Cat Fancy," but without cats. Instead it is full of smudgy ink, from the pulps and from manuscript collections at the archive. Besides, I am a lefty, and I smudge everything I write.