I am interested in the position of archivist III for the Information Technology Branch of the Archives and Records Section. I have been with the North Carolina State Archives since 1994, serving as a reference archivist in the Public Services Branch since 1997. While working as archivist in the microfilm room, I made many improvements and brought order to the microfilm collection that had been needed for many years. As entitlements/college records archivist, I have improved labeling and completed arrangement projects; some of which had been in progress for many years.
Among the improvements to the microfilm room are: relabeling all of the drawers of the microfilm cabinets and the card catalog; by recataloguing 50 counties, I finished a recataloguing project on the county records microfilm that had been on-going for many years; recatologuing of the Church records microfilm; shifting most of the microfilm collections so that each collection is grouped together in its own cabinet or group of cabinets; designed a card for the card catalog that can be printed using the computer in the microfilm room; relabeled large groups of film to make them easier for researchers to use-death certificates, compiled service records, census, and church records; respliced the index to death certificates to make it more user-friendly; had the State Library's copy of the 1880 soundex duplicated for the Search Room-the Archives had never had this index previously; had the 1910 soundex copied and a security copy placed in the vault-there had been no security copy previously; routinely relabeled hundreds of reels of microfilm as needed for maintenance and clarity; submitted a design for an on-line form for submitting microfilm queries.
As entitlements archivist I finished alphabetizing the WWII armed forces discharges, a project that had been a work in progress for quite some time.
As college records archivist, I supervise the volunteer who helps with the arrangement of student records. I have shifted records in the cage to facilitate a merge of five groups of students records which will make searching for records in the Phillip's Colleges much faster. I have relabled the boxes for several schools to eliminate temporary labels where possible. I entered all of the records for Blanton's Spartanburg campus into a table to make recreating transcripts for this school much easier and faster. I am now merging all of the Phillips Jr College records together into one big run to facilitate better referencing of those records.
As reference archivist I completely revised the stack guide to reflect the changes from the records move performed this year. I entered the cards into a table for ease of future changes and to create on-line access. This guide had not been updated since 1995.
In the past I have worked with the following computer hardware: IBM SYSTEM/34, IBM SYSTEM/38 which used RPG II program language and DOS commands. Also IBM PC and IBM PC-XT which used BASIC for the program language. I have taken classes in FORTRAN IV, and RPGII programming and am familiar with BASIC. Since being at the Archives, I have taken the following computer classes: Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Word 6.0, Access 97 Level 1, Access 97 Level 2, Powerpoint 97. I have worked with MARS from the user side and also from the data entry side. I have also done some web site work, as this cover letter shows. I am also the web master for a church group I belong to and make all the necessary updates and changes as needed.
I have an aptitude for working with computers, I love being an archivist, and I feel that this job is the perfect marriage of the two. I am very familiar with the collections at the Archives as well as with the various finding aids that will eventually be added to the Archives web site. I had previously worked in a supervisory capacity before coming to the Archives, and I am ready for quite a bit more responsibility, or at least a change in responsibilities, here. I appreciate you considering me for this position, and I look forward to hearing from you.
