LIS 648: Week Nine

This week, we finally got to visit records management. The Knox County Records Management Department is housed in the lovely building pictured above and is the counterpart to the Knox County Archive. They keep non-permanent records whereas we keep the permanent ones. The records at records management are on a retention schedule, and once the retention time expires, they are disposed of by the county. Many of the records must be kept for long periods of time, along the lines of 50-75 years.

The records management center is quite overwhelming when you walk in. Once can't see just how many shelves of records there are within the building! Also housed in the building is the "disaster recovery room" which holds servers backing up everything that would be needed to run the county in the event of a major emergency. The records manager said that they could run the whole city from just that little room full of servers!

This week was my last week with Doris and the Archives crew. We practiced more reference and accessioning records, and Doris gave me a little advice about actually going out and getting a job once I finish the program. Her big point was the importance of learning the history of your area or whatever you would be archiving before going into an interview for a job.

I brought cupcakes for everyone on my last day, and they were enjoyed by everyone working at the archive. I've had a really wonderful time learning from and working with everyone here.