Certifiable.

Well, my wife always knew that I was certifiable, but now everyone else does as well. I am now a certified archivist. The envelope came from the ACA this past weekend, and I opened it with much trepidation. I cannot tell you how elated I was to complete this goal in my life. I studied for this exam for seven months. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me the perseverance to finish studying and the recall to pass the exam.

I intend to post later on how I would recommend studying for the exam. I will try to add links to several electronic sources that I found helpful.

Now that I am a C. A. (that’s the first time I have typed those letters! Boy, that felt good!) I would be glad to help any future candidates study for the exam. I did not realize until late in the study process that the ACA offers to pair certified archivists with candidates to help them prepare for the exam. If I had realized that sooner, I would have availed myself of the opportunity.

I am also willing to proctor the exam, if there is ever a group in Louisville, KY, that wants to take the exam. I am thankful to Mark Meade, archivist at Bellarmine University, for proctoring my exam, and if I can ever do the same for anyone else, I would like to.

Once again, thanks to Michele, Paul, Mr. Keisling, Taffey, Laura, and all my archives workers for encouraging me as I prepared for the exam.

Parting Shot

While reading Frank Bole’s Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts recently, I found a funny quote. Unfortunately, I had the book on ILL and returned it yesterday, so I can’t quote it exactly. Boles was writing about archivists communicating with other institutions to ensure that different archives do not needlessly duplicate each other. He quoted someone who asked facetiously, “How many copies of the moon shot do we need anyway?”

Apparently, more than we now have.

Somehow, NASA lost the moon shot video.

Misplaced Memory

This weekend, I watched the NFL Hall of Fame Game. I finally set in my mind that, God willing, I am going to Canton, OH, at some point, to see the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I love looking at displays that were designed to memorialize history, and I frequently design and write displays for my job. I am a pro-display, pro-public-history, pro-persistence-of-memory kind of guy.

However, sometimes displays do not belong in the location that people choose for them. Take, for example, the newly revealed Paul Hornung display in Louisville. The bronze statue, pictured below, looks great. The display has great information about the Louisville native, NFL MVP, and Heisman trophy winner. There’s only one problem. It’s outside of a baseball stadium!

For some reason, the Louisville powers decided to place the statue outside of Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats. Maybe alot of thought didn’t go into the action. Maybe they didn’t care. Maybe still-angry University of Kentucky fans managed to have the statue put there to thumb there nose at the boy who chose to go college in South Bend rather than Lexington.

Let me put this in context. Imagine going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and finding a statue of Secretariat outside the gates.

I don’t know why it is there. I’m not even bothering to research it. It’s not worth it. The thing should have been placed on a downtown street or something. And because it wasn’t, visitors to Louisville who attend a game will always wonder, “Why in the world is there a statue of a football player outside of a baseball stadium?” And they will go home thinking, “Do people in Kentucky only understand and respect basketball and horse racing.”

All Over but the Waiting

Well, I took the exam this morning. I am not sure how I did. It’s the type of exam where there are multiple answers that could be correct. Sometimes, you feel like the questions are something like…

1. What principle dictates that records of different origins be kept separate to preserve their context?

A. Provenance
B. Respect des fonds
C. Anthropic
D. Your old high school

You know how those questions are. There are two answers that seem like they just are not right, and then there are two that seem nearly synonymous. (Just to clarify, this is NOT a question from the test, and the first two terms above (ie. principle of provenance and respect des fonds) ARE synonymous. )

Which brings me to why I think the ACA asks you to bring three pencils to the test when every other standardized test you take in your lifetime only requires two. Simply put, you will have broken the first two in frustration within the first thirty questions, and you will use the third to lobotomize yourself before the exam ends. Only those who are able to leave with full mental capacity survive to be certified.

I’m only kidding. Actually, I am glad I took the exam. It let me see where I had holes in my knowledge, and it reminded me of areas that I do have a pretty good handle on. I am not sure how I did, and I won’t know for six weeks, but I am OK with that. Either way, I won’t be terribly surprised. I think I knew a good many of the answers, but I know there were many I did not know.

I will sleep well tonight because I know I did the best I could. If I didn’t pass, I won’t see it as failure. I’ll just get it right next year. If I did pass, I won’t stop studying and learning, because this is the vocation to which God has led me.

Thanks for all who passed along words of encouragement while I prepared for this exam.

Today Is the Day

It’s ACA certification exam day. I am full of fear and loathing. I probably should not be. I have been preparing for the test since way back in January. Those who know me well know that I usually do not operate in this fashion. I usually tend to be more of a crammer.

There is no way that I could have adequately “crammed” for this, though. I have not sat in on lectures. I have no notepack. This whole process has simply been me wrestling with the books, with God as my support, with Christ my Lord as the ultimate reason for taking the exam, and with the words of friends such as Taffey, Laura, Paul, Nathan, and Mr. Keisling as an encouragement. And Michele. Michele more than anyone has been the one to say, “You might want to think about cutting off ESPNU’s presentation of the NCAA Division II championship football game from LAST YEAR (!!!) and start studying again.” I wouldn’t be at this point without her.

I really don’t know what I am in for today. I have seen sample questions and the seven domains of the ACA’s Role Delineation, but I do not know exactly how reflective these are of the test. I am hopeful of positive results, but if I do not pass, I will sleep well knowing that I studied for this thing as hard as I could, given what I know about it. I will honestly be able to say that it was the best I could do at this point in my career. Hopefully, I won’t have to say that will a falling inflection.