Students at Elizabethtown College have a wide variety of options when it comes to jobs, both on and off campus. Whether students are looking to gain experience in a potential future career path or are just looking to make some extra cash, students have many employment opportunities which help the College function in important ways. One such job is as a student assistant to the Archives in the High Library’s Hess Archives.
While this author is a prolific writer for the Etownian newspaper, I also spend several hours each week working in the archives with archivist Rachel Grove-Rohrbaugh. I applied for and was hired for the job in the fall 2022 semester, in hopes of expanding my experience with archives and jobs related to my history major. As an intern at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania this past summer, I had gotten a taste of what archives work was all about and was eager to learn more. Given my past experience with archives and historical research, the choice to apply for the position was an easy one.
Being an assistant in the Archives comes with a wide variety of responsibilities. Students handle and organize a variety of historical materials, mainly papers and photographs. The Archives mainly collects artifacts with a connection to Etown history or Anabaptist history. They work closely with the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies on some of these projects since much of the historical material is so relevant. Students handle many of these materials and organize new donations or collections into folders and boxes. The aim of this is to organize and preserve the materials, identify what items are in the collection and place the materials in a place where people can use them for their own research. By working both independently and with the archivist, student assistants help handle these materials while learning about the proper procedures.
Another part of organizing a new collection is doing additional research about the materials and people involved in the collection. Student assistants may write short biographies about the people involved in a collection to give additional context to the material. All this information is published on a database, called Archon, where the public can see what is in the archives for their own research. In addition to this database, the Hess Archives page on the Etown College website has links to old newspapers, yearbooks and more.
Aside from handling collections, student assistants also do a number of other jobs. Organizing books by the Dewey Decimals system is one task, as well as replacing items on their proper shelves within the archive. Students may also scan materials for digitization or other use. With each new task, students expand their knowledge about local history, as well as increase their understanding of how archives work. This job is a wonderful experience for those looking to begin a career in archives or libraries. Connecting with people from the past through their letters and other documents is fascinating, and also serves as a way for students to become even more passionate about history and the College as a whole. Both a rewarding and useful opportunity, being a student assistant to the Archives is an excellent and unique job on campus.
