Written by Zachary Lindeman
My name is Zachary Lindeman, and I have been a student employee at the Student Life and Culture Archives here on campus for the past four semesters. As a new employee my responsibilities were limited while I was learning how everything worked and functioned around the archives. I began by pulling and putting away boxes of materials for researchers, putting documents back into their proper boxes, and even shredding documents with restricted information on them that were no longer needed. Even though these tasks seemed straightforward and elementary, I was so glad to have done them because it helped me learn how important it was to be precise and organized while working with such delicate, informative materials. Just as I was getting comfortable with everything, I was given my first big project. After working on more basic tasks for two semesters, I was allowed to start processing my first archival materials.
Suddenly I was standing in a room filled with pallets of unprocessed boxes, all containing mixtures of reels, video tapes, cassette tapes, and every other type of media possible. I was told that it was my job to organize and take inventory of all the sports materials in the room and in one of the vaults of the archives. Completely overwhelmed, I began by just taking a look into each box and seeing where I needed to start. Slowly but surely I started finding my rhythm and working on a spreadsheet that could properly display the materials I was organizing. I moved the majority of my work into a single room and eventually some sort of structure began to take shape. With this being my first big project at the archives, it definitely took me longer than I would have liked, but when I was finished I had created an 80 page Excel spreadsheet listing every piece of athletic material I had gone through.
Since my first project, I have taken on many other tasks of organization and processing, but I still find myself peeking at my first project when I walk by. Hopefully someone will one day come to have a look at the hard work I put into my first project. Knowing that I could turn pallets of unorganized boxes into a completely systematic mixture of football, baseball, and volleyball games makes me very proud to say I work as an employee of the Student Life and Culture Archives.
