Freelancing among Archivists: Current Trends and Future Implications

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a survey conducted to understand freelancing activities among archivists. Although most survey respondents preferred permanent jobs, many of them were forced to freelance for various reasons. More survey respondents believed the number and percentage of freelance archivists will increase than those who believed otherwise. Archival educators were expected to prepare archives management students for a freelance career. To support freelance archivists, professional associations need to offer more continuing education courses or workshop tailored to freelance archivists and consider creating a freelance website for archival services in collaboration with closely related professions.

Keywords:

• Freelance archivists
• archives
• archives management
• freelance websites

Notes

1 Andrew Burke and Marc Cowling, “The Use and Value of Freelancers: The Perspective of Managers,” International Review of Entrepreneurship 13, no. 1 (2015): 9.

2 André Van Stel and Nardo de Vries, “The Economic Value of Different Types of Solo Self-Employed: A Review,” International Review of Entrepreneurship 13, no. 2 (2015): 79.

3 Andrew Burke, The Freelance Project and Gig Economies of the 21st Century (London: Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE), 2019), 6. https://crse.co.uk/research/freelance-project-and-gig-economies-21st-century.

4 Allessandro Gandini, “The Rise of a Freelance Economy,” in The Reputation Economy. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 13–21. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56107-7_2

5 See these two reports: Adam Ozimek, “Freelance Forward Economist Report,” https://www.upwork.com/research/freelance-forward-2021 (accessed December 19, 2022); Edelman Intelligence, “Freelance Forward,” https://web.archive.org/web/20211228021737/ https://www.upwork.com/documents/freelance-forward-2020.

6 Here is a list of articles related to freelance archivists: William Olmstadt, “A Contract Archivist For A Brief Project In A Health Sciences Library: Case Study And Management Implications,” Journal of Library Administration 58, no. 6 (2018): 617–628; Virginia Stewart, “Transactions in Archival Consulting,” The Midwestern Archivist (1985): 107–115; Richard J. Cox, Archives and Archivists in the Information Age. Neal-Schuman, 2005; Pam Hackbart-Dean, “If One Wants a Good Result, One Needs a Good Consult,” Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists 25, no. 1 (2007): 2; Karen Benedict, “The Records Management and Archives Consultant,” In Using Consultants in Libraries and Information Centers, ed. Edward D. Garten (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992); John T. Phillips, “Preparing to be a RIM Consultant.” Information Management 34, no. 1 (2000): 58; de Courcy, K., and Donald, M. (2013). “Freelance Minuet: The Organisation and the Contractor.” Archifacts, (2013): 56–64.

7 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Outlook Handbook, Archivists, Curators, and Museum Workers,” (2022), https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/curators-museum-technicians-and-conservators.htm; https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-4011&ioType=o (accessed September 26, 2023)

8 Makala Skinner and Ioana G. Hulbert, “A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report,” (2022): 10–17, https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/acensus-ii-all-archivists-survey-report/ (accessed December 19, 2022).

9 Burke, “The Freelance Project and Gig Economies of the 21st Century” 

10 Jinfang Niu,” An Online Marketplace for Archival Services”, Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print (2022):2. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-09-2021-0162

11 Edelman Intelligence, “Freelance Forward”.

12 Laura Schmidt, “Using Archives: A guide to effective research,” (2016), https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives (accessed December 20, 2022).

13 Census Bureau, “Race and Ethnicity,” (2017), https://www.cosb.us/home/showpublisheddocument/5935/637356700118370000 (accessed December 19, 2022).

14 Skinner and Hulbert, “A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report”

15 Pam Hackbart-Dean, “If One Wants a Good Result, One Needs a Good Consult.” Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists 25, no. 1 (2007): 6–7.

16 Melody Condron, “Identifying Individual and Institutional Motivations in Personal Digital Archiving.” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture (PDT&C) 48, no. 1 (2019): 28–37.

17 Niu, Jinfang. “The Need for Shared Personal/Family Archivists.” Archival Science 21, no. 3 (2021): 219–241.

18 A podcast with a written summary. Kathleen Davis, “Why So Many People are Freelancing?” March 21, 2022, https://www.fastcompany.com/90732237/why-are-so-many-people-freelancing

19 Edelman Intelligence, “Freelance Forward”.

20 Ozimek, “Freelance Forward Economist Report”.

21 Edelman Intelligence, Freelance Forward.

22 MichaelWynn, “Organising Freelancers: A Hard Case or A New Opportunity.” The Handbook of Research on Freelancing and Self-employment (2015): 111–120.

23 Andrew Burke, and Marc Cowling. “The Role of Freelancers in Entrepreneurship and Small Business.” Small Business Economics 55, no. 2 (2020): 390.

24 Edmund Heery, Hazel Conley, Rick Delbridge, and Paul Stewart. “Beyond the Enterprise: Trade Union Representation of Freelances in the UK,” Human Resource Management Journal 14, no. 2 (2004): 20–35.

25 Niu, “An Online Marketplace for Archival Services” 

26 Ditto.

27 Sarah Poutch, “Building an Archivist: Exploring Career Paths in Our Profession Since 2008 (an Irish Perspective).” Archives and Records 37, no. 2 (2016): 167.

28 A Webinar hosted by Rachel Woody, “The Basics of a Consulting Business”, (2019), https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/recorded_audio?audioRecordingUrl=https%3A//rs0000.freeconferencecall.com/storage/sgetFCC2/Hdsew/I05TB&subscriptionId=9763152 (accessed December 19, 2022).

29 Margot Note, Creating Family Archives: A Step-By-Step Guide to Saving Your Memories for Future Generations (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2019).