Session 13: Leveraging Regional Advocacy to Advance Ethical Labor Practices: Northwest Archivists' Archivist-In-Residence Program

Abstract

Conversations about fair and ethical archival labor practices underpin ongoing advocacy to build a strong, stable, and diverse workforce within the archival profession. The discussion around the value of archival labor has increased with urgency, and in response, Northwest Archivists, Inc. (NWA) created an ad hoc committee to develop a new paid internship pilot, the Archivist-in-Residence (AiR) program. The goal is to advocate for the value of internships as archival labor and to effectively steward the next generation of archivists into the profession through the creation of productive, self-initiated, and funded internship opportunities. This session will address the AiR program formation and decision-making process; detail application and evaluation rubrics and how they can be replicated; describe the challenges and solutions involved in offering fair compensation across a region with widely varying cost of living; and address the sustainability of the program by reviewing fundraising strategies.