Week 28: Southern Farewell
In my 16th week at the Mayme Clayton Library and
Museum, I took time off from the museum to attend my father’s memorial service
in Gaston, North Carolina, talked about job opportunities in the special
collections at Savannah State University and participated in a meeting with a
film producer for the licensing of photographs for a Richard Pryor documentary.
Beautiful staircase in one of Savannah's historic squares |
My father grew up in, Gaston, a small town in Northampton County, North Carolina. To get there for his memorial service, we had to fly to Raleigh, and drive around 100 miles through country roads. Once we got there, spent a few days with my grandparents and other relatives and said our final goodbyes; we wondered what to do next with our rental car in this interesting region of the country. We decided to visit a few other cities; among them was Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah, we decided to check out Savannah State University. I had seen a librarian job announcement from them a few months ago and thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself, just in in case they were still looking at applicants. Savannah State University is a historically black college that has been absorbed for the Georgia State University system. The library was very quiet because most students had already left for winter break but luckily there was one serial librarian in the building. I explained my current situation and how I had seen the job posting and asked if there was anything that she could share about their hiring patterns or practices.
I found out that they had filled the position a couple
months ago but the administration moves slow in getting new hires on board and
removing the vacancy information. This librarian had graduated from Queens
College and worked in law libraries for years before landing this job. She said
that it was difficult to find a position in this market but one strategy that
she employed was to send her resume to anywhere that she wanted to work and in
some cases she did get call backs and interviews. When it came to the special
collections, this librarian did not have much information, she said that there
was not an archivist on staff; all of the librarians worked to provide access
to the archival materials. She was not able to answer my questions about
accessions, scope, or EAD finding aids. Instead she walked me upstairs and
showed me the museum, special collections reading room and introduced me to the
library assistant that monitored the space. When I explained my situation to
her, she gave me her card hoping that I would be a resource for them! After
looking around, I could see that the special collection could really benefit
from an archive specialist. They could use someone to do research and bring
more exposure to their materials. In their defense, they have digitized a lot
of their materials and made them available online.
I thanked each of them for their time and advice. The
fellowship allowed me to approach the situation from a confident position. I
wasn’t a volunteer looking for someone to give me a chance, I am an employed
archivist that had demonstrated my worth in Chicago and Los Angeles; I believe
that my next employer will be eager to have me on their team.
Of course the airports were a madhouse with the holidays
right around the corner, but I refused to give up my seat for vouchers or take
a different flight because I had a meeting with “Richard Pryor” on my scheduled
arrival date. Over the past several weeks I have been working with Grace, a
production assistant for a new Richard Pryor documentary on some images that we
had of the comedian. Dr. Clayton in her awe-inspiring wisdom had collected many
of the photographs from the archives at Sepia magazine, when it was
discontinued in 1983. From my time in the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC)
photograph archives, I can attest that these images are much smaller in
quantity but comparable in quality and rarity to the JPC collection. As a
result of the divided nature of the Sepia photograph collection, the MCLM has
retained all rights to the images that we possess.
I had already made low resolution copies
for Grace, she shared them with the producers, and they would get back to
us on which images they wanted to move forward with licensing agreements. After
a number of emails, Grace and one of the producers, Sarah, came to the museum
on Friday afternoon for a meeting with Larry and me. The success of this
meeting was the perfect example of teamwork. I greeted our guests, took a
little time to get to know them better and discuss the strengths and context of
the photographs that they were interested in. Larry joined us after a few
minutes and explained what he was hoping to gain from this transaction and to
their pleasant surprise; it was not a large paycheck. We talked about screening
the documentary at the museum as a part of black comedian series. Larry has the
vision to see how a favor could be more valuable than a dollar as we strive to
establish ourselves in the community.
I was instructed to follow up with the Grace
on the type of reproduction that they will need, and quote a price that covers
our cost, plus 40%; which is a steal for them because of the amount of freedom
and flexibility that they will have with the images. I am excited to be a part
of such an amazing project and grateful to learn from an experienced negotiator.
The Mayme Clayton Library and Museum will be closed from
December 23 until January 3. I’m off to Tucson, Arizona to spend the holidays
with my sister and niece. I hope you all have a happy holiday and joyous New
Year’s celebration. 2013 is going to be big, I can feel it in my bones!
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