American Archives Month Employee Spotlights - Sarah Navins
Name: Sarah Navins
Job Title: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
How long have you worked at the National Archives?
14 years.
What made you interested in being an archivist? Why did you want to work at your Presidential Library in particular?
I was a history major looking for what to do with my degree and stumbled upon archives. I love both the history side of things and creating order out of chaos. I grew up near the FDR Library and was lucky enough to land an internship while in college, and I never left.
Give us an overview of your job. What are some of your responsibilities?
We are a small staff, so my job involves a little bit of everything. I mostly work on reference, processing, research room monitoring, digitization, collection management, and social media.
What’s the strangest thing that’s happened to you in this line of work? What’s the best?
The best would be getting to meet some pretty amazing people who are interested in the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
What’s your favorite fact about the President for your particular library?
That we are the first Presidential Library and the only one used by a sitting president.
You’re having dinner with the President of your library. What restaurant would you take him to or what would you cook? What artifact would you ask him about? Why?
I would ask him what his plans would have been for the library after his Presidency.
What's your favorite document, and why?
One of my favorite things I have found in the FDR Library collections are the blueprint and purchase order for the first set of archival boxes used at the library.
Planning and construction for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library was started in 1938 during FDR’s second term. Since this happened during his Presidency, we are lucky to have a wealth of documentation surrounding the creation and history of the library—including the collection of The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Inc., which was authorized to raise funds for and build the library before it was turned over to the Government in 1940. Within that collection there is a series for “Specifications, Contracts and Construction,” which contains all sorts of fascinating information, including a folder entitled “Stack Containers.” It was here that I found the blueprint, purchase order, and the sample material for the boxes.
In the stories passed down from previous archivists at the library, FDR helped design the boxes to allow himself to work with the collections more easily. The box could sit on his lap while he was in the stacks, and the papers would be safely contained while he used them.
We still have some of the original boxes in our offices, so I was thrilled to find this tangible connection between the past and the present in our collections. One of the things I love about working at the FDR Library is that the building and the things in it are just as much a part of our collection and history as the archives and museum artifacts. It is a unique opportunity to work in a historic building like ours, and I love that I can look in a collection and find information about something or somewhere on the site that I work with or see on a daily basis. I also geek out on the nuts and bolts of administrative history and how it all came together, so finding blueprints for the original clamshell boxes got me pretty excited.
What advice would you have for someone interested in a career in archival work, or how would you convince someone to consider a career in archival work?
The best advice I have for someone who is interested in archival work is to find ways to get involved with the profession. If you have the ability to get hands-on experience volunteering somewhere, go for it. Look into state or regional archival organizations to see what resources they have for folks starting out in the profession.
Lastly (and most important), why should people visit or learn more about your Presidential Library?
Obviously we are the best library to visit! We cover two major historical events from the 20th Century and the lives of two incredibly influential people—Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. There are so many parallels from their lives to the world we live in today.