Editor: Seth Ford,
Fords@grinnell.edu

History Home Page

Web pages maintained by pricel@grinnell.edu

Little known to the rest of the student body, Carnegie Fourth holds more than just the offices for the history department. It holds your future. The fourth floor is home to four bulletin boards filled with information to serve you. Two of the boards (the one to the immediate left when you enter the fourth floor and the one next to Professor Hietala’s office) feature graduate schools and programs offered worldwide. Another focuses on internships, paper contests, and summer programs. This board is located directly outside Professor Sortor’s office. The last board, perhaps the most crucial to your history career here at Grinnell, features an updated list of history majors, seminars being offered in the up and coming year, a list of department events, and announcements about history related speakers coming to campus. On top of all of that, the bulletin boards are updated continuously so there is always new information for your viewing pleasure. So go ahead and stop on by to uncover YOUR future.

Recently, I attended a talk given by Alumni Scholar Rhonda Huber Frevert (’92) regarding careers in librarianship. At first, I doubted the utility of attending such a talk. Librarianship did not seem as fulfilling to me as some of the other careers I have considered, but as I heard Ms. Frevert speak on the subject I began to reconsider my previous notion. She spoke of her winding career path starting with a yearlong internship at a small archival institution after graduation. Eventually she decided to go to graduate school where she earned a masters in history as well as a masters in librarianship. As she talked about the issues facing a librarian today, I gained a new appreciation for that career path. It is truly amazing that I took for granted the importance and the need for preserving information, whether it is on the Internet or on the bookshelves. The task of preserving information and knowledge against the ravages of time for our own and future generations is no insignificant matter. Without librarians and archivists, there would be no information or evidence upon which to base our assumptions and theories about the past. So when you are considering career paths, do not be quick to dismiss a career in librarianship.

History Department Picnic Hosted by George Drake at 532 12th Ave. Friday, October 1 at 5 P.M..