Melissa Erlandson (B.A., 2015) is a Processing Archivist at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Archives & Library in Newport News.
How does the Jefferson Lab Library contribute to the broader research mission of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility?
Jefferson Lab is a research institution and as such welcomes scientists from literally all over the globe. All told, we have a representative body of over 35 countries and more than 60 research universities in the United States and Canada. The mission of the library and archives is to support that research. When our scientists need further research materials, journals, books, it's the library's responsibility to help them locate these materials. While we have researchers who are local, a great many of them are not; those who are local can use our resources or their parent institution's to locate what they require. For those farther from home, it can be more difficult.
What are your responsibilities at the Library?
My responsibilities are to support the library by sending out and taking in interlibrary loans, help find materials especially if they are within our own holdings, and appraise our holdings to make sure they are current and properly cared for. For the archives, I process the collections, make sure that what we have is housed properly, and build finding aids for the collections. I reach out to our scientific community for contributions to the archives as well as document events that happen on-site or events in which we are involved. Many of our scientists have had the privilege of working at and with many facilities, so I also reach out to other institutions to make sure that any information about experiments at their site are properly traced historically. I am also responsible for finding where out deficiencies are and trying to find budget-friendly solutions. In that respect, I liaise with vendors. Also, one major project I have embarked upon is consolidating various aspects of archives that are all over the Lab; for example, Electronic Media presently has custody of a huge body of digital photographs. We are working to get those consolidated with the photographs located within the archives to make usability and searchability much easier for the Lab community as well as researchers.
What kind of holdings are contained in the Archive? Is it open to any interested scholar?
The Jefferson Lab Archives are open to the public. We request that anyone interested contact us to set up an appointment and to make sure we have what the researcher seeks. There are facets of collections which are closed and other collections which are totally closed requiring the permissions of the Director's Office to access, so advanced notice helps us help the researcher. The materials we have within the archives vary: we have logbooks from the experimental halls, journals from the Directorate, blueprints of the accelerator and other facilities on-site, notes from scientists as well as their research, notes and information for tours to VIPs, many photographs documenting the construction of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (also referred to as CEBAF) and so much more. I will say that one of my favorite things we have in the archives are photographs of the first beam generated hitting the target in the experimental halls. Even though the inception of the Lab was many years prior, this one event is the realization of so many hopes.
What intrigues you about the History of Science?
By my own personal interests, I am more of a medievalist. What I love about the History of Science is how we've gone from science being in conflict with the Church to science being a group effort across nationalities and cultures. There is something that is satisfying to my soul to hear all of the languages spoken here, the collaborations, and the passion that the users have for their work. I cannot imagine that passion was much different in the Middle Ages, but the speed at which information moves makes these collaborations much easier. (As a side-note, through our Tech Transfer program, there have been over 170 patents issued to the Lab.)
How did your training in the history program at ODU prepare you for your work at the Jefferson Lab Library?
I must reference both Mr. Del Corso and Dr. Zanoni for this one - I was looking for an internship that would help me explore other options than teaching for my degree. I never had an interest in teaching, but when I learned that I could no longer be a paramedic, I had to find a new career path. Mr. Del Corso helped me work out what interests I might have other than teaching and Dr. Zanoni (who at the time was the lead for internships) told me about the ODU Special Collections & University Archives. Until that conversation, I did not know that we had one! Once I had some experience with the City of Virginia Beach's archives, I went to our archives and spoke with the acting department head at the time (Mona Farrow) who interviewed me for a position as a student processor. The experience working there set the standard for my work here as well as the thoroughness required to work in archives. One major takeaway from my classes is that I use what I was taught almost on a daily basis in my Historical Methods and Museum Studies classes. When telling a story about a person or event, understanding the differences in primary and secondary sources, as well as being able to look for what is not said rather than what is said, has been invaluable. The purpose of an archive is to hold the truth through the eyes of those who have experienced it so others can then learn more from the collections. Understanding historiography is critical when one is in a position to influence how events and people are viewed in retrospect.