This interview with Kay Slater is the twelfth post in a new series of conversations between emerging professionals and archivists actively working with digital materials.

Kailyn “Kay” Slater is a public library worker and scholar at the intersection of communication and information studies. Slater was recently a Junior Fellow at the Library of Congress, and has a MSLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as well as an MA in Communication from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Tell us about your current role/responsibilities.

I’m a Creative Technology Specialist at the Oak Park Public Library, where I work in a makerspace called the Creative Studio. While staff technically don’t specialize in particular aspects of the Studio, I tend to present programs focused on digitization and technology literacy.

Please describe the path that led you into your current position as a professional.

I attended art school in Chicago as an undergraduate and rolled right into a Master’s program in Communication at the University of Illinois Chicago. I wasn’t sure that a direct path to teaching was for me–at least within Communication–so I spoke with the librarian-liaison for our department about possible career paths, and she recommended that I pursue a library job. After about a week, it clicked that GLAM was the right choice; but now, after a few years of working in public services and completing the MSLIS, it’s been more of a matter of figuring out where I fit in. The major throughline of my career has been engaging with media objects through cultural theory and discourse analysis, and the practice of that engagement has looked like producing critical scholarship, presenting programs on the systems that construct technologies, and working on projects in service of digital preservation.

You recently completed the Library of Congress Junior Fellows Program. Can you tell us what your experience was like and what project you worked on?

I had a great experience working with the Web Archiving Section. I completed assessments for web captures, matched subject terms to records to encourage increased access to web archive material based on their content, and made suggestions for websites for staff to nominate for inclusion into a specific collection. They showed me how they facilitate crawling and their workflows for managing data storage alongside the Office of the Chief Information Officer, or OCIO. It was exciting to see how as a staff they work on a little bit of everything but each have their own strengths, whether as a technical developer or someone focused on promotion and outreach.

As a Junior Fellow, my experience was focused on one aspect of the Library. Through weekly professional development workshops and virtual social gatherings, I was able to connect with other Junior Fellows who were also working remotely. My Project Mentor, Tracee Haupt Fugate, also made a concerted effort to introduce me to staff working in sections within the Digital Services Directorate. The Library is a huge institution, but I was able to get a good understanding of how each part works together, especially when it came to managing digital collections. I’ll also add that if this were not paid, I would not have been able to take a leave from my full-time job and participate in this type of internship.

I worked on the Documenting the Digital Age project, in which I focused on assessing and expanding the Mass Communications Web Archive. This particular collection focuses on the production and distribution of media, meaning that websites preserved within this archive tend to focus on media industries, professional associations, and policy initiatives. The Librarians who created and steward the scope of the collection were interested in seeing more ‘new media’ websites being added to the web archive. The main challenge was determining what kind of websites fit within this scope and don’t pose major challenges in terms of archivability. The Library has other web archives that are specific to news, political events, and industry associations. I decided to take an approach that considered what websites could be valuable in terms of their content for practitioners, scholars, and the public, and what would ideally be simple to capture from a technical standpoint: websites consisting mainly of text with little to no video or streaming content and low on the presence of complicated scripts or databases. While not an intended frame by the Collection Leaders, some websites I suggested represent inflection points I’ve observed in the last decade or so within journalism–like worker-owned digital publications that were created in the wake of mass layoffs at larger media corporations.

What impact do you feel this work will have on you as you continue in this career?

It was invigorating to be able to make an impact on a specific collection, especially one that my own scholarship aligns with. Working in a public library, I don’t get much exposure to working with born-digital and web materials from an archival standpoint – but I do get to work directly with patrons who are creating these born-digital materials from the ground up. This fellowship has helped me understand what aspects of working with digital collections I enjoy, and what parts I don’t feel as motivated by. It’s given me a better idea of what kind of skills managers are looking for: being able to communicate about the work you do in an accessible way (i.e. with plain language), understanding the stakes and opportunities that come from the larger infrastructure and type of institution you’re working within, and being willing to ask questions.

As you move through your work, what changes or adjustments have you made in your goals?

I’ve been hyper-aware of how graduating into a competitive job market gives me two options: take on roles that provide flexibility and professional development funding, or pursue a role that is semi-related and grants you some experience towards the work you want to do. I’ve been in the first situation since I started pursuing library work. I enjoy what I do now, but working in a makerspace is not what I plan to do for the rest of my career. I’d really love to work at a public library or public university directly with digital archival collections, especially in a role that makes space for the pursuit of scholarship.

Any advice for early career folks interested in the Library and Archival field?

If you can, making connections with staff who are working closer to archives and offering to pursue projects with them is a great way to gain experience if the work you’re doing full-time does not match what you’re looking to pursue directly. Getting engaged in professional associations as a student to take advantage of lower membership costs is something that has really helped me get to know other professionals at various career stages–SAA and ALA both have altered their membership fee structure to accommodate different levels of pay. At a high level, it’s definitely okay to explore different opportunities and see what feels right–but clarifying for yourself what work you’re truly interested in engaging with, where your values align, and what path you imagine your career may take, will make job searching a lot easier.