Archivists

High School

If you are interested in doing archival work, high school is not too early to begin your training. Since it is usually necessary to earn a master's degree to become an archivist, you should select a college preparatory curriculum in high school and plan on going to college. While in high school, you should pay special attention to learning library and research skills. Classes in English, history, science, and mathematics will provide you with basic skills and knowledge for university study. Computer and journalism courses will help you hone your database-searching and research skills, and political science courses will help you identify events of societal importance. Since many archives are becoming electronic, computer science, database management, and Web technology classes will be especially useful. You should also plan on learning at least one foreign language. If you are interested in doing archival work at a religious organization, Latin or Hebrew may be good language options. If you would like to work in a specialized archive, such as an art gallery or medical school archive, you should also focus on classes that will prepare you for that specialty.