{"id":13224,"date":"2026-07-07T18:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/?p=13224"},"modified":"2026-07-07T18:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:26:35","slug":"qa-with-archives-program-officer-katie-nichols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/2026\/07\/07\/qa-with-archives-program-officer-katie-nichols\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Archives Program Officer Katie Nichols!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Abigail Bowers<\/p>\n

\"\"
Katie Nichols, Archives Program Officer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did you end up at the University of Illinois Archives? Tell us about your background.<\/strong>
\nAfter earning a degree in English lit, I relocated from the West Coast to attend library school here and somehow never left! I knew my interest was in special collections, but I didn\u2019t have a clear direction. Shortly after beginning grad school, I took a volunteer position at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and realized that archival work was my thing. I became a grad hourly, then a graduate assistant, and after graduating, I stayed on as an academic hourly at both Sousa and the University Archives. In 2019, I began my current position as an Archives Program Officer at the Archives Research Center.<\/p>\n

What are your responsibilities?<\/strong>
\nI serve as the reference archivist at ARC, so there is a lot of digging through boxes and answering random questions. I did not foresee hauling 30 lb. boxes around as part of my daily work life, but here we are. I also oversee daily operations, assist our onsite researchers, process incoming materials (physical and digital), supervise student workers, serve on library committees\u2026a little bit of everything!<\/p>\n

What excites you most about your role? What are some plans\/ideas you have in mind?<\/strong>
\nIt never gets boring! I\u2019ve been doing this for twelve years now, and I still love it. The work is so varied, my colleagues are wonderful, and I love being able to help people in their academic or genealogical research process. Things at the Archives Research Center will look a bit different after the relocation into the special collections building, so right now I am looking ahead to that and making sure we are as prepared as possible for a move of this scope.<\/p>\n

What are the most interesting\/challenging\/fun aspects of the job?<\/strong>
\nYou really never know what you\u2019re going to find. Each reference request feels like a little mystery that I want to solve. Being able to locate the particular piece of info that a researcher needs is so rewarding. Every time I process a series or dig into a reference inquiry, I feel like I\u2019m getting to know the series creator in some small way. And it\u2019s always fun to run across a letter from Einstein or a school paper written by Nick Offerman!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Abigail Bowers How did you end up at the University of Illinois Archives? Tell us about your background. After earning a degree in English lit, I relocated from the West Coast to attend library school here and somehow never left! I knew my interest was in special collections, but I didn\u2019t have a clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-archivists-do"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13230,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13224\/revisions\/13230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}