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Page 13
Campus Review
August 15, 2014
JoyEllen Freeman is an Emerging Archival Scholar
by Siera Blasco
With the Georgia Archives on Clayton
State University’s foregrounds, it is no
wonder that the university maintains a
strong Masters of Archival Studies (MAS)
program to attract and polish aspiring
scholars like JoyEllen Freeman.
Freeman, a native of Milton, Ga., one year
in pursuit of her MAS degree, felt only
after her time spent at Clayton State that
she was academically prepared to strive
for a scholarship to attend the Archival
Education and Research Institute (AERI)
program. Freeman was only one of six
who received the Emerging Archival
Scholars Program scholarship, which
fully paid her involvement in the AERI
program. Freeman attributes her accom-
plishment to Richard Pearce-Moses, MAS
program director, and Seth Shaw, MAS
program faculty, for helping her better-
fine tune her application.
The AERI program ran from July 14 to
July 18, with an intensive schedule full of
workshops,
lec-
tures, discussions,
and studies on how
to better use new
technologies to pre-
serve lasting histo-
ries. Freeman trav-
elled
to
the
University
of
Pittsburgh for this
year’s annual ses-
sion, but the AERI
program has taken place in a variety of
universities throughout the U.S. since it
began in 2009. Presenters came from all
around the world.
Freeman is hoping to expand her knowl-
edge on doctoral programs for archivists
like herself, which perfectly lines with the
AERI program’s objective to foster pas-
sion for archival doctoral programs. With
her studies, Freeman is intent on helping
her community integrate archival materi-
als into the K-12 educational system as
well as continue to meticulously attend to
her church’s archives in Roswell, Ga.
“Clayton State is the reason why I feel
ready for the program,” Freeman says. “I
can’t wait to make some great connec-
tions, develop friendships, and gain more
knowledge about preserving our commu-
nity archives.”
is not doing too well as many productions
move away from Los Angles, but overall,
there has never been a busier time with
more production in more different venues,
platforms and distribution streams than
right now;
Number two -- the film and digital media
industries are so well established in the state
that barring some very large scale changes or
crises, this industry is here to stay.
Back to the issue related to a trained labor
force – not an easy problem to solve. Skill
sets for film workers are quite unlike any
other job or industry. Learning on the job
is difficult, and productions are by nature
not very excited about having to pay
trainees, particularly because they are
“on-the-ground” for sometimes a month –
barely time for someone in a “normal” job
to get up to speed.
Thus, it is easy to see that a potential neg-
ative situation could develop around the
issue of the availability of trained workers
to the extent that productions may find
that the difficulty and expense in finding
those workers may outweigh the advan-
tages of the state’s financial incentives
and even the availability of support serv-
ices (studios, rental companies, etc.) As a
state, we are not there yet, but within the
industry there are many horror stories
about productions that were enticed to
shoot in other states that had larger incen-
tives but lack of crew and other resources
created serious problems. Needless to say,
most of these problem states are not host-
ing many shoots any more.
The process of training, like so much of
the activity around any growth industry,
will most likely be organic. That is to say,
training can also be a growth sub-industry,
where in the level of need will create a
number of players; formal higher educa-
tion (both academic for-credit and non-
credit), industry-sponsored training, pro-
prietary/private trade schools, organiza-
tions like the film union or film festivals,
private individuals, etc.
Of these, the higher education non-credit
component offers the quickest and
arguably the best training path. Courses
and workshops can be developed quickly,
but with the rigor of academic college
courses, and delivered by qualified, cre-
dentialed instructors at very reasonable
prices and in concert with the needs and
requirements of the industry.
In the end, this is an issue that will be
resolved. It is reasonable to believe that,
even as big economically as film is right
now, and as big an impact as it is having
in a myriad of business sectors, in five
years we will look back at 2014 and say:
“Wow! Look how far we have come.”
Film, cont’d.from p. 3
JoyEllen Freeman