Name: Jen­nie Cole

Title and Duties:

Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers Project Archivist (although this title is some­what obsolete!)

I coor­di­nate Mudd’s acces­sion­ing process, main­tain the gen­eral Mudd ref­er­ence email account, and cre­ate the monthly ref­er­ence cal­en­dar. I am also the project man­ager for the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions dig­i­tal audio project, as well as Ivy Lee and James A. Baker III Papers micro­film projects. I super­vise the New Jer­sey His­tor­i­cal Commission’s grant-funded Spe­cial Col­lec­tions Assis­tant, as well as the Spe­cial Col­lec­tions Assis­tant for accessioning.

Recent projects: I com­pleted Woodrow Wil­son: A Guide to Selected Resources in the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library ear­lier this year.

An inter­est­ing work anec­dote: I’ve man­aged to have patron over­lap from my last full time archival job at a his­tor­i­cal soci­ety in Ken­tucky (2001–2004), with col­lec­tions focus­ing on the nine­teenth cen­tury his­tory of the upper South, with my cur­rent ref­er­ence work at Mudd. Small world!

Worked at Mudd since: Sep­tem­ber 2005

Why I like my job/archives: I always enjoyed read­ing and study­ing his­tory (B.A. in Mid­dle East­ern His­tory, M.A. in Amer­i­can His­tory) but never had the desire to be an edu­ca­tor, lawyer, or any of the other pro­fes­sions a his­tory major is sup­posed to be inter­ested in. I pre­ferred research and museum work, and after intern­ships at a his­toric house museum and his­tor­i­cal soci­ety, ended up work­ing as an archivist full time and enjoy­ing it so much I went back to school to learn more about the the­ory of archives. I can’t imag­ine being as sat­is­fied in another career.