Typical archival request #1
The phone rings. It's an elderly woman, asking for Patty. I tell her Patty is on vacation and ask if there's any way I can help. She says "I sure hope so," in a dubious tone of voice. She wants to know if I can find out about a professor "Conlon" or "Condon" who taught in the Religion Dept in the mid-80s. I tell her I will look into it and call her back. I search every directory from 1980-1994. No luck. I search the Religion Dept files for that year range. No dice. I search the faculty bio files for anything starting with CO. Strike three. I call her back to let her know I haven't found anything. She can't hear me and we yell back and forth until she realizes she needs to switch phones. All this time, she is also yelling to someone else - a man, maybe her husband, who is there in the room with her. They decide that maybe the name is not "Conlon" or "Condon" but simply a 1-syllable name, and maybe he taught earlier than the mid-80s. Biting back my frustration, I offer to search again. I go through the directories from 1960-1990 and find an F. Benjamin Carr who taught in the Religion Dept from 1969-1974. I have a feeling he's the one. I pull his file, and while I'm at it, I pull the file of the caller, Gwen Glass. I call her back to give her the name. It's the right one. Her voice warms and she and the man in the background both sound happy. She thanks me. Turns out she's an alum who also served as Secretary of the College from 1973-89. She's a pistol.

This exchange is typical because it involves the 3 main ingredients of archival work: the frustration, the search, and the discovery of information and resultant connection. It's pretty cool, when it works out.