How To Become A University Archivist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a university archivist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a university archivist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.76 an hour? That's $45,271 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 4,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreUniversity ArchivistUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $45,271

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.24%

Asian 3.52%

Black or African American 4.19%

Hispanic or Latino 5.23%

Unknown 4.28%

White 81.54%

Gender

female 56.00%

male 44.00%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a university archivist

Explore university archivist education requirements

Most common university archivist degrees

Bachelor's

54.2 %

Master's

41.7 %

Certificate

4.2 %

Start to develop specific university archivist skills

Skills	Percentages
Student Assistants	17.80%
EAD	13.02%
Digital Materials	12.93%
Digital Format	11.68%
DACS	10.85%

Complete relevant university archivist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New university archivists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a university archivist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real university archivist resumes.

Research university archivist duties and responsibilities

Generate 80 EAD finding aids (example at http: //www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/ead/ms0803.xml).
Process finding aids into EAD files so that the finding aids can be access through different programs and software.
Direct activities of workers assisting in arranging, cataloging, exhibiting and maintaining collections of archival materials.
Create correspondences/completed FDA forms/maintain submission calendars/review submission documents.

Prepare your university archivist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your university archivist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a university archivist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable university archivist resume templates

Build a professional university archivist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your university archivist resume.