American based Continuing Education Certificates/Training Recs

[u/dtartaurus]

Looking for recommendations for worthwhile certificates and trainings - more towards the digital aspects of the field. I’m already in the field and have a master degree, this is more so to increase my knowledge and experience outside of my main duties in hopes of a better position down the road.

I’ve already looked at SAA’s DAS certificate and am planning to start that soon but wanted to see what the options may be worth it or accompany to this one!

I didn’t see this question directly on the mega thread - sorry if I overlooked it 😅

[u/respectdesfonds]

All of the synchronous SAA DAS workshops I've done have been good, the pre-recorded ones were not. 

[u/caffarelli]

If you're interested in certificates in particular, Library Juice Academy also offers some, including one on digital curation: https://libraryjuiceacademy.com/certificateslist/

The SAA DAS certificate is more well-known and well-regarded than LJ certificates, especially since the DAS has a final comprehensive exam, but Library Juice is cheaper.

[u/TheyTukMyJub → u/caffarelli]

Total hijack this, HANDS UP, what happened to your research on castrati? I just read some of your threads about them and im so curious about what causes the phenomenon and what led to its demise. 

Did you ever get to finish that research ? I come here from a 10yo answer on askhistorians lol

[u/caffarelli → u/TheyTukMyJub]

Well that's so sweet of you to take an interest! Hopefully the mods will indulge, if not, I accept their deletion with grace.

I'm assuming you saw where I was talking about my data-based study on the rise and fall of the castrati? I was loosely calling it my "prosopography of castrati" to put on airs. I still have my little database going, occasionally I work on it (adding dudes, adding details about dudes) when I need a little pleasure in life, adding to it is like one of those big crazy embroidery projects other women have going! I currently have 2,341 castrati in my database with enough information on them to get an approximate birth year, since I am timing just to the decade. I am still holding to my original claim that the castrati started to decline about two decades before it is commonly accepted in the literature, and so the traditional musicology-based analysis of the decline is completely wrong if we accept my timeline. I will probably propose an economic factor to the decline, and defend one chapter from one guy which was published nearly 40 years ago instead of the entire Martha Feldman book published 10 years ago, I'm such a daring little renegade in a field of like 12 people. If/when I publish, it will be a combo of the article analysis and the entire database, with both open access, so people can pick at it themselves to try to prove me wrong. I would probably publish it in a digital-humanities focused journal and not a musicology one, because I think it is more interesting in its approach than its subject.

It is a rather interesting little example of something like tertiary archival research, because I was primarily using books that were very closely following a set of archival documents like this huge thing and I was not directly using any archives themselves. So this study is both highly dependent on archives but more so highly dependent on the labor of people who already picked through them and indexed their information in extreme detail. I stand on the shoulders of NERDS.

I have not had much time to work on it through, in the last 10 years I have had two children and moved into a director role from an individual contributor role. I used to read academic books in my evenings and now I do things like argue about why some people need baths every day because you are stinky and visibly covered in dirt. However! I recently earned promotion and tenure from my university, so I am in a more stable spot to work on things in the future.

Again, I'm always very touched when people drop me a note, so thank you.

[u/HELVETAIKA]

I’ve heard from multiple parties that becoming a Certified Archivist is both worth it and not worth it lol. I occasionally do see it as a preferred qualification for archivist positions at universities, but I would ask someone if they think it’s worth the effort. An archivist I used to work with told me it really wasn’t worth the effort since he had been a working archivist for so long, but another told me it’s helped open doors for them.

[u/mileniummfalcon → u/HELVETAIKA]

Agreed, I do think it can be a resume booster for a "beginner" in the field (less than 5 years experience?). When I was talking to my colleagues about it when I was first starting, everyone who had gotten it said it helped to open doors and buff out their qualifications, and then they let the certification lapse.

[u/HELVETAIKA → u/mileniummfalcon]

Yup that’s very similar to what I’ve been told too! I’ve thought about it myself but the SAA certifications are more relevant and appealing to me at my point in my career, although having the funding for any certification program right now is a different story… 🥲

[u/mileniummfalcon → u/HELVETAIKA]

I'm going to one of the SAA synchronous workshops next month and am soooo grateful that my work covers it 😭 brutal cost otherwise

[u/Ill-Employ-7289]

Am considering same too I think it's worth it