3 Questions for Digital Archivist Richard Thai

Thai joined the Caltech Archives and Special Collections team in March 2023 as the Institute’s first digital archivist. Thai came to Caltech from Cal State Northridge, and he previously held archivist positions at the LA84 Foundation and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Here, he explains what his job at the Institute entails.

What does a digital archivist do?

The role of a digital archivist can vary from institution to institution. At Caltech, I am working primarily with “born-digital” materials. As you can guess, those are materials that were created on a computer and not digitalized from a physical counterpart. So, instead of preserving letters and newspapers, I am preserving emails and websites. More importantly, I am developing the policies and workflows for preserving digital content and making it accessible.

What led you to a career as an archivist?

I like organizing stuff; I have a fondness for history, and I enjoy helping people. I thought I wanted to pursue a career in museums, but the only department that had an opening was the history department. They had a western U.S. history collection that needed processing, and the archivist needed help. Like many archivists, getting a taste of working in an archive was what sent me on my archives journey. I did not set out to be a digital archivist but, with things becoming increasingly digital, it is where the exciting new developments in the field are happening.

What about the field do you find challenging, and what excites you?

Digital archiving is a relatively young field, so we do not have a deep history of professional practice to fall back upon. Many of my digital archivist colleagues have told me that they are learning on the job. At the same time, we are not held back by decades-old professional dogma, and there are a lot of opportunities to be a pioneer in the field. It is daunting but also a very exciting time.