Upon the Retirement of Susan Creighton, Associate Archivist
Wherein VT Folklife Archivist, Andy Kolovos, reflects on Susan and her many contributions.
Susan fearlessly wrangling organizational tasks during the Middlebury move
Associate Archivist Susan Creighton first came to work at Vermont Folklife six years ago. Sadly for us (although I imagine maybe not for her), she will retire this month. We’re going to miss her. A lot. We love you, Susan! Over the past six years you have contributed so much to Vermont Folklife and to our lives. And as for those left behind, we have no choice but to figure out how to get along without our indispensable colleague. While we’ll manage, it’s just not going to be the same without her.
How did Susan come to work at Vermont Folklife?
In 2019, thanks in part to a grant from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership, we had the good fortune to be able to offer a new position: the Jane Beck Folklife Fellowship. The idea behind the fellowship was two-fold: 1) Executive Director Kate Haughey was on leave completing her dissertation and I, who was serving as interim director during her absence, had way too much to do; 2) We wanted to provide an opportunity to a new archival professional with an interest in the particular (and admittedly peculiar) kind of audio/visual collection the VT Folklife Archive represents (i.e. folklife/ethnography/oral history). We wanted such a professional to learn about these materials and how they fit into broader archival practice, while also having them work on things that I didn’t have time to do.
It so happens that our own Mary Wesley had a friend from the traditional music and dance world who had just completed a masters degree in Library and Information Science at Simmons University: Susan Creighton. Mary pointed her toward the Fellowship, Susan applied, we offered her the gig, and she ended up sticking around for six years!
Before I go any further, here are three things readers should know about Susan: 1) Archives and library work is her second career—she’d spent many years working as a math teacher and teacher trainer; 2) she brought with her many transferable skills and ton of valuable life experience; 3) She’s really good at math–something that’s pretty helpful if you’re an organization full of folklorists/ethnomusicologists/oral historians.
Susan is remarkable: hypercompetent, blissfully nerdy-funny, thoughtful, effective, caring, generous, patient, a good self-advocate, and wicked hard working.
Susan can get things done.
Over her six years at VT Folklife she moved from the position of “Folklife Fellow” to “Associate Archivist.” Across this time she managed to bring a fresh perspective to the collection, bring new order to old systems and update our approaches—while also working on a ton of brand new stuff. And she achieved all this while living more than two hours away. You see, Susan lives in Greenfield, MA. Generally, Susan would drive up to Middlebury every other week or so and work a two-day stretch, then head back south with things she could accomplish remotely
Here is a small selection Susan’s accomplishments:
Cataloging collections using the ArchiveSpace platform–including reading through thousands of pages of transcripts to generate subject headings for interviews.
Bringing in new materials like the Tony Barrand Collection and the Marlboro Morris Ale Collection–and describing them.
Reorganizing our processing backlog and documenting this reorganization.
Reorganizing our physical holdings in numerous useful ways.
Documenting systems and information that formerly only lived in my head.
Developing a digital preservation plan.
Reorganizing our digital collections in preparation for remote, offsite backup.
Researching and writing 25 “Did you Know?” pieces for our newsletter and website that highlight aspects of our collection.
Coordinating our move from Middlebury.
Helping plan and facilitate our strategic planning staff retreats.
Becoming a valued friend to us all.
Susan, you are a wonder. I’m having a hard time imagining our organization and, especially, our Archive without you. You will be deeply missed. Above all else, thank you for being part of our lives. Onward to new adventures!
– Andy