Q: How long have you been an archivist and what got you into the profession?

I got my MLIS from Wayne State in 2011. They’re one of the oldest graduate archival programs in the country, and they were celebrating their 50th anniversary that year. The Archivist of the United States came to talk at graduation, and that was a big thrill. It made it seem more historic, which is precisely the reason I got into the profession in the first place. Previously I had worked as a recording engineer, and a fellow came into the studio and wanted this old reel-to-reel tape transferred to a CD. He said he didn’t know what was on the tape, but it was important to his mother, so he wanted to hear what it was. Well, it turned out to be a radio broadcast that had snippets of ‘man on the street’ interviews. A woman had gone around with a portable cassette recorder and talked to people. That woman was his mother. And she was at the Selma March! I got goosebumps when I heard this woman talking to Dr. King and others and at that moment I thought “There must be thousands of tapes like this in closets all over America. They need to be preserved. So that’s what I want to do – I want to archive historical audio recordings”.

Q: What is your most memorable experience working in this field?

Since I have just become a Cardinal, I’ll tell a story about another one. I did some processing of items from the papers of the late John Cardinal Dearden of Detroit, and it included some items from the conclaves of 1978. There were two papal elections that year, and both of the booklets he took into conclave were in the collection. They were red leather and included the instructions in Latin to dress properly, assemble for the procession, sing a hymn to the Holy Spirit and enter the Sistine Chapel. Also included were a couple blank ballots, with a place for writing in the name of the person you were voting for. I don’t know if he voted for John Paul I and II, but if he did, he would have used the same ballots. So, I was holding an interesting piece of papal history that very few people get to see.

Q. What are your hopes and plans for the Archives and Special Collections going forward?

I hope that everybody feels welcome to visit the Archives. The only reason we’re here is to share these resources with others. And I plan on making the collections as much fun as possible. There are so many interesting materials in the Archives, and so many creative ways they can be used. I look forward to Special Collections and the Seager Archives of the Built Environment being a catalyst for creativity.