Kira A. Dietz

I am currently the Acquisitions and Processing Archivist for Virginia Tech Special Collections. My job has two main parts (though I dabble in many other activities): working with donors and book/manuscript dealers to acquire new materials, and overseeing processing of manuscript collections. I'm all about creating access (my two favorite words at work are "access" and "description") to materials through finding aids, catalog records, digitization, reference, instruction, and LOTS of outreach.

I'm interested in an alphabet soup of archival standards (EAD, EAC-CPF, DACS and more); how social media and digital platforms can be used to promote special collections, archives, & their materials; tinkering with library and archives technology, and the next best way to provide access. I also spend a good deal of time with culinary history (including cocktails & cocktail culture). At work, you'll often find me hunting down and sharing the next "worst" recipe I can find in our History of Food & Drink Collection and blogging about our collection. Outside of the library, you might find mecreating ingredients and mixing up classic & new cocktails at home, somewhere with my nose in a book, or at a sporting or arts event on campus.

I'm currently involved in a variety of collaborative projects: documenting women's history at Virginia Tech; experimenting with our archival management software; processing and physically reorganizing materials in our collections; and pondering approaches to primary source (archival) literacy.