"What Are You Working On, Meghan Ryan?"

Ever wonder what exciting new projects the many employees at NARA are working on? The “What are You Working On?” blog feature aims to introduce a variety of NARA employees and highlight some of the exciting projects we are working on around the agency. Check for this blog series on Wednesdays!

This week, we introduce Meghan Ryan, an Archivist Trainee at the National Archives in College Park, MD (Archives II).

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What is your name and title?

Meghan Ryan, Archivist

Where is your job located?

College Park, MD

What is your job in a nutshell?

Right now, I work in Accessioning, which is the department that oversees the transfer of physical and legal custody of records from federal entities or private donors to the National Archives.

What are you working on right now?  (Why is it cool/why does it matter?)

Right now, I’m working with some records from the real NCIS. It’s cool working on something that I can associate with a TV show!

How long have you been at NARA?  Have you worked at any other NARA location?

I’ve worked at NARA II for about a year and a half.

What has changed since you started at NARA?

I started out working in textual processing, which is a different kind of job altogether. I liked the way I really got to know records in textual processing – you get to see so much more of a series, and really examine the records. But the diversity of jobs in accessioning is pretty cool!

Do you have a favorite day at NARA, or a favorite discovery or accomplishment?

My favorite discoveries were some propaganda posters from the Cold War I noticed while I was working in processing. It’s amazing the kind of things the United States put out there, especially when seen in retrospect. Plus, it was neat looking at all the different languages the United States distributed information in.

What are your passions or interests outside of work?

I enjoy baking and reading mystery novels.

What is the last book you read, or the last book you loved?

The last book I read was one of Margery Allingham’s novels. I’m kind of iffy about her books – they were written in the 1930s – 1950s, mostly, and some of what she writes is really dated/shocking in a modern context. But her characters are great.