Recent graduate Jason Ford (2021) was just hired as the founding Kikuchi Archivist at Kaua’i Community College鈥檚 (KCC) Kikuchi Center. The Kikuchi collection is a multimedia collection of items either created or collected by Dr. William 鈥淧ila鈥 Kikuchi, who taught archaeology and anthropology at KCC.
The collection contains Native Hawaiian archaeology items from Dr. Kikuchi鈥檚 research across the island chain. Items include artifacts and other ecofacts that demonstrate cultural significance, along with Dr. Kikuchi鈥檚 original documentation of the projects. As the founding Kikuchi Archivist, Jason hopes to acquire other significant archaeology collections from Kaua’i and Hawai’i. To make this possible, he will be designing a new facility that includes archival storage, a work space, and a public reading room with a reference section. He will be busy as the Kikuchi collection is entirely unprocessed.
Ford鈥檚 undergraduate studies were centered around ethnobiology, Indigenous research methodologies, and Hawaiian language. After two years working in archaeology as a cultural researcher and Hawaiian language translator at Cultural Surveys Hawaii, he entered the LIS Program. Now, he 鈥渂asically gets the best of both the archival and library worlds.鈥 Ford advises new students to 鈥渂e open minded about the ways LIS skills are applied in different sectors to enhance your foundations, experience, and the unique opportunities available to you.鈥
