Unearthing Fossil's Library and Archives

When searching for a library or archive job, MLS degree holders are encouraged to look beyond traditional libraries and archives, such as those at colleges and universities. Yet, how many MLS grads would know to look toward a watch and lifestyle company based in Richardson, Texas, for a library or archive job?

Inside the library at Fossil headquarters in Richardson, Texas.
Photo via http://uppercasemagazine.com/blog

Fossil creates high-quality watches, handbags, wallets, and more that can be found in luxury shopping meccas around the world. But it's at the company's Texas headquarters where ideas for its designs are helped brought to fruition, thanks to reference materials at the Fossil library and archive.

The Fossil library contains books, magazines, and reference materials that creatives at the company can use to help realize their design ideas. Among the magazines the library subscribes to is UPPERCASE, which specializes in graphic design, illustration, and crafting content. Curious about the library that carries the magazine, Janine Vangool, publisher, editor, and founder of UPPERCASE, decided to interview the librarian at Fossil, Laura Pike-Seeley.
 

On the shelves at the Fossil library.
Photo via http://uppercasemagazine.com/blog

Laura Pike-Seeley, the librarian at Fossil, gladly spoke to Vangool about the Fossil library and archive. Vangool published Pike-Seeley's great responses in a highly insightful interview that can be read on the UPPERCASE magazine website. Some highlights from the interview:

• The Fossil library "manages collections for our product design teams, the largest being our collection of retail and vintage samples."
• The library also has "a variety of materials, from books on Expressionist woodcuts and jazz album covers to a circulating iPad full of digital magazine subscriptions."
• The archives features "signature watch tins, catalogs and mailers, advertising collateral, newsletters, press releases, merchandising props, and of course, product, including watches."
• Fossil's "digital archives holds commercials, internal videos and our art department’s work from the past twenty years or so." 

Pike-Seeley also tells Vangool how the Fossil library and archive are curated, she reveals the coolest item in the archive, and she explains how the library and archive assist Fossil's brand and company culture. Read the entire interview with Fossil librarian Laura Pike-Seeley at THIS LINK.