“I love the collaborative energy of a university campus. There are countless opportunities to engage and learn from my colleagues from a variety of departments.”

Lauren Goss, MLIS 2017
Eugene, OR

Lauren Goss graduated from the San Jose State University (SJSU) Masters of Library Information Science Program in the Spring of 2017. She is now the inaugural athletics archivist at the University of Oregon. Her interests in history, sports and archives led her to this unique position that only a few people across the United States hold.

History, Sports and Archiving

Lauren grew up in a small suburb of Portland, Oregon. She studied history in high school and college, and graduated from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon in 2011.  She loved history because she was “always interested in linking together different sources to tell a story.”

In addition to history, Lauren enjoyed sports growing up (to this day she likes to remain physically active); she played soccer and volleyball, ran track and raced dragon boats. She decided to write her college thesis on the impacts of Title IX for female student-athletes in the mid-1970s at the University of Oregon. Title IX is an amendment made in 1972 that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities. This research experience was one of the first factors that led her to start considering archives and librarianship.

“I wanted to focus on a historical event where I could combine oral history interviews and other primary sources…In the course of my research, I visited the university archives and met with some of the archivists on staff. This experience piqued my interest in library school as a pathway after graduation.”

SJSU

After receiving her B.A in 2011 with a major in history and minor in geography, Lauren wanted to take a few years off before going back to school. She worked as a litigation paralegal for a few civil insurance defense law firms. However, she knew librarianship was on the horizon.

“I did enjoy the process of reviewing lots of documents and writing up summaries for the attorneys, but I quickly knew that law was not my future career. I started the SJSU program in January of 2015.”

Lauren chose the SJSU iSchool for its flexibility; the program allowed her to pursue two graduate student internships at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. She chose the Archives Pathway with the ultimate goal to work in university archives.  

“I love the collaborative energy of a university campus. There are countless opportunities to engage and learn from my colleagues from a variety of departments. My previous work experiences were largely in corporate environments where there was not a lot of room for creativity.”

Lauren noted that what she enjoyed about the iSchool program was the ability to take what she learned in her classes and directly apply the material to her internships.

University of Oregon Athletics Archivist

Lauren’s internship at the University of Oregon focused on the “identification and conservation of the athletic department films and videotapes.”

“Most of the material was minimally labelled, so my task was to manually review the footage and determine what we had in the collection. I found countless instances of pivotal moments in University of Oregon sports history…One example is finding footage of the first sub-four-minute mile run at Hayward Field on April 23, 1960 by a University of Oregon runner named Dyrol Burleson. It’s one thing to read about an event like this, or even see photographs, but it can be more meaningful and impactful to actually see the footage.”

In September 2017, Lauren was hired full time at the University. She began as the accessioning archivist, and in January 2020, she took on public services for her department. 

“In addition to my normal day-to-day tasks, I began building relationships across campus to highlight the sports history in our collections. I worked with the design team to incorporate archival materials into the reimagined Hayward Field that opened in 2021.”

Hayward Field is the track and field stadium of the university. In September 2024, after years of advocating her vision for an athletics archivist position, the library administration received a donation to fund Lauren’s current position for three years. Her duties include preserving the athletics history at the school and teaching students about performing effective research.

“We launched the Oregon Sports History Program to share our vision, goals, and activities. I am responsible for preserving, promoting, and providing access to our athletics collections. One of my most rewarding duties is teaching undergraduate and graduate students about how to use primary sources. My classes are focused on University of Oregon sports history and the students learn primary source literacy through an approachable topic.”

Going forward, Lauren sees herself continuing to build support for the Oregon Sports History Program.

“There are only a few athletics archivists at universities across the United States; I am working on creating a sustainable program that will hopefully continue beyond my career.”

Advice For Students

Lauren has the following advice for current and aspiring iSchool students: 

“I recommend seeking out opportunities for networking, scholarships, and internships. Graduate school is a great time to expand your circle of career connections, and many professional organizations offer scholarships to attend conferences…Lastly, dream big!”