It may shock you to learn that despite the stereotypes, archivists and librarians are a chatty bunch. When we’re together we can talk about what we do best (or maybe worst), use our preferred jargon, and brag about our favorite collections. Learning about what information professionals do at different institutions keeps us abreast of the latest developments and best practices of the field and helps us improve our own work, but it’s also just plain fascinating! We hope you enjoy this chat with Elizabeth Kata, Unit Head of the Archives Unit within the Records Management Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as much as we did.
Allison Rein: Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into archiving?
Elizabeth Kata: My name is Elizabeth Kata. I’m originally from the U.S., but I’ve been living and working in Vienna, Austria since 2007. I speak fluent German, and I also speak some French and Italian, and these days I’m trying to learn Portuguese. I’m the Unit Head of the Archives Unit within the Archives and Records Management Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Archives Unit manages the historical archives of the IAEA. I’ve been working at the IAEA for 8.5 years, in positions with increased responsibilities. Besides work, I’m also an amateur powerlifter – I’ve twice won my weight class in the Vienna state powerlifting championships.
I first got into archiving through an internship I did at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) in 2005. I was studying Medieval Studies at Bryn Mawr College, near Philadelphia, when my dean encouraged me to apply for an internship at HSP. I really enjoyed getting to work with different collections, and I realized that archival work offered a lot of variety, which can’t be said for all jobs.
I decided to pursue a career in archiving, and after I finished my undergraduate degree, I moved to Vienna, Austria, and began a Master’s in Archival Science, Historical Research, and Historical Auxiliary Sciences at the Institute of Austrian Historical Research at the University of Vienna, focusing on Archival Science. I’ve been working in the field since 2012, first at STICHWORT, the Archives of the Women’s and Lesbians’ Movement in Austria, and since 2016 at the International Atomic Energy Agency. In my time at the IAEA, I’ve gotten more interested and involved in digital preservation, and I’ve also worked a lot with electronic document and records management systems.
AR: What does the IAEA do? What kind of archive is it?
EK: The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization with a dual mandate: to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The IAEA Archives is an archives of the organization, documenting its institutional memory and preserving its official records relating to its programmatic activities.
AR: Who are your researchers?
EK: We primarily have two types of researchers: internal staff and external researchers. Internal requests come from staff members who need to refer to historical records for their current activities, such as Safeguards inspectors who want to read previous inspection reports before visiting a nuclear facility, legal experts reviewing the drafting of treaties, or staff members working on the history of their respective organizational unit. Recently our Director General presented the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) with a reproduction of a photo from the Archives featuring previous PPPL Director Lyman Spitzer (shown attending the first IAEA conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion in 1961). I think it’s a great example of using our collection to build bridges between the past, the present, and the future.
DG Grossi
Rafael Mariano Grossi on X: “Impressed by the cutting-edge work at @PPPLab at @Princeton. Fusion requires global collaboration, and @IAEAorg supports these efforts to advance progress in the field. I look forward to continued collaboration with the brilliant team here to advance fusion energy prospects. / X/
External researchers come from various institutions and research a variety of topics, from the history of nuclear safeguards, to the development of nuclear safety standards, to the use of technical cooperation projects in science diplomacy efforts. Most of our external researchers are performing academic research, but others may be searching for audio-visual material for a documentary. Several of our researchers have gone on to publish books or articles based on research they did in the IAEA Archives.
AR: How can researchers find your collections?
EK: I’m glad that you asked! We’re just launching our archival catalogue for external researchers. Until now, only IAEA staff have been able to search the catalogue of our holdings, but now the general public can search for files at Using the catalogue, researchers can directly request files. However, it is important to note that files can only be accessed in the IAEA Archives Reading Room, at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Only a limited number of files are available digitally, so almost all research requires an in-person visit. We ask that external researchers submit a request to visit our archives at least one month in advance. More information on visiting our archives can be found on our website: .
AR: What can researchers find in your archives? What are some of the scientific topics found in the IAEA Archives?
EK: There are more topics than I could possibly list, but here are just a few that come to mind: isotope hydrology, plasma physics and nuclear fusion, sterile insect technique, radioactivity in the sea, nuclear medicine, dosimetry, nuclear safety standards, small and modular reactors (SMR), non-destructive assay testing, and environmental monitoring, just to name a few.
AR: What is it like to work in an archive with a scientific focus? What have you learned in your job that you might not have expected?
I think it’s pretty fascinating. I don’t have a natural sciences background, and honestly, I was pretty terrible at physics. So I felt a little intimidated coming to work at a place where so many colleagues have nuclear physics degrees. But the colleagues are great, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the history of nuclear science. Like many people, when I heard nuclear science, I mostly thought about nuclear energy, and specifically fission reactors, but the IAEA works on so many different areas like nuclear medicine, sterile insect technique (to fight diseases like zika or malaria), or even using (gamma) radiation to help preserve cultural heritage objects. I wouldn’t dare say that I’m an expert, but through assisting others in their research, I’ve acquired some level of proficiency.
AR: What are some of the unique challenges of working for the IAEA?
EK: The IAEA is an international organization, so we do not answer to a single government, but rather are responsible to all of our Member States*. Some of the topics we deal with, especially around nuclear safeguards, are sensitive subjects, and the records on these topics are confidential. For our work in the archives, this means we carefully review each file to make sure it is unclassified before we release it to an external researcher. This is a very time-consuming process, but it’s important to make sure the IAEA Archives maintains the trust of the Member States as well as of our internal colleagues.
AR: What’s your favorite collection (that you can talk about)?
EK: Well, I’m a big fan of our photo collection because digitizing the photo collection was one of my first assignments at the IAEA. Thanks to our external catalogue , you can now search for photos and find image previews for almost 30,000 images. One of the things I like best about the photo collection is that you will find images of women in all sorts of roles in nuclear science. They aren’t always named, but these images show women have always played roles in science and technology, whether they were properly credited or not.
AR: What’s something you’re proud of working on lately?
EK: The external catalogue is something I’m very proud of. It might seem like an obvious thing to have a publicly accessible catalogue, but years of work have gone into making this happen, whether in the form of advocacy for the need of a catalogue and to raise funding, or through the painstaking work of adding descriptions. It’s been a journey, and it’s still a work-in-progress, but I think this is a huge step forward for accessibility and accountability.
Our next big project is to introduce a digital archiving system and service, to ensure we’re preserving the IAEA’s digital as well as physical records. There are still a lot of challenges ahead – similar to the catalogue, there is a lot of advocacy work behind the push for digital preservation, but we’re confident that with institutional support our team can make this happen.
Celebrating the IAEA’s Archive – Documents and Images of a Global Mission
*The IAEA is an independent organization with its own statute, so being a part of the UN does not automatically make a country a member of the IAEA. Our Member States are all the countries of the world, which have become members of the IAEA – currently 180 countries.
