History is made everyday. The job of a historian is to research, record and preserve it.

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"There are many different ways to go in this area,'' says Dr. Noralee Frankel, assistant director with the American Historical Association, an umbrella organization for all types of historians.

Those include being a biographer, who researches the lives of individuals, a genealogist, who traces family histories, or an archivist. " An archivist is very much like a curator to a museum,'' she says, because they have training in the handling, restoration and preservation of records and documents.

Frankel says an advanced education, either a master's degree or Ph.D., is needed for most historians' jobs.

Many historians also work in the educational setting, teaching at either secondary schools or colleges and universities. To teach in a four-year college or university, a Ph.D. is normally required as well as having been published.

According to Frankel, each historian's work deals with a particular time period or geographic region. No one historian could handle tracking all of the historical events everywhere she says, because the amount of information to handle and take care of would be overwhelming.

Some historians work for towns, villages and other municipalities. Others work for institutions like the National Archive and the Library of Congress. Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck, the Rochester City Historian since 1987, says she got into the field because she is "very interested in people and talking with them about the past.''

According to Naparsteck, whose work week can be as long as 60 hours, her work requires a lot of research, writing and public speaking. She has been published several times. Her books include Running Crazy, A Portrait of the Genesee River and Rochester: A Pictorial History. She also edits and writes for the quarterly Rochester History.

Competition for jobs is tough due to limited growth in the field. As is the case with any career, those with more education and research experience have the better chance of landing the limited number of positions.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, salaries range anywhere from just below $20,000 to well over $50,000 depending upon educational background and experience.

Don't plan to get rich though. Although historians for municipalities in New York are paid, Naparsteck says that some town or village historians make as little as $100 per year.