Archives, books, records, and floating libraries
This week I'll be sharing some wonderful articles I read this week about archives, libraries, and records, while quoting a scene from my friend's newest fictional work.
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This week I’d like to start with some stories in the world of archives. NARA blogs focused on unratified amendments like the ones on Titles of Nobility, new ways of connecting with Office of the Chief Records Officer, since they are getting a new listserv, and U.S. Army Corps of Civil Engineers maps available from your own home. Apart from that, what interested me was not the response by the SNAP Roundtable to Frank Boles or a post by Margot Note on archives and memory. Rather the questions SAA came up with for U.S. Presidential Candidates and the effort by East Caroline University (EUC) archivists to uncover the real history of the university, interested me. ECU was “originally chartered to educate white men and women,” it later transcended “the racial barriers of the era in which it was born, aspiring to be a university for all.” That history has been brought together thanks to archivists.
Speaking of knowledge, I’d like to point to the efforts in the library and records worlds. There are efforts in Australia to limit library fines, vast collection of military maps going online, and an initiative to preserve millions of letters written by soldiers in wartime. I also enjoyed reading about the “secrets” of book culling by librarians, local history on an Irish genealogy site, answering the question of what you do if you can’t find your ancestor within the census, newly-drafted principles and best practices for archives when it comes to oral history, and seeming agreement that a shopping center was built on top of a Black gravesite in Georgia.
That brings me to my final item: my friend’s recent story, “Drifting Across Unsettled Seas: The Off Colors’ Gargantian Dilemma.” Unlike my friend’s other stories, there is an extended scene set in a library, where the librarian/medical doctor shows his knowledge. Let me quote the best parts of that scene:
Rhodonite, Lars, Pappy, and the Doctor climbed up a set of spiral stairs to the top of a tower. The Doctor opened a metal door with a porthole in the middle, resembling the doors of all the residential areas in Gargantia. It reminded Lars of photographs he had seen of passenger quarters in old luxury ships which traveled across the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Europe. The room had a greyish tint and sturdy metal shelves, three double shelves in the room’s center, and four shelves on the room’s sides. The books which sat on those shelves had red, green, purple, blue, and multi-colored spines. The young nurse, likely his daughter, and assistant, likely his son, greeted him with a smile. He had another child who seemed shy. The other part of the room contained a few degraded greyish metal tables, a couch, and a telescope on one of the surfaces, pointing out a window. While this library had a few electric lights, the sunlight pouring in from the twin glass windows typically provided enough light…Pappy and Rhodonite sat down in two chairs while the Doctor situated himself in a desk chair, next to a bookshelf, comprised of books focusing on countless subjects, a reference shelf of sorts. Pappy and Rhodonite were impressed while Lars felt excited…
“Even with all the books I have in this library I created with my own naked hands, partially to help with my medical practice and also to save existing knowledge, I can’t say with complete certainty how the planet ended up like this…
“Fascinating! Like the volumes back in my hometown, I see every book here as opening a new world to explore. I think you are doing a great service...How can you be a librarian and a medical doctor at the same time?
“Thank you, Captain. Books are not sacred objects and should not be worshiped, but the materials I have assembled within these walls are a way to educate Gargantians about various topics. It’s tough to be a medical doctor and a book-illuminator, what you call a ‘librarian.’ With my years of experience, I can effortlessly focus on both, even though it isn’t always easy. I’d like to hear more about you, so those of future generations can learn about your visit.
That’s it for this week! I hope you all have a great rest of you week.
- Burkely