Archives, libraries, genealogy, history, and closing out the year
Happy end of year! In this special "too long for email" edition, I'll be discussing the latest news about archives, libraries, genealogy, history, and much more.
Hope you are all having a happy winter break! On Monday, a review I wrote about the recent episode of a mature animated series, Freak Brothers, was published, while on Wednesday I reviewed another webcomic which I really enjoyed titled She’s a Keeper, which I’d recommend reading. On Tuesday, I made my last post for this year, on my blog, Pop Culture Library Review (renamed from Libraries in Popular Culture). I reviewed what I’ve posted in the last year, noting the most popular posts, some of my favorites, and much more! I previously posted a similar post on my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blog last Thursday, and I will be trying to post on there at least once a month in order to keep it current. With that, let me move onto the rest of my newsletter.
Earlier this month, my colleagues at NSA published a post about Anatoly Chernyaev’s 1981 diary. They closed out the year by posting about the demise of the Soviet Union and the earliest known 2001 Afghanistan Strategy paper. At the same time, Samantha Cross reviewed archives in comics, specifically focusing on Peritale while the SAA Description section shared their new Steering Committee members, and Kyle Neill, Senior Archivist of Peel Archives brought back their series focusing on archivists in Christmas movies. Their post highlighted record types shown in the films The Christmas Chronicles, Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Arthur Christmas, Batman Returns, Home Alone 1 and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and a Christmas comic book.
Of note were archivists writing about cassette tapes, microfilm, photo storage, book scanners, preservation, web archiving, and the “Main Stage” pilot program of the SNAP Section, an “open invitation to participate in a monthly series of presentations” on archives-related topic. Other than some scattered tweets about whether Archive of Our Own is a library or an archive and the site’s structure (see here, here, and here), I loved reading the interview with Andrew Weymouth of the Washington State Fair Archives, how the archives of land artist Nancy Holt are heading to the Smithsonian. I also liked people dunking on Archive 81, arguing it will not be accurate when it comes to archives, even questioning the idea that people would restore damaged videotapes, saying it hurt their “archivist soul” when they watch it, and asking who served as consultants on the series. With a series like that, they probably consulted no one.
That brings me to libraries. Some in December wrote about handling school while sick, school librarians and challenges to books in Texas, opposing a wrongful book removal of LGBTQ book from a North Carolinian library, mobile libraries in Afghanistan, carrying accessibility forward, and resisting crisis surveillance capitalism in academic libraries. The Library of Congress (LOC) had posts about the Great Lakes (and lakes in other parts of the world) and water resource occupations.
There were other articles of interest about stories which shaped 2021, how Snead bookshelves made big libraries in the U.S. possible, confronting challenges beyond book banning and challenges in library settings, and a look, if it can be guessed, of possible futuristic libraries. There was also a manual distributed in July of this year about “intellectual freedom,” which seems to position libraries as neutral spaces, something which is unrealistic and dangerous for librarians. April Hathcock, on the other hand, pointed out that “the American Library Association is a big opaque beast” with the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom welcoming hate groups to libraries, and wanting to “keep libraries out of court.”
There were also some who questioned whether there are librarians in Brazil, specifically Jonathan Pryce, a determination which some have criticized. Jennifer Snoek-Brown argued that Pryce is an example of a librarian as a failure in Brazil, while noting the film here, here, here, here, and here.
There are some worthwhile topics about genealogy to focus on in this newsletter. Other than Leonardo Da Vinci’s family tree, some have pointed to common genealogy mistakes, how the yearbooks from your past might help genealogists, searching for an ancestor who was sent away, and fur traders in Canada. I liked reading the Genealogy magazine articles on topics such as colonization in New South Wales, language, DNA, and construction of the African American/Dominican boundary of difference, and mothering infants through a global pandemic.
With that, I move onto a related, but different subject: history. Smithsonian magazine had articles about an early society between the Black and Caspian Seas which disliked gold, a rare Viking sword unearthed on a Scottish island, the oldest evidence of ancient humans altering the nature landscape, when human societies threw Christmas parties for horses, and a trunk containing Roman spoils of war seized by Jewish rebels. There were also stories about the 10,000 year old burial of a baby found in an Italian cave, an old depiction of falconry in Scandinavia unearthed, a locket that memorializes a Black activist couple murdered in a Christmas 1951 bombing, and ruins of a large Nubian church found in Sudan.
There were other history-related articles about the constitutional authority of the Continental Congress, North Carolina colonel Joseph Williams in the Cherokee Campaign of 1776, walking Seattle’s streets a hundred years ago, Ethelred the Unready, colonialism and hookworm eradication in Puerto Rico, and John George, Small but Powerful Character Actor who is unknown to most classic film fans.
This brings me to the last part of this newsletter, focusing on topics which cannot easily fit into other sections. The first part is some of the best anime from this year. Apart from Adachi to Shimamura which was good but not my favorite, I am glad to see that Komi Can’t Communicate, centered around a girl with social anxiety, was renewed. I have to agree with The Young Folks that some of my favorite anime for this year included The Aquatope on the White Sand, and Fena: Pirate Princess, while I also liked Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, and High Guardian Spice (if it can be called an anime) as well.
That brings me to animation. News articles I read highlighted some of my favorite Western animation from this year, like the second season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the Disney film Encanto, mature animations like Trese, Arcane, and Inside Job, along with “kids” animations like Victor & Valentino, The Ghost and Molly McGee, Amphibia, and The Owl House. There is also rumors of an animated Tales of the Jedi project which could be in the works according to Brinkwire and Comicbook.
In terms of LGBTQ people, I loved seeing that Vixen was turned into a lesbian character in a comic based on the Harley Quinn animated series, and those noting webcomics like the wonderful Mage & Demon Queen, Castle Swimmer, and many others. Others even provided a review of queer films and performances this year.
Beyond this were assorted articles about diverse characters in books, TV, and video games for kids, the public health hazard of “noble lies” by health officials on COVID-19, some urging all adults to get booster shots (even though this would further result in wealthy countries hoarding vaccines for themselves), fossils from the world’s first reefs unearthed in Nevada, disappearance of wetland habitats, unearthing of hidden water on Mars, and the pronunciation of the word “omicron.” Others focused on deadnaming of trans students in schools, ways of protecting biomedical data from hackers, creating a unique character voice, and systemic inequalities in indoor air pollution in London.
Finally, there are wonderful illustrations in The Nib. Some focused a closeted lesbian using a person as a casualty of their shame, how to celebrate the New Year like the Swiss, the horribleness of this year, the CDC continuing to undermine itself, supposedly “basic safety” of Amazon, humans ruining the planet, and the great thaw of ice which is already happening. I liked reading about covering up hateful tattoos, cognitive dissonance, looting, conservative hypocrisy, catalytic converters and the black market, speaking about abortion, coming out as trans, and conservatives covering up their lavish lifestyles.
That’s all for this newsletter. See you all in 2022!
- Burkely