Comics, animation, archives, collection management, the Netflix controversy, and more
Happy Dia De Los Muertos! In this week's newsletter, I'll be sharing with you some pop culture reviews I wrote plus the latest stories about archives, libraries, genealogy, history, and beyond
Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good week. Today is Dia de Los Muertos, hence this newsletter’s subtitle. Anyway, on Tuesday, I wrote a post about a librarian, a late fee, so-called “problem patrons,” and more in an episode of Uncle Grandpa. Then, on Wednesday, my review of Not So Shoujo Love Story was published, one of my first webcomics that I’ve reviewed for The Geekiary, with many more to come! I’m trying to publish a new one every week. Yesterday, I published a review in The Geekiary about a queer magical girl series named High Guardian Spice, relating it to other shows that I know and like. I’d recommend reading that and watching the series. As such, I have been relatively prolific this past week. So, let me dive into the rest of this newsletter, which has again been deemed “too long for email.”
When it comes to archives, there were some scattered articles about the work that goes onto digitization, visual cues on the back of a photo, and Libwizard tutorials. More than that, was my tweet about the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, a ‘commemorative day is meant to raise awareness of the significance and preservation risks of recorded sound and audiovisual documents” which got a positive response from those on Twitter. That was great to see, as some of my tweets fall flat. Just as important is the release of a documentary about the Walt Disney Archives in Burbank, California, entitled Adventure Thru the Walt Disney Archives which will be released on November 19. So, that should be interesting. As Susan Minichiello of Press Democrat put it, “climate-controlled rooms filled with shelves and drawers of documents, photos, journals, letters and other items…[are] what historians and journalists rely on to tell fascinating stories of the past.” It was also wonderful to see a new UNCSA Archives Digital Collections portal open, institutions working on film restoration around the world '“deploying remarkable creativity to get the films they’ve restored into theaters,” and a grant which will help digitize local history in Vermont.
In other news, the Delaware Public Archives dedicated a historical marker to the Equal Suffrage Study Group, an organization founded by Black women which campaigned for women’s right to vote and inclusion of Black women. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution announced that the Cobb County Latinx Research Archives will be opening in Marietta, with materials on “Latin American history…establishment of Latin Americans in the Cobb community…military history, home life throughout the centuries, technology, and Cobb and Marietta businesses from the past.” This archives will be part of the existing Marietta Museum of History. It was also reported that NMU (Northern Michigan University) Archives seeks more donations for a new project to create an online database to view the archives collections, choreographer Deborah Hay’s Archive going to the Harry Ransom Center, and the UCARE project shedding light on Indigenous history in UNL archives. Other articles beyond this focused on the power of ordinary people as shown in archives, defining record retention, precarity and community memory as described in the DIY Alternative Toronto digital archive and exhibition space which “documents the history of alternative communities in the Greater Toronto Area from 1980 to 1999,” and an eight-year quest to digitize 45 videotapes by Michael Lynch, a blogger and developer.
I also liked reading about new views of autocracy which have emerged from historic archives, the importance of Sandborn Fire Maps as an archival resource, 31 breathtaking photos from the archives of National Geographic, and a priceless archive which keeps the history of Pacific Northwest trains running. Just as important is Mexico recovering looted manuscripts which have returned to its national archives, and Hurricane Ida knocking out a key NARA system, raising questions about how secure and protected NARA is from the effects of climate change. There was also a New Yorker article which purported to be about an “archive” of the climate crisis, specifically called “A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting.” But this archive seems like a bunch of junk that someone collected together, dubbing it an “archive.” More interesting were posts on /r/Archivists about a pharmaceutical archive, naming of trans individuals in the archival record, recommendations for book scanners, and examples of digital collections that archive internet comments. There were Twitter discussions about cheaply produced CDs (i.e. rewritable disks, cheaply produced CDs, laserdiscs) are at risk of deterioration, the importance of archiving as publishing companies don’t care, and the fact that a lot of material will be lost because there isn’t enough time, staff, or resources to deal with it.
That brings me to libraries. Jennifer Snoek-Brown wrote on her blog Reel Librarians about a Lego Librarian Halloween costume she is dressing up in for Halloween. Other than Snoek-Brown’s post, the Library of Congress (LOC) had all sorts of library-related posts. One was on a Soviet era Star Wars poster, while others focused on topics such as spectral imaging, records of the Hairy Dance company in the library’s collections, 18th century marriage orders and their consequences, the music of Billy Strayhorn, a Black man who was friends with Duke Ellington and a well-known jazz composer, a new research guide for finding images of ships, and a short history of an animal, specifically the New Mexico Bear Cub. That wasn’t all. Other LOC posts talked about home movies, recalling a 1970s series titled “The Next Step Beyond,” rainbows in Washington, D.C., an interview with the deputy director of the Library of Congress of Chile, Felipe Vicencio, the history of the Kislak encounter paintings, and Ojibwe artwork in Bureau of American Ethnology Reports. Most interesting of all, for someone like myself, who is curious about how documents are preserved, managed, and retained, was a description of the library’s collections management division. That article, by Beatriz Haspo, said in part:
…The history of collections management at the Library of Congress stretches back to the 19th century…CMD [Collections Management Division] has more than 100 total staff, dispersed over four different locations, with a diverse wide range of expertise and backgrounds ranging from entry level roles through senior preservation and cataloguing specialists. Every one of which has their hands on books throughout the day…One of our primary responsibilities includes space management for tens of millions of items across the three buildings on Capitol Hill…and two of the Library’s off-site facilities in Maryland…Inventory control is one of the most important activities in any library and, in CMD, the Program Specialist manages three programs related to inventory control…prior to the pandemic, we accessioned and relocated more than 650,000 items to our offsite facilities, our collections management technicians shelved more than 220,000 newly acquired items and items returning from use. We circulated more than 130,000 items and made more than 40,000 pickups and deliveries to reading rooms around the Library. And we received more than 60,000 individual offsite requests and carried out preservation stabilization activities on average to 35,000 items/year.
It is always interesting to learn more about how items are preserved. The same can be said about Kate’s thread on how a lot of public library workers and even librarians struggle to pay rent, since libraries depend on part-time labor, a comment about how faculty in academic institutions don’t communicate with their librarians, a person saying there shouldn’t be any Nazis in library meeting rooms, and another noting how stress in libraries isn’t being addressed. There were, also, posts about groups forming to “fight a conservative-led attack on libraries’ efforts to promote social justice,” myths busted about so-called “transformative agreements” between institutions and publishers, and the value of care work. The latter was noted in a post by April Hathcock in April 2019, saying that this work should be paid.
Let me talk a bit about genealogy. There were some fascinating articles in Genealogy journal about national and ethnic identification among migrant-descendants in Sweden, a Māori perspective of healing and well-being through ongoing and regained connection to self, culture, kin, land and sky, and identity, Whanaungatanga and connection for Takatāpui, with LGBTQ themes. Genealogist Paul Chiddicks wrote about his ancestors, specifically Nicolina Elizabeth Stampa and Thomas Elisha Day, and some of his other ancestors.
IrelandXO had a post about the Irish fathers of horror, while Family Tree magazine discussed how digital genealogy files should be organized. Another genealogist noted that the 1921 census of England and Wales will be available on genealogy sites like Findmypast, this upcoming January, and Donna Moughty wrote about researching in newspapers. New York Times had an article on how Stacie Marshall, who inherited a Georgia farm, is “trying on a small scale to address a generations-old wrong that still bedevils the nation,” which is genealogy-related you could say.
There are a number of posts and articles about history worth sharing here. Contributors to the Journal of American Revolution wrote about George Washington and the first mandatory immunization, the Yorktown tragedy and Washington’s slave roundup, noting that Washington turned the Continental Army into an “army of slave catchers” days after winning in Yorktown, and the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. There were also reviews of books about the cause of the American Revolution and the story of James Otis, Jr. and Mercy Otis Warren. Other history articles were on topics such as boxing and race in colonial America, when Philadelphia became a battlefield, defining Juneteenth, why the lies of the Confederacy live on, and how historians can help save the Voting Rights Act.
Southern Space had articles about queer memory in Florida, three Black towns, reckoning with enslavement, seeking sex and claiming place in Houston from the 1960s to 1980s. Smithsonian magazine had posts on tombs in Saqqara, research which dispels that first Americans came from Japan, noting that Sparta was more than just a warrior culture (as is implied even in pop culture depictions), and Yale researchers hoping to identify an enslaved child in a portrait.
Let me close out this newsletter with a few paragraphs. If you have made it this far, that’s wonderful. Anyway, this part of this newsletter is about articles and topics which don’t as neatly fit into the other sections. That begins with the Netflix controversy, which I talked about in last week’s newsletter. Dave Chapelle made all sorts of demands for people to meet with him, including saying Hannah Gadsby, a lesbian comedian with ADHD and autism, is not funny. This shows that he is trying to make a joke of something that is serious: him hurting people with his transphobic language. It is possible to make jokes about trans people without hurting them, but apparently, he is too dull to figure out how. He is raking in millions of dollars from Netflix, so he is not anywhere close to being “cancelled.” In fact, there have been few consequences to the awful words he has spewed out of his mouth. Of course, old fogies like Garrett Morris have come to his defense with a transphobic argument, while an activist Ashlee Marie Preston did speak to Chapelle about his remarks in 2019 and noted that Chapelle is mocking trans people. Some even noted a relevant argument from George Carlin, while The Verge revealed that Netflix suppressed results for Cutie in their search results but refuses to do the same for Chapelle.
On a totally different subject, there were interviews with Lizzy Caplan, Shion Takeuchi, and Christian Slater of Inside Job, that new Netflix series I wrote in last week’s newsletter, along with articles about the show’s cast, the cliffhanger at the end of Season 2, and the popularity of the show. Stitch, who I have noted in previous newsletters, had posts on various subjects, such as racists running wild in fandoms, racial gaslighting in fandoms, opening statements for Fan Studies Ethics in Practice, and new stuff about fan studies. Apart than these articles, others wrote about various subjects, ranging from the problem with light pollution, homing pigeons, living in an UNDRIP forestry world, and Latine tech co-ops. Some also noted that the descendants of the Elaine Massacre calling for backing up repentance with resources and the New Urbanism selling faux sustainability as a luxury on Florida's 30A. Of note of those who are interested is the list of upcoming reviews from Anime News Network on anime series this fall.
I’d like to end this newsletter by summarizing some of my favorite illustrations from The Nib as I do every week. Some were about life hacks, while others were on a person who is trans going to the doctor for the first time as a trans person, strange American fall traditions (to someone who is British), the awfulness of Krysten Sinema, why so many people believe in astrology calling it “religion for punks,” and the story of Russell “Maroon” Shoatz. Two other illustrations focused on the absurdity of the so-called “Havana Syndrome” and how power can corrupt.
That’s all for this week! I hope you all have a productive week ahead.
- Burkely