Head over heels about...archives, libraries, COVID, Black Lives Matter, and much more!
This week's newsletter will focus on many topics, ranging from news about the archives & library fields, Black Lives Matter, COVID, and so on.
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week (and the one before it). I know it’s been since June 21st that I’ve sent a newsletter. With fixing up an article on the Obama Library (hopefully will be published soon), and much more, I ended up delaying the publication of this newsletter. I had so many things to do, I felt like Roland Orzabal carrying an absurd number of books (shown above) at the beginning of that 1985 Tears for Fears music video, for “Head over Heels,” where they visit a library and he tries to get the attention of, ha. There are all sorts of librarian stereotypes there, but I just thought of this off the top of my head, after watching it on some TV channel recently. On the plus side, I’ve been able to gather even more news stories than usual! Without further ado, let me begin this newsletter.
In the archives world, there have been some great developments. A couple of days ago, archivists posted a list of Black archives, museums, libraries, and other related organizations, which I recommend you check out. There has also been a lot of talk about web archiving, especially since Webrecorder (now part of Conifer), which I’ve toyed around a bit with this year, as I noted in previous newsletters, and debates about whether it’s the best web archiving format or not. Similarly, there are always questions for how to archive social media content, not only because of the consent needed, but also due to the fluidity of the format itself. At the same time, there have been archives noting about their web collections, like the British Library and the Library of Congress, the latter celebrating its 20th anniversary of web archiving. In the spirit of Black Lives Matter, the crowdsourced exhibit by OutHistory on African American LGBTQ+ U.S. History Chronology is fascinating, as is the site that focuses on the history of Black female beauty, called the Black Beauty Archives. The latter has archival collections like Beauty Ads, Hair Ads, Magazines, and Pageant Memorabilia. I expect it will expand in the future, as people send more materials their way, so this is a good start! Other than this, Sam Winn wrote poignantly about the challenges of being a disabled archivist and how the experiences of livestreamed events should be incorporated into conferences in the future. There were also articles about International Archives Week in early June and finding a research question.
This brings me to the library world. There has been even more talk in the library community about the response to COVID, than in the archives community, although COVID will undoubtedly affect the operation of archives too. I’ve noted this in past newsletters. There have been more efforts by libraries to go digital than before, as libraries continue to change in this COVID-era. And no, please don’t microwave your books to “remove” COVID. Seriously, that should be common sense. *shakes head* Anyway, IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) did a study looking into how long COVID could be detected on highly circulated library materials, specifically hardcover book covers, softcover book covers, book pages, mylar book cover jackets, and plastic DVD cases. They found that the virus was undetectable after one day on book covers and DVD cases, and three days on paper inside a book or on mylar book cover jackets. The main focus should be on person-to-person transmission, rather than cleaning this surface or that surface, stemming from an initial NIH/DARPA-funded study in mid-March, which was not peer-reviewed, and a later study in The Lancet in May, along with another study in February in a medical journal, Journal of Hospital Infection. The CDC had made clear that while surface contact is possible as a way to get COVID, it is “not thought to be the main way the virus spreads,” although new information is coming out all the time. Even so, I think the study is important, but the focus needs to be in the right place, while taking into account the CDC’s recommendations on cleaning surfaces. Some other important articles noted how libraries are supporting Black Lives Matter, virtual internships, racism in the library field, and how libraries are dealing with a new demand for books and surfaces.
I’d like to give an honorable mention to a number of articles. First and foremost, a “letter from the homefront” which I wrote for the Maryland Historical Society about the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which will soon enter their collections! Apart from this, some other important articles this week, like a reminder (if you needed it) that Google’s algorithm is racist, bias in algorithms, a statement of the American Historical Association on racial violence in the U.S., and an article in School Library Journal about getting started with…genealogy! The last one excited me a lot, to be honest.
That’s all for this week. I hope you all have a great weekend and week to come.
- Burkely