Libraries, archives, and histories
An excerpt from my blog, my friend's fan fiction, and links to 10 wonderful articles
Hello all! This week, I began a new blog to dig into my Transylvanian roots, which I will be adding to in the days, weeks, and months to come. Here’s an except from that post, for your reading enjoyment:
…I decided to create this blog as well, working to dispel myths about Transylvania, while also showing the connection between my ancestors who settled in the United States and roots in the “old country” of Eastern Europe…The area…surrounded on all sides by mountains…[is] about 21,000 square miles, which is equivalent to about 10.1 million football fields…This is a region that is broadly misunderstood, at least popularly…My aim is to delve into my roots in a place that is the “land beyond the forests,” at least that’s what the word Transylvania roughly means. Like any other area, there are many ways to look at the culture and history, and I will try to understand what happened in this region in order to put the lives of ancestors into context…I look forward to digging into my roots in this important region, which has a “unique cultural history” and is constantly in flux, in its entirety!
On a related note, my friend also finished their third fan fiction, titled “A Light of Disappointment,” which interlaced positive references to libraries, noting how the characters are about to visit a private library. According to my friend, the next installment of this fan fiction, where they can use the vast collections to find out information they are looking for. In this fiction, there is no archives or all-encompassing repository of knowledge, but instead the knowledge of the world was scattered, meaning that the library was their best bet, gaining them knowledge that would fulfill their information needs. One of my favorite lines from my friend’s fan fiction is the next to last one: “Taking inspiration from his favorite sea captain, Sea Hawk, Bow exclaimed "Onward to Knowledge!" while Glimmer rolled her eyes.”
With that, there are a number of wonderful articles for this week.
The Society of American Archivists decided to no longer list unpaid internships in their internship directory, a victory for those in the archives profession, a step forward in the further valuing of archival labor! As Kate Orazem said on Twitter, it is a “small but key step towards ensuring all archives workers make a living wage.” I can’t agree more.
Library and Archives Canada released a new collection search tool, allowing users to easily search all their collections from one area. Once it is fully implemented, this search will cover the over 100 collections they have on their website! This is a great step forward in making their collections available and accessible to those who cannot physically travel to Canada to view them.
Five scholars from the University of California, Los Angeles, write about how records that document marginalized communities disrupt previous traditional definitions of records, how users of community archives conceive of records, seeing them as agents which have the voices of lives of the past and facilitating meeting for those who interpret, activate, and access them. They also noted how while their findings indicated that records are seen as “dynamic, sentient, and generative agents,” they are also seen as haunted in that “dominant historical narratives are haunted by their absences.”
Recently, the Law Library of Congress opened a “new secure storage facility that will be home for much of the Law Library’s rare book collection.” They say that the opening of this new facility, with 9,000 linear feet of shelving (4 times the current existing vault), climate control systems, will improve “collection security and access.” It will also allow the library to store its “manuscripts, incunables and other very rare and special materials…in the very best conditions possible,” and it has two vaults. The size of these spaces allows the library to expand its collections as needed in the future!
The Music Reference Specialist of the Library of Congress (LOC), Melissa E. Wertheimer, recognized the value and fleeting nature of music that she began curating and managing the LC Commissioned Composers Web Archive, an idea she proposed. Recently, Trevor Owens of LOC interviewed her about her progress so far in developing this digital collection.
Kevin M. Levin writes, in the Smithsonian, about how enslaved workers were the backbone of the Confederate war effort, specifically noting the role of such enslaved labor at the battle of Gettysburg.
Chris O’Falt writes about the rising prices of the ever-popular Kanopy (a so-called “free” alternative to Netflix) is causing libraries, like NYPL, to drop the service due to its cost.
In a bit of an older article, Jon Marcus writes about the revival of handwriting in a time that so much is digital. An interesting article, to say the least.
Hanna Roseeen writes about how those in the library field should develop a social consciousness and the importance of such a task going forward, giving examples of courses, events, and social media to provide a guide.
Laura Hautala writes about the debate over DNA and its usage, saying it can on one hand solve crimes, but on the other hand it could lead to privacy issues. This is especially interesting to me after my recent #DNAChat on Twitter.
- Burkely