Libraries, fiction writing, and archives
A mix of a movie review, my friend's fiction writing with archival themes, and articles about libraries and archival topics
Hello everyone!
There were a number of wonderful articles and posts I’d like to share with you this week. First and foremost, I’d like to share my review of Emilio Estevez’s film, The Public, which brought in less than $1 million (since it was effectively an indie film), although that shouldn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for the film! I had meant to publish this back in April, but it was never published, so I thought it was time to publish it now! While the film clearly has issues, it definitely portrays librarians and libraries a lot more positively than most popular culture. In coming weeks, I’ll review other mentions of libraries (and archives) in popular culture.
This past week, my good friend finished up their fiction writing for the time being, with a final short story where the evildoers are defeated and they are in the process of building…an archives! This, of course, puts a smile on the face of some characters, while others contribute their personal collections to the archives itself, as it becomes a new institution of knowledge on the fictional planet. That has been one of my friend’s goals so far, in writing such stories, to incorporate archival and library themes into their works, as I noted in my newsletters on August 14th and July 24th.
Other than the movie review and my friend's fiction writing, I’d like to highlight a number of interesting posts from Hack Library School. One post is vital especially for those just entering the field, talking about how to deal with negative/hostile work environments. Another focuses on prepping for grad school and a final one focuses on an MLIS internship, which many have to engage in as they complete their programs.
I’d also like to point out, apart from the article, “Finding Aid Aggregation at a Crossroads,” about changes in archival description, are a set of articles from the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies. The first of these focuses on the creation of a digital archive by Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, one of the few college prep schools that has an archive. The second is about how social networks are used in Arab national archives. It examines what social platforms are used, how the content from the platforms is archived, commonly used social media platforms, and recommendations to “develop a social media strategy…diversify the archival content published and shared on social media, and to create a social media team responsible for planning and implementing the archives’ social media strategy. The third article is about how social forces, users and uses, subjects of web archives, and technical agents overlap and interact when it comes to web archiving. The article, by Amy Wickner of UMD Libraries, argues that there should be “a critical approach to web archiving recognizes relationships and blended roles among stakeholders” while also acknowledging “the value of creative reuse as an important aspect of preservation.”
That’s all for this week. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
-Burkely