Libraries in anime and ending "metadata shame"
This week's newsletter will focus another review of libraries in popular culture, fascinating articles in the library and archives fields, and another wonderful fictional narrative by my friend!
Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great week!
I thought I’d start this newsletter with a summary of another one of my reviews of libraries in popular culture. I’ve covered all sorts of popular animated series so far, so I’m not going to review those here, but this week I decided to focus on anime, specifically on three anime in particular: Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, and Paradise Kiss. Wandering Son is unique among all three because it has, in two episodes, two scenes in libraries which parallel each other, one in which the library is an unwelcome place and the other which it is a welcoming place. That makes it unique, as the library is an important place for the characters. This differs from some others like Ice, where its literally just seen as a place that stores information, or Kuttsukiboshi, where it is almost a set-piece and nothing more. Paradise Kiss takes a different tact: the library itself represents something in the protagonist’s life, a condition forced on her by her parents. She rejects this, pushing it away to pursue a more independent path in her life, free from her strict mother. There is something that unites all these anime together, however: librarians are nowhere to be seen! I comment on this problem in the post, but I am hopeful that other animated series I watch in the future remedy this problem without falling into the typical librarian stereotypes.
Otherwise, there were some interesting articles about libraries and archives I thought I’d share. Hack Library School talked about the intersection of copyright law and indigenous knowledge at a new copyright symposium. Others focused on the library service known as readers advisory and how joining a union can be a form of self-care. There was also an article about how public libraries are scrapping late fines to alleviate inequality. David Ferriero, of NARA, writes about recent events at the Innovation Hub. Jodi Allison-Bunnell writes an insightful article about metadata shame, imposter syndrome, and archivists. She notes how archivists should not ashamed with their metadata as everyone has “ugly metadata,” although it happens, the latter part of a larger issue: imposter syndrome, where an individual believes they have “insufficient skills, intellect, and experience for a given task or environment, usually professional, despite objective evidence to the contrary.” Allison-Bunnell notes that many archivists would agree they embody these characteristics, working to turn their experiences with imposter syndrome into one with positive outcomes. She ended by saying we should “share our comeback stories to make the profession better for all of us. No more metadata shame. And no more imposters.” I agree with that sentiment completely, without question.
I thought I’d end this newsletter by linking to my friend’s final fictional narrative, for a while, titled “Calamity for Who?: Homeworld to Beach City, Etheria to Japan.” I recognize that my friend didn’t integrate libraries or archives aren’t integrated within the story to a large extent. However, there are still some key parts regardless which I’d like to share, since my friend did such a wonderful job with this story, more than anyone else. For one, one of the protagonists is tired with their job at a museum/archive and the archives on a distant planet has been moved alongside the growing bureaucracy. The latter is manifested when my friend described how one character has made herself into a chief bureaucrat, records becoming a major part of how this character functions, since she has few friends and is often socially awkward:
Stepping into the main hall, Apta flipped a switch and lights illuminated the hundreds of flickering computer screens. The same system she had used to ensure the correct categorization and organization of the records of the Archives of Etheria, had been used to streamline the bureaucratic process. It was the lifeblood of C.O.D.E., with bureaucrats working to develop new rules and regulations to serve everyone. Instead of a mess of papers and files like before, as much as possible had been digitized, with more to come on the way. Unlike archival records, where some documents or records would never enter the digital realm, the fact that the bureaucracy had only existed for a short time made it easier to move toward an all-digital recordkeeping system. Apta oversaw the writing of new rules and regulations, dubbing herself the “Chief Bureaucrat,” a position she created. If Hermes Conrad, light-years away, had seen her progress, he would have been pleased, as she planned to surpass the efforts of the Central Bureaucracy. Although she tried to make the system not confusing and convoluted, although the latter might be inevitable.
That’s all for this week. Hope you all have a great rest of your week!
- Burkely