Libraries, professionalism, archives, genealogy, and everything nice

This newsletter focuses on a variety of topics, whether about libraries, archives, or even genealogy!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week. Sorry for the delay in sending out the newsletter, but you know life got in the way, as it often does. I’m including one of my favorite clips from the “Reunion” episode of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power where Glimmer and Adora stumble upon a library, which I thought would be relevant to you all. One of the main stories of that episode is the characters spending time in a library with two gay historians! Anyway, moving on from that, this week’s newsletter will focus on several different topics.

Let’s start with the library field. I came across articles this past week about coding in library settings, Alexa and subsequent privacy concerns in libraries, and how public libraries are adapting to the new COVID environment. Others wrote about resource discovery, civil engagement, and the lions of the New York Public Library wearing masks to set an example. Furthermore, there were articles about how paper books are still important as libraries go digital, library schools taking steps to address their racist past, and concentrating on concentrations in library school. Feel free to read my friend’s fictional work, with small mentions of libraries, noting that new records will be added to library collections and library records helping the protagonists fight the villains.

Then I came across what Emily, a grad student who is earning an MLIS, wrote about: library professionalization and the importance of an MLIS, saying the professional community is about “improving the field of librarianship,” with graduate school giving you the right tools, and degree demonstrating “a potential employee’s capacity to learn.” While I agree with her assessment on the importance of an MLIS, written in perhaps an attempt to counter the naysayers, her article comes with the implication that those who do not earn an MLIS are invalid as librarians. I reject that implication completely. As Alison Peters notes on Book Riot, “not everyone needs a master’s degree to be a librarian.” I agree. Saying that you need an MLIS degree to be a “real” librarian implies that those who do not have such degrees are “fake” librarians. Annoyed Librarian pointed this same thing out back in 2008, pushing back against the idea an MLIS is special, while calling it “job protectionism, pure and simple,” and calls people who cling to it, “sad” and “insecure” librarians, saying that librarians should find other ways of measuring professionalism. While I wouldn’t be as harsh as a person who has their MLIS, I do think they make some valid points. In terms of earning an MLIS, it predictably falls along race and class lines. Those who are White and are of a higher socioeconomic status are more likely to have an MLIS than those who are of a lower socioeconomic class, and/or are Black, Latin@, or are otherwise people of color. This lack of diversity in the field dates back to the late 1990s, with Sarah Larsen writing in 2017, “it is no secret that the field of librarianship lacks diversity.” The archival field has similar problems, as the last archival census by the SAA, in 2006 (another may be coming soon), showed a mostly White, and female, field. See data about age and gender on pages 330 and 331, race and ethnicity on page 333, and education of archivists on page 335. There are efforts to counter this lack of diversity and to improve the library field, but this article seems wrongheaded to me.

Speaking of archives, there are some fascinating pieces I’d like to highlight, mainly on NARA blogs. Throughout June, there were pieces about film preservation, the 1920 Democratic National Convention, and the Mosler Model (the security system which held the U.S. constitution). Earlier this month, there were pieces about Alexander Hamilton, the 19th Amendment, and July 4th. Additionally, NARA re-shared their 2017 piece about the 25th Amendment and presidential succession. Apart from that, the SAA put out a bulletin supporting the Library Stabilization Act, which would" “establish a $2 billion fund to address financial losses and bolster library services, with priority to the hardest-hit communities” as a result of COVID.

There are also some articles which deserve honorable mention. There were more stories about libraries, like how millions of Americans depend on libraries for internet access, one librarian using drones to send books to students, and the racist problem with library classifications. The stories about the privacy implications of the Proctorio CEO, Mike Olsen, releasing an edited transcript of a student’s complaint about "digital proctoring,” the reverse underground railroad which brought Black people back to slavery, and comic shops during COVID are a worthy read. At the same time, Jeannette Holland Austin’s genealogy newsletter, Yesterday, had two great newsletters, one about South Carolina marriage settlements (1775-1792) and the role of the internet in connection to genealogy.

I hope you all have a great weekend and week to come.

- Burkely