Mexico, pop culture reviews, big data, archival collecting, and libraries

This week I'll focus on pop culture reviews of libraries and archives I published in the past week, big data, challenges of collecting during the pandemic, and more!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a productive week. This week’s newsletter will focus on archives and libraries as always. However, I’d like to mention an article by two of my colleagues at the National Security Archive, Michael Evans and Megan DeTura, about how U.S. prosecutions are bringing corruption in Mexico into focus once again. They use a wide range of articles in mainstream publications, government reports, reports from human rights organizations, and over 30 unclassified documents, requested through FOIA. All of these resources are interwoven into a compelling narrative. As a result, I’d recommend reading it. Otherwise, I’m excited about the upcoming discussion on December 17, at 8 PM Eastern Time, hosted by SNAP (Students and New Archives Professionals), which will be discussing “pop culture depictions of archives, archivists, and librarians!” I’ve discussed that those depictions in this newsletter before, so I’m interested to see what people say. With that, let me move onto the rest of my newsletter.

This week I published two new articles that reviewed pop culture, which I’d like to highlight first. The first of those looked at one of my favorite animated series, RWBY, which is currently in its eighth season (called Volume 8), and how the library has a key role in one of those episodes, specifically in the love between two female characters. The other examined the role of archives, called a “restricted library,” in the webcomic That Awkward Magic!!. I glad to see it because it’s one of the best portrayals of archives and I’m hopeful it will come back in a later issue of this wonderful webcomic.

In terms of archives, there have been several interesting articles this week that I came across. One was Emily Larson’s article in The American Archivist entitled “Big Questions: Digital Preservation of Big Data in Government” which focuses on big data and digital preservation. Although NARA is not mentioned, Larson does say that for archivists who want to preserve Big Data, there are implications because “Big Data informs some of the major events of the twenty-first century and is embedded in day-to-day government transactions; on the other hand, it poses complex, unresolved questions around access and privacy.” She also states that since governments “increasingly turn to Big Data to carry out their functions,” it will, inevitably become “part of the modern government archives.” Apart from that article, Eira Tansey had an albeit dated (as it was published back in June) thought provoking post about “the commodification of contemporaneous collecting,” criticizing archivists and historians who “urged people to keep a journal or record” with their real-time thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic for those in the future. She noted that archivists aren’t “isolated from experiencing traumatic events” that everyone else goes through, have an obligation to respect people’s privacy and ability to forget their past, meaning we should accept that some parts of the historical record will be lost. She also says that those “suffering the most from the pandemic or police brutality, or have the greatest frontline views to current events” have the least time, energy, and ability “to create a full documentary record of what’s going on as it unfolds.” She recommends training in trauma-informed interviewing and oral history skills, along with contacts in impacted communities, following best practices in times of crisis, and only document contemporary events if your institution has the resources to do so.

I’d like to mention other stories when it comes to archives and libraries. First of all, Virginia Dressler had an article about “The Right to be Forgotten in Digital Archives,” while others wrote about access and control of state archival records in public-private partnerships, like genealogical organizations. I further enjoyed another post about archival innovators, Angel Diaz of the College and University Archives Section Steering Committee, a recap of the Bitcurator Users Forum, and David Ferriero’s post about public access to historical records. He highlights National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grants to digitize The Papers of Julian Bond, The Complete Correspondence of Charles W. Chesnutt, and Slavery, Law, and Power: Struggles over Justice and Democracy in the Anglo-Atlantic World, among others. Then there is the story of college undergrads finding hidden text on a medieval manuscript with UV imaging (reminding me of how they found that hidden map on the back of the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure) and Hack Library School describing how you archive emails, although not looking at it in an archival context. On a more archival note, the November/December 2020 issue of Archival Outlook with articles about mentorships, immersive gaming, documenting the AIDs epidemic, digital archives, supporting those who record human rights abuses, and adjusting to the conditions of the pandemic.

There are some other stories I’d like to note as well. Hack Library School wrote about podcasting and putting everything that’s happening into perspective, while Publishers Weekly had an article about how Amazon Publishing is in talks to offer e-books to public libraries, which is a great step forward. The Atlantic had a story about why some libraries are ending fines, Insider Higher Ed had an article about university library leaders preparing for uncertain financial future amid the pandemic, and Wired noted that “libraries across the country are increasingly adding video games to their collections,” which is an expansion of what libraries are for as public institutions. Apart from this, there are stories about the infodemic, a “tsunami of information” which is accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic, students accusing the University of Miami of using facial recognition to identify student protesters, and historic preservation in Cumberland, Maryland. Finally, there were articles about the possibility of suspending intellectual property rights as a method to make vaccines go faster, and the problem with using the dead name of Elliot Page.

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

- Burkely