Pop culture, fictional archivists, libraries, genealogy, and beyond
This week I'll be writing about the same topics, along with a guest post I wrote about fictional archivists, history, and much more
Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a productive week. This week I’ve published a flurry of posts this week. For one, I had my guest post about archivists in animated series (Arizal and Grampa Park) published on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s blog, Reel Librarians, and secondly, and secondly, I published posts about the genealogist stereotype and library stereotypes. In addition, my friend’s wonderful new fictional story, “Alva’s Unbridled Rage and the Steam of Revolution,” had the archivist front and center. It is a non-binary Black woman named Mx. Lawlor (at least in the second half), who explains that “archivists expand user access, contribute to scholarship, collaborate, have diverse collections, support lifelong learning, share knowledge, support transparency and sustainability…[they] have a responsibility to mitigate harm and are never neutral. No archival institution or practice implemented is neutral…I am a revolutionary. I am an archivist. Both can exist within one person and not contradict each other.” By a strange coincidence, I just began voting for the next SAA leaders when I was reading this story, so that definitely influenced me, as a lot of people took stands against White supremacy, anti-racism, and for diversity in a strong way. My friend said they were inspired to finish the story and publish it.
Let me talk a little about archives first. Of course, there were some stories, like a post by one of my NSA colleagues about US-Soviet cooperation in outer space, but there was also a mention of a “vault” which keeps the recordings, and records, of the late musician, Prince, at his estate, which is basically an archives, as shown on 60 Minutes last week. I was pretty excited to see that! Also worth mentioning is France speeding up declassification of secret documents from the Algeria War, an article arguing that digitizing archives can on one hand increase access, but on the other can compromise privacy in some instances. It is an important balance to maintain, especially when digitizing records from the 20th century or even more recent. This connects to an article in The American Archivist in 2020 about preservation and access for Born-digital electronic records. I further enjoyed reading about the current state of privacy in Canadian archives, acquisition strategies, Getty Images announcing a partnership with Black Archives, providing the platform “with unique access to its expansive Archive,” and questions whether adoption records should be publicly available or not.
That brings us to libraries. The Library of Congress (LOC) had posts about librarianship, the life and legacy of Glenn Miller, art and portraits, local libraries, how maps perpetrated bias and bigotry, national library week, and jazz. American Libraries announced that Pelayo-Lozada, adult services assistant manager at Palos Verdes Library District in Rolling Hills Estates, California, has been elected the 2021–2022 president-elect of the ALA, beating Ed Garcia, director of Cranston (R.I.) Public Library, and Stacey A. Aldrich, state librarian of the Hawaii State Public Library System in Honolulu. Pelayo-Lozada was previously endorsed by the Asian/Pacific American Libraries Association, and argued that the “ALA belongs to all of us, regardless of our library worker status or type or where we reside and by embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (EDI), we can ensure our members feel ALA belongs to them, too.” What a great statement! She sounds just like a lot of the people running for SAA positions right now and it is a reason SAA leadership should reach out to her once those who have won the SAA leadership positions have won. Otherwise, there were stories about the oldest library ever found, so-called “soft skills,” ethical financial stewardship, interview tips, pop-up libraries, and LOC seeking diverse storytellers and archivists, to name some of the many stories I read this week.
Then we move to genealogy. Paul Chiddicks wrote about his appearance on a podcast run by Australian Genealogist Carole McCulloch, Jacob Eubanks had a talk about the genealogical implications of changing boundaries, the St. Louis County Library shared several resources in their history & genealogy virtual classroom about the ins and outs of genealogical research. Just as valuable is a book I came across, titled Black Genealogy: How to Discover Your Family's Roots and Trace Your Ancestors Back Through an Eventful Past, Even to a Specific African Kingdom, which is by Charles L. Blockson. While it first came out in 1977, I believe there have been updated versions that have come out since and it could be a great genealogical resource, especially if you are researching Black ancestors and/or enslaved peoples. I was glad to see that NARA has upcoming events about genealogy (on May 19), whether about how to engage your family with your research finds, or digitizing personal photo albums and scrapbooks (on May 4). Other assorted stories were about Irish gravestones, a reparational genealogy project by Carolynn ni Lochlainn, and slavery in Lower Canada and British Quebec. I suppose one of the big stories is Ancestry launching a Community Impact Program, which “aims to mobilize Ancestry resources and products to build more connected and resilient communities through preserving at-risk history and empowering the next generation of history makers.”
In the final part of this story, I’d like to mention a number of stories. This includes articles about American space policy, the issues with auction houses selling native culture items, building an outline presence as a historian, defunding the police, community-driven open access publishing, and free speech. The Nib had illustrations about Bezos, vaccinations, and the blame game.
That’s all for this week. I hope you all have a good week ahead.
- Burkely