Read or...traipse through the stacks?: Archives, pop culture, and family history
This week's newsletter focuses on various topics, whether about archives, libraries, or genealogy. Enjoy! Comments are welcome.
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week. This week’s newsletter will focus on various topics related to archives, libraries, and genealogy.
Let’s start with archives. This past week there were interesting articles about how archivists would like a broader DMCA exemption for abandoned online games, an exploration of seeds, embodied information, and unconventional records in archives. Also, of note are two interviews on Archives Aware! The first of these is with Ashton Wingate of the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, and the second is with Cecelia Cece Otto, focusing on re-imagining living history performances in the COVID-era. At the same time, David Ferriero of NARA penned two posted, one about the new Clinton Library website and another about a new memorial for Eisenhower being unveiled, focusing on Ike’s role in U.S. history. Apart from this, I’d like to point to the SNAP summary of the SAA 2020 Conference, the oral history website for Act Up!, and a review on The American Archivist Reviews Portal of Canva. While my review of the archival themes Recorded by Arizal is going forward with review, there seems no end in sight for my article about the Obama Library. It has been under review since September 2019, with the editors only saying it shows “considerable promise.” Sadly, I predict that isn’t going to be published anytime soon.
Let me focus on libraries next. I’d like to point to my review of the wonderful anime I finished last week: R.O.D. the TV. It is, to my surprise, filled to the brim with libraries! It’s a bit dated, as it came out in 2003-2004, but continued to be relevant. There is a whole episode which takes place in the National Diet Library (shown at the beginning of this newsletter), Japan’s equivalent of the Library of Congress! The villains, who are called the “British Library” because they are part of the British Empire in this alternative reality, literally burn a whole stack of books, which is horrifying, but it is part of a message in the anime which warns about those who wish to shape the world’s knowledge to selfishly benefit themselves, even if it deprives others of their ability to make the world a better place. This positive depiction of libraries contrasts from the reported depiction of libraries in the Big City Greens episode “Quiet Please,” where a strict librarian threatens to throw out the protagonists if they make a sound, so they communicate in ASL instead. Obviously, the latter is a good step forward in terms of deaf characters, but why does there need to be a library stereotype thrown in there? That isn’t right. I only say reported because I have not yet watched this episode. And when I do, I can assure you that I will write an article or post about it. In the past week, there were interesting posts on Hack Library School about creating a “personal brand” on LinkedIn, surviving library school while working, changes you can make to increase your physical health, and other challenges of working in the profession. Additionally, the posts criticizing the power and status in academia and the hiring process and people with disabilities were informing reads, while the report that the national library of New Zealand will be culling 600,000 books is deeply concerning. Sure, you should cull books, but isn’t that too many? It seems suspect to me.
Finally, there’s genealogy. I published a post, finally, focusing on Zaphod in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the ghost of his grandfather. It was a relief to finish that, especially since the new season of Carmen Sandiego is likely to be filled with family discovery as Carmen tries to figure out about her past, especially where her mother is, if alive at all. I am also hopeful that there are family themes in the new (and final) season of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, a wonderful animated series with LGBTQ characters, and a focus on identity, acceptance, and confronting injustice, to say the least. Furthermore, I enjoyed reading about General Andrew Lewis of Augusta County, how to find the children of the intestate ancestor, public stocks, and seven Tory Prisoners taken at the home of Mrs. Mary Devane. Also of interest is my reposted article about cooking in Romania, and how, as argued in a new Wired article, there is “no such thing” as family secrets due to DNA testing. I would say that on the surface that claim seems superfluous because DNA tests cannot, and do not, reveal everything. Perhaps people will uncover some truths, but the utility of DNA tests is limited without being used in conjunction with “hard evidence” like written documents. You can, and never will, learn everything from DNA tests.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week to come.
- Burkely