The COVID-19 crisis, Black Lives Matter, archives, and libraries

This week, I'm focusing on COVID-19 crisis and professional responses to police brutality across the U.S., while sharing an assortment of other stories

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. This week’s newsletter will focus on the COVID-19 crisis, police brutality, and Black Lives Matter.

Let’s start with statements about Black Lives Matter and police brutality. The Council of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) had a nice statement on the interconnection of Black Lives Matter and archives, writing, in part:

We, the Council of the Society of American Archivists, unanimously condemn harassment and violence against the Black community. As archivists, we learn from history that this country was founded on genocide and slavery. We continue to witness the legacy of this history with systemic and structural racism that lead to marginalization, disenfranchisement, and death…As a profession, we stand by our community and acknowledge, unequivocally, that Black Lives Matter. During this time of dramatic and traumatic historical significance, the Society of American Archivists remains committed to its core organizational value of social responsibility…A truly open, inclusive, and collaborative environment for all members of the Society cannot exist without justice for those affected by anti-Black violence…White archivists, who comprise a vast majority of the field, have a responsibility to disavow racism daily in society and in our profession…Archives workers should follow current guidance on ethical recordkeeping and archiving of social movements during this time of crisis, with special care taken toward the protection and safety of Black Lives amidst anti-Black violence perpetrated by the police…As archivists, we are not neutral in matters of social justice and politics…We intend to create and convene a space for constructive discussion toward progressive change in the archival profession and true inclusivity of the archival record, in a profound engagement with our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please be on the lookout for an invitation to join us for a community reflection event in June, followed by an action-oriented forum. 

We can hope for even more progressive statements and policies in the future. I say that because, coming in August, three new SAA members will be joining the council: Stephen R. Curley, Derek T. Mosley, & Rachel W. Winston, as will three new faces on the Nominating Committee: Itza A. Carbajal, Valencia L. Johnson, & Helen Kim. Additionally, there is a new SAA president, Courtney Chartier, who also begins her term in August. Apart from Chartier, I voted for all of these candidates, outlining their positions in my LinkedIn post back in March. Chartier, as I noted in that post, co-founded the Atlanta Black Archives Alliance, argued for more pathways so that “talented and passionate people” can reach the SAA leadership, solve existing communication problems, and to have a dialogue to change how people see the core values and the profession itself. Curley is part of the Native American Archives Section who wants interdisciplinary dialogue, while Mosley called for more transparency of internal operations, and fighting for “adequate funding” for archives at all government levels. Additionally, Winston, said that needs of the SAA membership need to be taken seriously, while solutions come at a cost, Carbajal, a founding member of the Archivists Against History Repeating Itself archivists collective and wishes to give historically underrepresented cultural backgrounds and identities more of a voice in the SAA, while Johnson argued that power should be shared with those who are “critically and ethically questioning” the procedures and silences of the SAA, and Kim who pointed to institutional hurdles in the archival field, and argued that diversity has to come from the top, sending the signal to prospective archivists that the field is changing and welcoming, ensuring the organization reflects the diversity of the U.S.

Saying all that, it brings me an open letter by the Archival Workers Emergency Fund about police brutality, under which people can add their names as signatories. In this letter, which was published today, they acknowledge protest against police brutality, saying that these archival workers promote supports against state violence while acknowledging that archival workers have been “complicit in maintaining systemic white supremacy and must work daily to undo the harm we and our institutions have done.” They call on people to read handouts such as “Identifying and Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives,” an article by Anna Robinson-Sweet titled “Truth and Reconciliation: Archivists as Reparations Activists” while urging individuals to learn about the work of “Black colleagues in archives and public history,” consider how Black subjects are described in archival description, and many other recommendations, which you can read about in the open letter itself.

That brings me to the other ongoing crisis: COVID-19. There are so many interesting articles I have read this past week about it. For one, there is a great interview with Sarah Meidl about the COVID-19 Archive run by The Colorado State University Archives & Special Collections, and an op-ed in the New York Times by Anthony W. Marx, the President of the New York Public Library (NYPL), where he argues that libraries have to change in the post-pandemic environment. In that op-ed, Marx notes that libraries provide free access to tools and knowledge, but that “all libraries must undergo radical change” meaning that libraries, in his view, need to transition their services to virtual spaces, while exploring “new avenues to serve the public and bring people together,” which he states has worked well for the NYPL. He further calls on libraries to invest, or continue investing in, “digital and virtual technologies and expertise,” criticizes those that claim the library of the future is only online, noting the importance of physical libraries, opening the NYPL cautiously, and “with expert advice to ensure that it remains safe.” This connects to an article in the Library Journal about science-based re-opening plans, and the four phases of re-opening followed by the Pratt Library, with the whole library barely even opening by the fourth phase.

This past week I also enjoyed reading about the reality of Zoom, with the SAA promoting events with it, tools to tame the number of academic papers on the COVID-19 pandemic, and librarians being recruited as COVID-19 hunters. Hack Library School had some great articles too, focusing on marginalized communities during moments of crisis, and thoughts about going remote for a MLIS degree. There’s, additionally, the May/June 2020 issue of Archival Outlook, with articles about indigenous boarding schools, challenges of preserving glass plate negatives, archives, and social media outreach, overcoming the imposter syndrome of working in the field, providing NARA services during the pandemic, and much more.

That’s all for this week! I hope you all have a great rest of your week.

- Burkely