The wrestler-librarian, archives, appraisal, selection, libraries, genealogy, history, and more
This week I'll be writing about libraries, archives, and genealogy, as always, along with history, and a focus on archival appraisal. Enjoy!
Hello all! I hope you all had a productive week! I know this is a little different because I’m sending the newsletter today rather than Saturday or Sunday, but I wanted to send the newsletter today before the week gets away from me, and something comes up, making it harder for me to finish this newsletter for you all. This past week, I published one of my favorite posts to write yet, specifically looking at a librarian who changes personalities with a wrestler and becomes “buff” (at least that’s what the characters call her), and how (and if) she bucks stereotypes or not. With that, I’d like to begin this newsletter.
This past week, there has been a lot of archives news. Some included posts from my colleagues at NSA about more documents from the U.S. Capitol riot and U.S.-Soviet cooperation in outer space. I am glad to see that the Library of Congress (LOC) preservation team has a new blog titled “Guardians of Memory.” They have a number of recent posts of note. One, in particular, talked about Heat- and Solvent-Set Repair Tissues. Another talked about what is involved in conservation at LOC. Of course, conservators are not archivists, but they work in the same space, together. As NARA explains it, conservators, unlike archivists who focus on content of documents, “think about the physical makeup of documents,” examining records, assessing their condition, and the materials comprising them, recommending “remedial treatments to arrest deterioration or to improve condition.” Apart from Julie Kerssen, Processing Archivist at the Seattle Municipal Archives sharing her love of archival work, there were two stories which caught my eye. The first was Margot Note’s post titled “Appraisal of Records of Enduring Value.” In the post, she defines appraisal as identifying materials offered to an archives that have “sufficient value to be accessioned” and can be defined as the process of “determining the length of time records should be retained.” She then differentiates between selection and appraisal:
Although the definitions are close, nuances exist. Appraisal often gets confused with monetary appraisal, which archivists must avoid. Selecting is an active verb. One might argue that appraising is active, but it is true that the assessment of value would lead to selecting for acquisition. Selection is also a more concise word for what the archivist does. Archivists are…often accused of speaking in code. However, appraisal has become the accepted term for the profession, but selection describes what archivists do. No matter what term is used, institutions utilize a variety of processes and frameworks to build their collections.
She also notes that many factors shape appraisal like existing laws, professional norms, and issues of accountability, with appraisal the first responsibility of an archivist. She says this requires the archivists to educate themselves about “records of society and improve archival practice accordingly,” with collecting strategies and appraisal techniques developed to coordinate retention and selection. Secondly archivists must educate those creating the records about the importance of retaining records for the long term while informing the public about “the essential work of the archival profession to influence and support creators in records preservation.” She further notes that the purpose and mission of the archives plays an important role, adding that archivists consider functional characteristics, content, context, and cost-benefit analysis of “acquiring, preserving, and making these records available.” This relates to the idea of primary and secondary value, with the first including “administrative, legal, and fiscal values” of a record. The second focuses on what is known as evidential and informational values, with the latter including details about events, people, places, or subjects “other than the organization or individual who created the record,” while the former documents “operation and activities of the record-creating organization, institution, or individual.” She concludes by saying that the appraisal process is about determining whether records “have archival value” with archivists having to make decisions on “what materials have enduring value and deserve preservation over the long term.” This was undoubtedly the case when the Smithsonian Museum of African American History decided to keep records of the Freedmen’s Bureau, with the museum currently “focusing attention on the post-Civil War transition of enslaved people to freedom by making the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau accessible online”! That will be exciting, especially as a resource for genealogists. I already found a bunch of stuff on Emmy Lou Packard, so I may write about that in the future.
That brings me to libraries, which obviously open this post, like always. LOC had posts about teacher appreciation week, great dictionary of Alonso de Molina, and cicadas, while the recent issue of the LOC magazine for May / June 2021 was released, which focused on historic maps. Other stories of note include a working paper titled “The Returns to Public Library Investment,” along with stories about the 1619 Project, diversity, outdoor reading rooms at the Brooklyn Public Library, e-books, and sustainability. That brings me to the wonderful library scenes in the film, Elena and the Secret of Avalor which I loved enough to include here:
In the future, I may write a post about this and the value of libraries in the film, as Sofia goes to the secret library I wrote about back in February, and two librarians in Sofia the First: Mrs. Higgins and an unnamed librarian.
That brings me to genealogy. I liked reading about Irish genealogy, starting your genealogy research, a researcher exploring stories of people of color, forensic genealogy, genealogy hints, fitting family history into your life, and slavery in “Indian territory” (Oklahoma). But one story stood out. It wasn’t the story in Smithsonian magazine noting that some of Europe’s oldest-known modern humans are distantly related to Indigenous people. Rather it was James Tanner noting that in genealogy books still matter. He noted that while there is a plethora of online resources which can “teach you about genealogy,” you need to study more books and resources, which won’t be covered in a webinar or class. He noted that genealogists should use “all the available materials online or otherwise to learn what you need to know about doing research and how to do genealogy.”
That brings me to history. Reading about medieval papal documents, Operation Jack, sewage analysis, court historians, Black Death, the Wright Brothers, Saint Brendan’s Island, the Matewan Massacre, and women of influence in Jupiter Hammon’s world. The story in the Smithsonian magazine about what caused the roaring twenties is interesting and relevant to what is happening now. In the article, historians say there can’t be easy comparisons between the 1920s and 1930s, because, as Peter Liebhold, curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, says “the experiences of the 1920s are uneven. If you make gross characterizations, you’re dead wrong.” The entire article is interesting and worth a read.
I’ll close this newsletter with articles on various subjects. For one, there is an article defining ableism, how the U.S. is at risk of an armed anti-police insurgency, a story from a Leftist and trans woman living in the rural South, who is a gun owner, and argues that “Biden's proposed gun control legislation will only help the far right. Of note are stories about how clothing has enhanced visual storytelling, how the Minneapolis Police first described the murder of George Floyd, and outrage over handling of the remains of the MOVE bombing. That brings me to the plethora of illustrations in The Nib criticizing the possible run of the former traitorous President and telling the story of a rise (and fall) of viral video star. Others talk about consumerism, fake empathy, urging communities to “await” facts of a police shooting, pollution, Millennials, respecting “norms” (from Tom Tomorrow), people defending their meat consumption (because why not), crushing dissent, Bill Gates the monopolist, and the market of recycling. My favorite of all was Joey Alison Sayers comic titled “The Cis Agenda,” criticizing the hair-brained efforts of cisgender people to oppress trans people, all so they can disenfranchise them. So awful, I must tell you, not some “wedge issue.”
That’s all for this week! Until next week. Hope you all have a productive week ahead.
- Burkely