Victory in Seattle, archives, trans characters in literature, libraries, genealogy, and much more
This week I'll be writing about archives, libraries, and genealogy, as always, but also the proposed Seattle NARA facility closure being stopped and other important issues
Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great week as we begin a new month. I was overjoyed to hear that the Biden Administration stopped the impending sale of the National Archives facility in Seattle, something which I’ve written about a couple times in the past year, including my article about it in early March. In the end of that article, I wrote that “although the closure of the Seattle FRC has been halted by Judge Coughenour, this is only a temporary measure. In the short-term…express your opposition to the closure, while calling on President Biden to follow the judge’s decision and keep the facility open. In the long term, NARA needs increased funding.” The latter is still appliable, even now. On a related note, I published a post about “atypical” librarians in animated series on my blog a couple days ago. I’m excited to announce that a post entitled “BIPOC archivists in animated series: Arizal and Grampa Park” will be published in Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s Reel Librarians on April 14. With that, let me move onto the rest of my newsletter.
I’d like to talk about archives first. One of my colleagues at the NSA, William Burr, wrote about the Berlin Crisis (1961-1962), B-52 bombers used during altercations with the North Koreans in 1968 and 1971, and over 99% of U.S. ICBMS on high alert in October 1973. Another colleague, Robert Wampler, wrote about the Clinton White House and climate change policy. In other news, in April 2022, NARA will begin to release the 1950 population census schedules, which will be a boon for genealogy, Nancy Beaumont wrote about being exhausted and exhilarated about the “new way” of doing business at the SAA (virtually), Sharon Mizota argued that Wikidata as a form of controlled descriptive vocabulary, while Andrea Donohue and Nicolette Lodico wrote about managing archival records. There is a new online exhibition on a trans publication in the late 1970s to mid-1980s by the Arquives in Canada, Andrew Warland noted the challenge of identifying born-digital records (like emails and social media posts), the Society of Mississippi Archivists wrote about the failure of SB 2727, a law I talked about in a newsletter back on February 27 (“Libraries, digital skills, fiction, archives, Black genealogy, and more”), and Coquitlam, a city in British Columbia, explained the art of archival processing. It is worth reading the “News from the Section on Archives and Human Rights” from Trudy Huskamp Peterson in the February newsletter of the International Council of Archives, Rachael Cristine Woody’s post about the essentials for a discoverable CMS, and staff of the Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York (DHPSNY) explained how to find “untold stories” in the archive. The same can be said for the National Council of History’s blog, where Jacqueline Hudson talked about discovering activism and advocacy in historic preservation, an interview with Clint Pumphrey and Chase Anderson on the value of using Instagram and other advocacy tools for archives to “reach audiences,” and Ryan Anthony Donaldson & Rachael Cristine Woody’s presentation about why archives are always essential.
Then we get to libraries. As I always do, I stumbled upon a mention of libraries in the 79th issue of Serious Trans Vibes, by Sophia Labelle, a trans woman, and one of my favorite webcomics that I’ve come across recently. This webcomic is a curation, by Labelle, of her long-standing webcomic Assigned Male, and it is a slice-of-life through the perspective of an 11-year-old trans girl, Stephie, who is embracing her gender and exploring her identity as a child growing up in a cisgender world. Anyway, in the scene, Stephie says that while some call the comic absurd because it has “too many” trans characters, she asks whether readers have tried to randomly find “a book featuring trans characters in the library,” or tried to find a trans character in the “billions of pages.” She calls both of those propositions absurd, something which I agree with! There are many articles about libraries to share this week. First of all is a post by NYPL School Outreach Librarian Amber Certain about diving deeper into New York City history with students and another, from June of last year, by chief librarian Jill Rothstein, also at NYPL, is about trans, non-binary and GNC voices to help you celebrate pride. Hack Library School had posts about expanding your horizons during your MLIS, academic libraries, and planning your final library project in library school. The Library of Congress (LOC) had all sorts of interesting posts, as always. Some were about people like Roger L. Stevens (a theatrical producer, real-estate executive, and fundraiser), music research guides, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs, the interconnection of Liberia and the United States (which some don’t know about), Flickr members helping to identify people in LOC photographs, and controversy over marriage and anti-conversion laws in India. Other blogs included an interview with the Maryland State Law Librarian, Steven Anderson, remembering Larry McMurtry, an award-winning author and screenwriter, the LOC’s Performing Arts Web Archive, a poem from Jason Reynolds, the LOC’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and celebrating Law Day on April 29. Just as important are the calls to allow libraries to narrow the digital divide, the fight for Britain’s libraries, a letter to Asian diasporic library workers, the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore condemning the “increasing attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders” while promoting the statement by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association which says something similar and urges the library community to “stand with us by publicly condemning anti-AAPI racism through visible actions.” I enjoyed reading about the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) launching the Book & Media Awards Shelf, said to be a “one-stop shop for finding world-class content for youth,” and a library staffer's dogged research sheds historic light on a local soldier.
There is some news on the genealogy front. Some wrote about discovering your roots, valuation rolls and generations of genealogists, while others talked about AncestryDNA results for over 68 Black people with deep roots from South Carolina. Some wrote about planning for genealogy trips, The Hidden Branch had an interview with Claire Bradley, a young genealogist, while Midwest Computer Genealogists (MCG) noted how you can find citizenship records for US immigrant ancestors before 1906 and differentiating between fact and fiction in family documents. MCG’s February newsletter, available from a link on their website and on the Internet Archive, with articles about the Harmony Mission, genealogy research offering hope at breaking brick walls, the challenge of tracing friends and neighbors, and other related news. Also is an article on IrelandXO about Irish workhouses and genealogist Nancy Loe writing about Triangle Shirtwaist factory workers.
The Nib had various illustrations I’d loved reading this week whether about COVID variants, reactionary arguments against vaccination, New York’s legalization of recreational marijuana, Amazon workers revealing why they voted against unionization in Alabama, the challenge of visual processing information, people ignoring obvious details about harmful laws, generational conflict, and growing urban rat populations. Then we get to history, one of my favorite subjects to write and read about. Some noted the challenges of working with history that haunts us, voting rights in the United States, and the value of trans history, the latter related to my comment on LinkedIn in response to the comment. This also somewhat relates to an article in Animation World Network titled “‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’s Big, Beautiful Lesbian Love Finale,” interviewing showrunner Noelle Stevenson, and the fact that the show, which featured some minor trans characters, recently won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Programming. I wrote about the show in my recent article on librarians of color in animation, specifically highlighting George and Lance. Smithsonian magazine had articles about the atomic clocks, graves of enslaved people discovered at a former Delaware plantation, a rainforest in the amazon emitting more greenhouse gasses than what it absorbs, Greek mythology, female fire lookouts saving wilderness areas for over a century, and octopuses having two stages of sleep, similar to mammals. Time talked about why the Asian-American story is missing from many U.S. classrooms, Perspectives of History blogged about the value of the #HistGym community on Twitter, Nature had an article about the fight against fake-paper factories that churn out sham science, Scalawag interviewing Victoria Raggs of the Atlanta Jews of Color Council, and NPR reporting that Florida schools are seeking to teach 'digital literacy'.
That’s all for this week. I hope you all have a productive week ahead.
- Burkely