Weeding library collections, the A*Census II, the AHA letter, Ancestry's content grab, the Afghan war, and much more
This week I'll be bringing you the latest news about archives, libraries, genealogy, and history, along with recent posts I've published
Good evening everyone! Happy National Relaxation Day! I hope you all had a good weekend. I’d like to first talk about library weeding, since that has been all the hubbub recently, after someone cried when they saw “important” books from a library in a dumpster, not recognizing the condition of the books or even trying to ask a librarian why this happened. I put together three Twitter Moments here, here, and here about it. I’d also recommend reading Claire Sewell’s “Weeding Is Fundamental: On Libraries and Throwing Away Books,” which covers the importance of weeding materials in library settings. It makes me think of what a character, a medical doctor/librarian, said in one of my friend’s stories back in February 2020: “Books are not sacred objects and should not be worshiped.” I still agree with it today, even more than when I first read it. On a related note, my friend recently published a story, titled “Power by Any Means Necessary,” with an amazing non-binary archivist, who is slowly falling in love with another one of my friend’s characters, as a protagonist. My friend admitted that while they could have incorporated archives more into the story, records destruction are themes of the story, as something happens to the archives.
Otherwise, I am proud of my posts reviewing the overworked (and exhausted) librarian in We Bare Bears and another on the interlinking of archives (and bureaucracy) in an episode of Phineas and Ferb on blogs that I run. With that, let me move on with the rest of my newsletter, which will be a little more text-heavy than last week, just fair warning.
There’s some interesting news about archives to share this week. Some people talked about how archives have tight budgets with not enough money to have people only responsible for operating reading rooms, others said that archives (and library) professionals have gone above and beyond to support research during the pandemic, and some had threads on digitization, working conditions, and precarious labor. On the other hand, one archivist argued that “Ivy League schools should not be hiring project archivists,” while Denver’s NARA Facility noted that Adolph Coors signed some letters from USDC case file holdings. Then, Archives in Fiction, highlighted archives in episodes 16 and 18 of Alias, a sci-fi/triller TV series.
I am glad to see that progress is being made for the A*Census II, as the last census was done 17 years ago! As the SAA puts it, this census will help “understand who is doing the [archival] work now, the issues that archives workers face, how we’re being compensated, and so much more.” This census will be broader than the last one, including “every self-identified archivist/archives and community memory worker in the U.S.,” with the latter as new to this census. The first survey for the census will be released in October 2021 and the survey of administrators will begin in early 2022, with results of the surveys published in American Archivist and data “available via the SAA Dataverse for use in individuals’ and institutions’ future research.”
On a related note is the response by the SAA to the problematic / misguided letter I talked about in last week’s newsletter. The statement from the SAA said, in part:
…SAA appreciates AHA’s intent to support NARA in the face of misinformation and unreasonable demands on the agency’s staff. SAA expects such support to be constructive and written in consultation with the archives community…Archives…are operating in response to circumstances that are specific to each institution…SAA expects researchers to extend goodwill, grace, and respect to archivists when they institute procedural changes to public access operations due to our ongoing public health emergency…The relationship among archivists, researchers, and communities must be founded on reciprocity and mutual respect…SAA is always open to dialogue and deeper coordination with AHA, as well as other professional organizations that value and require the expertise of archivists, access to archival collections, and the many services we provide.
This makes me think of Maarja Krusten’s criticism of my characterization of the letter in my last newsletter. My back-and-forth with her on Twitter seen here. Speaking of statements, on August 9, the Indigenous Archives Collective announced the publication of the Indigenous Archives Collective Statement on the Right of Reply to Indigenous Knowledges and Information held in Archives, a statement which, in their words, supports the work of their collective to “assert the rights of Indigenous peoples to challenge and respond to their information and knowledges contained in archival records held in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museum (GLAM) institutions through a Right of Reply.” Just as important as these issues is a recap of a conversation about accessibility and web archiving, dispatches from MARAC Spring 2021, lessons learned during the COVID-19 closure, and the Mukurtu Workshop and Panel Event which focused on “the Mukurtu content management system and how people are using it to meaningfully approach privacy of and access to Indigenous collections.”
That brings me to libraries. The most exciting news in this field is not Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden praising AOC’s blasé statement on library workers and librarians, saying that “libraries are community equalizers and ready to serve all their users,” or the Abolitionist Library Association pushing to remove police from libraries, but rather that Ascendance of A Bookworm is returning! You might ask, why, Burkely, are you so excited about an anime? Well, as you may remember, I wrote about this show in August of last year, noting how libraries are central to the anime itself as the protagonist wants to be a librarian and is pretty vocal about it, with a whole episode where she explains the classification system she will use for the library. That’s something you don’t see every day! Anyway, no exact date is known, but it’s clear that the series will be coming back sometime in Spring 2022.
Other than this, there were some assorted stories of note. In a column for Publisher’s Weekly, Sari Feldman, a former ALA president, called for library leaders to see the present as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to truly transform the future of libraries,” and Book Riot, in an article about how the Leander, Texas school district pulled books from the reading list, recalled that the director of Leander’s public library was pushed out in October 2019 when a Pride story time was hosted at the library! Erin Berman and Bonnie Tijerina, project leaders on the IMLS grant project, ‘Privacy Advocacy Guides for Libraries,’ were interviewed by Choose Privacy Every Day. The IFLA shared a post on lessons of the pandemic at the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s SCCR (Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) and had a post reflecting on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The Boston Globe noted how Cambridge, MA is the latest library system to hire a social worker. Jennifer Snoek-Brown interviewed two real librarians in Serbia, Valentina (Tina) and Ljubomir (Ljuba) Branković, who talk about their librarian duties, note that “librarian portrayals are stereotypical in Serbia movies,” favorite reel librarian movies, and more! It’s worth a read. I may create something like the “movie inserts with library scenes” that Ljuba created but with animated series. On a related note is Snoek-Brown’s post about being part of the scholarly conversation about librarians in movies.
There’s a lot of news when it comes to the Library of Congress (LOC). Of course, there’s some about topics like Aslihan Bulut being appointed Law Librarian of Congress, the publication of a new report on children’s online privacy and data protection, a post about the experiences of a mostly-archivist LOC team making a cake recipe soprano Jessye Norman contributed to a cookbook in the 1990s, a post asking if billionaires are going into space or not, noting there is no legal consensus on what counts as outer space (who knew!), and a post about the origin of the name “America” (first used on a 1507 map). Then there is a rash of interviews. While I thought the interview with Willa Armstrong, Digital Accessibility Specialist, was intriguing, the set of posts on remote Digital Resources Division interns for LOC was more fascinating for me, as most of these people are in my age bracket. The first group of 20 came from a diverse set of schools and places across the U.S., with the nerd who liked Battlestar Galactica, the guitar player, and a person who cataloged a home library of 1700 books as some of the most fascinating. The second group of 22, included those who rescued kittens, like baking, and a massage therapist. The third group of 20, included people who watch sunrises, do rock climbing, and writing. The fourth group of 20, had people who participated in mock trial, played piano, built anime robot models, and idled through art museums. Still relevant, on a related topic, is April Hathcock’s post in 2016, noting that LOC refused to add White privilege as a subject heading, something which critical classification activist (as Hathcock described him) Sandy Berman, among many others, had been fighting for. Hathcock noted that while LOC is welcoming a Black woman as the head of the organization, it still refused to acknowledge White privilege as a reality beyond racism or racial identity, even though all White people have it to some degree or another.
On a different, but still important topic, is genealogy. Polish-American genealogist Steve Szabados talks about the issue with Ancestry which I noted last week. He noted that the company’s soon-to-be-implemented policy (retaining content on their site posted on public trees permanently unless deleted) unmasks the issue with using “online family trees as the primary tool in saving and compiling our family history,” saying that family histories go beyond this, containing “stories that bring our ancestors alive.” He calls for compiling research offline “into notes and summaries of your ancestors,” which gives you flexibility, telling people to “save your family history using another method that remains private and understandable by your family.” I understand that urge, but why not have a blog on family history, like my Packed with Packards! for example? You can still do something privately, but with a public blog, you can make family history findings still public without having it be scooped by Ancestry so a few people can profit off your research. For other perspectives on Ancestry’s recent decision to have perpetual rights to content on their platform, see articles in Gizmodo, DIY Photography, and PetaPixel.
I also liked reading about in-person research at libraries and archives from two researchers: first, Keith Zahniser, and second Emily Greenwald, noting that people should get vaccinated to ensure that these locations remain open. What a unique way of looking at it, which hopefully can encourage some people to get vaccinated. I read a recent post on The Hidden Branch about young genealogists with interest. But I was a bit disappointed when it said that “a young genealogist by definition is young and for us, that means between the ages of 13 and 24.” Strangely, while gender demographics were mentioned (“there are more female young genealogists than males”), nothing about race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, at minimum, was mentioned, making me think that most of the people mentioned in the post are White. It is an oversight, which should be corrected, and a lack of transparency on their part.
On a related topic is a newly recovered 1787 deed, “detailing the contentious fight over property and prestige” in the family tree of the Smithsonian founder, James Smithson, can be found in a new exhibit by the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The latter, titled “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Hungerford Deed and James Smithson's Legacy,” allows people to view the record online, with the article noting the conservation work needed to restore the document. Even one page has a family chart showing the genealogy of the Hungerford family. Altogether, it is very fascinating, and it gives me some ideas for displaying my family history.
Speaking of history, there were some stories worth sharing this week. For one was a tweet thread by a historian of vaccination, Aparna Nair, noting that vaccines have “always been required for international travel,” Boston African American NHS having a #ParkChat about enslavement and many other topics, the New York Historical Society establishing an institute dedicated to community activism, and an exclusive memo showing that Watergate prosecutors had evidence that Nixon planned to attack “anti-war demonstrators in 1972, including potentially physically attacking Vietnam whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.” Then there’s the Directory of History Dissertations from the AHA (over 57,000 in the directory presently) and a number of Smithsonian magazine history-related articles. This includes a story on a DNA test showing than an elite Finnish person was likely intersex and possibly non-binary, noting that while medieval Scandinavia is often seen as ultra-masculine, there were “people living outside of a strict gender binary,” with one scholar saying that this study demonstrates that “early medieval societies had very nuanced approaches to and understandings of gender identities.” Other stories touched on enduring myths of Raiders of the Lost Ark which negatively affect the archaeology profession, a study finding that many feathered dinosaurs were more aerodynamic than previously thought, and immigrant history of the NYC neighborhood behind In the Heights.
There are several topics which should be talked about but do not easily fit into the existing categories of this newsletter. First and foremost is the Taliban victory in Afghanistan (and the end of the war there), which Republicans are wringing their hands over, declaring Biden has “blood on his bands,” trying to distract people from the fact that their hands are bloody too (and they tried to broker a peace deal under the former president), as a Republican president started the war in 2001. As of April 2021, more than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are “estimated to have died as a direct result of the war,” according to the Watson Institute, part of the hundreds of thousands who have died as a result of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan, instigated by the U.S. There is also the billions spent on a war there which has been a waste of time, resources, and material, only bringing certain benefits to a small group of people, with the war continuing through Republican and Democratic administrations, and the causes having roots in misguided, self-serving Cold War policies of the U.S. Whether China recognizes the Taliban, or not, I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. does the same, even if they publicly condemn the new government, but privately keep the aid, and support, flowing.
Just as big news is the release of 2020 Census redistricting data which shows, in the words of the census, that the U.S. is “much more multiracial and more diverse” than in the past, with a decrease in those identifying as White by 8.6% since 2010, while the multiracial population has increased 276%, with those identifying as “some Other Race” surpassing the Black population. There are still huge racial populations of people identifying as Asian, Indigenous, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Latino, with the latter growing 23% since 2010. While it is noted that this data should be taken with caution, with improvements in questions, it also said that over 78% of the population are over age 18.
Also of note is Lonnie Bunch of the Smithsonian talking about how the U.S. needs to reckon with its racist past as part of a new initiative, Facebook booting NYU researchers studying at disinformation from their platform, a growing number of parents choosing to stick with homeschooling over sending kids back to public schools, museums and libraries joining forces to boost confidence in vaccines, and how five percent of power plants release 73% of global electricity production emissions, with some of the “worst offenders” being “inefficient coal-fired power plants located in East Asia, Europe and India.” There were also wonderful illustrations from The Nib about: pets responding to the climate report, billionaires launching into space, conservative lies about the Delta variant, the UN report calling on humans to cut emissions, and the U.S. calling on OPEC allies to pump more oil.
That’s all for this week. Until next week! Hope you all have a productive week ahead.
- Burkely