What did you do to celebrate International Archives Day? It almost passed me by. But then I read the ICA’s announcement and was intrigued to learn that the Day presented archivists with “a tremendous opportunity to promote the cause of records and archives in their country”. Not for the first time, this made me ponder a number of questions: just what is the "cause" of records and archives? why do they/we need a cause anyway? that is, why describe our profession within a framework of struggle? do I have a cause and, if so, what am I willing to sacrifice for it?
A healthy democracy, the protection of human rights and the guardianship of memory and identity - these are the obvious contenters for an archival cause. They are good causes. But, are they the real end goal? I think the answer to that is yes, to the majority of us and at the moment at least.
If we adopt these causes we can boldly proclaim, along with a slightly mis-quoted George Washington: “Our cause is noble; it is the cause of humankind!”
As long as these things are seen as desirable, they will be worth fighting for. Because having a cause implies having something to struggle against. This is a depressing thought. My career, seen from this view, is dedicated to resisting human selfishness and stupidity. And, in part, to documenting and preserving the evidence of its effects.
June 12, 2009
May 22, 2009
The dibrary
This article from The Korea Times introduces Seoul’s new National Digital Library. Claiming to be the first such repository in the world, the new 8-story building will offer only digital content to users via a stunning number of computer terminals, laptops and televisions. Patrons can access existing digital information, or use the video and audio recording studios available at the library to create and edit their own digital content and add it to the internet. The building has special facilities to welcome people with disabilities and a zone specifically designed to allow foreign visitors a favourable experience.
This all sounds amazing and I would love to go see it. But, I think I’m missing something. Isn’t the point of digital content that you can access it anywhere? At home for example, in your pyjamas, at midnight? Doesn’t digital access free you from the physical space of the library? Isn’t this a good thing? Why build, or visit, a library whose main holdings can be accessed from the comfort of your own home? (And yes, I know that some material can’t be made available over the web due to IPR and other reasons, but my line of reasoning remains).
More to the point, why spend what must amount to huge amounts of money to do this? My experience of libraries is that there's never enough money to pay for new acquisitions, decent pay, enough staff to retrieve and re-shelve material, extra opening hours, cataloguing backlogs, etc. Not to mention the expanding costs of creating and preserving digital material itself. Running a national library is an expensive undertaking.
Surely there are better areas where this money could be directed? And if you have the space to build a new building, why devote it entirely to digital stuff?
I believe The British Library has plans for a dilibrary (as the article in the Korea Times labelled it). According to the minutes, available on the BL webpages, a proposal was considered by the Library Board when it met in May.
I’m interested to see how successful the Seoul library is. Although sceptical about its use value, and suspecting the money could’ve been directed toward other, more deserving areas, I do hope it encourages people to visit the, or a, library, whether in person or on-line.
This all sounds amazing and I would love to go see it. But, I think I’m missing something. Isn’t the point of digital content that you can access it anywhere? At home for example, in your pyjamas, at midnight? Doesn’t digital access free you from the physical space of the library? Isn’t this a good thing? Why build, or visit, a library whose main holdings can be accessed from the comfort of your own home? (And yes, I know that some material can’t be made available over the web due to IPR and other reasons, but my line of reasoning remains).
More to the point, why spend what must amount to huge amounts of money to do this? My experience of libraries is that there's never enough money to pay for new acquisitions, decent pay, enough staff to retrieve and re-shelve material, extra opening hours, cataloguing backlogs, etc. Not to mention the expanding costs of creating and preserving digital material itself. Running a national library is an expensive undertaking.
Surely there are better areas where this money could be directed? And if you have the space to build a new building, why devote it entirely to digital stuff?
I believe The British Library has plans for a dilibrary (as the article in the Korea Times labelled it). According to the minutes, available on the BL webpages, a proposal was considered by the Library Board when it met in May.
I’m interested to see how successful the Seoul library is. Although sceptical about its use value, and suspecting the money could’ve been directed toward other, more deserving areas, I do hope it encourages people to visit the, or a, library, whether in person or on-line.
April 15, 2009
National something week
It's National Library Week in the US. This made me ask: does the UK have a similar thing? A Google search led me to the National Literacy Trust and their reading events calendar. Every month is covered. No National Library Week but some good looking events. I've missed the Day for April - International Children's Book Day - but all of May is National Share a Story Month. This sounds great. I love stories. I was thus disappointed to see that this seems solely aimed at children. Surely the "power of story" is something that can be appreciated by people of all ages. In fact, earlier this year I went to a performance put on by the Crick Crack Club, who carry on the tradition of storytelling for audiences of different ages. (Think I must have unknowingly participated in National Storytelling Week, which is in February).
The UK may not have a National Library Week, or at best a badly publicised one, but storytelling is alive and well here. The aforementioned National Storytelling Week is connected with the Society for Story Telling. If you're in London there's the London Centre for International Storytelling. These people currently have an HLF grant "to archive and document live recordings of public storytelling by professional performers". The on-line search they've set up is easy to use and gives lots of information. The Archive includes stories from all over the world and on many different subjects.
I'm convinced other countries have events similar to National Library Week. Finding out would involve a more dedicated search than I'm willing to do.
The UK may not have a National Library Week, or at best a badly publicised one, but storytelling is alive and well here. The aforementioned National Storytelling Week is connected with the Society for Story Telling. If you're in London there's the London Centre for International Storytelling. These people currently have an HLF grant "to archive and document live recordings of public storytelling by professional performers". The on-line search they've set up is easy to use and gives lots of information. The Archive includes stories from all over the world and on many different subjects.
I'm convinced other countries have events similar to National Library Week. Finding out would involve a more dedicated search than I'm willing to do.
April 09, 2009
Dreaming in colour
I've been watching Japanese movies lately and as a consequence have been dreaming in anime. Disturbing? Yes, I think so. It's much nicer though then dreaming of numbering boxes or counting files, which it's not uncommon for me to do.
March 11, 2009
2nd Jenkinson Lecture
Last Thursday I attended the 2nd Jenkinson Lecture organised by UCL. Professor Eric Ketelaar gave a paper entitled Archival Identities which addressed this topic using the records of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as a reference point, or case study.
It was a pleasure to hear Dr Ketelaar talk. His paper was well presented, easy to listen to and follow, and interesting. It looked, in turn, at meaning, truth, memories, histories, identities, and the proposition of a living archive. Throughout I had the impression of dynamic relationships between records, the reason(s) for their creation or gathering, and their use and re-use.
Dr Ketelaar’s approach allows that records are subject to active re-interpretation. The meaning of a record can be different for individuals and groups depending upon the purpose and context of its creation and re-examination. Different types of truth and different ownerships of truth can be attached to records and can influence memory and identity. Records shape the memories of individuals and collective groups through shared communication. Archives present the evidence of the past but also allow histories to be constructed by people with different interpretations, experiences and purposes. Dr Ketelaar finished with the concept of a living archive - an archive that is used and examined, re-used, re-interpreted, discussed, pondered upon and has meaning(s) added to it through this activity.
It was a pleasure to hear Dr Ketelaar talk. His paper was well presented, easy to listen to and follow, and interesting. It looked, in turn, at meaning, truth, memories, histories, identities, and the proposition of a living archive. Throughout I had the impression of dynamic relationships between records, the reason(s) for their creation or gathering, and their use and re-use.
Dr Ketelaar’s approach allows that records are subject to active re-interpretation. The meaning of a record can be different for individuals and groups depending upon the purpose and context of its creation and re-examination. Different types of truth and different ownerships of truth can be attached to records and can influence memory and identity. Records shape the memories of individuals and collective groups through shared communication. Archives present the evidence of the past but also allow histories to be constructed by people with different interpretations, experiences and purposes. Dr Ketelaar finished with the concept of a living archive - an archive that is used and examined, re-used, re-interpreted, discussed, pondered upon and has meaning(s) added to it through this activity.
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