It’s that time of year when I start browsing conference programmes. Actually, I do this on and off during the year, promising myself that I’ll read every last paper from all the really interesting sessions, once the society in question has helpfully published them on their web pages. In reality this never happens. This year my attention’s been grabbed by the title of the joint Association of Canadian Archivists and Archives Association of Ontario Conference: “As Others See Us: Archivists and Society”. You need to be stout of heart to venture near other people’s perceptions. As an example: last month I attended a history weekend where I was introduced to two people who weren’t fazed at all to be meeting an alchemist but who expressed extreme surprise once I’d explained what I actually did.
Back to the conferences, I’m pleased to see that many of the up and coming conferences include a nice spread of topics from digital issues to archives and community groups, including topics such as the relationship between record keeping professionals and democracy, human rights and memory.
June 20, 2007
June 13, 2007
The importance of records revealed in the movies
I love watching scary science fiction films, particularly if you can see the zipper on the swamp-creature’s costume.
As an archivist, it’s gratifying when records play pivotal roles in plot development. Last night I watched a quality film called Mosquito Man. At one point, this poor municipal sewer worker discovered a grisly murder scene. Luckily, he just happened to have brought with him to work that day a blue print of the underground passages beneath the city park. This was good news for the hero, who needed those drawings to track the mutant insect. Without them, he’d’ve been foolish to venture into the maze-like tunnels. The plot would’ve floundered and the ultimate fight against bad guys (or in this case, monsters) would’ve had an unhappy and somewhat gruesome ending.
This got me thinking about how records allow the narrative of our days to move forward. Ephemeral items like bus timetables provide important information to physically get us moving. Pay packets give us our motivation while weighty documents such as job descriptions provide the script. I also like to think of archives, and the archival profession, as contributing to the ongoing fight between goodness and bad things. Archival theory often looks at the imperatives of democracy, human rights, etc, so this is not a difficult framework to maintain
As an archivist, it’s gratifying when records play pivotal roles in plot development. Last night I watched a quality film called Mosquito Man. At one point, this poor municipal sewer worker discovered a grisly murder scene. Luckily, he just happened to have brought with him to work that day a blue print of the underground passages beneath the city park. This was good news for the hero, who needed those drawings to track the mutant insect. Without them, he’d’ve been foolish to venture into the maze-like tunnels. The plot would’ve floundered and the ultimate fight against bad guys (or in this case, monsters) would’ve had an unhappy and somewhat gruesome ending.
This got me thinking about how records allow the narrative of our days to move forward. Ephemeral items like bus timetables provide important information to physically get us moving. Pay packets give us our motivation while weighty documents such as job descriptions provide the script. I also like to think of archives, and the archival profession, as contributing to the ongoing fight between goodness and bad things. Archival theory often looks at the imperatives of democracy, human rights, etc, so this is not a difficult framework to maintain
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