Time spent doing...

For the past two weeks I’ve been studying for an exam. Classical Greek. Now it’s over I can get back to more pleasurable pastimes such as watching tv and having drinks with my friends. I can also concentrate more fully at work where I’ve been reading over the draft of ISIAH, the new international standard for institutions with archival holdings, and trying to rearrange storage space so I can fit more in. What I need is a magical room where space expands at will. My will. That would be cool.

The view from here

The topic of archivists and related professionals in fiction seems endlessly fascinating. Thanks to French Panic for your comments on a previous post. They highlighted a link between my first two posts, namely how archivists/record keepers are viewed by us and the wider world. David Mattison’s website The Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and Museums is worth plenty of attention.

I wonder whether record keepers are making more frequent appearances in the world of fiction or whether I’m just noticing it more. As an example, not long ago I read Death at Windsor Castle: Her Majesty Investigates by C.C. Benson (published 1998). This is one of a series of 3 Her Majesty Investigates books. It’s a very good read. A person is found dead in the Throne Room at Windsor Castle, with a sword in his chest. This person is none other than an assistant curator in the Print Room of the Royal Library at the Castle! Turns out he was a nasty piece of work who had enemies enough with a motive to kill, but I was kinda pleased to see a fellow professional in the role of murder victim.

Conference Season

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.

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