This week’s reading presents a discussion about archives. Burton utilizes multiple archival stories of historians for this discussion. The various stories discuss the creation, manipulation, and policies surrounding archives. In addition, some of the essays question what is an archive and history. What about forms of history that do not materialize, such as oral histories, fiction, planning for communities and buildings, and even cyberspace? The stories remind the reader archives are important for politics and society in order to tell a story about the past of an individual’s and/or collective communities.
Archives are especially important to researchers. However, some archives are not open to all researchers and/or the general public. However, in one of the essays Western research were granted access to the Central State Archive because of their wealth. This story shows the bias for access. Archives should be open with protection to all researchers for the simple sake of research and exploration of a history. This story particularly disturbed me because it goes back to times were you were considered wealthy if you had a home library.
The stories that could be and will be told based on the composition of archives makes an archive powerful. History typically provokes some type of emotion. For example, an African American in a slave or Civil Rights museum, a Jewish person in a Holocaust museum, and/or a woman in a Women’s evolution museum. My point is race and gender can affect the ways in which History or archives are viewed. Yet, these stories were not told. I assumed, because of the title the book, there would be a mixture of stories concerning archives from historians as well as those who experienced them (citizen stories). I think this would have made an impact on the book.
Overall, I found this book to be incomplete. I wanted more stories…stories from those researchers concerning the emotion they felt as the dug through the archives and discovered more information on their desired topic. As a research of African American history, I know that if history is not recorded in some fashion, it is lost. I am very appreciative of archives. I agree with various historians on the mere importance and vitality of archives. They do relate politics and society, which are always important whether it is national or local history. Information Professionals (librarians and historians) must seek to continue to maintain and create more archives for the use of various researchers as well as society.
Archives tend to leave out the personal stories that do not fit the mold of the national history at the time, because the governing body decides what records prove vaulable. I thought the article over San Fransico gay community shows how archives change to include more perspectives as society changes.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the editor include some archival experiences of women's history and other histories that usually get left out, but I thought that she could have included more authors that had personal stories that addressed a greater variety of perspectives. I agree that archives evoke emotions and all people's voices need a spot to be heard.
Exactly, I was looking for the personal stories of diverse researchers. I think it would just have expanded the book beyond Academia. Thank you.
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