because some things are so wildly different from my own experience, for example, the overabundance of donations--over here, many people don't even know that archives exist (because there is no cultural policy that actually informs people and encourages them to check out archives) let alone that they can donate their stuff to them!
Yes, that makes sense!
(particularly, "popular" ones, which are the ones that begin by a community initiative--and did you know they were inspired by the lending libraries started by Franklin's Junto club, so the first ever popular library, founded in the 1860s has his name?
This delights me! I really took public libraries for granted when I was growing up because just about every US town has one, but as I've gotten older I see how rare and extraordinary they are. My brother-in-law's family didn't even know that lending libraries for the general public could be a thing. The only libraries they know are connected to schools/universities, and you can't check anything out.
I feel that most archives would benefit from having a donations policy, and add it to wherever they have information for users/researchers/general public.
Agreed!!!
This is more on the archive side than the donor's, but a donations policy can also include a note saying "we don't take this or that kind of thing, but xxx might be able to point you the right way"--and then you have a list of nearby/relevant archives or libraries or historical associations or any other place that might be relevant and where the donor's stuff might fit in better. This is informative and also spreads the word about other archives that people might not know about!
Yup!
! Sadly, a lot of what is still archived belongs to the dominant views, either because they could afford to document their lives in the first place, or because their stuff was considered more important.
Absolutely. And there's so much stuff that has been lost because past archivists didn't value the non-dominant narratives. It's so sad.
Have you ever read anything linking archives and affect theory, particularly Marika Cifor's stuff?
no subject
Yes, that makes sense!
(particularly, "popular" ones, which are the ones that begin by a community initiative--and did you know they were inspired by the lending libraries started by Franklin's Junto club, so the first ever popular library, founded in the 1860s has his name?
This delights me! I really took public libraries for granted when I was growing up because just about every US town has one, but as I've gotten older I see how rare and extraordinary they are. My brother-in-law's family didn't even know that lending libraries for the general public could be a thing. The only libraries they know are connected to schools/universities, and you can't check anything out.
I feel that most archives would benefit from having a donations policy, and add it to wherever they have information for users/researchers/general public.
Agreed!!!
This is more on the archive side than the donor's, but a donations policy can also include a note saying "we don't take this or that kind of thing, but xxx might be able to point you the right way"--and then you have a list of nearby/relevant archives or libraries or historical associations or any other place that might be relevant and where the donor's stuff might fit in better. This is informative and also spreads the word about other archives that people might not know about!
Yup!
! Sadly, a lot of what is still archived belongs to the dominant views, either because they could afford to document their lives in the first place, or because their stuff was considered more important.
Absolutely. And there's so much stuff that has been lost because past archivists didn't value the non-dominant narratives. It's so sad.
Have you ever read anything linking archives and affect theory, particularly Marika Cifor's stuff?
I have not! But I will check it out!