In their article, \u201cArchives, Records and Power: The Making of Modern Memory\u201d Schwartz and Cook discuss the important impact\u00a0archives have on social memory and the often overlooked power held by information professionals. They write:<\/p>\n
\u201carchives\u2026wield power over the administrative, legal and fiscal accountability of governments, corporations and individuals\u2026[they] wield power over the shape and direction of historical scholarship, collective memory and national identity, over how we know ourselves as individuals, groups and societies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does the fact that an object is in an archive make it more a more valuable object or reliable as a source? \u00a0Who decides? \u00a0What are the possible futures of the past and how can the past be found? Whose memory gets stored and whose gets lost? Author Alberto Manguel calls libraries \u201cpreservers of memory of our society<\/a>\u201d and as such as libraries and archives play an essential role in deciding the fate of the past and as such have a power that is rarely associated with them by the general public.<\/p>\n To preserve knowledge and history seems to be a human need. Is it related to our biological instinct for survival? \u00a0Perhaps we feel that even though our lives are ephemeral, memory of our lives should be everlasting?\u00a0\u00a0NASA\u2019s golden record was launched into space in 1977 with the hope of reaching other living beings or perhaps human descendants. The record contains\u00a0sounds of nature along with languages and music from around the world.\u00a0\u00a0 Undoubtedly however, one record can\u00a0not capture every aspect of human diversity, indeed, not even a large archive can contain a history or memory of everything. \u00a0Who then, will tell the stories that are not told by archives, and who will listen?<\/p>\n As Rodney G.S. Carter points out in the article, \u201cOf Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences and Power in Silence:\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA universal archive, one that preserves the <\/em>memory of a culture is an impossibility as memory is necessarily an individual thing: there are many memories that often are conflicting and contradictory. Even if archivists are willing to allow multiple voices into the archives, it will never be complete. There is simply no way of capturing the multitude of stories, although archivists must try. ”<\/p>\n Even if archivists and librarians aim to create an all-inclusive archive, decisions about what to collect and what not to collect must be made. Not everything can be kept. \u00a0As Schwarz and Cook point out, these decisions heavily impact memory of the past and materials given precious archival space are often used to validate ideas of how things happened or are assigned a higher value than items\u00a0that are\u00a0not part of an official archival collection. Yet, as Schwarz and Cook write, \u201cwhat goes on in the archives remains remarkably unknown.\u201d Schwarz and Cook mainly address the content of libraries and archives, but their mission to raise discussion about the power held by archivists is reminiscent of radical catalogers\u2019 calls to draw attention to and change biases in cataloging practices. \u00a0The organization and classifying methods used in public collections adds yet another layer to the complex power relations embedded in archives and libraries.\u00a0\u00a0 How do archivists and librarians make decisions and how can these decisions be made more visible to the people who use them?<\/p>\n Perhaps one solution may be to raise public dialogue on these issues and to begin to raise awareness about the curatorial aspects of library and archival work.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems that weeding is one of aspect of collection management that draws wide public attention. News articles describe the public\u2019s dismay at seeing large quantities of books and other materials being removed from a library\u2019s collection. Articles from library professionals<\/a> list up ways libraries can help diffuse upset over weeding and how to talk about\u00a0the deaccessioning process in a way that is more acceptable to the public. Perhaps these are times when the public\u2019s attention could also be drawn to the complex task librarians and archivists face when trying to create diverse and useful collections. Libraries and archives could create a public forum to openly discuss these issues and gather input from community members about the stories they want their libraries and archives to tell.<\/p>\n Another strategy that could be useful would be to offer small public tours of behind the scenes archival and library spaces. Such tours could help shed some light on important issues regarding collection development and cataloging practices. People can see what goes into making all the resources available to them. People often have a greater appreciation for work once they have a better idea of what goes into it. People attending the tour can respond to some of the practices they see. \u00a0This type of activity can help libraries and archives make their activities more transparent and open to public input.<\/p>\n Another way to increase public involvement in and awareness of important library\/archival issues is through art. \u00a0Art has the capacity to reach wide audiences and inspire them to see and hear things they encounter everyday in a new way. A number of<\/a> interesting artworks<\/a> that explore human interaction with library and archival systems have been on exhibition around New York in recent years, and some of them have been successful in generating much needed public dialogue about some of the issues Schwarz and Cook raise. \u00a0Interactive artworks, such as an audiovisual artwork called Kinokologue<\/a> invite audiences to participate in cataloging tasks encourage them to engage with collections in a new and playful way.<\/p>\n One other interesting option may be to use beacon technology to help tell alternative narratives about the collections. Beacons are small transmitters that can be placed almost anywhere to send out information to smart devices within a certain range.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps users could learn about the b-side of library collections, such as the story of where a particular item came from or why it was chosen to be part of a collection. Or\u00a0maybe the beacons could be used to indicate what\u2019s missing from a collection and invite input on this from patrons.<\/p>\n While each of these solutions may not be possible in every context, they do offer ways of increasing public awareness about the important yet often invisible power issues Schwarz and Cook raise. When people have the opportunity to gain insight into how collections are produced and maintained and the decisions librarians and archivists are faced with, they may begin to see these places as less neutral objective spaces and recognize them for the socio-cultural-historic constructed places that they are. While libraries, archives and museums are sometimes known as memory institutions, perhaps such activities may help people realize that these institutional memories, just like each of ours are inherently biased, faulty and incomplete. \u00a0Every object and every memory changes with time and context. \u00a0What does not change is the human desire to preserve memories as best as possible with the hope that\u00a0future\u00a0generations can learn from and find something of themselves within them.<\/p>\n Works Cited:<\/p>\n Schwartz, J. & Cook, T. (2002). \u201cArchives, records, and power: the making of modern memory,\u201d\u00a0Archival Science<\/span><\/em>\u00a02: 1\u201319.<\/span><\/p>\n CARTER, Rodney G.S.. Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.\u00a0Archivaria<\/strong>, [S.l.], sep. 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In their article, \u201cArchives, Records and Power: The Making of Modern Memory\u201d Schwartz and Cook discuss the important impact\u00a0archives have on social memory and the often overlooked power held by information professionals. They write: \u201carchives\u2026wield power over the administrative, legal and fiscal accountability of governments, corporations and individuals\u2026[they] wield power over the shape and direction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20,23,155,156],"class_list":["post-1692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-archival-power","tag-archives","tag-memory","tag-memory-institutions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}