6615 WeekXI Archives and Society
Transcript of 6615 WeekXI Archives and Society
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Week XI:
Archives and Society
April 13, 2011
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Archivists, Mediation & Constructs
of Social Memory
(Francis X. Blouin, Jr.) Who is Dr. Blouin?
◦ Professor in both the School of Information andDepartment of History at the University of Michigan
◦ Director of the Bentley Historical Library (this is theuniversity archives as well as holding the principalhistorical collection of the State of Michigan)
◦ Member of the Board of Directors of the Council on
Library and Information Resources in Washington,D.C.
◦ Received MA & PhD from the University of Minnesota
◦
Expertise in the Vatican Secret Archives
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Archivists, Mediation & Constructs of
Social Memory
What is our past and how do we know it?
Accumulation of historical documents was
considered straightforward and even a nobletask…
New technology in record keeping forces
archivists to constantly rethink themselves…
Archive(s) as a term is constantly changing…
Historical study has moved towards issues of
power, minority groups, gender, race, etc.
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Memory & Power
Social Memory – Example is the MagnoliaPlantation
Historical Memory – Larger & morecomprehensive
Capture notions of individual particular pasts
The archive is made from selected andconsciously chosen documentation from the
past (power) Power has corrupted the archive as a
repository of human memory
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Discussion Questions???
What is "social memory" and how have scholars'perceptions of it changed over the past fortyyears?
Francis Blouin, Jr. puts forth the followingquestion: “To what extent…are archives a reliableand appropriate source for constructing a senseof social memory?” (102) How would you answerthis question? How does Blouin answer thequestion?
What should be the archivist’s role in creatingsocial memory; passive, a mere custodian of records, or active, seeking out and collectingrecords that create a social memory thatrepresents more elements of a society than just
the rich and powerful?
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Postmodernist Navel Gazing…
Archives have to be clearer about theirlimits and boundaries…
People not only come to our doors for
what we have BUT also for what we donot have (archives become the object of
study instead of a place of/to study)
Need to become more aware of thearchives role as mediator…
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What others thought???
Blouin goes one step beyond simply claiming that archivestend to be influenced by the narratives of the upper classes or
prevailing social groups; he cites scholars who argue that
archives are actually complicit in this process. Archivists
should be more mindful of their role in the creation of social
memory, and should not necessarily bother trying to achievesome kind of “neutrality,” as such a thing is not possible.
Blouin asks “What is our past and how do we know it?” He
concludes that archivists will have to be clearer about the
limits and boundaries of their work, they will need to be prepared to think more systematically about appraisal
practices within the context of broader notions of cultural
studies, and they will need to become more aware of their
role as mediators.
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Discussion Questions???
After reading Blouin should we as archivist alsobe looking at our records from a perspective of what is missing or what is not evidential? Do wealter our record keeping if we do so, or are wealtering our record keeping if we do not?
If, as Blouin states, archives reflect establishedpower relationships and show how powerpreserves itself through history, how canarchivists truly take into account forgotten
histories and documents if the only records inarchives are those of the elite? If an archivistcomes from an information and librarybackground, and not a historical one, can theyfully adapt to new social history ideas on social
memory?
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Symbolic Significance of Archives
( James M. O’Toole)
Who is Dr. O’Toole?
◦ Professor & Director of Graduate Studies at
Boston College
◦ Clough Millennium Chair in History
◦ Expertise lies in the history of American
religion and specifically the history of
American Catholicism.◦ PhD from Boston College
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Symbolic Significance of Archives
Practical Values & Symbolic Values
Record Form and Symbolic Meaning
Recordmaking and the Record Made Ceremonial and Religious Uses of
Records
Records Revered as Objects Hostility Toward Records
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Practical or Symbolic???
Family Bible School Diploma
Wills
Declaration of Independence Company Mission Statement
Company Annual Report
Baptismal Record
Seals
Guest Books
Domesday Book
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Discussion Questions???
James O’Toole argues for a morebalanced vision between practical andsymbolic values and roles of records in
order to better understand their context(pg. 72). If archivists are still concernedwith traditional notions of provenanceand original order, then should they not
focus more attention on these symbolicroles of records if they give moremeaning and context to records?