Readings
Powell, C.M., Heinz, K. Thomas, K., & Cody, A.P. (2021). A Continuum of Archival Custody: Community-Driven Projects as a Path toward Equity. Across the Disciplines, 18(1-2), 72-90.
Powell et al’s paper in A Continuum of Archival Custody: Community-Driven Projects as a Path toward Equity in the Across the Disciplines Journal presents examples from The Southern HIstorical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill LIbraries. This project demonstrates the differences in community practices and historically and fundamentally white archival programs and practices.
As an independent archivist working in communities, I am entrusted to provide communities and individuals with the utmost care and consideration when working with institutions like this that have been violent, extractive, and inconsiderate to the lives they exploit. I appreciate the author’s attention to this issue and guidance on how to approach these relationships
Sicondolfo, C., Swanson, R., Schlums, D.E., Bourcheixlaporte, M., & Luka, M.E. (2002). Archive/Counter-Archive: Activating Principles of Respect in Archival Policy Development. ESSACHESS, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2022, pp. 153-75.
Sicondolfo et al’s Archive/Counter text article was a seven year project that worked exclusively with artists, academics, and activists in Canada. It focused on how information and communication technologies interact with community memories. While new technology has made preservation and heritage work more accessible, it has also reinforced some the violent and extractive practices of centuries old colonial history practice. This work does well to expose those dynamics to make archivists working in institutions and memory workers working in the community aware of these pitfalls. Not only does this focus on the particular communities I work with but it is extensive and inclusive of different positionalities.
Resources
Senior Connections at The Kenekt
The Ke’nekt’s Senior Connections: Genealogy Workshop explores family history and teaches participants how to navigate free online records and resources. This is particularly focused on the senior community and encourages seniors to uncover their roots and connect with their ancestral heritage”. Ke’nekt is a local physical community space in Atlanta, Georgia that identifies as a 3rd space in its political orientation.
I love how the physical space and website is colorful and easy to navigate, inviting intergenerational encounters and prioritizing the perspective of an underrepresented community within the Black community. Patricia Perdew, a civil rights advocate and former neighborhood resident, is featured on the website’s advertisement for this event showing the relationship between the organization’s values and programming.
Guides at The History Factory
The History Factory Guides is an online resource that provides information on heritage related activities. The website is organized like a blog with titles and a read-more button that takes you to an article. The article gives you a summary of the guide and promises to deliver the whole guide after providing a company email address. This way the company collects information about the institutions who are interested for future opportunities.
The website looks very corporate and cold, but seems to provide pertinent information for those who can easily digest textual material online. While the company is not interested in individuals since it states that they do not accept personal email addresses, I think it is helpful to have this information available to small entities who are interested in preserving their history, but do not know where to start.
Community-Driven Archives at Arizona State University
Arizona State University Library’s Community-Driven Archives Initiative “reimagines and transforms 21st century academic libraries and archives by developing and implementing innovative solutions that address inequities, erasure, and trauma”. This Mellon-funded program started in 2021 in response to the murder of George Floyd and at the request of President of ASU, Dr. Michael Crow to know more about projects related to African American History at the Institution.
Under the leadership of Nancy Liliana Godoy, the CDA program offers free access to archival training, archive starter kits, technology and other educational resources. This is all featured on the homepage of the project. The website visitor can learn about the project, resources, and people involved in a one-stop-shop way. In a conversation with Jessica Salow, Curator of Black Collections, I learned that the program is hugely successful and community workers keep returning for more resources and engagement.