2019 Visiting Scholar Lecture: Academic Freedom The Key Role of Archival Records

Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director of Special Collections & Archives, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina Author

04/19/2019 Added

10 Plays

Description

Tanya Zanish-Belcher’s presentation addresses research, and the broadest sense of the historical record, which is based on, or depends upon, the quality and amount of historical records available for the types of stories we can tell.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:05.010]Hello everyone.
[00:00:06.769]Hello.
[00:00:08.180]Welcome to the 2019 Visiting Scholar Lecture.
[00:00:12.490]Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge
[00:00:14.510]and thank a few folks and groups.
[00:00:17.330]I'd like to extend a very sincere thank you
[00:00:19.710]to the university libraries for providing the funding
[00:00:21.940]and support for this year's Visiting Scholar Program.
[00:00:26.200]I'd also like to thank the members
[00:00:27.470]on the Academic Activities Committee
[00:00:29.230]in the university libraries
[00:00:30.740]for dedicating their time and expertise
[00:00:33.060]to coordinating and planning today's event.
[00:00:36.060]Lastly, I'd like to thank our Visiting Scholar,
[00:00:39.570]Tanya Zanish-Belcher,
[00:00:41.634](chuckles) for her willingness to visit today
[00:00:44.180]and present on such an important topic.
[00:00:47.170]Every spring, the libraries host
[00:00:49.210]the Visiting Scholar Program,
[00:00:51.280]where a guest speaker leads a presentation
[00:00:53.380]aimed at increasing our knowledge at UNL Libraries
[00:00:56.760]on a topic essential to our work.
[00:00:59.220]Needless to say, academic freedom
[00:01:01.310]is essential to all areas of work
[00:01:03.300]as librarians, archivists, and information professionals.
[00:01:07.490]The freedom of inquiry is fundamental
[00:01:09.210]to the mission of education institutions
[00:01:11.930]and a vital function of all libraries
[00:01:14.010]and centers for knowledge development and discovery.
[00:01:17.900]When I heard Tanya speak last fall in Washington D.C.
[00:01:21.320]about the importance of protecting
[00:01:22.810]and promoting transparency and the freedom of inquiry,
[00:01:26.940]especially at it relates to local,
[00:01:28.570]state, and federal records,
[00:01:30.790]I was compelled to reach out to her
[00:01:32.240]to see if she'd be willing to speak here today.
[00:01:35.120]When I first spoke with Tanya over the phone
[00:01:36.770]about this program, her first response was,
[00:01:39.247]"Wait, you're in Nebraska, right?
[00:01:41.097]"You don't sound like you're from Nebraska." (laughs)
[00:01:43.539](audience laughing)
[00:01:45.020]Tanya enthusiastically accepted the invitation,
[00:01:47.640]and here we are.
[00:01:49.860]Tanya received her M.A. in historical
[00:01:52.550]and archival administration
[00:01:53.960]from Wright State University
[00:01:55.500]and her B.A. in history from Ohio Wesleyan University.
[00:01:59.180]Prior to her appointment
[00:02:00.290]as the Director of Special Collections and Archives
[00:02:02.910]at Wake Forest University Library in 2013,
[00:02:06.580]she was the Head of Special Collections and Archives
[00:02:08.730]at Iowa State University Library
[00:02:10.960]between 1998 and 2013,
[00:02:14.120]and was also a special collections archivist
[00:02:17.050]at the Alabama Department of Archives and History
[00:02:19.340]between 1989 and 1994.
[00:02:22.910]She's co-editor of Perspectives on Women's Archives,
[00:02:27.400]a collection of 18 essays covering the origins
[00:02:31.000]of a women-centered history,
[00:02:34.315]the urgent need to locate records
[00:02:36.120]highlighting the diverse experiences of women
[00:02:38.930]and the effort to document women's experiences.
[00:02:42.510]She has also published several articles
[00:02:44.160]discussing women's archives and women in science.
[00:02:48.180]She is the past president
[00:02:49.420]of the Midwest Archives Conference,
[00:02:51.580]a former member of the Society
[00:02:53.130]of American Archivists Council,
[00:02:55.660]and is the 73rd president
[00:02:57.530]of the Society of American Archivists.
[00:03:00.720]Tanya's lecture this morning is about the important role
[00:03:03.500]of archival records in academic freedom.
[00:03:06.780]Please join me in giving a warm welcome
[00:03:08.460]to the 2019 Visiting Scholar.
[00:03:11.428](audience applauding)
[00:03:20.300]So since I spent time in Alabama,
[00:03:22.810]I could hear the accent.
[00:03:24.730]I knew where he was from.
[00:03:27.410]Good morning, thank you for the invitation
[00:03:29.560]to speak to you today and thanks for being here.
[00:03:33.517]I'm really glad to be back in this part of the country
[00:03:35.460]where I can see the sky.
[00:03:37.230]And I first wanted to recognize,
[00:03:39.440]and this is really based on our discussion earlier today
[00:03:42.780]where we had a round table,
[00:03:45.420]I just wanted to recognize that we are the guests
[00:03:48.170]living on lands represented by Native nations,
[00:03:51.130]whose sovereignty, governance, and treaty lands
[00:03:53.220]existed long before the state of Nebraska.
[00:03:56.100]So thank you to them.
[00:03:58.930]My topic this morning will be to examine
[00:04:01.030]the complex relationship between the archival record
[00:04:03.660]and academic freedom.
[00:04:05.230]I do plan to talk for about 30 minutes.
[00:04:08.410]Sometimes I go off on tangents,
[00:04:10.460]so if that happens, it might be five or seven minutes more,
[00:04:14.170]but I'm hoping that we will have all sorts of time
[00:04:16.860]for discussions and questions that I probably can't answer.
[00:04:20.210]In fact, that is the key to my presentation.
[00:04:22.210]I don't have the answers to anything.
[00:04:24.910]I hate to admit that, but it's true.
[00:04:27.350]But as articulated in the abstract for this presentation,
[00:04:31.090]quote, "Research in the broadest sense
[00:04:33.207]"of the historical record
[00:04:34.427]"is based on or depends upon
[00:04:36.547]"the quality and amount of historical records available
[00:04:39.147]"for the types of stories we can tell.
[00:04:41.457]"The expansion of the documentary record,
[00:04:43.567]"particularly the creation of materials
[00:04:45.537]"giving a much needed view
[00:04:47.177]"of marginalized groups long silenced,
[00:04:49.317]"the explosion of community-based archives,
[00:04:51.707]"and the digitizing of materials from the past
[00:04:54.197]"all provide rich new resources for exploration.
[00:04:58.687]"But what impact does this glowing plethora of information
[00:05:02.047]"and data have on our efforts to describe,
[00:05:04.567]"contextualize, and share the various elements
[00:05:07.947]"of our complicated histories?
[00:05:10.057]"At the same time, a growing lack of access
[00:05:12.517]"to the public record,
[00:05:13.937]"whether by cost, censorship,"
[00:05:17.400]which is rather ironic on today of all days,
[00:05:20.587]"a decrease in public funding,
[00:05:22.817]"or a narrowing view of American citizenship challenges us.
[00:05:26.377]"How can archivists, researchers and scholars
[00:05:28.777]"reverse this trend
[00:05:29.957]"and ensure the continued preservation
[00:05:31.777]"and access to the historical record
[00:05:34.097]"which defines who we are?"
[00:05:35.740]Unquote.
[00:05:36.810]Truly, this abstract is a starting point,
[00:05:38.860]and I will do my best to at least touch
[00:05:40.690]on each of these issues.
[00:05:42.610]Before we start down this path, however,
[00:05:44.260]I wanted to better define what academic freedom is.
[00:05:47.530]According to the American Association
[00:05:49.410]of University Professors, quote,
[00:05:51.337]"Academic freedom is the indispensable requisite
[00:05:54.077]"for unfettered teaching and research
[00:05:56.927]"in institutions of higher education."
[00:05:59.700]As the academic community's core policy document states,
[00:06:03.520]institutions of higher education are conducted
[00:06:06.020]for the common good and not to further the interest
[00:06:08.870]of either the individual teacher
[00:06:11.200]or the institution as a whole.
[00:06:13.460]The common good depends upon the free search for truth
[00:06:16.680]and its free exposition.
[00:06:19.290]And I will reiterate,
[00:06:20.610]the common good depends upon the free search for truth
[00:06:23.980]and its free exposition.
[00:06:26.020]While archives cannot ever hope
[00:06:27.690]to completely reflect reality and truth,
[00:06:30.080]as has been articulated numerous times,
[00:06:32.900]the more complete the archival record,
[00:06:34.590]the closer we can come to truth,
[00:06:36.220]or at the very least, capture a semblance
[00:06:38.230]of the human experience.
[00:06:40.030]I wanna make it clear here, however,
[00:06:41.680]when I refer to the archival record,
[00:06:43.820]I'm not only referring to the records we keep
[00:06:46.240]in our institutions.
[00:06:47.800]This also includes community archives
[00:06:50.130]and the many, many ways
[00:06:51.640]people and organizations practice recordkeeping,
[00:06:54.820]including oral traditions and objects.
[00:06:58.550]As I debated about how I would make linkages
[00:07:00.680]between academic freedom and the archives,
[00:07:03.440]somewhat fortuitously, the universe provided me
[00:07:06.360]with some real life examples.
[00:07:08.440]Over the past few months,
[00:07:09.710]there's been a good deal of discussion
[00:07:11.350]relating to objectionable images and language
[00:07:13.910]appearing in university yearbooks.
[00:07:16.210]This morning, we had a round table
[00:07:17.640]specifically dedicated to this topic,
[00:07:20.060]given the situation at Hollins College in Virginia
[00:07:22.990]where digitized yearbook issues were removed.
[00:07:25.630]They have since been reinstated.
[00:07:28.080]But some of the elements of our discussion
[00:07:30.120]included the importance of accountability,
[00:07:33.140]the need for training and guidelines
[00:07:34.940]for university archives
[00:07:36.270]dealing with these sensitive situations,
[00:07:38.840]and how do we balance amplification of this material
[00:07:42.590]against being sensitive to those whom it hurts?
[00:07:46.070]For Wake Forest, we continue to make the images available,
[00:07:49.080]but added contextual language.
[00:07:51.600]Several years ago, we had also created a listing
[00:07:54.080]of images and language which was available for researchers,
[00:07:57.340]again with contextual and trigger language.
[00:08:00.550]Basically, recently, we had a student newspaper reporter
[00:08:05.270]who was working for us at the time,
[00:08:06.950]and she wanted to do an article
[00:08:08.980]on the images in our yearbook called The Howler,
[00:08:13.110]and we shared this guide with her.
[00:08:15.200]It has since now been online
[00:08:17.220]and I created a blog post to accompany it
[00:08:19.630]with more contextual information.
[00:08:21.950]One of the things I shared with the round table this morning
[00:08:24.340]is I happened to be on the phone
[00:08:25.790]with someone from external relations,
[00:08:28.250]and we were discussing a professor
[00:08:29.850]who was giving an interview on NPR,
[00:08:33.290]and I shared the fact that we had this subject guide
[00:08:35.890]and she was not pleased.
[00:08:38.960]But I talked to my dean and he supported us completely
[00:08:42.450]in making it available, that it is a subject guide,
[00:08:45.070]that the material is there
[00:08:46.500]and it's best if we provide access
[00:08:48.720]for the researchers that wanna use it
[00:08:50.680]for whatever reason they wanna use it.
[00:08:55.110]I also recently shared it
[00:08:56.380]with the progressive faculty LISTSERV
[00:08:58.360]and got several thank yous for sharing this information.
[00:09:01.720]The Society of American Archivists
[00:09:03.290]responded to the Hollins situation with a statement
[00:09:06.010]articulating the following, quote,
[00:09:08.137]"Archives serve as a source of accountability
[00:09:10.327]"for individuals and institutions in positions of power.
[00:09:14.137]"Removing offensive material that was produced
[00:09:16.727]"and distributed by the university is de facto
[00:09:19.967]"an alteration of the archival record," unquote.
[00:09:26.160]So archivists have a responsibility
[00:09:27.800]to provide access to these records
[00:09:29.800]with sensitivity, care, and concern.
[00:09:32.500]We need to remember that these are images,
[00:09:34.340]language, and situations that can be painful
[00:09:37.810]to individuals and groups,
[00:09:39.800]especially as we more fully represent marginalized
[00:09:43.200]and underrepresented groups,
[00:09:44.760]silences in the archives, and missed experiences,
[00:09:48.150]always remembering, of course, that our own biases
[00:09:50.390]will be represented in these expansions.
[00:09:53.300]But what does expanding the historical record
[00:09:55.960]offer for archivists, researchers, scholars, students,
[00:09:58.590]and the public?
[00:09:59.920]It offers the opportunity to share more stories
[00:10:02.760]and to better comprehend the complexity of the past.
[00:10:05.710]It offers more opportunities for teaching and learning
[00:10:09.150]and for scholarship.
[00:10:10.960]It reminds us that representation does matter
[00:10:14.060]and it's important for those
[00:10:15.410]who have historically been silenced
[00:10:17.080]to actively participate
[00:10:18.900]in the acts of creating and collecting.
[00:10:21.450]It gives a sense of belonging, control,
[00:10:24.260]and of identity and connection.
[00:10:26.340]There are dangers here, of course,
[00:10:27.920]when privacy is comprised
[00:10:29.740]or institutional collecting may take things away
[00:10:33.650]from their home communities.
[00:10:36.450]What questions we ask,
[00:10:38.280]who asks the questions,
[00:10:39.840]and who we ask them of directly impacts
[00:10:42.360]what quality of record exists.
[00:10:44.530]This applies also to the important work of description.
[00:10:47.550]The quality of our description impacts searchability
[00:10:50.350]and helps our users discover
[00:10:52.140]and making meaning of our resources.
[00:10:54.270]Enabling broader access through portals
[00:10:56.440]such as Nebraska Archives Online
[00:10:59.010]allows us to more fully share our resources with audiences
[00:11:02.470]as opposed to being siloed away from a search box
[00:11:05.450]or never even described in the first place.
[00:11:08.260]But again, while we may control those records
[00:11:10.400]in our possession,
[00:11:11.730]we need to remember there are records and memories
[00:11:13.820]that will never belong to us or to any institution.
[00:11:17.050]We need to help others keep their records safe,
[00:11:19.310]even if they are not traditionally accessible
[00:11:21.730]in the way we think of as being accessible.
[00:11:24.360]I am really thinking of Indigenous communities
[00:11:26.770]as only one example.
[00:11:29.120]Collecting is the easy part.
[00:11:31.260]Giving, sharing, providing access is the hard part.
[00:11:34.920]Even creating finding aids or digitizing materials
[00:11:37.890]do not necessarily make it accessible.
[00:11:41.340]Just this week, I attended presentations
[00:11:43.550]at the University of North Carolina,
[00:11:45.570]where they host thousands of pre-Civil War collections.
[00:11:49.370]Their challenge is how to reassess those finding aids
[00:11:52.320]created in the mid-20th century
[00:11:54.620]and how to ensure that the enslaved peoples
[00:11:57.170]appearing in those records
[00:11:58.880]also are represented in those finding aids
[00:12:01.050]because they are not there now.
[00:12:03.360]Finally, a reminder that sometimes the stories we find
[00:12:06.250]as part of any work or project for expanding the record
[00:12:09.670]may not reflect the myths that institutions
[00:12:13.130]and individuals tell themselves,
[00:12:15.540]which can often lead to great discomfort.
[00:12:18.920]Blake asked me to talk about my time as curator
[00:12:21.300]for the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering
[00:12:23.550]at Iowa State University.
[00:12:25.580]I especially would like to share
[00:12:26.800]about my collection development experiences
[00:12:29.500]in building a distinctly gendered archives,
[00:12:32.980]my successes, and more importantly, my failures
[00:12:36.970]and what they represent for archivists.
[00:12:39.770]I took the job as curator
[00:12:41.470]because I wanted to create an archives
[00:12:43.810]as opposed to work on a backlog.
[00:12:46.870]I had a chance to be creative and opportunistic
[00:12:50.040]and a chance to meet women scientists and engineers
[00:12:53.220]and make a difference in their lives.
[00:12:55.620]I interviewed about ethnicity and class.
[00:12:58.150]I heard about the slurs endured
[00:12:59.730]by a Puerto Rican graduate student
[00:13:01.450]when she attended graduate school.
[00:13:03.720]I heard from a woman scientist
[00:13:05.360]whose immigrant family from Hungary
[00:13:07.060]supported her ambition for education.
[00:13:09.860]I heard about K through 12 experiences
[00:13:12.130]and the importance of science fairs in grade school.
[00:13:15.150]I heard about the importance of awards
[00:13:16.960]such as the Westinghouse Science Award
[00:13:18.950]to young people deciding on their career path.
[00:13:22.050]And I learned about the importance and role of mentoring
[00:13:24.730]in its many, many forms.
[00:13:26.830]As just one example, Darleane C. Hoffman,
[00:13:29.150]a retired chemist from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories
[00:13:31.890]and discoverer of element plutonium-244 in nature,
[00:13:36.320]attended Iowa State.
[00:13:37.660]She came from a very tiny rural town known as Terril, Iowa,
[00:13:41.620]and she came to Iowa State to major in art,
[00:13:46.040]but then she changed her mind
[00:13:47.980]because of a woman professor.
[00:13:50.210]And this is the impact of Nellie Naylor,
[00:13:52.490]her chemistry professor at Iowa State.
[00:13:54.850]Quote, "I believe that I was lucky
[00:13:56.857]"that I had to take the home ec chemistry course,"
[00:13:59.748]back when they had gendered chemistry classes
[00:14:02.680]for home ec majors,
[00:14:04.487]"because Professor Naylor
[00:14:05.877]"just somehow struck a chord with me.
[00:14:08.197]"Chemistry seemed like the most logical science.
[00:14:11.167]"You could see where it was going,
[00:14:12.587]"how things went together.
[00:14:14.337]"Probably if I had taken the chemistry course,
[00:14:17.127]"I wouldn't have felt that way.
[00:14:19.037]"She was not a mentor in the sense
[00:14:20.547]"that we usually talk about
[00:14:21.637]"because I don't even think she knew who I was.
[00:14:24.437]"It was the way she taught it.
[00:14:26.157]"At the time, I don't think she realized it,
[00:14:28.227]"and I've since thought when I teach,
[00:14:29.707]"sometimes you'll think, well,
[00:14:30.727]"I'm not getting through to anybody.
[00:14:32.537]"Then you'll get a note a couple years later
[00:14:34.567]"and somebody's saying you really turned me on,
[00:14:36.747]"it meant a lot.
[00:14:38.207]"And from that experience, I thought how important it is
[00:14:40.947]"that professors should teach the freshmen
[00:14:43.347]"as well as the upper-class students," unquote.
[00:14:47.160]I heard from women scientists whose families supported them
[00:14:49.970]and those that didn't.
[00:14:51.470]I learned about the widespread nepotism rules in academia
[00:14:55.060]and corporations forcing pregnant women
[00:14:57.330]to resign their positions.
[00:14:59.520]I heard about professional and personal partnerships
[00:15:02.030]and became aware of scientific teaching
[00:15:04.180]and research trees throughout the nation.
[00:15:06.910]I conducted one interview
[00:15:08.210]that involved two women scientists,
[00:15:10.240]one of whose husbands mentored the other.
[00:15:13.330]They knew each other so very well
[00:15:14.860]that the interview provided much more information
[00:15:17.430]than if I'd simply been interviewing them one on one.
[00:15:20.290]At the same time, as you can imagine,
[00:15:21.980]there are distinct challenges with this kind of interview.
[00:15:24.870]These complex connections and hierarchies
[00:15:27.380]can also demonstrate the interconnectedness
[00:15:30.060]of women scientists and engineers.
[00:15:32.490]In many ways, these connections
[00:15:34.150]from the mid and later 20th centuries
[00:15:36.440]can be construed as a method of self defense
[00:15:38.840]in what is still primarily male-dominated professions.
[00:15:42.550]Childcare and/or life balance were mentioned
[00:15:45.060]in nearly 100% of my interviews.
[00:15:48.350]Women moved in and out of the labor market
[00:15:50.330]due to life issues, and the pipeline issue
[00:15:52.690]described by many authors became clear.
[00:15:55.800]While the WISE Archives focused on women scientists
[00:15:59.850]and engineers from the post-war period,
[00:16:02.000]I was always brainstorming new possibilities.
[00:16:04.690]Oral histories that explicitly compare the experiences
[00:16:07.640]of current working women with those who have retired,
[00:16:10.450]World War II generation, baby boomers,
[00:16:12.490]Gen Xers, millennials,
[00:16:14.030]there could be traceable variations and perspective
[00:16:16.700]regarding educational, professional, personal issues
[00:16:19.830]that can enhance our understanding of the women's history
[00:16:22.450]as well as the history of science.
[00:16:24.540]These variations could range from childcare issues
[00:16:27.040]to the level of research productivity
[00:16:29.320]and publication rates.
[00:16:31.350]Retirees might be more willing to speak about problems
[00:16:33.770]or issues with colleagues,
[00:16:35.360]whereas current women scientists might not be as willing
[00:16:38.000]to potentially compromise their careers by rocking the boat,
[00:16:42.550]or retirees may have trouble remembering
[00:16:45.470]or perceive negative experiences in a more positive light
[00:16:48.560]with the passage of time,
[00:16:50.280]or there might be no difference whatsoever.
[00:16:53.410]One idea was to interview women
[00:16:54.920]at various stages of their careers at five-year intervals
[00:16:58.470]or to follow early career award winners for long periods.
[00:17:02.400]This kind of project
[00:17:03.480]would provide a great deal of historical continuity,
[00:17:06.610]albeit a long-term time commitment
[00:17:09.330]by the institution and participants.
[00:17:12.230]The WISE Archives interviewed award winners,
[00:17:15.400]but interviewees could also include those
[00:17:17.410]who have won the Young Investigator's Award
[00:17:19.830]as well as other types of recognition,
[00:17:22.220]as increasing numbers of women were recognized
[00:17:24.390]by a wider range of organizations.
[00:17:26.890]I should add here that while interviews
[00:17:28.610]could focus on a award winners,
[00:17:30.310]I always thought it was important to document the lives
[00:17:32.610]of what would be the considered the rank and file,
[00:17:35.170]women scientists or engineers, those doing research work,
[00:17:38.490]those who had abandoned their profession
[00:17:40.760]or were weeded out at various points
[00:17:42.870]along the academic or employee pipeline,
[00:17:45.470]or of those whose contributions
[00:17:47.010]were made outside the mainstream.
[00:17:49.780]Finally, interviewing by discipline
[00:17:51.330]was another potential area for oral history explanation,
[00:17:54.450]but I never had the opportunity to implement any of those.
[00:18:00.130]I was promoted to department head
[00:18:02.390]and they never replaced the curator position.
[00:18:04.530]In fact, I was expected
[00:18:05.800]to still keep doing the curator position
[00:18:07.710]while I was department head.
[00:18:09.340]I can see a lot of nodding.
[00:18:11.320]While I tried to continue interviewing
[00:18:13.330]and collecting as best I could,
[00:18:15.410]I was never able to replicate the intensity
[00:18:18.210]and the sheer joy of the first few years
[00:18:20.330]I was in this position.
[00:18:21.880]In fact, now there is no curator dedicated
[00:18:24.110]to these collections whatsoever.
[00:18:27.620]So why did this project stall?
[00:18:30.610]Some of these are fairly obvious.
[00:18:31.960]I didn't have the time or the labor for this work.
[00:18:35.520]There was a lack of institutional
[00:18:36.787]and organizational support for the work.
[00:18:39.350]There was a lack of funding,
[00:18:40.780]although I was able to obtain some foundation grants
[00:18:43.240]for travel and transcription.
[00:18:45.020]However, overall, there was a lack of external support
[00:18:47.790]through grants and gifts
[00:18:49.210]which do require significant time and labor
[00:18:51.800]on the part of the archivist.
[00:18:52.950]I'm looking at you, National Endowment for the Humanities,
[00:18:56.290]which doesn't like to fund oral histories.
[00:18:59.220]As a comparison, at my sister institution,
[00:19:01.680]the Iowa Women's Archives at the University of Iowa,
[00:19:04.550]they had an endowment based on the sale
[00:19:06.880]of a donor-donated Frida Kahlo painting.
[00:19:09.800]Was I jealous?
[00:19:10.640]I was jealous.
[00:19:11.550]And as an independent entity,
[00:19:13.330]had more development and institutional support
[00:19:15.900]in addition to full-time staffing.
[00:19:18.220]We put our time and attention to those things
[00:19:20.470]which institutions say matter.
[00:19:23.150]Initially, the WISE Archives mattered to the ISU Library,
[00:19:26.700]but with competing goals and with personnel changes,
[00:19:29.470]it was left behind.
[00:19:31.200]I did my best to continue this work
[00:19:33.100]because it was important to me.
[00:19:35.150]And I can't necessarily blame Iowa State here,
[00:19:37.900]but it did start me wondering,
[00:19:39.270]how often do you suppose this kind of thing happens?
[00:19:42.510]As a tenured faculty member at Iowa State,
[00:19:44.840]I had a tremendous opportunity
[00:19:46.610]to explore what I thought was important.
[00:19:48.780]For the women themselves to have their stories recorded
[00:19:51.400]and preserved was terribly important for them,
[00:19:54.650]but the other goal was to add to our understanding
[00:19:56.820]of women and science in engineering
[00:19:58.400]and the history of science.
[00:20:00.200]I feel keen regret that there were many interviews
[00:20:02.640]I wanted to do, but was never able to do them.
[00:20:05.750]But this gets at my key point.
[00:20:07.460]While we can all say we want to support the expansion
[00:20:10.490]of the historical record,
[00:20:12.030]without institutional support for that work,
[00:20:14.860]it simply is not going to happen.
[00:20:17.790]I will share a current example
[00:20:19.140]happening at this very moment
[00:20:21.710]at my home institution of Wake Forest.
[00:20:24.670]The minute I arrived, I recognized a complete lack
[00:20:26.960]of institutional recordkeeping,
[00:20:29.090]a backlog of decades, decades,
[00:20:32.130]mostly containing administrative records,
[00:20:34.880]little documenting the actual issues faced by Wake Forest
[00:20:38.480]or the student experience.
[00:20:40.430]I started a very basic oral history project
[00:20:42.750]to simply interview the major administrators on video
[00:20:46.410]over the past several years,
[00:20:47.530]trying to diversify the interview participants.
[00:20:50.330]We expanded audio interviews to the LGBTQ community,
[00:20:53.920]international students, and Muslim students,
[00:20:56.440]but there was one group I always wanted to do a project for,
[00:20:59.280]and that was our first generation Magnolia Scholars.
[00:21:03.130]I spoke with our documentary film unit
[00:21:05.160]and met with a filmmaker
[00:21:06.690]who proposed creating an entire documentary film
[00:21:09.750]following four students, capturing their lives,
[00:21:12.440]the families, their Wake Forest experience.
[00:21:14.830]I expanded that idea to include audio interviews
[00:21:17.170]of the other students, this is over 100 students,
[00:21:19.930]and then I went to locate funding.
[00:21:23.030]There wasn't any.
[00:21:24.520]Wake Forest internal funding
[00:21:25.970]is dedicated to teaching faculty
[00:21:28.030]and those in organizing symposia,
[00:21:30.040]and this was none of those.
[00:21:32.000]A histories committee had funding,
[00:21:33.850]but again, it was dedicated to classes and symposia,
[00:21:36.930]and always, always required matching funds.
[00:21:40.360]My library didn't have this kind of funding.
[00:21:42.500]We were looking at a cost of between $20,000 to $30,000.
[00:21:46.300]I met with an associate provost who loved the project,
[00:21:49.430]and she offered me $5,000,
[00:21:51.810]and the rest we could do as in-kind.
[00:21:54.860]This was not a viable alternative.
[00:21:57.390]I was not giving up, of course,
[00:21:59.110]given the fact that Wake Forest
[00:22:00.630]was already struggling with its history
[00:22:02.670]based on enslaved peoples, Confederate flags,
[00:22:05.230]and a coaching controversy.
[00:22:06.960]I thought this was an important component
[00:22:08.910]of introducing the campus and its alumni
[00:22:11.090]to a new Wake Forest,
[00:22:12.310]a new way of doing and capturing history.
[00:22:15.070]I'm currently working with our advancement team
[00:22:17.120]to possibly find foundation funding,
[00:22:19.850]as they feel uncomfortable
[00:22:21.570]offering it to an individual donor
[00:22:23.610]who might not like the stories told.
[00:22:26.910]I was not surprised by this
[00:22:28.880]because I can understand that they are nervous.
[00:22:31.400]In our culture today,
[00:22:32.490]where something negative can turn viral,
[00:22:35.030]I appreciate their fear.
[00:22:37.060]Private institutions,
[00:22:38.440]and I would include public institutions as well,
[00:22:41.530]depend on funds from tuition dollars and alumni donations,
[00:22:45.430]for public institutions, the legislature,
[00:22:47.760]and you don't want a project
[00:22:49.740]to upset those key relationships.
[00:22:53.020]The key question is how do we more effectively
[00:22:55.380]change the institutions who should be supporting this work
[00:22:58.950]with which they may be uncomfortable?
[00:23:01.280]I wish I had answers here,
[00:23:03.300]but this raises larger issues for academic archives
[00:23:06.290]and how institutions allocate resources.
[00:23:09.940]But academic archives are not alone
[00:23:12.230]in facing those challenges.
[00:23:16.010]In my president's address
[00:23:17.100]for the Society of American Archivists last summer,
[00:23:19.840]I mentioned my concern about the state of public records.
[00:23:23.030]Over the past three decades,
[00:23:24.360]there have been increasing pressures
[00:23:25.830]on the very concept or idea of public records,
[00:23:28.460]something so key to the functioning
[00:23:31.010]of our American democracy.
[00:23:32.870]Secrecy and efforts to hide corruption and wrongdoing
[00:23:35.980]and fake news have been present in our political life
[00:23:38.450]dating back to the earliest days of the republic.
[00:23:41.130]As we now live in a digital world,
[00:23:42.810]many of our basic beliefs
[00:23:44.440]about what can be controlled in the creation
[00:23:46.590]or alteration of our record,
[00:23:48.330]its authenticity and its very meaning
[00:23:50.330]are called into question.
[00:23:52.180]Preservation and access to the public record,
[00:23:54.500]whether you are an archivist or not,
[00:23:56.560]should be of concern to you as a citizen.
[00:24:00.070]The political spoils of our election system
[00:24:02.230]do have consequences on the historical record
[00:24:04.970]and have a direct impact on the efficacy
[00:24:07.720]of the archival enterprise.
[00:24:09.730]Current challenges for government archive sustainability
[00:24:12.760]include the overall shrinkage of governments
[00:24:15.510]and budget cuts for archives,
[00:24:17.600]the political appointments of individuals
[00:24:19.770]without archives experience or backgrounds,
[00:24:22.720]archives being subsumed by government bureaucracy
[00:24:25.710]and overwhelmed by unfunded mandates,
[00:24:28.850]and officials not understanding the role
[00:24:31.110]or importance of electronic records
[00:24:32.920]and digital preservation.
[00:24:35.060]As someone who began their career
[00:24:36.490]at the very first state archives in the nation
[00:24:38.870]and later served
[00:24:39.790]on the Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board for a decade,
[00:24:43.370]I've always had a special interest
[00:24:44.900]in the role the state archives play.
[00:24:47.380]The Alabama Department of Archives and History,
[00:24:49.430]founded in 1901,
[00:24:51.510]made the very good decision,
[00:24:53.840]best decision ever made,
[00:24:55.530]for its continued existence and freedom
[00:24:58.120]by being run by a board of trustees.
[00:25:00.860]That board hires the state archivist,
[00:25:03.220]which given the history of Alabama governors
[00:25:05.440]and their removal from office, is fortuitous.
[00:25:09.070]Other states are not as fortunate.
[00:25:11.460]When the state archivist of Iowa retired,
[00:25:13.580]the position was simply left open for years.
[00:25:16.540]The state archives answers
[00:25:17.920]to the Department of Cultural Affairs,
[00:25:20.010]whose director is always a political appointee.
[00:25:24.130]And I'm not targeting either party.
[00:25:26.100]It's both sides appoint these positions.
[00:25:30.380]There are similar stories in other states
[00:25:32.010]where the state archivist was outright fired,
[00:25:34.170]such as Vermont and West Virginia,
[00:25:36.250]where they disagreed with the upper-level administration,
[00:25:39.500]or there were efforts
[00:25:40.410]to dismantle the state archives system, such as in Georgia.
[00:25:43.720]In Georgia, the end result is that the archives
[00:25:45.900]is no longer under the auspices of state government,
[00:25:48.640]but is overseen by the University of Georgia system.
[00:25:51.850]The State Archives of Rhode Island,
[00:25:53.540]which possesses one of the original
[00:25:55.010]Declarations of Independence,
[00:25:56.910]is still in a temporary location,
[00:25:59.310]which also lies in a geographic flood zone.
[00:26:02.300]They are looking for millions of dollars
[00:26:03.970]to plan and build a new building,
[00:26:05.400]but it remains to be seen if this occurs.
[00:26:08.350]Even in states where there's a strong state archives
[00:26:11.120]and a state archivist,
[00:26:12.570]you still have situations such as the recent one in Texas,
[00:26:16.220]where the Council of State Archivists
[00:26:17.870]and the National Association of Government Archives
[00:26:20.500]and Records Administrators, NAGARA,
[00:26:24.170]had to respond to a legislative bill
[00:26:26.610]which is allowing legislative records
[00:26:29.030]to be treated differently from judicial
[00:26:30.940]and executive records.
[00:26:32.750]They can be deposited elsewhere if the donor wishes.
[00:26:36.260]The legislative entity or the donor
[00:26:38.400]would retain ownership and legal custody
[00:26:42.260]that would not be transferred to the state archives,
[00:26:44.870]and the state archives would be required to keep track
[00:26:47.400]of all the locations of those records.
[00:26:50.360]The Council of State Archivists said in a response,
[00:26:53.300]quote, "When a record leaves archival custody,
[00:26:56.097]"the integrity of the records provenance and authenticity
[00:26:58.987]"cannot be guaranteed,
[00:27:00.367]"and therefore, may be challenged in the future.
[00:27:03.127]"Legislative records should be handled
[00:27:05.037]"according to archival principles and practices
[00:27:07.827]"to ensure physical longevity
[00:27:09.847]"and access for generations to come," unquote.
[00:27:13.870]Presidential libraries have long been another source
[00:27:16.510]of conflict in regards to academic freedom,
[00:27:19.670]not surprisingly, given their representation of presidents.
[00:27:23.120]In 2010, the Nixon Library curatorial staff
[00:27:26.740]battled with its own private foundation,
[00:27:29.280]including Nixon family members,
[00:27:31.250]on how to present the Watergate scandal in an exhibit.
[00:27:34.540]This illustrates the issues facing curators
[00:27:36.790]and administrators when their perspectives
[00:27:38.940]may directly conflict with the wants, needs, and wishes
[00:27:42.600]of those supporting the institution financially.
[00:27:46.080]Anthony Clark, the historian
[00:27:47.750]who has had a somewhat contentious relationship
[00:27:50.320]with the National Archives and Records Administration,
[00:27:53.220]recently had a Twitter thread
[00:27:55.020]focusing on the firing of LBJ Library Director Kyle Longley
[00:27:59.560]after eight months.
[00:28:02.290]Clark believes that Historian Longley
[00:28:04.090]was fired without cause,
[00:28:06.150]but was fired on behalf of the private foundation
[00:28:09.370]and CEO Mark Updegrove who was,
[00:28:11.860]this gets a little complicated,
[00:28:13.400]but he was the previous LBJ Library director.
[00:28:18.070]Updegrove had worked closely with the LBJ Foundation
[00:28:20.990]during his tenure to revamp the museum
[00:28:23.540]and increase pro-LBJ exhibits.
[00:28:26.270]And this is Clark's, these are Clark's words.
[00:28:28.760]After his resignation as library director
[00:28:32.130]to take the position as CEO
[00:28:33.760]of the National Medal of Honor Museum,
[00:28:36.190]he then resigned and was named the president and CEO
[00:28:39.560]of the LBJ Foundation.
[00:28:41.790]The director's position was vacant for nearly two years.
[00:28:45.460]He does believe that, again,
[00:28:47.010]this is all from Clark's perspective,
[00:28:49.000]but he does believe that quote,
[00:28:50.447]"Our presidential library system is broken,
[00:28:53.407]"but not for donors, presidents, or others who benefit.
[00:28:56.597]"Here's an example of how the support network works,
[00:28:59.827]"especially for the political organizations that build
[00:29:02.677]"and then exploit the libraries for their own
[00:29:04.897]"and their party's gain," unquote.
[00:29:07.410]So what does this mean?
[00:29:08.890]Of course, these positions have always been political,
[00:29:11.470]but these situations do demonstrate the tensions
[00:29:14.090]between what records and the versions of history
[00:29:17.410]constructed from those records
[00:29:18.960]can mean different things to different people
[00:29:21.110]and the power structure.
[00:29:22.820]Control the records, you control the story.
[00:29:25.990]How many stories are simply not told
[00:29:28.220]because there are no access to the records
[00:29:30.430]or those who might question the historic status quo
[00:29:33.200]are discouraged from doing so?
[00:29:35.560]Citizens do still have ways
[00:29:37.220]to challenge and question records restrictions
[00:29:39.430]or destruction and protect open access,
[00:29:42.450]including FOIA requests, sunshine laws,
[00:29:44.970]and calls for public comment on appraisal decisions.
[00:29:48.170]The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,
[00:29:51.080]also known as CREW,
[00:29:52.550]has brought Federal Records Act lawsuits against the EPA,
[00:29:55.910]filed a FOIA request with the State Department,
[00:29:58.480]and after filing a complaint with NARA,
[00:30:00.680]an investigation is underway
[00:30:02.290]to determine if the Department of Homeland Security
[00:30:05.120]and the Department of Health and Human Services
[00:30:07.360]violated the law by deleting records of immigrant families
[00:30:11.130]split at the border.
[00:30:12.800]However, the sheer number of growing records situations
[00:30:16.230]and the inability
[00:30:17.090]of our nonprofit professional organizations
[00:30:19.550]such as SAA, COSA, and NAGARA,
[00:30:22.360]basically just due to the number of records issues coming up
[00:30:26.010]and the lack of time and the fact that these
[00:30:28.020]are all primarily volunteer organizations,
[00:30:31.170]their efforts to respond to monitor or compel,
[00:30:34.870]enforce any compliance to any rules
[00:30:37.930]or ethics violation is of grave concern.
[00:30:40.930]It was because of NARA and their appraisal
[00:30:43.260]and records schedule for ICE records
[00:30:44.880]that I became aware of a group called Reclaim The Records.
[00:30:48.130]Reclaim The Records is a nonprofit group
[00:30:50.100]of genealogists, historians, researchers
[00:30:52.450]and open government advocates.
[00:30:54.440]They identify important genealogical records
[00:30:57.210]which they believe should be available to the public
[00:30:59.710]and are restricted by government archives,
[00:31:01.960]libraries, and agencies.
[00:31:03.730]To gain access, they file FOIA requests
[00:31:06.050]to get the public data released back to the public,
[00:31:08.640]and if the government doesn't comply,
[00:31:10.660]they take them to court.
[00:31:12.300]And then they digitize everything they win
[00:31:14.870]and put it all online for free
[00:31:17.280]without any paywalls or usage restrictions
[00:31:19.960]so that it can, quote, "never be locked up again," unquote.
[00:31:24.550]Reclaim The Records makes valid points.
[00:31:26.780]Consider this.
[00:31:27.613]Our taxes pay for the creation
[00:31:29.750]and documentation of public records,
[00:31:31.810]but increasingly, these records are monetized
[00:31:34.540]and can sometimes be only accessible for a fee
[00:31:37.620]from companies such as Ancestry.
[00:31:39.230]I'm not picking on Ancestry necessarily,
[00:31:41.630]but it's interesting that they can take these records
[00:31:43.910]that are public records and repackage them
[00:31:46.200]and we have to buy them back.
[00:31:49.390]However, the bigger issue here
[00:31:50.650]is while archives repositories
[00:31:52.980]are responsible for public records,
[00:31:55.010]they are not necessarily given the funds
[00:31:56.890]to maintain, preserve, digitize
[00:31:58.650]or provide access to those records.
[00:32:00.780]In the Texas case I mentioned previously,
[00:32:03.410]although the state archives noted the additional cost
[00:32:05.970]and labor with maintaining information
[00:32:08.380]about where the legislative records will reside
[00:32:11.380]if they need to be pulled, they estimated $200,000,
[00:32:15.520]the legislature denied
[00:32:17.380]that there would be any additional costs,
[00:32:19.550]and if there were, they could simply be absorbed.
[00:32:24.070]In many cases, taking advantage of local repositories'
[00:32:27.340]lack of funding and resources,
[00:32:29.150]Ancestry offers to digitize records
[00:32:31.530]which citizens need access to
[00:32:33.630]and restrict them from the public
[00:32:35.210]for a period of three years.
[00:32:37.100]For some repositories, this offers the only way the records
[00:32:39.900]can ever be made available.
[00:32:42.160]While they raise good points,
[00:32:43.300]I don't necessarily agree
[00:32:44.460]with everything Reclaim The Records is doing.
[00:32:47.050]They focus on archivists, archival practices
[00:32:49.860]such as appraisal and records schedules,
[00:32:52.040]and underfunded repositories with lawsuits and FOIA requests
[00:32:56.460]when what maybe they should really be doing
[00:32:58.970]is looking at the funders
[00:33:00.620]and the financial and administrative infrastructures
[00:33:03.300]underpinning local, state, and federal archives.
[00:33:06.970]This gets back to that issue,
[00:33:08.590]institutional organizational funding,
[00:33:10.760]and also connects with the invisible labor of archivists.
[00:33:14.280]How many times do people say to archivists,
[00:33:16.860]well, just digitize everything.
[00:33:18.890]Do they understand what that means and what that involves?
[00:33:23.040]So in conclusion, how do we make the invisible visible?
[00:33:27.550]By both documenting the important role of the archivist
[00:33:30.120]and the historical record
[00:33:31.800]and demonstrating it constantly,
[00:33:33.600]consistently, and strategically.
[00:33:35.820]This is time-consuming and labor-intensive to be sure.
[00:33:39.680]And I wish I had easier answers and solutions,
[00:33:43.030]but I do think it is about building relationships
[00:33:45.600]with our donors, our administrators, the public.
[00:33:48.230]It is a lifetime commitment
[00:33:50.050]and it is an organizational commitment
[00:33:52.270]for our professional societies to implement.
[00:33:55.190]As Tim Ericson pointed out in his article,
[00:33:58.217]"Preoccupied with Our Own Gardens": Outreach and Archivists,
[00:34:02.060]quote, "Regarding our concern with image,
[00:34:04.547]"awareness, and education,
[00:34:06.357]"it is important to keep our focus
[00:34:07.957]"on the records we are preserving
[00:34:09.747]"and the impact they have or may have
[00:34:11.887]"on the lives of people who would benefit from using them.
[00:34:14.927]"As long as we stay in our reading rooms
[00:34:16.917]"and avoid touching the lives of those whom we would serve,
[00:34:20.317]"then all of our well intentioned efforts
[00:34:22.547]"to improve our image
[00:34:23.877]"and all our programs to explain what we do
[00:34:25.927]"and why it is important will fall on deaf ears.
[00:34:28.857]"We need to show people, not tell them," unquote.
[00:34:33.120]But above all, we need to be aware.
[00:34:35.830]What is happening in our local government repositories?
[00:34:39.530]What is going on in our state archives?
[00:34:42.130]Monitor your state SHRAB
[00:34:44.390]and lobby your state and federal legislators
[00:34:46.960]to provide support for historical work
[00:34:49.120]and granting agencies.
[00:34:51.130]Are you a donor to the university library here at Nebraska,
[00:34:54.660]or the History Nebraska Museum and Historical Society?
[00:34:58.040]I'm sorry, I'm still gonna call it a historical society.
[00:35:01.150]Find projects you wanna support financially.
[00:35:04.220]Help archivists and communities
[00:35:06.040]continue to expand the historical record
[00:35:09.330]and help educate Americans about why archives are important
[00:35:13.010]and why they're integral
[00:35:14.290]to the functioning of our societies.
[00:35:17.040]But in addition to archivists advocating for ourselves
[00:35:19.740]and our repositories, which we have been doing for years,
[00:35:23.090]I think there is a real need for us to understand
[00:35:25.520]that archives, libraries, and museums
[00:35:28.140]are part of a complex and interrelated system,
[00:35:32.036]administrative, political, financial,
[00:35:34.720]and it is often these external forces
[00:35:36.850]which impact our work.
[00:35:38.540]This is the potential threat to academic freedom.
[00:35:42.290]Archivists may think we can stand alone,
[00:35:44.500]but the truth is we can't.
[00:35:47.210]How we can advocate and protect ourselves
[00:35:49.750]and the historical record
[00:35:51.390]and make thoughtful decisions about their preservation
[00:35:54.220]and access in whatever form in which they exist
[00:35:57.130]is going to be our continual challenge
[00:35:59.270]throughout this coming century.
[00:36:01.230]I don't know that we will succeed.
[00:36:03.060]I hope we do.
[00:36:04.430]So those are my thoughts for today.
[00:36:06.540]Thank you very much for listening so patiently.
[00:36:08.890]I appreciate it.
[00:36:09.940](audience applauding)
[00:36:15.913]And now, I would like to take questions,
[00:36:18.100]and I don't know that I will be able to give any answers.
[00:36:22.920]Oh, come now.
[00:36:30.770]Am I gonna have to start calling on people?
[00:36:38.685]I mean, it sounds like
[00:36:39.518]we're gonna do all of it.
[00:36:40.351](Tanya laughing)
[00:36:41.618]I mean, how do you manage it?
[00:36:43.130]How do you become all those things?
[00:36:45.260]Well, and I think that's the issue.
[00:36:46.570]We can't, we can't.
[00:36:49.250]I think we're gonna have to really spend some time
[00:36:52.410]talking to the people that have power and have money
[00:36:56.650]and somehow convince them that,
[00:36:58.630]or we go to the citizenry
[00:37:01.270]and we convince them how important we are.
[00:37:03.900]Listen, IMLS, NEH, NHPRC are zeroed out
[00:37:07.500]of the federal budget every year.
[00:37:09.960]What gets them back in?
[00:37:12.380]Congress gets them back in
[00:37:13.840]because everybody calls their congresspeople,
[00:37:17.010]or I have Resist text bot on my phone
[00:37:20.230]and I send texts to my legislators
[00:37:22.750]every time something like that occurs.
[00:37:24.820]And I just think the more people we have involved
[00:37:27.240]in doing that kind of work,
[00:37:29.030]it's probably the only way.
[00:37:35.140]Yes.
[00:37:37.128]Speaking more generally
[00:37:37.961]about the role of archives,
[00:37:39.470]I heard the argument that in the world we live in
[00:37:43.870]with all the shared content through visual media
[00:37:47.570]that the archives become a much more defining element
[00:37:50.290]of the library system.
[00:37:52.409]It is what is unique about a digital library.
[00:37:54.840]So what do you think about that perspective
[00:37:57.771]and what do you think about the potential for growth
[00:38:01.612]because of it?
[00:38:02.445]Mmhmm, so the question is about digital resources
[00:38:05.640]and how they can expand the traditional concept of archives?
[00:38:08.860]Yeah.
[00:38:09.693]Yes, but also, alter the meaning
[00:38:11.530]of archives to the overall identity of a library.
[00:38:14.827]Right, and it can change the meaning of archives
[00:38:17.590]to the overall repository.
[00:38:19.060]I would say that's probably true.
[00:38:22.060]If anything, digital, I cannot tell you how many times
[00:38:25.050]I've had people say to me, well, you digitize everything,
[00:38:28.430]you probably don't get as many requests as you used to.
[00:38:31.350]And it's just like, oh, that's so wrong.
[00:38:33.730]No, it's actually more.
[00:38:35.450]We get more requests because once you digitize,
[00:38:38.270]we digitize maybe 1% to 2% of our collections,
[00:38:42.040]it just expands want, it expands need, it expands,
[00:38:46.160]we had a student come to us last week
[00:38:48.170]and she wants to do a collective memory project
[00:38:51.040]which we will involve our digital humanities folks in,
[00:38:53.550]and she wants to create a website
[00:38:55.090]and she wants to provide context
[00:38:56.830]and she wants to basically create scholarship.
[00:39:00.270]And so it kind of expands the concept
[00:39:03.070]of what I think of as traditional archives,
[00:39:05.810]but it's just, as a value,
[00:39:07.850]it's just living in a different venue.
[00:39:09.830]I don't know if that's answering your question or not.
[00:39:11.830]Yeah, and I'm also just thinking about
[00:39:15.310]an archive (coughing drowns out speaker)
[00:39:16.810]within a bigger library system
[00:39:18.870]and how the distinctiveness of those collections
[00:39:22.190]are maybe different than the collections on the shelves.
[00:39:25.060]Oh, I see what you're saying.
[00:39:26.020]That is absolutely true.
[00:39:27.880]It's really kinda interesting to see
[00:39:30.090]what specialized collections are collected
[00:39:33.560]in each geographic location, and it varies.
[00:39:37.920]I mean, a lot of times, the printed books may be the same.
[00:39:42.260]I mean, obviously,
[00:39:43.360]we all have collection development policies,
[00:39:46.470]but the collections I have at Wake Forest,
[00:39:48.820]we have the papers of Dr. Maya Angelou,
[00:39:51.260]we have the papers of Harold Hayes,
[00:39:53.560]who was an editor of Esquire,
[00:39:55.460]so it's going to be specific to Wake Forest.
[00:39:59.090]And so that means all the digital collections
[00:40:01.110]will oftentimes be specific to that institution as well,
[00:40:04.190]so it really just expands the concept of archives, I think.
[00:40:11.970]You are really gonna let me off this easy?
[00:40:14.090]I find that hard to believe.
[00:40:17.121]Yes.
[00:40:17.954]I have a comment to share.
[00:40:18.787]I think it's very difficult for archivists to,
[00:40:23.559]I was referring to the freedom of inquiry,
[00:40:25.165]to encourage ongoing research into our own repositories
[00:40:30.960]when our whole repository probably stressed
[00:40:32.553]because of the staffing models.
[00:40:37.110]And also, just another factor to all this is
[00:40:41.410]that I've seen here locally
[00:40:43.340]is acts of intimidation on faculty.
[00:40:48.140]And so I think there's just,
[00:40:50.680]and I guess I'm just saying there's a lot of dynamics
[00:40:53.970]in play here
[00:40:56.480]that affect I guess the intersection of academic freedom
[00:40:59.394]and academic archivist.
[00:41:01.320]It does, and I think that we just need to be really clear
[00:41:04.660]and mindful about why we're here
[00:41:07.320]and why we do what we do
[00:41:08.850]and basically, it's to collect these resources
[00:41:11.510]for that inquiry, so that a student
[00:41:14.420]that wants to do a collective memory project
[00:41:16.440]can use our materials but also create new ways
[00:41:19.670]of seeing things,
[00:41:20.830]and that she is allowed to do that.
[00:41:23.850]We had another instance where one of our alums
[00:41:27.440]has been working on a history,
[00:41:28.930]a coffee table history of Wake Forest,
[00:41:31.730]and it has included some sections on the enslaved peoples.
[00:41:35.440]Although Wake Forest didn't technically own enslaved people,
[00:41:41.419]they were on loan from local contractors.
[00:41:44.520]And so she was working on this coffee table book
[00:41:47.350]and went to meet with the alumni association,
[00:41:49.950]which was going to publish it.
[00:41:51.840]And she's used a lot of our materials.
[00:41:53.620]It's gonna be a lovely book.
[00:41:54.900]And they said, well, we don't think
[00:41:57.100]we can publish this right now 'cause of the timing.
[00:42:00.530]And she was just,
[00:42:02.430]she's been working on this for five to six years,
[00:42:06.129]and so I think what she may do is just self-publish.
[00:42:10.260]And that is a challenge,
[00:42:12.300]that when you are in an institution
[00:42:15.300]where you have an alumni organization or external relations
[00:42:18.550]where their concern is not necessarily academic freedom,
[00:42:21.790]but to preserve the institution as it is
[00:42:25.030]and to preserve the, I won't say revenue streams coming in,
[00:42:28.880]but they don't wanna rock the boat.
[00:42:30.780]And so that is a continual tension, and it's concerning.
[00:42:41.060]Yes, ma'am.
[00:42:41.893]I'll ask a question about,
[00:42:43.890]back to the discussion that we had earlier
[00:42:47.240]at the round table in terms of what to amplify,
[00:42:51.813]well, what do you select to amplify?
[00:42:54.170]Do you see a trend in archives
[00:42:58.930]to start amplifying more
[00:43:03.831]the collections that represent the marginalized?
[00:43:06.410]Mmhmm, I think absolutely, we do,
[00:43:09.850]just because if you look at the majority of our collections,
[00:43:12.550]you look at the majority of the finding aids,
[00:43:14.210]they're going to be of, quite frankly, white people.
[00:43:17.890]And for Wake Forest, it's mostly administrators,
[00:43:21.330]maybe some faculty.
[00:43:22.730]You rarely see, I think I would say Iowa State
[00:43:25.170]was in this category too,
[00:43:26.330]you rarely saw the student experience,
[00:43:28.380]you rarely saw the staff experience,
[00:43:30.870]and so there is really some catch-up
[00:43:33.730]that I think institutions need to do
[00:43:36.170]just as a matter of course
[00:43:37.950]to make sure it's as evened out as is,
[00:43:40.260]I don't know that we can ever catch up, quite frankly.
[00:43:43.450]I do know that there are some institutions
[00:43:46.240]in this country that have decided
[00:43:47.870]they are not going to collect the papers
[00:43:50.760]of white people for the time being
[00:43:52.910]because they really wanna put the emphasis
[00:43:55.240]on silenced groups and give them their chance
[00:43:59.430]to become part of the archives.
[00:44:02.520]And it is, a lot of times, like I said,
[00:44:04.220]where you put your attention is what matters.
[00:44:11.590]Yes.
[00:44:13.330]Question, kinda along these lines,
[00:44:15.050]but can you maybe speak to the challenges
[00:44:19.460]of maybe balancing
[00:44:24.910]kinda telling as many stories as you can,
[00:44:28.470]but also not falling into maybe strictly a marketing
[00:44:32.568]of your institution or whatever?
[00:44:36.300]It's funny because I had that conversation
[00:44:38.380]with our associate provost
[00:44:39.327]when I was describing our Magnolia Scholars project.
[00:44:42.280]And I said, "I could go to them,"
[00:44:44.700]I said, "but I don't want to
[00:44:46.247]"because it would be more of a PR effort."
[00:44:49.000]I'm not saying that if we do this project
[00:44:51.060]as a documentary film
[00:44:52.310]that there might not be clips
[00:44:53.530]that they could take if they wanted,
[00:44:55.670]but I don't want them driving what we do.
[00:44:59.320]I want us to drive what we do
[00:45:01.690]with probably faculty and student input,
[00:45:05.130]and that's who decides what it is.
[00:45:07.570]I don't wanna be part of a marketing machine.
[00:45:10.790]That doesn't mean that they couldn't take clips
[00:45:12.450]and use it if they thought it was worthwhile.
[00:45:14.520]Apparently, though, they thought there would be
[00:45:15.900]some bad stories that would not be good,
[00:45:18.940]'cause like, well, you know,
[00:45:19.870]every student is going to have a bad story,
[00:45:22.760]at least one, in addition to many positive stories, so.
[00:45:26.750]But no, that was of great concern for me
[00:45:28.760]and that's why I have not approached them for funding.
[00:45:38.540]So we have the ones
[00:45:39.750]that your referred to that are looking at
[00:45:43.410]not including the Caucasian right now.
[00:45:51.013]Has the concern been expressed to them
[00:45:54.089]regarding the gap that that leaves?
[00:45:56.657](audience member speaking faintly)
[00:45:57.490]Yep.
[00:45:59.047]I think that that is a valid concern
[00:46:01.580]and I think they've just decided, well,
[00:46:02.950]this is where we're gonna put our emphasis right now, so.
[00:46:08.390]This is a very large institution, I should add.
[00:46:13.155](audience member speaking faintly)
[00:46:15.910]I think they're of the opinion that you know what?
[00:46:19.680]We'll get back to that,
[00:46:20.710]but right now, we really wanna focus on this,
[00:46:24.190]even if it's for a couple years,
[00:46:25.770]that this is what we're gonna focus on,
[00:46:28.090]and then we'll go back
[00:46:29.350]and then we'll hopefully, at that point,
[00:46:31.720]maybe have collections that are more representative.
[00:46:43.580]Any other questions?
[00:46:48.830]Alright, thank you, appreciate it.
[00:46:50.955](audience applauding)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

2019 Visiting Scholar Lecture: Academic Freedom The Key Role of Archival Records

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments