January 23rd, 2012
When I tell people that I’m going to school to become an archivist, a lot of times I get a lot of blank stares and looks of confusion. People have told me that they saw me as a journalist because they see me wanting to make a change. Well despite what people may think of archivists, I am still going to have a voice in the archival world, and more importantly, a role in deciding what records to keep to shape the cultural memory of society.
I think one reason this happens is because a lot of times people don’t really understand the full scope of the profession. It is not a profession that is glorified in the media, and very few if any children want to grow up to be archivists. We all seem to stumble into this fantastic career, where despite the misconceptions, we do have power.
I think the Society of American Archivists’ website has a good explanation of the profession, and also a video detailing what we as archivists do on a very basic level.
Last semester I read an article in my Archives and Records Management class that really articulates that archives are not just “passive storehouses of old stuff.” The article “Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory” by Joan M. Schwartz and Terry Cook addresses the power archives hold in shaping cultural memory.
It is evident that archives are not storage for dusty old boxes, but more so places where societal memory is kept, preserved, and maintained, and this article does a great job of explaining the role of archivists in society.
As opposed to trying to summarize the article, here are some excerpts that really explain the importance of the profession:
- “Archives, then, are not passive storehouses of old stuff, but active sites, where social power is negotiated, contested, confirmed. The power of archives, records, and archivists should no longer remain naturalized or denied, but opened to vital debate and transparent accountability.”
- “Archives contain the evidence of what went before.”
- “Archivists appraise, collect, and preserve the props with which notions of identity are built.”
- The principles and strategies that archivists have adopted time, fundamentally influence the composition and character of archival holdings and, thus, of societal memory.
