Archive Stories brings to light how archives, which many historians consider to be the most dry and tedious subsection of our profession, are in fact dynamic institutions where power struggles are played out, memories are unearthed or buried, and encounters between diverse individuals occur frequently. Chapters I particularly liked included Jeff Sahadeo’s troubling revelations about the legacy of soviet era historical censorship and the stark disparities between first world researchers and third world archivists in modern Uzbekistan. I also liked Helena Pohlandt-McCormick’s discussion of heavy handed government destruction of documents in South Africa and Craig Robertson’s frustrating experiences trying to access an exclusive niche of the supposedly open and public National Archives of the US.
Although the stories compiled by Burton were unfailingly interesting and thought provoking, coming as they do from professors with extensive writing experience, I felt the collection would have been better had it included contributions by archivists themselves. Having worked in two archives myself, I can confidently state that even the most observant researcher only sees a select aspect of any archive. Hence the wonder shown by authors such as Pohlandt-McCormick when permitted to access the shelved collections themselves. How would the archivist in attendance have told the story of Pohlandt-McCormick’s “discovery” of the shelved political posters? An inside perspective or two would have enriched the collection. That said, Archive Stories is a very interesting and engaging work that would be of interests both to current and future professors and current and future archivists.
I agree when you said, "Archive Stories is a very interesting and engaging work that would be of interests both to current and future professors and current and future archivists." But, his is limiting for the text to Acadmia only.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I wish the book included was text from researchers who discussed their emotions as the dug through various resources. This is because I believe that archival information can provoke emotion. I just wanted it to be discussed.
I thought that this book reminded me a great bit of Bruno Latour's "Laboratory Life" in which he followed around "scientists" and deconstructed the ways they present themselves as professionals and get government funding. Perhaps there is a parallel here because quite often whether the archive is sympathetic with the state government or not they are a reflective of the society that houses it. Such as the indian caste standards in Ghosh's article about the questions a nice girl should be allowed to ask.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more that the book would have benefited from articles from archivists! Honestly, didn't think of this as I was reading, but once you suggested it the idea seems so obvious. It would be enlightening to see the processes used by archivists to locate information within their domain. For example, are there 'tricks' of the trade which are not widely known which could increase the number of 'hits' when searching? Or are there ways to scan a wider scope of a collection before delving into individual boxes? The limited amount of research I have done in archives has been somewhat frustrating as I feel sure I'm missing stuff. I suppose most of that comes from not totally trusting the process.
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