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Re: Richard J. Cox new book on personal archives...
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Valerie A. Metzler
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Jan 18, 2009 11:16 PST
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This is one of the reasons I went into private practice back in 1985.
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Valerie A. Metzler, M. A., C. A.
Valerie Metzler Archivist/Historian
114 Ruskin Drive
Altoona, Pennsylvania 16602
814 932 1740
fax 940 0493
vm-@keyconn.net
On 17.01.2009, at 21:55, Rory Litwin wrote:
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In Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling: Readings,
Reflections and Ruminations, Richard J. Cox argues that personal
archives might be assuming a new importance in society. As the
technical means for creating, maintaining, and using documents are
improving and becoming more cost-effective, individuals and
families are seeking to preserve their old documents, especially
traditional paper forms, as a connection to a past that may seem to
be in risk of being of being swallowed up in the immense digital
gadgetry in our Internet Age. There is a reversal to other
technologies as well, such as leather bound journals and fountain
pens, by some individuals resisting or protesting the increasingly
digital world they reside in. Behind these very different
approaches are similar impulses, and, these divergent paths raise
identical questions about the role and purpose of traditional
archives dating back two centuries and more. Personal recordkeeping
raises a remarkable array of issues and concerns about records and
their preservation, public or collective memory, the mission of
professional records managers and archivists, the nature of the
role of the institutional archives, and the function of the
individual citizen as their own archivist. Archivists need to
develop a new partnership with the public, and the public needs to
learn from the archivists the essentials of preserving documentary
materials. We are on the cusp of seeing a new kind of archival
future, and whether this is good or bad depends on how well
archivists equip citizen archivists.
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<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">
This is one of the reasons I went into private practice back in 1985.<br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Hoefler Text'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Hoefler Text'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div>................................</div><div>Valerie A. Metzler, M. A., C. A.</div><div>Valerie Metzler Archivist/Historian</div><div>114 Ruskin Drive</div><div>Altoona, Pennsylvania 16602</div><div>814 932 1740</div><div>fax 940 0493</div><div><a href="mailto:vm-@keyconn.net">vm-@keyconn.net</a></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On 17.01.2009, at 21:55, Rory Litwin wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">In Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling: Readings, Reflections and Ruminations, Richard J. Cox argues that personal archives might be assuming a new importance in society. As the technical means for creating, maintaining, and using documents are improving and becoming more cost-effective, individuals and families are seeking to preserve their old documents, especially traditional paper forms, as a connection to a past that may seem to be in risk of being of being swallowed up in the immense digital gadgetry in our Internet Age. There is a reversal to other technologies as well, such as leather bound journals and fountain pens, by some individuals resisting or protesting the increasingly digital world they reside in. Behind these very different approaches are similar impulses, and, these divergent paths raise identical questions about the role and purpose of traditional archives dating back two centuries and more. Personal recordkeeping raises a remarkable array of issues and concerns about records and their preservation, public or collective memory, the mission of professional records managers and archivists, the nature of the role of the institutional archives, and the function of the individual citizen as their own archivist. Archivists need to develop a new partnership with the public, and the public needs to learn from the archivists the essentials of preserving documentary materials. We are on the cusp of seeing a new kind of archival future, and whether this is good or bad depends on how well archivists equip citizen archivists.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>
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