Mentoring Citizen Archivists Rebecca Morin Holyoke Community - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Mentoring Citizen Archivists Rebecca Morin Holyoke Community College Jennifer Bolmarcich Simmons College What does that mean? Partnering with community archives projects, personal collectors (citizens), and/or budding community
Holyoke Community College
Simmons College
▫ Partnering with community archives projects, personal collectors (citizens), and/or budding community archives ▫ Providing mentorship, support, and guidance to communities looking to document their histories and stories. ▫ Knowledge Sharing We’ll get into the logistics in a bit...
“Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) Photograph # 8” Courtesy of SAADA
Michelle Caswell ▫ “Owning Critical Archival Studies” ▫ “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries” Jarrett Drake ▫ “Liberatory archives” ▫ A call to action Bergis Jules ▫ “Confronting our failures of care...”
“Occupy Wall Street” Photo by Aaron Bauer Courtesy of the Internet Archive
▫ Separate groups of people began collecting materials ▫ Initiated by occupiers (working-groups) ▫ Initiated by “formal” archival institutions ▫ Other institutions focused on digital records ▫ Archivist Assistance ▫ “Formal” archival institutions ▫ Groups of archivists ▫ The Activist Archivists ▫ @actarc - Twitter ▫ Difficulties: ▫ Resources ▫ Finding balance in relationship Radical nature Radical nature
Image: “Zuccotti Park - Art work” photo by Johanna Clearfield Courtesy of the Internet Archive
South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
▫ Founded in 2008 ▫ 501 (c) (3) ▫ Governance ▫ 5 member board ▫ Staff ▫ Volunteers nationwide ▫ Pro-bono lawyers ▫ Funding ▫ Grants ▫ Fundraising site (razoo.com) ▫ Individual gifts ▫ No physical location ▫ Board members speak at community forums ▫ Administrative and fiscal independence ▫ Commitment to social justice aims ▫ Partnerships
“Curtiss Aviation School Students, including Mohan Singh” Courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society and SAADA.
▫ Founded by Morris (Dino) Robinson Jr. ▫ “Collects, preserves, and educates the public about Black history on Chicago’s suburban North Shore” ▫ 501 (c) (3) - 2002 ▫ Museum-like ▫ Exhibits & Events ▫ Board of directors, Board of Advisors, volunteers, resident scholar ▫ Archival students ▫ Black Metropolis Research Consortium ▫ Funding: grant based, independent donations
Archival intern, Elizabeth Sanderson (Dominican University), processing the Smith Collection. Courtesy of the Shorefront Journal
▫ Cultivating a community partner ▫ Let the “community” define themselves ▫ Relationship: ▫ Respect ▫ Empathy ▫ Sensitivity ▫ Flexibility ▫ Communication strategy ▫ Broaden your collecting mentality ▫ Participatory ▫ Knowledge sharing ▫ Offer your skills ▫ “Activist Archivists” - MA? ▫ Pro-bono work?
“Family portrait photograph of the Saund family” Courtesy of Eric Saund and SAADA
Image:”flickr-ows--6218142948”photo by Matt.J.S. Courtesy of the Internet Archive
Caswell, Michelle. “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries: Theoretical Foundations for Identity-Based Community Archives.” In Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the U.S. and Canada, edited by Dominique Daniel and Amalia S. Levi, 35–55. Sacramento: Litwin Books, 2014. ———. “Owning Critical Archival Studies: A Plea.” presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute, Kent State University, July 2016. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/75x090df. ———. “Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives and the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation.” The Public Historian 36, no. 4 (November 2014): 26–37. Drake, Jarrett M. “Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and Believing (Part 1).” On Archivy. Medium, October 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/liberatory-archives-towards-belonging-and-believing-part-1-d26aaeb0edd1. ———. “Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and Believing (Part 2).” On Archivy. Medium, October 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/liberatory-archives-towards-belonging-and-believing-part-2-6f56c754eb17#.4hky7zcjt. Erde, John. “Constructing Archives of the Occupy Movement.” Archives and Records 35, no. 2 (2014): 77–92. Flinn, Dr Andrew. “Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of the Society of
Jimerson, Randall. “Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice.” The American Archivist 70, no. 2 (2007): 252–81. Jules, Bergis. “Confronting Our Failure of Care Around the Legacies of Marginalized People in the Archives.” On Archivy. Medium, November 11, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/confronting-our-failure-of-care-around-the-legacies-of-marginalized-people-in-the-archives-dc418039728 0. Shorefront Legacy Center. “Shorefront Legacy Center.” Shorefront Legacy Center, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161025065821/http://www.shorefrontlegacy.org/.