How are Archives Different from Libraries

Library Sciences Personal Reflection
My thoughts and impressions about archives and archival work have changed substantially since the beginning of the semester. Originally, I thought of it as a job where you sat isolated away from humanity in a closed room, pouring over boxes and boxes of old manuscripts, documenting each one endlessly while the world went on day to day outside. After this course, I have to say my interest in archival work has grown considerably. As Somers (2017) notes, for instance, in a big archive, there is simply not enough man power to go through all the records, piece by piece. A lot of what it stored is not really known in detail but only in a superficial—a manner that allows for records to be categorized but not really known in much depth. (That is why it is important for researchers to go into archives with a critical framework and investigate records so that the truth of history can be made known to the public when the researcher goes back to the world to publish his or her findings). The task of being charged with archiving the texts that society deems relevant, the role of ethics in the decision-making process, and the fact that the archivist is not really pouring over every text—all of that opened my eyes about the actual job.
If libraries are like sources where the public can go for their information and entertainment needs, archives are like the places they go to store, preserve and investigate history. Archivists are like the gatekeepers to history: they decide what goes in, which gives them a great deal of power in terms of preserving documents for posterity. What future generations might wish to research about our age or a previous age will all depend on what they are able to find in archives, where materials are collected. In many cases, there will be boxes of donated items that no researcher will have ever looked into before. So in this sense, the archive is the last unexplored place in the world. If one wants to be an explorer, one could turn to an archive to find what no one else may have ever come across before.
Aspects of the class that surprised me were the resources we were presented with on archival work. I had no idea there was so much that went into it. I imagined it was just like cultivating a collection in a library—but the two are very different and there are different ethical approaches as well. One way they are different is this: the materials in an archive may not be leant out to the public; on the contrary, the public must go to the archive to see the material (Society of American Archivists, 2017). A library is much freer with its collection because most of it is easily replaceable if it gets lost or damaged. This is not the case in an archive. An archive is filled with one-of-a-kind documents and texts that have no copies in existence anywhere else. It truly is like a treasure vault.
I would like to explore in more detail a real archive, or maybe several, so I could get an even better sense of how they operate and what goes on there. I’ll admit it does sound a little intimidating—an archive—the place were real research is done. It is also amazing to me that archivists are tasked with cataloguing the archive to help researchers know what is in there, when the reality is that even the archivists only have a limited sense of what is in there. So really the archivist essentially makes a catalogue that is like a rough treasure map and passes the map to the researcher who says, “Ah, yes, I would like to dig here!”
Archivists also have to try to collect records that have enduring value (Module #2: Archival Appraisal and Acquisition, n.d.).
My knowledge of archival practice might benefit me in the future of my career path in the sense that it now gives me another option to consider. Having learned about it and the different aspects of archival work, from accepting or not accepting donations, to cataloguing the documents, to making ethical decisions about what to do if a document is found to reflect poorly and personally on a public person whose image would change considerably were the document to be known by the public—these types of issues really put the work of the archivist at a high level. The archivist is a part of the institution of history and is devoted to ideals like truth and justice. It is certainly a noble field and one I would consider.
Trends and changes in the profession that I see as most important are the ones regarding ethical stances. In today’s world of “leaks”—especially in the current White House Administration—it appears that anyone and everyone is looking for a little dirt on others that they can wield to have power over them. An archivist would have to have clearly defined ethical principles regarding what to do with all the material donated, from journals to manuscripts to letters and so on. If the climate in which we are in right now impacts the profession anymore, I would expect so severe ethical crisis to occur in the profession. As Module #6 (n.d.) shows, archival management is very much about the management of ethics—and community plays a large part in how those ethics are determined. For example, ethical approaches to archival work are not the same in the U.S. as they are in Europe (where there is a greater tendency towards confidentiality). In the U.S., at least for now, the trend has been to adopt a neutral position towards potentially controversial information.
In the U.S. archivists recognize that it is not their job to determine what is inflammatory and what might be important to the public. Rather the job is to assess whether it is relevant and then to catalogue it and let the public decide whether it wants to research it and share it with others. This is not to say that archivists don’t respect privacy rights. Of course they do and must, as SAA (n.d.) points out: “Archivists respect all users’ rights to privacy by maintaining the confidentiality of their research and protecting any personal information collected about the users in accordance with their institutions’ policies” (SAA, n.d.). Still, I personally would be more reactive than proactive if I were an archivist: I would not want to classify material because I would then feel like a bank, locking up access to the treasure inside. Instead, I feel the archive is there for the public and the public should decide what information to disseminate. The archivist should therefore take a reactive policy to privacy rights and not classify anything that he is not bound to by law (Archival Use and Users, n.d.).
In conclusion, I have learned a lot about an archive: I have learned the method of scanning documents that archivists are using more and more to cope with categorizing and cataloguing all the materials they receive. Instead of reading every material, they scan it and identify the subject matter that defines it best, cataloguing it for readers who would like to find information on that subject. They will be the ones to really say what is in an archive. The archivist is responsible for guiding the way through it but is not responsible for sharing with the world what it has. That job is left to writers and researchers. The archivist on the other hand is like the gatekeeper to the present and the past. If you want to know what secrets are possessed in an archive, you have to go there personally and make your request for materials in the catalogue. If I ever wanted to do research, I know where I would go.
References
Archival Use and Users. (n.d.). Google Docs. Retrieved from
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2b4psBMIvrpdDBHLVpkSXh6bHc
Module #2: Archival Appraisal and Acquisition. (n.d.) Course Material, 1-22.
Module #6: Archival Management and Ethics. (n.d.). Google Docs. Retrieved from
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RmIrQ3xnynkcqGOikz8d3PO5kiX3jTNTzFvDClZLA2g/edit
SAA. (n.d.). SAA core values statement and code of ethics. Retrieved from
https://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics
Society of American Archivists. (2017). What are archives and how do they differ from
libraries. Retrieved from https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives/whatarearchives
Somers, J. (2017). Keepers of the secrets. Retrieved from
https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/09/20/keepers-of-the-secrets/