6615 WeekXI Archives and Society

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Week XI:

Archives and Society

April 13, 2011



Archivists, Mediation & Constructs

of Social Memory

(Francis X. Blouin, Jr.) Who is Dr. Blouin?

◦ Professor in both the School of Information andDepartment of History at the University of Michigan

◦ Director of the Bentley Historical Library (this is theuniversity archives as well as holding the principalhistorical collection of the State of Michigan)

◦ Member of the Board of Directors of the Council on

Library and Information Resources in Washington,D.C.

◦ Received MA & PhD from the University of Minnesota

◦

Expertise in the Vatican Secret Archives



Archivists, Mediation & Constructs of

Social Memory

What is our past and how do we know it?

Accumulation of historical documents was

considered straightforward and even a nobletask…

New technology in record keeping forces

archivists to constantly rethink themselves…

Archive(s) as a term is constantly changing…

Historical study has moved towards issues of

power, minority groups, gender, race, etc.



Memory & Power

Social Memory – Example is the MagnoliaPlantation

Historical Memory – Larger & morecomprehensive

Capture notions of individual particular pasts

The archive is made from selected andconsciously chosen documentation from the

past (power) Power has corrupted the archive as a

repository of human memory



Discussion Questions???

What is "social memory" and how have scholars'perceptions of it changed over the past fortyyears?

Francis Blouin, Jr. puts forth the followingquestion: “To what extent…are archives a reliableand appropriate source for constructing a senseof social memory?” (102) How would you answerthis question? How does Blouin answer thequestion?

What should be the archivist’s role in creatingsocial memory; passive, a mere custodian of records, or active, seeking out and collectingrecords that create a social memory thatrepresents more elements of a society than just

the rich and powerful?



Postmodernist Navel Gazing…

Archives have to be clearer about theirlimits and boundaries…

People not only come to our doors for

what we have BUT also for what we donot have (archives become the object of

study instead of a place of/to study)

Need to become more aware of thearchives role as mediator…



What others thought???

Blouin goes one step beyond simply claiming that archivestend to be influenced by the narratives of the upper classes or

prevailing social groups; he cites scholars who argue that

archives are actually complicit in this process. Archivists

should be more mindful of their role in the creation of social

memory, and should not necessarily bother trying to achievesome kind of “neutrality,” as such a thing is not possible.

Blouin asks “What is our past and how do we know it?” He

concludes that archivists will have to be clearer about the

limits and boundaries of their work, they will need to be prepared to think more systematically about appraisal

practices within the context of broader notions of cultural

studies, and they will need to become more aware of their

role as mediators.




After reading Blouin should we as archivist alsobe looking at our records from a perspective of what is missing or what is not evidential? Do wealter our record keeping if we do so, or are wealtering our record keeping if we do not?

If, as Blouin states, archives reflect establishedpower relationships and show how powerpreserves itself through history, how canarchivists truly take into account forgotten

histories and documents if the only records inarchives are those of the elite? If an archivistcomes from an information and librarybackground, and not a historical one, can theyfully adapt to new social history ideas on social

memory?



Symbolic Significance of Archives

( James M. O’Toole)

Who is Dr. O’Toole?

◦ Professor & Director of Graduate Studies at

Boston College

◦ Clough Millennium Chair in History

◦ Expertise lies in the history of American

religion and specifically the history of

American Catholicism.◦ PhD from Boston College



Symbolic Significance of Archives

Practical Values & Symbolic Values

Record Form and Symbolic Meaning

Recordmaking and the Record Made Ceremonial and Religious Uses of

Records

Records Revered as Objects Hostility Toward Records



Practical or Symbolic???

Family Bible School Diploma

Wills

Declaration of Independence Company Mission Statement

Company Annual Report

Baptismal Record

Seals

Guest Books

Domesday Book




James O’Toole argues for a morebalanced vision between practical andsymbolic values and roles of records in

order to better understand their context(pg. 72). If archivists are still concernedwith traditional notions of provenanceand original order, then should they not

focus more attention on these symbolicroles of records if they give moremeaning and context to records?

6615 WeekXI Archives and Society

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