Blogging about doing archival work

When I wrote my first posts about the archival blogosphere (or lack thereof) and did an inventory of archival blogs, I made a decision to leave out blogs that primarily featured highlights from an institution’s collections or discussion about day to day processing work. I chose to focus on blogs that discussed more theoretical issues or current issues, and those are also the blogs I feature in my blogroll.

But more and more institutions are starting blogs about their collections and day to day work, so let’s take a look at them (sorry, only those in English):

That’s a pretty healthy list, and I’m sure that each blog is providing value for its own institution, but what are they doing for the archival profession as a whole?

Each of these sites is making the collections and work of their own institutions more widely known, and by extension, promoting archives in general to the web audience. They are showing that archivists are capable of mastering the tools necessary to blog (not that it’s rocket science, but it does show some initiative).

Some of them provide insight into processing collections and doing the other “real work” that all archivists do. It would be great to be able to point to these sites to give people interested in archives as a career an idea what it’s really like. (Hint, hint, SAA.)

The ones that describe problems and solutions in one repository could be useful to other practitioners as models for problem solving, but I don’t know how often that actually happens. Any thoughts on that?

Another way to use these sites would be to have a way to randomly generate an “archives of the day.” The Irreverent Archivist blogged about how cool it would be to be able to embed nifty widgets for archives into your Facebook page. I’ve thought about the idea of widgets a lot too. I’d love to see the capability to add “the document of the day” to your blog or website, just like I have the Daily Puppy on this blog. Why not? There was a post recently over at the ACRL blog, excerpting this quote from yet another blog:

What if, in the U.S., 50 ARL libraries, 20 large public libraries, 20 medium-sized academic libraries, and 20 Oberlin group libraries anted up one full-time technology position for collaborative open source development. That’s 110 developers working on library applications with robust, quickly-implemented current Web technology…. Instead of being technology followers, I venture to say that libraries might once again become leaders….

We don’t have to be quite so ambitious. Wouldn’t there be a way to pool resources to find a way to create a nifty widget that could get our collections onto anybody’s site who was interested in history?

Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. The real question for this post was supposed to be about these institutional blogs and what value people see for them beyond the obvious value to their own institutions. Any thoughts on that, readers? (Oh, and if anybody wants to work on that widget, let me know!)

categories Blogs, Outreach, Web 2.0 & Archives | Kate T. | datetime December 4, 2007 9:55 am

6 Comments

  • By peacay, December 4, 2007 @ 10:20 pm

    I must confess, from a totally lay perspective, that I’ve been generally unable to distinguish between archivist and library/librarian blogs for the most part (unless they explicitly state it in their..um..blog title for instance). [I mean, from a dictionary point of view I do get the difference, but it's not always easy to identify]

    For my own hunter/gatherer pragmatic purposes it’s perhaps an unimportant distinction and I also suffer from the ‘3 miles wide and an inch deep’ vacuuming of the webosphere phenomenon, thus the finer technical points probably either sail over my head or through the ears unimpeded. So I’m thankful for this list as I don’t believe I know most of them.

    I wrote all that as a prefatory apology in case, by suggesting that NYPLabs ought to be included on the list, I’ve misunderstood the general substance of the sites. Another, and maybe this is more in the way of showcasing contents, – but if Beinecke Room 26 isn’t primarily a showcasing vehicle, then none of them are – is the Newcastle Uni Library (Oz). Either way, both are stellar institutional blogs.

  • By Kathleen, December 5, 2007 @ 7:58 am

    There’s a directory of archival and special collections blog (and available for all to update via a wiki interface) at http://archivalblogs.wikispaces.com/archivalbloglist — a resource started after SAA 2006 session on blogging!

    One thing about the Beinecke blogs to note is that they are actually being produced by curatorial staff. They do profile archival materials, but they are not “archival” blogs in the sense that they are helmed by archivists– though there is healthy collaboration.

    Since beginning the blogs, we’ve learned that what’s interesting and illuminating is not so much the “push-out” function of the blogs, but the ways people link to posts, reinterpret/reuse images in other digital environments, and recontextualize the blog for their own purposes. It does underline the idea that these streams of information are not silos, but rather participating in a stream of data that can be diverted and channeled in unexpected ways. So I think that’s another values that the blogs have for the profession as a whole– they serve as a testing bed for a paradigm shift in the way the profession as a whole thinks about descriptions, collection announcements, etc. I also think the blogs serve as nodes on an increasingly rich knowledge network, and that they benefit the profession by creating possible linkages and relationships for the general public to follow and make themselves. It’s a dynamic model that actually moves out of institutional niches towards more collaborative and holistic thinking.

    Pretty cool!

  • By Stephen Fletcher, December 5, 2007 @ 12:35 pm

    After one month, I’d say our blog, “A View to Hugh,” has been helpful. We’ve posted images without identifications and have had some of them identified by participants. There is a temptation to delve into blogging more than processing, but if kept in check, the exploration for context in order to talk about an item does broaden one’s knowledge about the collection. If the material deals with a public figure, the blog may take on the added dimension of being a forum for discussion about the person and not the material. In the long run the dialog may serve a greater purpose beyond the information that makes it into a collection guide. We just have to avoid the temptation of joining in the discussion and stay focused on the work at hand.

  • By Stephanie, December 7, 2007 @ 8:06 am

    When we started our blog here at the Charles Babbage Institute, we weren’t sure what function it would serve. What I’ve tried to do with it so far is to post not just announcements about our collections, etc., but to make posts that could generate dialogue among our users. Even if the posts aren’t directly (or even indirectly) related to CBI or the history of computing, I’m hoping that one of the main functions of the blog will be to stress the potential interactivity of archives and archival work. So I guess I’m agreeing both with Kathleen and with Stephen here.

  • By ArchivesNext, December 10, 2007 @ 10:52 am

    From the blog Alone in the Archives:

    Tracking your progress
    December 7, 2007

    I recommend blogging to keep track of your progress. I was just asked to make a list of my accomplishments in the last year. I keep a list on Outlook notes, but don’t update regularly. I just read the titles on my blog entries and was able to complete the list. I love anything that makes my life easier!

  • By Sara Piasecki, January 16, 2008 @ 12:23 pm

    We here at OHSU have seen a distinct and verifiable uptick in patrons who find us on the web solely through blog posts. We have also seen an increase in support for our services and activities here on campus (anecdotally, and somewhat less verifiable, but we’re working on it). I have had readers tell me that they just “love history” and often find the posts interesting, whether they have a formal interest in a specific topic or not. For me, it’s an outlet to share my love of the collections and what I do. Since people tend to glaze after 20 minutes of my telling them in person, I figure I’ll get it out on the blog instead… :-)

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