Alisa Kraut is the Archives Project Coordinator for the Drexel University Archives and a recent graduate of the Rutgers University Master of Information program. She was awarded SAA Annual Meeting Travel Grant funds to attend SAA Annual Meeting in person.
Community and Care as a Path To Action and An Antidote To Fear
“We are seeing new and emboldened forms of oppression today, just as our predecessors did generations before us…. I think that what we will learn if we look at the records they left behind, is that our claims to neutrality will not save us.”
Michelle Caswell started the 2nd Plenary―titled, “Archives, Institutions, and Power”―with those words, referencing Howard Zinn’s 1970 SAA presentation, decrying the illusion of neutrality in the work of archivists.
At this year’s SAA Annual Meeting (my first time attending thanks to a travel grant from DVAG), I saw representatives in our field acknowledging the far right’s attempts at information control in our country. Caswell’s comments were brought into sharp relief when coupled with the backlash against co-speaker and current president of the American Library Association Emily Drabinski by conservatives in the press and on social media. From comments and presenters, it was clear that the field is struggling with how best to assert itself against the far right’s advance. However, many of the Annual Meeting’s attendees and presenters also appeared passionate about confronting these challenges head-on by building our professional community and individual skills to respond.
In one session devoted to tracking institutional progress on reparative description, “Reparative Description for All: Building Best Practices Together,” I heard questions from archivists working in states actively legislating against educators’, librarians’, and memory workers’ efforts to reckon with our country’s racist origins and our diverse present. While very real barriers to reparative work remain—whether from staff capacity, financial uncertainty, or political pressure—there was also a sense of perseverance. Instead of helplessness, participants posed questions and suggestions about how to best support inclusive description even in more hostile environments.
Concerns about the future, including widespread employment precarity and sustainability of our field, were tempered by messages of hope and excitement. In both plenaries, numerous poster presentations, panel sessions, and elevator conversations, I saw examples of archives workers and institutions building partnerships and taking action. Furthermore, I noticed an unofficial theme of support for archivists by archivists, even in the face of institutional austerity and reactionary politics.
In the session “Organizing Archivists: Archives and Libraries in the Labor Movement,” recounting worker unionization efforts, the speakers addressed the tension between “vocational awe” in the archives field and the benefits of taking collective action on workers’ rights. Highlighting the benefits of unionization, like collective bargaining and the growth of intra-institutional respect, the presenters acknowledged the very real challenge of adding yet another responsibility to our ever-decreasing rest and leisure time. The prevalence of overwork and under-resourcing in the archives can lead to inertia as a tactic of self-preservation. One important takeaway from that session might seem counterintuitive but instead speaks to the need for balance, care, and prioritization: Learn to say no and give yourself permission to sometimes say yes.
Evident in the message from the 2nd Plenary and conference sessions was the acknowledgment that archivists and patrons are complex human beings deserving of compassion, not automatons. In the session “She Wasn’t Difficult, She Was Grieving: Emotional Intelligence in Archival Interactions,” the speakers focused on the importance of empathy and building policies around care. Developing systems to acknowledge complex and challenging emotional responses to archival materials is essential not only for researchers but also for archives workers who are similarly exposed to harmful material and may wrestle with trauma responses from patrons. Likewise in the session “Sites of Care: Archives as Self-Preservation,” the speakers presented an ongoing oral history project collecting the stories of now-grown children of Vietnamese refugees. The presenters explained that bringing their “full selves” to archival work was an act of self-validation and an “antidote to professional burnout.” Launching this project accomplished dual goals: filling a void in the archival record by collecting second-generation Vietnamese American experiences while simultaneously carving out a place for these two archivists of the same heritage to preserve their own lived experiences.
Attendees built community and connection over the three days as well. In my work, I currently wear two hats―(1) working to bring complexity and a reparative lens towards the (2) interpretive digital exhibition content I am researching and writing. Thinking like an archivist while doing interpretive work puts me in something of an in-between space. While networking can be challenging―especially as a mostly solo, first-time attendee from a small archives―the enlightening conversations I had with archivists of all backgrounds and levels of experience gave me license to discuss my current project, the barriers and benefits of archives training, and current challenges in the field. In turn, I grew my network and learned from a diversity of others’ experiences. I brought some of that community home with me as I follow up with contacts, build my network, and share information with my colleagues at the Drexel University Archives.
Now that I have returned from the trip and settled back into my work, I am trying to hang on to the powerful impressions from this year’s SAA Annual Meeting. When I reference the sessions and resources acquired at the Annual Meeting in my work, when I reach out to my fellow memory workers for support, when I am guided by empathy for the user and myself, and when I take Caswell’s advice to heart and look to the work of our predecessors for guidance―that is how I combat fear. Community, care, and action may be a partial antidote to the right’s push to censor and control information.
Sessions referenced:
Plenary 2: “Archives, Institutions, and Power,” Dean Space, Emily Drabinsky, and Michelle Caswell
“Reparative Description for All: Building Best Practices Together,” Stephanie Luke and Sharon Mizota
“Extensible Provenance: Resources for Telling Multicultural Communal Truths,” Sarah Buchanan, Kelley Klor, Alexandria Gough, Charissa Ercolin, and Lindy Baudendistel
“Organizing Archivists: Archives and Libraries in the Labor Movement,” Sarah Lebovitz, Kristen Chinery, Elena Colon-Marrero, Crystal Rogers, Aprille McKay, and Allee Moneheim
“She Wasn’t Difficult, She Was Grieving: Emotional Intelligence in Archival Interactions,” Veronica Denison, Michelle Ganz, Irina Rogova, Roger Christman, and Arlene B. Schmuland
“Sites of Care: Archives as Self-Preservation,” Jennifer Ho and Amy C. Vo
Delaware Valley Archivists Group 