For my first reading response, I chose to discuss a piece that was published in the Journal of the Society of Archivists. The piece is the text of the presidential address delivered by Victor Gray at a conference of the Society of Archivists that took place on August 29th, 2007 in Belfast. The title of the piece is “’Who’s that Knocking on Our Door’: Archives, Outreach, and Community,” and it discusses the importance of outreach efforts and the nature of the relationship between an archives and the community it serves in the present day.
I find that many of the points and views that Gray expresses in this speech are very refreshing for any archivist who values the importance of outreach and improving connection and communication with a wider potential user base. Furthermore, these views suggest the need for changes in archival practices and education, as well as changes in the way archivists view themselves and their roles. I want to focus specifically on one passage that seemed particularly resonant to me.
In this piece, there are two differing views of the archivist’s professional identity that Gray puts forward. “On the one hand,” he states “we can stretch the traditional notion of what an archivist should be doing. We can attempt to learn new skills and make ourselves supple and inventive in the way we use them. We can spend more time being advocates, or being conveyors of knowledge, whether it be about the content of our archives or the methods by which we care for them.”
He goes on to describe the second type of identity, explaining that, “we can, as has already happened in some places, stick to our last, defining ourselves or being defined as specialists in the core skills of identification, arrangement, custody and exploration of historical records while we build up around us, or have built up around us, a range of other people skilled in the art of outreach, education, interpretation, community development.” Weighing in on this dichotomy, Gray states, “I do, I must admit, have a concern that the reversion to the hard core of archival skills, whether chosen by us or enforced by others, will have the long-term effect of freezing the profession into a corner.”
I am interested in and refreshed by Gray’s support of the notion of the archivist as proactive conveyors of knowledge. Traditional archival literature often suggests that the archivist must be a completely unbiased custodian of records, and such a definition suggests passiveness and a focus on preservation tasks. However, in order to provide an accommodating and helpful reference service and engage in productive outreach activities, an archivist must become an institutional historian and spokesperson. Gray’s address encourages archivists to see themselves in these ways.
I also find Gray’s dichotomy regarding views of the profession to be useful when considering the archival repository in the digital age. In today’s information-seeking climate, it has become nearly a necessity for archivists to provide online components of their collection, online access, and online services. While today’s web provides archivists with a multitude of opportunities to be proactive and communicative, many archivists retreat into traditional models when creating a web presence. These models typically ignore the need to provide patrons with access in a proactive sense. A common example is the archivist whose catalog records exist in highly controlled, traditionally structured library databases that are, nonetheless, completely inaccessible to a potential user conducting a related Google search.
The assumption that the use traditional library resources and content platforms coupled with detailed cataloging is the best and only way to connect potential users with materials of interest is faulty. Archivists must step outside the shell of the library domain by making their content accessible through popular platforms; doing so is a critical aspect of outreach in the digital age.
Gray, Victor (2008). 'Who's that knocking on our door?': Archives, outreach and community. Journal of the Society of Archivists 29 (1), pp 1-8.
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