After reading back over my last blog entry, I wanted to write a little bit more about my direct experiences “in the field” and how they relate to the themes I mentioned before.
This idea of “contact” and “interaction” is something that I am exploring in the research for my groundwork paper. I have been reading one particularly interesting article, pertinent to the work conducted in Special Collections and Archives. It’s talking about how it is becoming increasingly popular for museums to utilize technology in order to incorporate this element of “interaction” between subjects and audience. Is this technological aid really fostering this interaction or does it serve as a barrier, further increasing the spatial time and distance between the artifact and viewer? For me, this poses more questions than it answers. But then it hit me – why not use my technologically savvy skills and use them to benefit rather than hinder?
To some degree, I have already done this on a small scale. Or a big scale. I guess it all depends on your interpretation. Before I worked in Goucher’s Archives, there was absolutely no digital or virtual representation of the collections we have to offer the public. The only aspects that were illuminated on the web were simple, condensed descriptions of a few of the collections that we possess. After viewing this disappointing website, I had a long discussion with the College Archivist and Special Collections Librarian (who is also my wonderful boss), Tara. I communicated the importance of being able to show the world – not just those who happen to be on campus or local to the area (aka those who have the ability to physically visit the Archives and access the collections) – the wealth of resources, personal and academic, that we have to offer. She told me that if I was willing to initiate the beginning of this “digital” representation, then I had free reign as to how I wanted to utilize all virtual resources.
So I ran with the idea. I have digitally converted all of our finding aids on record, making them accessible to anyone who experiences the urge to browse in further detail. I scanned illustrations from rare books, maps from manuscripts, portraits, etc. on our state of the art digital scanner (which, prior to that point, had basically been used as a copy machine). I continually update and revamp the Archives’ website to make it more user-friendly and easily navigable.
It just goes to show that if you have the idea, the insight, the motivation, the passion to do something, you have the obligation to yourself that make that dream a reality. And I felt that obligation, deep within myself. I have pioneered my co-workers to also utilize the technological resources we have available and, for the most part, they have. The most beautiful aspect about the whole process is that we are finally able to share “our” information with the people.
It is an ongoing struggle on how best to represent the stories behind the artifacts, but I feel as though we have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. At least these valuable resources are not holed away in some dark cabinet in the basement of a building (which is where a lot of them were hiding out when I worked in the former library before we moved to the Athenaeum).
It is difficult for me to initiate the conversations between artifact and audience, especially since my work has predominantly focused on objects that communicate no immediate connection. A lot of the “inventory” for collections that we have has either been acquired with no record of where it originally came from or donated by individuals that are now deceased. How, as an archivist, do I even begin to deal with those issues? That question completely blows my mind and I am not prepared, on any level, to provide an answer. It’s something that continues to circulate within the depths of my mind.
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