A quick roundup of things that have recently caught my attention:
Are archivists today’s real peacemakers?
Politicians, beauty queens, and rock stars all claim they want world peace. But could the unassuming archivist, more likely to be found buried in a stack of yellowing newspapers than at a global summit, be the true peacemaker of our time?
That was the prevailing theme at the Scone Foundation’s “Archivist of the Year” awards, held last week at the CUNY Graduate Center: archivists aren’t here merely to perform the dutiful-but-dull task of preservation, but to defend civil liberties, encourage transparency, and maybe–just maybe–facilitate historical reconciliation between former enemies. Underscoring the idea of archivist-as-peacemaker, this year’s award was shared by representatives of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Khader Salameh of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in Jerusalem, and Yehoshua Freundlich of the Israel State Archives.
Full article from
The New Yorker here.
You can also listen to the fall 2009 podcast of Dr. Saad Eskander’s talk on Recovering Iraqi Records to the Simmons GSLIS community here. Eskander’s 2006-2007 blogs on the topic are available at the British Library.
Torn Lincoln paper digitally reunited with other half:
Call it a scholar’s birthday present to Abraham Lincoln. David J. Gerleman, an adjunct history professor at George Mason University, has digitially stitched together a torn document whose pieces are held by two different archives.
The lower half of document bearing President Lincoln’s signature is held at St. Lawrence University, in Canton, N.Y., while the upper half is at the Illinois State Archives, in Springfield. While the two pieces are still physically states apart, digital images of them have been pasted together to form an entire legal document with a coherent history.
Full article in Wired Campus. Digital image can be seen on this site (scroll to very bottom under “reunited documents”)
Now’s a good time to start thinking about MayDay 2010- what are you doing to promote disaster preparedness?
ALA-ALCTS is launching a national Preservation Week May 9-15, 2010 and there’s a call for two-minute advocacy speeches.
From the announcement:
Contest — Making the Case for Preservation Action to Save Collections
We all know how hard it is to lift the sense of urgency and priority for preserving collections, especially in our economically tight and
digitally oriented times. The American Library Association’s Association of Library Collections and Services (ALA-ALCTS) is
sponsoring a competition for the best “2-minute speech” to convince 3 key audiences of the importance of action for preservation as a part
of the first national collection Preservation Week (May 9-15, 2010).
The target audiences are:
● Decision makers-directors, board members, elected and appointed officials, and other people who choose priorities for action and provide
the resources;
● Friends, family, visitors and users, and others who work outside collecting institutions, and the cultural heritage, conservation, and preservation fields-public support is essential for preservation action;
● Library, archives, and museum staff outside the preservation or conservation fields – shelvers, check-out and ILL staff, building operations, and housekeeping personnel can have a significant impact on collections preservation.
Here’s how the contest will work:
1. Select one or more target audiences (i.e. decision makers; general audience; and/or library/archive/museum staff) to persuade with a 2-minute speech to support preservation and take preservation action.
2. Write a short, compelling, and easy-to-understand argument that will persuade your target audience. Send in one 2 minute speech per target audience.
3. Send your written submissions in one e-mail per target audience to Yvonne Carignan, Library Director and Head of Collections, Historical Society of Washington, DC, carignan@historydc.org.
4. Yvonne will distribute all submissions to a review panel representing preservation, conservation, and collecting institutions of a variety of types and sizes. The panel will select the top three entries in each category. The winning “speeches” will be highlighted on the Preservation Week Web site (www.ala.org./preservationweek) and the winners will also receive a surprise from ALCTS.
5. The deadline for submission is March 8, 2010, so don’t delay.
Here are some hints to help:
Send us the reasons for supporting preservation that have worked with people you know.
Audience: Key decision-maker –
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your institution’s doubting Board Chair, Director, Major Funder, that collections preservation should become a strong priority, budget priority, high priority, core function of your institution, what would you say? what points would you make?
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your institution’s doubting Director that collections preservation should become a core function of your institution, what would you say?
Audience: Friends, family, and neighbors outside the field
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your — Great aunt, cable or satellite installer, or neighbor that preserving cultural heritage collections should become a
well-funded activity, budget priority, high priority in your community, what would you say? what points would you make?
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your neighbor that preserving cultural heritage collections should become a high priority in your community, what points would you make?
Audience: Line staff in your institution outside preservation and conservation
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your colleagues that by making collections preservation a strong priority, high priority, core function, they could make a real difference to your users, what would you say? what points would you make?
If you had only 2 minutes to convince your institution’s volunteers that by making preserving your collections a high priority, they could make a real difference to your users, what points would you make?
The 
Two years ago,