Two classes ago we met in Fenwick Library to visit Special Collections to explore the Federal Theater Project. I found the experience very interesting in the sense that it was different from my other “out of classroom” class sessions. I had never dealt with physical archives before and had little knowledge that George Mason University had archives, let alone that students were allowed to view them. I think the significance of the Special Collections archive for scholars is that it provides a more in depth look to further their research. These are records that are not openly available to the general public and need permission to view due to their fragility. According to Thomas Padilla’s Bias. Perception, and Archival Praxis, “Archival work requires an ethics of care for the deeply personal and the deeply political. […] Record creation, keeping, obstruction, or misrepresentation are all acts of identity and power”(2017). Padilla also notes that “there is a definite value to be gained from working across physical and digital legacies. The work helps us recognize our shortcomings”(2017).
Regarding the archivist’s decisions about which materials should be digitized or not, I think they make these decisions based off of how well they are able to physically preserve the archive. Susan Manus addresses this in her blog, The Artifactual Elements of Born-Digital Records, Part 1 by saying “ preserving the artifactual elements of a digital record introduces a unique set of intellectual and technical challenges” (2011). Padilla answers this subject in his article as well stating, “Of course privacy and volume are issues present in analog collections, but they are further problematized when we consider the digital deluge and the responsibility of determining permanent historical value. In analog archival collections donors and creators can physically comb through and filter materials they do not want to deposit in an archival repository due to the presence of sensitive or personal information. Acquisition of entire hard drives makes appraisal for donors a lot more difficult and places the responsibility of protecting sensitive or personal data on archivists, who, on the whole are not nearly paid enough; not equipped with the necessary tools and infrastructure; and do not have enough hours of the day to devote the labor necessary to peruse every file” (2017).
Visiting the Special Collections changed how I viewed the Federal Theater Project in the sense that I saw it on a more fragile scale. I always just considered it as some point in time that happened and passed, sort of like a start up company that never exactly took off. Having seen the records in front of me made me realize that it was much bigger and important than I had thought. Having the actual brochures in front of me and learning how they gave off different messages than intended and how political this project had gotten was interesting because when I thought of the project all I considered was the arts portion and never the messages.
Manus, S. (2011, November 28). The Artifactual Elements of Born-Digital Records, Part 1 | The Signal [Webpage]. Retrieved November 13, 2019, from //blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2011/11/the-artifactual-elements-of-born-digital-records-part-1/
Padilla, T. (2017, September 13). Bias, Perception, and Archival Praxis [Text]. Retrieved November 13, 2019, from Dh+lib website: https://acrl.ala.org/dh/2017/09/13/archivalpraxis/
