Oh say can you see the funding for Archives dropping like flies.
Archives and thier place in the continuation of historical memory are incredibly prominent, but my biggest takeaway from our trip to the GMU archives is that thier funding is not nearly what it needs to be. So today I’m breaking out my soap box and giving y’all a speech as to why Archives are important.
Archives are important because of their valuable resource to scholars. Whether it is online via digital records or in person via physical records archives provide something that other resources can not maintain, consistency.
Whether the object in question is a puppet or a pamphlet their main goal is to ensure that that piece is kept in it’s exact state when first in thier possession. Unlike other resources the archive is set to maintain everything, whether bought or donated, it receives. For scholars this allows for a confident and necessary physical record. Rather than just having secondary sources talking about something scholars can take a critical re-evaluation of things through the primary sources. Then digitized archive give them a similar means of looking at primary sources. The general public likewise can utilize this resource to satisfy their curiosity.
However the other side of the story is the tediousness of digital archives.
With digital archiving their’s a certain process of deciding what is digitized, and how it’s digitized. Do they digitized objects other than documents? Which of the documents and objects do they document? The answers to these questions are totally up to the archivist and the technology they have at their disposal. To digitization a 3D object they might just take a picture as it’s digital fingerprint, but then you lose the necessary elements such as touch and spacial comparison out of the picture.
Via the Archive the Federal Theater Project becomes clearer. Their plays, costumes, and puppets are kept alive through the Archive’s efforts. From the beginning they were criticized for their messages, criticized for their goals, and policed with bureaucracy. But I, a scholar, could see the costumes, feel the puppets, and enjoy the pamphlets through historical memory. By the Archives the Federal Theater Project’s efforts are not lost into oblivion.