In our visit to special collections last class we got to explore certain objects, pictures, clothing, etc. I have never heard of special collections before; I didn’t even know it existed, so this trip was very educational for me. It was very interesting to see all the different types of special collections and the values that they hold. For example, my group looked at a file of how portable theatres were beneficial to places that did not have their own theatres. This is just one special collection of thousands that exist. I really enjoyed looking into it.
Archivists play a very important role in special collections. In the interview titled “Bias, Perception, and Archival Praxis” with Thomas Padilla and Elvia Ramirez, they talk a lot about the importance of archives. Elvia says, “Archival work requires an ethics of care for the deeply personal and the deeply political.”. 1. This interview lets us know all that work that goes into the archival process. First off, archivists are someone who assesses whether a given piece of information is of value, then maintains and stores the information in the appropriate manner. Secondly, they have an important job of deciding whether a material should be digitized or not. They decide this by first seeing if the material can even be digitized, some objects that are more 3D like are not meant to be digitized because it takes away the meaning. However, digitizing a certain collection or material can make it much easier to access and explore. The con to digitizing is that with most items, you cannot get the full experience online. An archivist must decide that if the item is digitized, will it lose value or not. In the article by Susan Manus, “the Artifactual Elements of Born-Digital Records” she talks about the importance of preserving content and material. She says “while preserving the informational content of born-digital material requires its own distinct processes, preserving the artifactual elements of digital records a unique set of intellectual and technical challenges.”. 2.
The materials we reviewed in class provided me with information for the period of the Federal Theatre Project. It made me consider where the data came from and how it gained its importance. The documents that my group looked over help me gain knowledge on why they wanted the portable theatres to exist and why the encouraged it to happen. These small portable theatres were funded by the FTP and helped people gain interest in certain entertainment. I also learned from the sources the physical data differs from digital data, and that physical date is better because we are able to interact with it in person.
- Thomas Padilla and Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, “Bias, Perception, and Archival Praxis”, Data Praxis, September 13, 2017, https://acrl.ala.org/dh/2017/09/13/archivalpraxis/
- Manus, Susan. 2011. “The Artifactual Elements of Born-Digital Records, Part 1 | The Signal.” Webpage. November 28, 2011. //blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2011/11/the-artifactual-elements-of-born-digital-records-part-1/.
