lots of archival goodness this week

I found some more archival blogs, some of which posed some excellent questions about the discipline. Firstly, I wanted to recap with some more information from my last post about the National Archives and Library of Ireland. Turns out unlike here, they are putting the two institutions together to save money. What does that entirely mean?? Job losses? or it is merely fewer buildings? I am guessing this has been done by politicians who have little to no concept about what it is these two institutions are about. Something to keep an eye on...

I found this excellent blog called ArchivesNext where Katie asks some truly thought provoking questions about archives. I thought I'd have missed all her insights as she claimed to be heading off on a vacation from blogging, but then came back with a brilliant posting about archives as a luxury. Read it here. And she is entirely right. It come up over and over in my classes that we are fighting for the same funds as the police or fire brigades or community centres. In light of the definite economic slowdown (read recession), how do you convince people that you are just as important as safety?

I thought this was an important point:

"Are libraries a luxury? Maybe, but far less of one than archives. Public libraries make a good case for why they are an essential part of their communities. Can archives do the same? Why should the ever-shrinking pool of available government (or private) funds be granted to your archives so that you can process your backlog or digitize your collection? What’s the public good? What’s the benefit to anyone other than historians?"

These are all important questions that we will have to answer in order to defend what we do. And I am not sure I have any good answers. As Katie points out, we need to know our importance in communities so we can fight smartly for funding. We need to prove that archives might be a luxury in tight times, but we have a purpose and use.

I am a little spooked about trying to find a job after graduation next year, what with the probable recession that will hit, so we will all need to work harder to prove our worth when times are tight.