Mentoring Citizen Archivists Rebecca Morin Holyoke Community - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mentoring Citizen Archivists Rebecca Morin Holyoke Community College Jennifer Bolmarcich Simmons College

What does that mean? Partnering with community archives ▫ projects, personal collectors (citizens), and/or budding community archives ▫ Providing mentorship, support, and guidance to communities looking to document their histories and stories. Knowledge Sharing ▫ We’ll get into the logistics in a bit... “Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) Photograph # 8” Courtesy of SAADA

Inspiration Michelle Caswell “Owning Critical Archival Studies” ▫ ▫ “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries” Jarrett Drake ▫ “Liberatory archives” A call to action ▫ Bergis Jules “Confronting our failures of care...” ▫ “Occupy Wall Street” Photo by Aaron Bauer Courtesy of the Internet Archive

Liberatory Archives ▫ Participatory ▫ Virtual vs. physical ▫ Nature of a physical space ▫ Belonging ▫ Post-custodial ▫ Independent & autonomous

Archives of the Occupy Movement Separate groups of people began collecting ▫ materials Initiated by occupiers (working-groups) ▫ ▫ Initiated by “formal” archival institutions Other institutions focused on ▫ digital records Archivist Assistance ▫ ▫ “Formal” archival institutions Groups of archivists ▫ ▫ The Activist Archivists @actarc - Twitter ▫ ▫ Difficulties: Resources ▫ ▫ Finding balance in relationship Radical nature Radical nature of the movement of the archives Image: “Zuccotti Park - Art work” photo by Johanna Clearfield Courtesy of the Internet Archive

South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) ▫ Founded in 2008 ▫ 501 (c) (3) ▫ Governance ▫ 5 member board ▫ Staff ▫ Volunteers nationwide ▫ Pro-bono lawyers ▫ Funding ▫ Grants ▫ Fundraising site (razoo.com) ▫ Individual gifts ▫ No physical location ▫ Board members speak at community forums ▫ Administrative and fiscal independence “Curtiss Aviation School Students, including Mohan Singh” ▫ Commitment to social justice aims Courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society and SAADA. ▫ Partnerships

Shorefront Legacy Center Founded by Morris (Dino) Robinson Jr. ▫ “Collects, preserves, and educates the ▫ public about Black history on Chicago’s suburban North Shore” 501 (c) (3) - 2002 ▫ Museum-like ▫ Exhibits & Events ▫ Board of directors, Board of Advisors, ▫ volunteers, resident scholar Archival students ▫ Black Metropolis Research ▫ Consortium Funding: grant based, independent ▫ donations Archival intern, Elizabeth Sanderson (Dominican University), processing the Smith Collection. Courtesy of the Shorefront Journal

How do we begin? Cultivating a community partner ▫ Let the “community” define themselves ▫ Relationship: ▫ Respect ▫ Empathy ▫ Sensitivity ▫ Flexibility ▫ Communication strategy ▫ Broaden your collecting mentality ▫ Participatory ▫ Knowledge sharing ▫ Offer your skills ▫ “Activist Archivists” - MA? ▫ “Family portrait photograph of the Saund family” Pro-bono work? ▫ Courtesy of Eric Saund and SAADA

Possible Obstacles? Finding a community ▫ ▫ Encouraging people their “stuff” matters Language barriers ▫ The digital divide ▫ ▫ Sustainability Image:”flickr-ows--6218142948”photo by Matt.J.S. Courtesy of the Internet Archive

References Caswell, Michelle. “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries: Theoretical Foundations for Identity-Based Community Archives.” In Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the U.S. and Canada , edited by Dominique Daniel and Amalia S. Levi, 35–55. Sacramento: Litwin Books, 2014. ———. “Owning Critical Archival Studies: A Plea.” presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute, Kent State University, July 2016. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/75x090df. ———. “Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives and the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation.” The Public Historian 36, no. 4 (November 2014): 26–37. Drake, Jarrett M. “Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and Believing (Part 1).” On Archivy . Medium, October 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/liberatory-archives-towards-belonging-and-believing-part-1-d26aaeb0edd1. ———. “Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and Believing (Part 2).” On Archivy . Medium, October 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/liberatory-archives-towards-belonging-and-believing-part-2-6f56c754eb17#.4hky7zcjt. Erde, John. “Constructing Archives of the Occupy Movement.” Archives and Records 35, no. 2 (2014): 77–92. Flinn, Dr Andrew. “Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of the Society of Archivists. Society of Archivists 28, no. 2 (2007): 151–76. Jimerson, Randall. “Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice.” The American Archivist 70, no. 2 (2007): 252–81. Jules, Bergis. “Confronting Our Failure of Care Around the Legacies of Marginalized People in the Archives.” On Archivy . Medium, November 11, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/confronting-our-failure-of-care-around-the-legacies-of-marginalized-people-in-the-archives-dc418039728 0. Shorefront Legacy Center. “Shorefront Legacy Center.” Shorefront Legacy Center , 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161025065821/http://www.shorefrontlegacy.org/.