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dystopicjumpsuit · 10 months

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Martyrs and Kings - Chapter 1

A Clone Walks Into a Library

Rating: T (rating varies by chapter; mature content will be tagged)

Pairing: Kix x archivist/historian OFC

Wordcount: 3.3k

Warnings: slight angst; mentions of canon character deaths; office politics are canon in the GFFA

A/N: Finally migrating this story over from AO3. I'll be posting a chapter on Tumblr every few days until I'm caught up, but if you'd like to read ahead, here's the link to the story up to chapter 8.

Summary: Clone medic Kix is a man displaced in time. Captured by Separatists and put into cryostasis when he learned the truth about the clones' inhibitor chips, he awakens fifty years after the end of the Clone Wars. The Republic is gone. The galaxy has changed. And now, the last clone trooper searches for answers with the help of a New Republic historian.

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Republic City, Hosnian Prime

32 ABY

The man gazed up at the imposing building in front of him, squinting against the harsh sunlight. The air was chilled despite the brightness of the day, and his breath swirled in clouds around him. He stood, seemingly oblivious to the pedestrians that bustled past as airspeeders whizzed through the skylane behind him. Few noticed the man, but those who did felt a strange sense of unease, of slight wrongness, as though he did not quite belong in the setting. Whether they observed this or not, the pedestrian traffic instinctively steered away from him, leaving a wide bubble of space around the stranger.

He stood, unmoving, for some time, locked in a silent debate with himself, until at length, he reached a decision. With a sharp nod, he walked into the building.

It was cold in the New Republic Galactic Library. Maree readjusted the shawl that she always kept in her office for mornings like this, then wrapped her hands around her mug of tea as she scrolled through the morning’s holomessages. Most of them were from colleagues complaining about the temperature. Most recently, the head maintenance droid had sent out a dispassionate mass response explaining that the sprawling complex’s central climate control had been automatically adjusted due to the spring equinox. Maree’s eyes lit with amusement as the indignant replies began to pop up in her inbox.

New Republic efficiency at its finest, she thought. Everything had to be automated. It didn’t matter that the outside temperature was still well below freezing; the equinox had passed, and so they were moved to the spring climate schedule. No doubt the decision had come from a droid that had no problem functioning in the cold. It would probably take weeks of complaints and committee meetings by the time the issue was resolved, and by that point, Republic City would likely be in the middle of a full and magnificent spring, rendering the problem null.

She nearly laughed as she skimmed through her messages and saw identical leave requests from two of the department’s interns who thought they were being subtle about their burgeoning romance. Ah, young love. Who was she to stand in the way? She quickly approved the requests, then moved on to carefully review the latest research directive from the New Republic Judiciary. Finally, she could longer put off reading the last message in her inbox. Despite herself, her heart began to beat a little faster as she opened the message.

To: Dr. Maree R. Finnall From: NRGL Department of Outreach Subject: Decision on Expedition Proposal Submission Submission Number: ORE-R-72-00066T5 Dear Dr. Finnall, It is with great regret that we must inform you that your recent expedition proposal has been rejected. As you are aware, the current political climate in the Outer Rim is somewhat tenuous. . .

The message went on, but there was no need to finish reading it. Force knew she’d received it often enough to know what it said. Maree turned off the holoprojector with a small sigh. She took a sip of her tea and grimaced when she found it had gone cold.

Taungsdays, am I right?

She crossed to her small kitchenette and dumped the tea down the sink. She briefly considered making another cup, but it would likely share its predecessor’s fate, so instead, she moved to gaze out the massive window. Glacial air flowed off the transparisteel, but the view was worth the discomfort. The early morning sun sparkled off the thick layer of frost covering Republic City, transforming it into a glittering wonderland. Beyond the city’s magnificent towers and spires, she glimpsed the deep azure of the western ocean.

I love it here, she reminded herself. It wasn’t exactly a punishment to stay on Hosnian Prime. Surely the benefits outweighed the disappointment of yet another rejected proposal.

The soft chime of her office door startled Maree out of her reverie.

“Come in,” she called.

The door slid open to reveal one of the library’s receptionists, Eidani Olphes. Maree didn’t know her well, but she passed the younger woman at the library’s front desk every morning when she arrived at work, and Maree always tried to be friendly with the support staff. She remembered her own early career when senior faculty were often dismissive and condescending, and she had vowed never to be the cause of anyone feeling so small and unimportant.

“Good morning, Eidani,” she said with a warm smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Dr. Finnall, I have a gentleman here who is visiting Hosnian Prime to research the Clone Wars. Do you have any availability to meet with him this morning?”

Maree’s interest was piqued immediately. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten such a request from a private citizen.

“As a matter of fact, I’m free now,” she said. “Is he here?”

“Yes,” Eidani replied. “TJ-60 asked him to wait outside your office.”

Eidani fidgeted a little as she spoke, and Maree wondered if the man had made her uncomfortable. Maree commed her droid assistant, fully prepared to ban the visitor from the library if he had harassed the young Devaronian.

“Teejay, please show the gentleman into my office.”

“Right away, Dr. Finnall,” came Teejay’s monotone reply.

Maree heard the outer office door hiss open as Teejay directed the visitor to her office. Eidani turned around as soon as Teejay opened the door and watched his approach with a wide smile and undisguised interest. As the visitor walked into view, Maree realized she had misread the young receptionist’s reaction.

Force almighty.

Maree had never seen such a gorgeous man. He was tall and athletically built, with golden brown skin, curly black hair, and a neat beard. His nondescript clothing entirely failed to disguise his powerful frame, and he moved with the relaxed confidence of a man with absolutely nothing to prove. The beard emphasized his high cheekbones, but his eyes were the most arresting. They were a warm, luminous brown that reminded her of sunlight glinting through amber. Something about his face tugged at her memory, and she wracked her brain trying to remember if she’d met him before.

“Hello again,” Eidani giggled. “This is Dr. Finnall. She’s our Clone Wars expert.”

His solemn gaze flicked from Eidani to Maree, and she nearly blinked at the intensity in his eyes.

“Maree Finnall,” she said, shaking his hand.

“Kix,” he replied.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kix.”

“Just Kix,” he said.

He had a lovely voice, smoky and dark and beautifully accented, and Maree briefly wondered if he had any flaws at all. She hoped she had a better sabacc face than Eidani.

“My mistake,” she said. “Please call me Maree.”

“You specialize in the Clone Wars?” he asked.

“To a degree. My scholarship focuses on the military history of the late Galactic Republic and early Imperial periods,” Maree clarified. “The Clone Wars are, of course, a major part of that era. How can I help you?”

He glanced at Eidani, who was staring up at him with a worshipful expression.

“I, er—I’m looking for some fairly detailed information,” he hedged.

Maree took the hint.

“I see,” she said. “Please come in. Thank you, Eidani. I’ll notify the front desk if we need your assistance again.”

“Of—of course!” Eidani gushed. “Please let me know if you need anything. Anything at all!”

“We will keep that in mind,” Maree smiled.

She shot a meaningful glance at Teejay, who immediately began to usher Eidani out of the office. Maree closed her door and turned to Kix, who was looking around the room with interest.

“Nice office,” he said.

“Thank you. Please make yourself comfortable,” she replied, gesturing to the soft, padded armchairs that were strategically placed around the room. “May I offer you a cup of tea?”

“No, thank you,” he said. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” she said. “Let me know if you change your mind. For now, can you tell me what specific information you are looking for?”

He selected a chair that was oriented so that it faced both the window and the door of the office, she noticed. Maree’s mother was the same way; she hated the vulnerability of having her back to an opening. Mindful of Kix’s hypervigilance, Maree picked up her datapad and settled into a chair on his left, leaving plenty of space between them, as she prepared to take notes. From this angle, she could see the edge of a tattoo peeking out from his hairline. It looked like aurebesh, but his hair covered too much of it to be sure. It was intriguing, and she had a sudden and distinctly unprofessional urge to brush the hair away from his face and take a closer look.

“I’m interested in the late months of the wars,” he said. “Everything after the Battle of Anaxes.”

She tapped the information into her datapad. He observed her closely as she worked. She wasn’t accustomed to such scrutiny, and she found it slightly distracting. She felt a bit like a bug that was being dissected and studied.

“I can prepare an overview,” she said, “but that is still quite a broad area as there were so many simultaneous campaigns. Is there any particular battle or unit that I should focus on?”

“The 501st Legion,” he said in a clipped tone.

“General Skywalker’s legion. A fascinating unit,” she said. “Are you interested in their actions in the Imperial era as well, or only those preceding the fall of the Galactic Republic?”

“Both,” he said. “Is there a way to research individual soldiers in the battalion?”

“Yes, if you send me a list in advance,” she replied, “though it may take me a few days to compile the records. Will you be on Hosnian Prime long?”

“As long as it takes,” he said.

“I see. Perhaps we can meet on Primeday morning?” she suggested. “That should give me time to collect the combat reports at least, and once we’ve had a look at those, we might have a better idea of where to direct our research efforts.”

“What time on Primeday?” he asked.

“Any time you like,” she said. “I’ll have Teejay clear my schedule so I can be at your disposal all morning. I do have appointments in the afternoon that I won’t be able to reschedule, unfortunately.”

He looked startled. “Oh, I don’t want to take you away from your work for that long.”

“This is my work,” she said. “And I am delighted to meet someone who shares my interest in this particular field. Not many do. Consider yourself warned; you are far more likely to get tired of me than I am likely to run out of things to talk about.”

“I doubt that,” he said, meeting her eyes squarely.

“Let me know if you still feel that way after I send you so many reports and articles that I crash your datapad,” she said.

He smiled for the first time since she’d met him, and it made him look younger and even more handsome, if such a thing were possible. She found herself smiling back at him even as she told herself not to indulge her interest. Not only was the man a client, but he was at least a decade younger than Maree—much closer to Eidani’s age, in fact.

“I should forewarn you,” she said. “This period of history—it’s a difficult one. Most of the stories do not end well.”

“Trying to scare me off, Doc?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all,” she said. “I just want you to be prepared. There’s a reason most historians choose other periods to study. It’s a hard time to confront.”

“I understand,” he said, and something in his eyes told her that he truly did. “I will see you on Primeday.”

Kix exited the library feeling decidedly ambivalent. He stepped into the frigid air, which had failed to capture any heat from the bright sunshine during the time he’d spent inside the building. Still, he took a deep breath and felt the sting of it in his lungs.

He had been nervous when he entered the library. He’d spent over a year with Sidon Ithano and his crew, throwing himself into their skirmishes with a ruthlessness and ferocity that startled even the notorious pirate’s crew. But the violence failed to distract him from his own thoughts. He’d been consumed by grief and rage, overwhelmed by feelings of failure and guilt and the futility of everything he and his brothers had suffered and sacrificed. And worst of all, the knowledge that all of his brothers—every single one of them—were long dead.

He had never felt so alone.

Every time he looked in the mirror, his fallen brothers’ faces looked back at him. So he avoided mirrors as much as possible. Growing a beard helped disguise the resemblance, but he still couldn’t stand to meet his own eyes in the reflection. When he decided at last to uncover his brothers’ fates, the ship’s Twi’lek mechanic Reveth had warned him that nothing good would come from digging into the past.

“It ended bad,” she said. “I don’t think it could have ended worse. Don’t do this to yourself.”

They had been lying in bed. It hadn’t taken them long to seek each other’s company after Kix joined the crew. They both needed comfort—needed to forget. Just for a moment. He was haunted by his memories, and she by her hopeless, despairing love for the ship’s mysterious captain. They found oblivion in each other’s beds, but nothing more.

“I have to know,” he said, no longer able to bear the uncertainty.

And so, he took a temporary leave from the Meson Martinet crew and traveled to Hosnian Prime in search of someone who could give him the answers he needed. The New Republic Information Bureau had directed him to the library, explaining that the facility maintained an extensive staff of archivists. At least one of them would surely be able to help, the information droid had assured him. When Kix had arrived at the entrance to the library’s vast structure, he’d hesitated, remembering Reveth’s warning before he’d departed the Meson Martinet three days earlier.

He’d shaken off the voice in his head, squared his shoulders, and gone inside. The pretty young Devaronian receptionist at the front desk hadn’t been able to answer his questions, but she had located an archivist who could, leading him through the labyrinthine facility with an ease that spoke of many such trips. She had been friendly and outgoing, peppering him with questions that left him tongue-tied, so he responded with mostly monosyllables or silence. His reticence did not seem to affect her at all—quite the opposite, in fact, and by the time she had located the archivist, she had escalated into full-blown flirtation. It had been a relief when the office droid had requested him to wait outside the office until the archivist was free to speak with him.

When he’d been admitted, he braced himself for another verbal onslaught, but the archivist was very different from the bubbly receptionist. She was older, for one thing. Her elaborate hairdo was threaded with silver, and a few fine lines crinkled around the corners of her eyes, evidence of decades of laughter. Her greeting had been friendly while maintaining a professional reserve, and he was struck by her low, melodic voice.

And Maker, she was beautiful. Kix had found himself staring as she introduced herself, taking in the graceful contours of her face. She was dressed in elegant, flowing robes, and he had felt a moment’s self-consciousness about the shabby plainness of his own garb. But she had given him a kind smile, and despite the chilly air of the library, her small hands had been warm when she had clasped his in greeting. He clenched his fist lightly when she released him, trying in vain to hold onto that warmth.

Her office was a comfortable, cozy room that seemed more like a home than a workplace—at least in Kix’s opinion, accustomed as he was the the harsh sterility of Kamino, the endless gray of the Republic Star Destroyers, and the chaotic violence of the battlefield. There was a large desk, which he had expected, and an assortment of soft, mismatched armchairs set around the room, which he had not. The expansive view from the enormous window naturally dominated the space, but she had decorated the room to suit her own taste as well. Several paintings hung on the walls, a few sculptures were tastefully displayed through the room, and there was a vase of fresh flowers on the desk. When she offered him tea, he noticed a small kitchenette, and he wondered exactly how much time she spent in this room.

As she settled into the chair next to him and began discussing his request, he felt his anxiety spike again. He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain his interest in the Clone Wars without giving away his identity. It was something of an open secret in the Outer Rim that Sidon Ithano traveled with a clone trooper—though there were those who insisted this was merely another rumor designed to fuel the Crimson Corsair’s intimidating reputation. In general, Kix kept to himself, and he was reluctant to disclose his origins to anyone, let alone a government representative. To his relief, she did not interrogate him about his motivations; instead, she directed her questions to how she could best assist his search. Her soft voice made him want to lean in closer when she spoke, and as they conversed, he felt his tension begin to disperse.

She had a way of drawing him into the conversation without pressuring him for personal details, and he deeply appreciated her tact. It was not easy for him to talk to people, whether they were strangers or friends. Not like it used to be. He was not the same man he’d been before the Separatists tortured him for information and shoved him into a cryo-cycle stasis pod.

During the Clone Wars, he had been fun-loving and easygoing. He’d been popular with his fellow clones and with the civilians he encountered—in fact, the bubbly receptionist from the library would have been exactly the kind of partner he would have sought out during a night out at 79’s. And most importantly, he’d had a group of brothers who were his best friends. Hardcase; Tup; Jesse; and the Domino twins, Echo and Fives. They had fallen, one by one, replaced by shinies, until it was just him and Jesse left of the original group—and Captain Rex, of course. The best commanding officer a clone could have asked for, and the closest thing Kix had ever had to a father.

Finding Echo alive had been a miracle, and it was entirely due to Rex’s instincts. But the man they had found on Skako Minor had been so different from the ARC trooper who’d been left for dead at the Citadel that he had felt there was no longer a place for him in the 501st, and so Kix had lost Echo a second time. That loss was what had pushed Kix to take up Fives’s investigation. What he had found had horrified him deeply. He had tried desperately to alert the Jedi to the sinister plot, but the Separatists had found him first.

And now, fifty-one years later, he was a stranger in a strange galaxy, begging an alluring historian to tell him how his brothers had died.

---

Chapter 2

Tagging: @blueink-bluesoul @secondaryrealm @spicy-clones

#Yes that is Hong Kong standing in for Hosnian Prime #martyrs and kings #tcw fanfic #clone medic kix #sw tcw fanfic #star wars tcw #tcw kix #sw fanfic #post stasis kix #dystopicjumpsuit writes

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kanansdume · 2 years

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Just to explore Reva a little again and her alternate options she could’ve had for Masters in happier fix-it AUs where Palpatine got eaten by the Zillo Beast or something.

Reva the Healer, learning under Rig Nema (or Vokara Che if you want to go Legends, I don’t mind). I don’t know much about Rig Nema, obviously, but I just like the concept of Reva the Healer for the same reasons I like Reva the Temple Guard. It allows Reva to stay in the Temple a bit more, and to keep the people she loves most safe, to take care of her family and keep them alive. Reva the Healer who maybe works quite a lot with the clone medics after the war, too, learning alongside them as she figures out field medicine so she can go on off-planet missions to help out communities still rebuilding and reeling from the devastation of the Clone War.

Reva the Archivist, learning under Jocasta Nu, just SO GOOD at all of the research and book learning and loving helping out small initiates and Padawans find the information they need to help them through their classes or win a bet with their friends or just because they’re interested. Reva the Archivist who likes spinning her own stories for the younglings in the creche when they come to visit because she’s just the BEST storyteller. Reva the Archivist who everyone knows to go to if they have some sort-of obscure question on a mission because if she doesn’t know the answer off the top of her head, she’s probably got an idea of where to find it, she KNOWS she’s seen something about that somewhere let her just go check something for a second.

Reva who becomes Tera Sinube’s Padawan maybe, learning all about Coruscant’s criminal underworld and working to help protect the everyday citizens of Coruscant both by tracking down criminals AND helping in soup kitchens and outreach centers. Reva who is still just so good at the patient research and stake-outs and things and has no problem waiting weeks, months, YEARS to catch a criminal who’s gone into hiding. Reva who becomes so well known amongst the lower level citizens of Coruscant for knowing their names and bringing them supplies they need as often as she can and being very understanding when some of the criminals she chases down don’t need to be handed over to Coruscant Police, but to be led to the outreach center for a warm shower and a hot meal and some help.

Reva who becomes Agen Kolar’s Padawan after the war, when he’s had time to grieve and move forward from the loss of his last Padawan in the Geonosis arena that began the war. Reva whose just general brightness and compassion helps Agen adjust again to not having to be constantly at war, but who is just as happy as Agen is to throw out a thermal detonator if it’s the right tool for the job.

Reva the Crechemaster (sadly I actually don’t know any canon crechemaster nams off the top of my head), who loves nothing more than taking care of the younglings, the future of the Jedi, watching them grow, teaching them the basics of Force usage and meditation and Jedi values. Who is so quick to tell them a story, to sing them to sleep, to give them piggyback rides and let them climb all over her. Reva the Crechemaster who always makes sure if she takes a group of younglings out for a field trip somewhere, she damn well comes back with every single one of them, no matter what it takes.

#reva sevander #inquisitor reva #reva #tera sinube #jocasta nu #rig nema #agen kolar #vokara che

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microcomsys · 3 months

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Preserving the Past: Antique Book Scanning Digitization Services in Vancouver

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#scanning

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allison-newbold · 4 months

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A Summer Semester at the Jewish Archives, by Allison Newbold

Published on: https://csuhistoryinterns.clevelandhistory.org/a-summer-semester-in-the-jewish-archives-at-wrhs/

It was Friday the 13th and I was sifting through boxes in the research library of Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS). The end of the semester was near and so was the deadline of my graduate thesis. I had been in touch with Dr. Sean Martin, Associate Curator of the Jewish Archives at WRHS, for the past few weeks and we were in the process of setting up a formal interview regarding the internship. However, I had recognized Dr. Martin as he walked through the library. I sent him a quick email letting him know of my location and if he had any available time. Within a minute, he introduced himself and the interview we were planning to have happened just moments later.

The first day of my internship was unlike a standard day at the archives. It was May 21, 2018 and I started a few weeks before the rest of the interns in the program to stay on track with Cleveland State’s summer semester schedule. I had the pleasure of attending a private tour with a few other WRHS library staff members of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage led by Dr. Martin himself. We walked through the museum’s core exhibit and discussed its issues, what needed to be updated, what needed to be modernized, and the role of technology throughout the exhibit. Something that stuck with me that Dr. Martin mentioned was that most of the technology had not been updated since it was installed back in 2005.

During the first week, I was assigned lengthy readings that were required for anyone working in the archive. These documents were the WRHS processing guide and an article titled, “More Product, Less Process”, written by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner. To quickly sum it up, “More Product, Less Process” also known as MPLP, is a call for archivists to rethink the way they process collections. They argue that a better, more consistent approach with processing a collection will expedite getting collection materials into the hands of the users. Further, they argue that good processing is done with a shovel, and not tweezers.

For the summer semester, Dr. Martin and I agreed that I would be processing a collection that had already been started. However, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done with this collection. The collection is unofficially called “Karamu House and Reuben and Dorothy Silver Papers III”. A volunteer had started processing the collection prior to my arrival, but unfortunately, they left a lot of documents in miscellaneous folders and unidentified. I had my work cut out for me. The first week I was able to combine four different series into one and rework the entire arrangement of the collection with Dr. Martin’s help. For this collection, I focused on arranging it by document type and then by subject. The biggest challenge for me during my time working with processing this collection was removing things from it. While Dr. Martin encouraged me to be confident with my decision of removals, I kept questioning every last thing, like some sort of manuscript hoarder. At first, I did not want to get rid of anything. However, by the end of it, I could remove something with no guilt and no questions.

Since I was Dr. Martin’s only summer intern, he quickly became my mentor. Besides working on processing my collection, I had the opportunity to attend weekly meetings with the archival staff and management, attend Dr. Martin’s monthly coffee talks at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, and experience what it was like first hand to be an archivist. Sean mentioned that public outreach is a major part of his job and probably one of the most important aspects of it. I learned this summer that he was not wrong. During the third week of my internship, I had the opportunity to meet a donor named Len who came in to WRHS and brought two paintings. These original paintings pertained to Richman Brothers Company, where he worked in management throughout the 1980s. Dr. Martin asked him many questions about his experience working there and how he obtained the paintings. Aside from meeting Len, I had the opportunity to visit and meet with others in the community who were interested in donating their collections to WRHS.

One family that we met with has known Dr. Martin for several years. This showcases the importance of public outreach and building a connection with those in the community. At first, I did not realize how significant these connections were, as some families have made many donations over the years. The family that we met up with was the Frum family, who were the children and grandchildren of the founders of Kol Israel Foundation in Cleveland. This organization was created by Jewish Holocaust survivors who settled in Cleveland after World War II. They had hundreds of photographs, uniforms, pins, meeting minutes, letters, and other correspondence piled in boxes on their dining room table. It was such a surreal experience to see these documents and objects come to life in my hands.

Another project that I worked on during my internship was digitizing an oral history collection of ten interviews that had already been recorded and transcribed. These interviews were with former board chairs and presidents of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. For this project, I taught myself how to use the Islandora software that WRHS uses for their Digital Cleveland Starts Here repository. I wrote short bios for those who were interviewed, added the proper metadata, and created a cohesive look for this collection. In addition, I created a step-by-step guide for WRHS staff members and volunteers who may have to use Islandora in the future because it was rather challenging to use and made it difficult to upload the information at first.

As my internship has come to an end, I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work under Dr. Martin. I remember how insecure I was the first time I walked into the research library because it was all so foreign to me and now I can walk in with my head held high. Not only did I develop many new skills and gain more experience in the museum profession, I also gained a level of confidence that I was lacking before. This internship has encouraged me to pursue my passion for the museum profession.

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hiringlibrarians · 2 years

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Don’t check notifications during the interview

Reading Room, National Archives, Air New Zealand Building (1985). Archives New Zealand on Flickr. This anonymous interview is with someone who hires for a: √ Archives Title: Reference Services Manager Titles hired include: Reference Archivist, processing Archivist, outreach archivist, research analyst, archives tech Who makes hiring decisions at your organization: √ HR √ Library…

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#archives career #archives jobs #archivist interview #archivists #LIS careers

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historyhermann · 2 years

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Archivists of color in animated series: Arizal and Grampa Park

Archives are often portrayed stereotypically in popular media and confused with libraries, as is the case in the Star Wars franchise, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian. Archivists themselves are often portrayed similarly to librarians and, as such, embody many of the same stereotypes. Archives are places where people can access, in person or online, first-hand accounts of events, including various original materials, whether paper documents, maps, photographs, and digital records, and are staffed by specially trained individuals called archivists. The records within these repositories are kept due to their continuing, and long-term, value to users and those creating the record. Archivists often attempt to make their collections publicly available, whether through outreach or digitization of existing records. While libraries also make their collections available, they include secondary sources, like books, non-print, and other print materials which are organized by author and subject, and can be checked out for home use. Archives, in contrast, are arranged according to the person, organization, or community which created them. Their records cannot be checked out by patrons because they include inactive, and unique, documents no longer needed for day-to-day operations, with specific guidelines in place for accessing those records.

Archivists are often shown negatively in popular culture, and when shown, they are mostly White women, with a lack of BIPOC archivists. This echoes the dynamics of the archival field, which is, as stated in the last census of archivists in 2004, and will be shown in the upcoming census of the field, majority White. Furthermore, Samantha Cross of POP Archives, a fellow archivist who has examined portrayals in popular culture, mostly points to White archivists and archives in her reviews. I have found the same when examining animated series with archives and archivists.

Two animated shows stand out in featuring BIPOC archivists: Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters and Recorded by Arizal. Both series will be highlighted in this post.

Grampa Park shows Nathan and Ricardo how the newspaper archives is organized. (Note: He is listed as “Grandpa Park” in credits, but he uses the word “Grampa” for himself.)

When I came across the animated series Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters, I was excited to see an archivist of color, voiced by Sab Shimono (a Japanese–American actor), which inspired me to watch all the episodes of the series. While he never gets a proper name — only called Grampa Park — this archivist is the grandfather of a Korean-American kid named Nathan, who helps his grandson and his friend, Ricardo, do research in his “newspaper archives,” when the internet goes down. Unfortunately, the archives is in his basement, perpetrating another common stereotype of archives which is repeated in fictional works. Even so, federal records were once stored in basements of government buildings, although this soon ended after the records were under the control of the National Archives. At the same time, there are questions as to how well the newspapers are preserved and the fact the archives itself is his personal hobby, with archivists having a professional job to preserve records, not because it is their hobby to do so. There are some hobbyists who archive documents, but they likely do not have the professional training to do such archival work. While the basement archives of Nathan’s grandfather are a bit messy, with some records which are melting, he, a former reporter, asks what they need (engaging in reference work). They look through the stacks, organized by newspapers which are either local or worldwide. The newspaper archives reappear several times in the series, and the characters use it to access information which the villains try to keep hidden. Even with the reservations about the series, as I’ve previously explained, I still chuckled at his joyful declaration in one episode: “some say I’m packrat, archivist I say!” A proud archivist indeed.

A much more positive portrayal of archives is embodied in the protagonist of Recorded by Arizal, a 16-year-old Filipina girl named Arizal (voiced by Christine Marie Cabanos, an American voice actress of Filipino descent). She is an aspiring recordkeeper, known as keeper for short, who will travel across the world, gathering materials along the way to add to the global archive, to preserve the history of humanity. Arizal lives in a futuristic city named Maktaba with her cousin, uncle, and aunt. She composes a series of vlogs during her summer vacation, as an extra credit assignment and part of a formal application to become a keeper. While she decides whether she wants to pursue this career path, and the episodes released so far are a coming-of-age story, a main driving theme is “the discussion of record keeping and learning” as confirmed by series creator Yssa Badiola. On other occasions, Badiola has stated that future record keeping and vlogging is archival in and of itself. As an aside, the word “maktaba” means library or place of study in Arabic, showing that the show paid close attention to cultural and historical notions.

Throughout the series, Arizal struggles to define why she wants to be a keeper. She begins the series by saying she became interested in becoming a keeper because of her friends Lia and Rizella. Afterward, a keeper tells her the harsh reality of gathering information, causing her to have a personal crisis, as she worries about leaving her prized possessions behind before making the journey. Later, she reflects on her dream when standing on a secretive overlook and how she got through it with the help of friends. In the final part of the series, it is shown that her application to become a record keeper is accepted by the athenaeum, a literary and scientific organization that advances learning. If the series is greenlighted for a full season, her role as a keeper will be explored as she “records her journey to adulthood” and tries to make the history of humanity all the more complete.

There is one character who gets honorable mention in this post: Hermes Conrad (voiced by Phil LaMarr, a Black American actor and writer) in the mature animation, Futurama. It is worth asking if he can even be considered an archivist since he is described and shown as the Planet Express company bureaucrat who has a deep love for filing and organization. He is able to quickly look through the Physical File Archive so effectively that he secretly takes out a file hiding his role as an inspector of Bender Rodriguez, a robot who is part of the company’s crew. In order to spare himself from Bender’s wrath, he later destroys the file. The so-called “archive” is a single file cabinet with three drawers in an out-of-the-way location, hidden deep in the Central Bureaucracy. Brad Houston, an archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, countered the notion, saying that this “physical file archive” is a records center because it contains semi-active records, rather than an archive.

Title screen for the upcoming S.A.L.E.M. animated series

I am optimistic there will be further BIPOC archivists in future animations, due to the hopeful premiere this year of shows like S.A.L.E.M.: The Secret Archive of Legends, Enchantments, and Monsters on YouTube, and the other shows on a growing number of streaming platforms. I say this because popular animated series such as Amphibia, Carmen Sandiego, Little Witch Academia, and Bloom Into You, all feature either archives or archivy settings. The same can be said about The Bravest Knight, Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, Steven Universe, and Manaria Friends all of which feature archives. Even so, these shows are cases of archives that have absent archivists, with some of these archives literally being abandoned. Furthermore, this article could be expanded further if George and Lance, the self-declared historians of the archive-library-museum in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and the possible manager of the Ancient Egypt special collections room of the PYRAMID school library in Cleopatra in Space, Khensu, the mentor of the show’s protagonist, Cleopatra, are included. In the latter case, however, it is not known if Khensu is the one that organized the information or if it was someone else instead. In the end, I’ll keep writing about this subject to engender continued discussion while pushing for more, and better, representation of the archives profession in popular culture.

To continue reading Burkely’s insights into librarians and archivists, make sure you visit his Libraries in Popular Culture and Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blogs.

Sources used

“About Archives,” Society of American Archivists, 12 Sept. 2016.

“Athenaeum,” Dictionary.com, 2021.

Badiola, Yssa. “Hey gang, I’m Yssa [.] Creator & showrunner of Recorded By Arizal. And We have a panel for RTX!! That’s wild!,” Rooster Teeth, 29 Aug. 2020.

Badiola, Yssa. “Recorded by Yssa: The Team – Vlog #1,” Reddit, 27 Sept. 2020.

Badiola, Yssa, Christine Marie Cabanos, and Joshua Kazemi, “RTX – Recorded by Arizal,” interview by Kdin Jenzen, Rooster Teeth, 21 Sept. 2020, 41:54-42:56.

Hermann, Burkely, “A ‘special library’ or a misnamed archives?: Little Witch Academia and archives stereotypes,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 26 Oct. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Abandoned scrolls and archivy themes in Tangled,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 13 Feb. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “Amphibia’s folly and the stereotypical archives,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 30 July. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Archives in Carmen Sandiego,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 23 Jan. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “Arizal, Recordkeeping, and the World of Maktaba,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 30 Sept. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Cedric, Grunt, and the dusty hall of records,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 19 Dec. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Examining a basement newspaper archives in ‘Stretch Armstrong’,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 9 Aug. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Futurama and the curious case of the Physical File Archive,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 1 Aug. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Missing records, love, and mystery in ‘Bloom Into You’,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 14 Nov. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Is it a ‘Jedi Archives’ or a ‘Jedi Library’ in Star Wars?,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 4 Aug. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Popular culture and the duties of archivists,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 27 Feb. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “The Mystic Archives of Dantalian confuses libraries and archives again,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 9 Sept. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “The specter of…”snot-nosed archivists” and the value of archives in popular culture,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 13 Feb. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “VCRs, virtual communications, and lost records: Archivy themes in Steven Universe,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 16 Jan. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “Anne, the forbidden archives, romance, and research,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 13 Feb. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “So… where are the archivists, anyway?: Abandoned archives and absent archivists,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 20 Feb. 2021.

Hermann, Burkely, “She-Ra, Bow, and the archives: An ‘archivy situation,’ indeed,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 13 Aug. 2020.

Hermann, Burkely, “Cleo and the Ancient Egypt section of P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. library,” Wading Through The Cultural Stacks, 20 Aug. 2020.

Houston, Brad. “A Records Center is not an Archives: Transfer Forms!,” The Schedule, 30 Apr. 2018.

“Maktaba,” Wiktionary, 12 Aug. 2019.

“SAA Receives IMLS Grant for A*CENSUS II,” Society of American Archivists, 24 July 2020.

Shaw, Benjamin. “Just Stick It in the Basement: Before the Archives,” WETA, 18 Aug. 2015.

“The Societal Role of Archives,” Council on Library and Information Resources, n.d.

Walch, Victoria Irons. “Part 3. A* Census: A Closer Look Expanded version,” Society of American Archivists, 2006.

“What’s an Archives?” National Archives and Records Administration, 15 Aug. 2016.

“What’s an Archivist?” National Archives and Records Administration, 10 May 2017.

“What Are Archives and How Do They Differ from Libraries?,” Society of American Archivists, n.d.

“What are Archives,” National Museum of American History, n.d.

“What are archives?,” International Council on Archives, n.d.

“What are Archives,” National Archives of Fiji, 2012.

“What are archives?,” University of Nottingham, n.d.

“What are archives?,” Kings College at Cambridge, n.d.

“What are archives?,” National Archives (UK), n.d.

Reprinted from Reel Librarians.

#archivist #archives #librarians of color #archivists of color #TV shows #animated shows #anime #NARA #cleopatra in space #she-ra #she-ra and the princesses of power #SPOP #stretch armstrong #bipoc #recorded by arizal

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jpoakbrook · 2 years

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BEYOND THE BEDROOM

series summary: a collection of smutty drabbles from my fic "beyond the stars, beyond the sea".

These are NOT canon.

Just a bunch of shameless little smut between Juniper & everyone else.

chapter 3: obi-wan

NSFW: pure smut

You gasped as his teeth found your neck, gently biting in between needy kisses. You were quickly moving the cups of tea away from your little area of influence. Knocking them over would ruin some of the books, but it would cause people to come see what was going on. And the last thing you wanted was to be caught like this.

Obi-wan stood between your legs, your feet hooked behind his waist to hold him closely to you, and you propped yourself up with your hands on the table. He tore open the front of your cardigan, your bare breasts exposed, nipples stiffening in the cold air. You were gasping, his body hot against yours, and his fingers hooked into the waistband of your pants. You lifted your hips and allowed him to quickly tug the pants away. You were wet.

He fumbled with the front of his pants, and you laughed a little as you took over, swiftly undoing the front to slide it down to his knees. When you straightened up again, your hand wrapped around his hard cock, loving the warmth and the way it throbbed beneath your touch. You kissed him, biting onto his lower lip when he tried to grab your tongue with his. He groaned, and you felt that.

His hands pulled you taut against him, and he sunk deep into your core. You threw your head back with a gasp, not daring to moan in the silent archives. He didn’t care, his own groan reverberating in your chest. You laughed a little as he started to thrust inside of you.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice breathless as he hit that spot, making you moan.

“Nothing. Nothing,” you gasped back, fingers grasping at his chest. “It’s just… you’re so proper, and now you’re fucking me in the library,” you said with a little laugh. He laughed as well, kissing you roughly.

“There’s still more to come, my dear,” he muttered darkly against your lips. You beamed at him, but your eyes rolled back as he thrust into you. Your hands moved to his back, holding him against you, chest to chest, and you felt your toes start to curl.

“O-Obi-wan,” you gasped. He audibly groaned at that. You realised this was the first time you really called him by his name. “Obi-wan, please,” you begged of him, and he fell apart. He crushed you against him, your name a fumble on his lips, as he unloaded inside of you. Feeling his seed fill you up, the heat of it pushed you over the edge, and you had to bite down on his robes to stop your cry.

You sat on the edge of the table, his cock still inside you, as his cum dripped from your pussy. He panted lightly, forehead on your shoulder, before you kissed him.

“Tonight? You’re calling me Master Kenobi,” he muttered in your ear. You grinned at him and nodded.

“Of course, sir.”

#the research and outreach archivist #galactic daydreams #smut #drabble #ao3fic #jp oakbrook #archive of our own #fanfic #star wars #the clone wars #obi wan kenobi #obi wan smut #juniper pyke #beyond the bedroom

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uwmarchives · 2 years

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UWM Archives Intern Spotlight

Meet intern Maddi Brenner, third-year graduate student in the coordinated master’s degree program for Library and Information Science (MLIS) and Urban Studies (MS). She is in her final year of the program and plans to graduate in May 2022.

What is your area of study and research interests? My research interests include urban history, public libraries, mental health & pedagogy, and anything archives.

Tell us about your thesis research and field work.

I am currently in the research phase of my thesis. I am analyzing the expansion of branch libraries and the implementation of a coordinated branch library system in the city of Milwaukee during the 1960s and 70s. I am reviewing the goals of the plan, its development and success post-construction. So far, I have noticed several discrepancies in funding and budget allocations, library location issues, council disagreements and neighborhood dynamics involved in library development.

I am also a fieldworker at Marquette University where I am processing the previously restricted collection of Joseph McCarthy (JRM). If you are interested in any random facts about the 1950s, I seem to have copious amounts of knowledge on the topic. One thing I am working on now is transferring relevant material related to and by Jean Kerr Minetti (the wife, and later widow, to Joe) from the JRM collection to its own open series. The documentation of women involved in the life of famous male figures is not often represented or even in its own narrative. The goal is to connect a sort of interrelatedness to the two series, but ultimately allow the individuals to stand alone in their interpretation.

It reminds me that although work has and is being done to address issues in collection arrangement and description, there is still more to do.

What draws you to the archives, special collections, or libraries profession?

I am really interested in how primary sources connect us to certain understandings of our history, especially through outreach, reference, and research.

What is your favorite collection within the archive -- or most interesting record/collection that you've come across?

I don't have a true favorite, but I do think it's cool that we hold the Society of American Archivists records. It is a massive collection with over 350 boxes and more than 3,500 digital files. Organization of the material has been re-arranged multiple times with new accessions up to 2018. I am not only fascinated by the history of archiving and collection management, but also how these records shaped issues of privilege, representation, and accessibility in the archives today.

What are you working on now for the archives? Currently, I am working on research regarding reference and WTMJ film footage. The purpose of the project is to explore the frequency of reference requests and the value of preserving WTMJ footage. I will be analyzing both social media and e-mail as platforms crucial in access and outreach processes.

I also regularly coordinate archive transfers to other Wisconsin schools. It is fun to see what type of material is out there from other repositories and how impactful this program can be for researchers. Wisconsin is one of the only states that has this program, so that's exciting!

What's something surprising you've learned (about yourself as an archivist or about the profession) since you've started working at UWM Archives?

Honestly, I've learned that no two days are the same at the archives. There is so much going on and almost always a reference inquiry - whether big or small that I can dive into. There is a common misconception that archivists just sit around in an underground storage room all day and though, I surprisingly love being in the storage rooms, that's far from the truth. We wear many hats.

#Intern Spotlight #graduate students #UWM Archives #archivists #historians #library history #archives #libraries #UW-Milwaukee

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pittarchives · 4 years

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Founding Anniversary- The Archives of Industrial Society

Cartoon from a Pittsburgh Press feature on the opening of the Archives of Industrial Society in the Fall of 1963. Pictured in the background are Heinz Chapel and the Cathedral of Learning. (Pittsburgh Press, November 3rd, 1963).

This post was written by Jon Klosinski, Archives Assistant

October 7th marks the 57th anniversary of the first accessions and founding of the Archive of Industrial Society (AIS)- one of the foundational collections for Pitt’s Archives & Special Collections department.

Preparation of the AIS program began as early as 1960 under the guidance Dr. Samuel Hays, the Pitt History Department Chair, who was already an avid collector of historical material related to industry and its environmental impact in the region. Hays intended for AIS to serve as a primary source collection that would meet the research demands of social history, a new discipline which had emerged in the early 1960s and sought to understand the lives of ordinary people whose experiences had been underrepresented in the historical record.

Samuel P. Hays, founder of the Archives of Industrial Society

Historians in the region had combed the area for records before, but generally for colonial-era material and records related to very small group of people- mainly white, male, public figures. Older institutions in the region, such as the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, founded in 1879, had up until the middle 20th century only focused its collecting work on prominent individuals and families in the region. Archival scholar Richard Cox describes the founding of the Archives of Industrial Society at Pitt in the early 1960s as “…a conscious effort to deal with the omissions in the acquisition policy of the Historical Society and to support the research needs and interests of the urban and social historians located at the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions of higher education.”[1]

Hays received a grant for the AIS project from the Wherrett Memorial Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation, administered by Dr. Stanton Belfour. Monte Calvert, a Pitt History PhD candidate, was appointed as the first curator of AIS, and began work with a small team of graduate students providing assistance. Calvert, a native Californian, had worked in various capacities at archives and museums across the country, and spent time in August 1963 visiting the Baker Library at Harvard Business School to learn more about proper organization and management of an archival program.

Monte Calvert, then a Pitt History PhD and first curator of the AIS, in a Pittsburgh Press feature on the AIS launch (Pittsburgh Press, November 3rd, 1963)

Calvert anticipated the project to be very large, from single letters to roomfuls of records that detailed mines, large corporations, and other types of records generally thought to be outdated and thrown away by their creators. From the outset, the department intended to use the archive to reach beyond the field of history, envisioning a broader program for the study of industrial society in general that would connect with other departments at the University. All of the material gathered in the first few weeks of the program was piled into a single room, 2916, on the 29th floor of the Cathedral of Learning, along with a loan of additional storage space on the 3rd floor of the Mineral Industries Building. Clearly needing more adequate space to facilitate research, Calvert and his supporting staff anticipated an eventual move to facilities in the new Hillman Library, which opened in January 1968.

The initial scope for the archives project aimed to collect records created between 1850 and 1900, a period of great industrial expansion in the region. Early literature and outreach materials created by the AIS details the types of materials that were being sought, which included papers of important civic and political leaders and organizations, minutes and manuscript records of ethnic, nationality and religious groups; newspapers created by ethnic, labor and religious group; and books, printed documents and broadsides related to the history of Western Pennsylvania in the 19th and 20th centuries. Calvert and the AIS project also identified material that had been traditionally neglected at libraries. Known (and often dismissed) as “ephemera”, this included catalogs, pamphlets, instruction books, price lists and other printed matter that contained useful data on prices, specifications, principles or other information that could not be easily found elsewhere.

Archives of Industrial Society Promotional Brochure, c. 1966

The first two accessions into AIS were entered on October 7th, AIS.1963.01 and AIS 1963.02. The American Service Institute, AIS, 1963.01, The Records of the American Service Institute, was founded in Pittsburgh in 1941 with the purpose of working through the organized structure of the Pittsburgh community to promote better understanding and appreciation among people of all cultural and national backgrounds. The collection is comprised of material and includes minutes, unpublished studies and reports, immigration and naturalization files, publications, general information on local organizations, material on local community projects, context about the aged population, youth immigration records, and information about customs and traditions of cultural groups. The collection has been previously featured on this blog as part of the Archival Scholars Research Award program.

The first two entries in the Archives of Industrial Society Accession Log on October 7, 1963. (Archives and Special Collections Department Internal files).

AIS.1963.02, The Sumner B. Ely Diaries, is a series of 50 small diaries that detail the daily activities of Sumner B. Ely, an engineer who worked in the iron industry from 1899 until 1920, and became Superintendent of the Bureau of Smoke Prevention, part of Pittsburgh's Department of Public Health in 1941.

Today, building on the Archives of Industrial Society 's mission of documenting underrepresented and underserved communities, The Archives and Special Collections Department of the University of Pittsburgh Library System continues to pursue those broad objectives through its robust collecting initiatives. The Archives of Industrial Society continues in the Library System under its prefix “AIS” but has grown to represent new historical resources in areas such as African American studies, LGBTQIA+ studies, women’s studies, gender studies, medical innovation and other materials that document Western Pennsylvania's continual growth from its industrial past.

[1] Cox, Richard, Documenting Localities: A Practical Model for American Archivists and Manuscript Curators. (Lanham, Md & London: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996). 74

#accessionanniversary #archives #industrialhistory #western pennsylvania #libraries #universityofpittsburgh

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sparkmender · 4 years

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"I... honestly just want to pack my bags and go travel the universe and see and explore everything possible. There's not much of a job for explorers of my size and skillset, but it's a nice dream."

“Does it have to be a job, Orion?”

“Forgive me for my ignorance-- I’m not up to date on modern employment practices-- but surely there’s nothing wrong with adventuring without it being for your job. But beyond that, I daresay any scientific or outreach team would need mecha of your specialty. Research and recovery are not the overnight miracles we often wish they could be. An archivist with your memory and processing would be a boon.”

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daloy-politsey · 4 years

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Since its founding in 1925, YIVO has served Yiddishists and the wider academic community as an independent academic institution, archive, and library. During its 95 years, our community of scholars, teachers, students, and researchers have made frequent use of YIVO’s abundant resources in our classrooms, academic research, creative projects, and general education. Therefore, it comes as a shock to learn that YIVO has laid off its entire library staff. Given YIVO’s commitment to Yiddish Studies scholarship and to the history of Eastern European Jews, it is disheartening that a full-time library staff is not one of YIVO’s main priorities, budgetary concerns notwithstanding. As members of YIVO’s community and academic backbone, we produce the scholarship presented at events, interpret YIVO’s rich trove of archives for the public, and support its initiative to preserve Yiddish and Jewish culture and materials. As such, we call for the immediate reinstatement of the library staff, and for more financial transparency, and accountability, to the scholarly community that carries on this work.

We are aware that YIVO has lately struggled with fundraising, and fallen short of its projected unrestricted operating revenue. However, loss of the library staff will not increase the efficiency of the organization. As a nonprofit institution that values the academic study of Jewish history, life, and culture, the board must find alternative strategies to mitigate financial strain. While archivists and staff from partner institutions are available for support, none of these individuals are Yiddish-specialist librarians. The librarians recently laid off include some of the most knowledgeable Yiddish library specialists currently working. The loss of this knowledge and expertise is hard to exaggerate. As the Jewish Studies scholarly community grows in size, the YIVO library is in high demand by researchers. It requires curatorial supervision, daily cataloging, acquisitions, maintenance, involvement in library outreach, and partnerships in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. Laying off these librarians will lead to an eschewed scholarship, one that excessively and wrongly relies on digital searches and lacks the knowledge of the breadth of the materials. Without its library staff and director, the YIVO library cannot fully serve the scholarly community or call itself a leading academic institution.

YIVO’s history demonstrates that preservation of language, culture and history are worth more than any price. We recall the zamlers, forshers, and smugglers who were devoted to the survival of the Yiddish library for future generations. We ask that exciting initiatives at YIVO do not come at the expense of the institution’s commitment to academic excellence and integrity.

#jewish #yiddish

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nyfacurrent · 5 years

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Conversations | Managing Your Practice as an Immigrant Artist with Claudia Sohrens

The German artist, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, and IAP Mentor shared actionable steps for making the most out of your career.

We’re interviewing German artist Claudia Sohrens in honor of October’s German-American Heritage Month. Sohrens is also a researcher, archivist, producer, and circulator. Her work is featured in private collections and has been presented in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has served as a mentor in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program for Visual & Multidisciplinary Arts since 2011.

NYFA: Based on your experience as an immigrant artist from Germany, what was the biggest challenge you faced when you first came to the U.S., and what did you do to adjust to it?

Claudia Sohrens: I came to New York as a student in 1997. During that year, I immersed myself in a one-year full-time program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) that is now called Creative Practices. I focused on taking classes and making work. I also took advantage of the creative dialogue and constructive feedback from my teachers and peers.

It was challenging to transition into the reality of living and working in New York. Although I had become part of a greater creative community and network of photographers through my studies, all my peers seemed to be competing for the same opportunities. At that time, ICP was just starting up their Digital Photography Department, and because of my background in Fashion and Communications Design, my previous professional experiences, and my OPT (Optional Practical Training) documentation, I was offered the opportunity to teach a few digital classes at the school right off the bat. Right time, right place!

My proudest accomplishment is being a mother and artist, while also being a creative educator in New York. Over the years, I’ve become part of a strong community that is passionate about using creative production as a strategy to inspire, to generate critical dialogue, and to empower communities (ICP, Pratt, NYU Tisch, Parsons, BRIC, Artists Space, NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Program, Brooklyn Arts Council, Sotheby’s Art Institute, among others).

NYFA: You’ve participated in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program since 2011. What are some of the best strategies for creating and locating opportunities that you recommend to your mentees?

CS: Exposure is key to fully take advantage of the many opportunities out there. Here are some strategies that have been successful to me and my mentees in the past:

Immerse yourself in a creative environment and expose yourself to a wide range of disciplines and international developments.

Look for opportunities, including opportunities other artists have received throughout their careers.

Cultivate your creative community and professional network of peers, alumni, curators, presenters, editors, and other creative professionals.

Most deadlines such as residencies and fellowships are recurring. Create a calendar and exchange your research and resources with other artists.

Engage in a critical dialogue with the public through exhibitions and curatorial projects, scholarly research and writing, engagement in panels, lectures and conferences, as well as on social media and through community outreach.

Create your own opportunities to show your work through independent curatorial projects, exhibitions, and other art events also in lesser-known, alternative venues.

NYFA: What are the most important steps for you in order to organize and manage your practice?

CS: Here’s my advice:

Dedicate time and focus to the creative process, develop a rigorous practice!

Set short-term and long-term goals for individual projects and your career as an artist at large.

Be part of a creative community!

Use your creative production and research as a strategy to generate a critical dialogue inside and outside the studio.

Participate in exhibitions, artist residencies, and curatorial projects etc, as well as interdisciplinary and collaborative practices

Apply for grants and create funding opportunities that will support your creative practice.

NYFA: What are you currently working on? Do you have any ongoing/upcoming shows on the horizon?

CS: My academic research is concerned with the status of the photographic image as raw material for the construction of historical narratives informed by public policy with a special emphasis on the history of the photograph and race.

In my creative practice, I force my research through familiar cultural tropes and in contested accounts of the past and present to reveal our latent social desires and raise questions about the stories that are told and preserved and those that are suppressed or forgotten. My work generally unfolds through a range of media–photography, video, books, and multilayered image spaces. I am currently working on a project that focuses on the vernacular for a two-person exhibition in Hamburg, Germany in the summer of 2020.

- Interview Conducted by Alicia Ehni, Program Officer at NYFA Learning

About Claudia Sohrens Claudia Sohrens is an artist from Germany. Her work, which has been featured in private collections and presented in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, expands on the notion of the artist as researcher, archivist, producer, and circulator. As an independent curator, she has worked on projects including the 2017 Pop-Up Archive at Mana Contemporary, which featured works by alumni from her “What is an Archive?” class at ICP; the Action Archive, created during her artist residency at A.I.R in 2015; Foto/Pod What is a photograph? at the 2013 Dumbo Arts Festival; and the exhibition Ulrike ist Schuld at the German Embassy in New York in 2001. Fellowships and residencies include the 2018 Vermont Studio Center residency, the 2017 ICP Artist Residency at Mana Contemporary, a 2014-15 A.I.R. Fellowship, a 2010 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Photography, and the AIM23 Artist Residency at the Bronx Museum in 2002. Her long-term photographic research project Mise En Abyme: Archive is fiscally sponsored by NYFA, where she has served as a mentor for NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Program since 2011. Sohrens is a teaching artist for Photography and Youth Media programs with Artists Space, BRIC Arts & Media, and Sotheby’s Art Institute. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and faculty at the International Center for Photography.

This interview is part of the ConEdison Immigrant Artist Program Newsletter #121. Subscribe to this free monthly e-mail for artist’s features, opportunities, and events. Learn more about NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program.

Images from the top: Claudia Sohrens, RV | Untitled - III, Dye-sub on Aluminum, 44 x 30 in, 2017, Courtesy of the artist; Claudia Sohrens, Diptych: Aufheben #005 Box of Lighters, Aufheben #006 Livingroom, Archival Pigment Print, 24 x 63 inch, 2009/2017, Courtesy of the artist; Claudia Sohrens, RV | 2 3/4 - I, Dye-sub on Aluminum, 30 x 44 in, 2017, Courtesy of the artist

#claudia sohrens #alicia ehni #interview #conversations #iap #immigrant artist mentoring program #immigrant artist program #iap newsletter #nyfa learning #instagram

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uwmadarchives · 5 years

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Pay Your Students: Student Activism and Student Labor In Campus Archives

Or, “Building Trust Between Archives and the Student Body: Hiring Student Historians” or even, “My Undergraduate Experience at the Midwestern Archives Conference: Why More Paid Positions Like Mine Must Exist On Campus”

by Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Historian in Residence

“Student Memory: Then and Now” Poster by Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), presented at MAC 2019 in Detroit

This year, I had the honor of attending the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) 2019 in Detroit, Michigan for a couple days sitting in on sessions, learning about the archival profession, and presenting my poster entitled “Student Memory: Then and Now”. I’d been to conferences before but the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Agricultural conference was, as you might guess, a little bit of a different vibe than an Archives meet-up.

The conference was informative and occasionally quirky (including the damaged document recovery vendor giving out vacuum-sealed beef jerky as a freebie). I attended sessions on imposter syndrome in the profession, documenting the HIV/AIDS crisis in the Midwest, and #Archives4BlackLives. In the time outside the conference, I wandered around Detroit with a friend, checking out a public installation in honor of organized labor, exploring the Detroit Institute of Art, and walking by the Church of Scientology up the street from our hotel. Critiques of many sessions included, the conference was an enriching and enlightening experience -- especially considering that, a little over a year ago, I had only a basic understanding of what an archives even was.

I may have been the only undergraduate at the conference, my age surprising many of the University Archivists who approached me to discuss my poster. While the poster discussed parts of my research and its relevance to the present, the bulk of my presentation centered around questions of archives outreach and community engagement, documenting the experiences of the student body and peer-educating about what an archives is and does. In my presentation, I wanted to suggest that archives can be supportive spaces for student activists on campus and archivists can be their accomplices in their pursuit of justice. I made a short list of action steps.

How can archivists support student activism?

Collaborate with student organizers, government, and groups to preserve student memory, especially for contemporary issues

Listen to the needs of students, especially marginalized students, asking: how archival collections can be of service to them?

Host events and workshops about relevant historical campus movements and protests

Encourage students to think of themselves as historical subjects by leading workshops teaching students how to document their experiences

Provide accessible opportunities for students to contribute their own meaningful, modern materials to the campus archives

But most importantly...

Fund paid student staff positions, employing students to do archival research, outreach, and modern documentation

On my poster I was transparent about the wages, conditions, responsibilities, and privileges of my position as Student Historian in Residence, which is well-paid, supported by the staff, and flexible in terms of time and content. By being compensated for my labor, I’ve been able to spend the time that I need to in the archives working on all sorts of projects that benefit the archives and (I hope) serve the student body.

Though the Student Historian position began this year as a pilot research opportunity, the work has sprouted into other projects, like creating a teaching kit about the Black Student Strike, spreading the gospel of archives by presenting to classrooms around campus, leading late-night archives sessions on topics like “Queer History”, teaching student government about self-documentation, and most recently, conducting interviews for a modern oral history project on UW-Madison student activism from 2016 - 2019.

While non-student staff keep the wonderful Archives ship afloat, this kind of outreach work can only be done by a student. I’m not saying that I’m the student who should do this work -- this isn’t about me, it’s about student labor in general. The importance and value of archival peer education is immense. The benefits of trust between the student body and their campus archives are best achieved when student staff members are given the opportunity to take ownership over the archives and bring that passion to the rest of their circles, letting other students know that their campus archives is a place where their collective work can be remembered. This quality of work can only happen if students are paid for it -- and paid well.

At the conference, I had one university archivist approach me and ask how their archives could create these student community connections without a budget. Was there a way she could get the same results without paying students for their work?

As the Student Historian, I have the profound opportunity to spend hours familiarizing myself with materials, reflecting on my learning, meeting with staff members, creating projects to serve my fellow students, and sharing my work with the rest of my community. This position requires a lot of time each week and has yielded projects that the Archives staff and I are proud of. Yet for many marginalized, low-income students -- all of whom would offer unique, necessary perspectives into these archival pursuits -- this opportunity would be inaccessible were it unpaid. Many students can’t afford to work for free. I answered that, while there are many steps an archives can take to support student activism and document these corners of student life, by not paying students for documentation or research, an archive creates a barrier for access and excludes the brightest, most marginalized students on campus from sharing their perspectives and benefiting from the enormous opportunity that archival work has to offer.

To University Archivists interested in the above: Apply for grants to fund student projects. Find funding for student staff members to do research, outreach, and modern materials collection.

Archives are a place for activism, for students to reclaim campus memory as their own. Do yourself and the student body a favor -- create more positions like mine and spread the archives love inside the reading room and beyond.

-- Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Historian in Residence 2018-19

#Student #Student Archivist #Student Historian #Student History #History #Archives #Student Labor #Student Activism #Activism #Organizing #Memory #University #University of Wisconsin #UW #Workers #Wage #Labor #Labor History

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stratharchives · 5 years

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Hello from Rachael Jones: New Assistant Archivist at Archives & Special Collections

With the New Year came a new team member for Archives & Special Collections, so welcome to Rachael Jones, our new Assistant Archivist!

Hello, I’m Rachael Jones and I started on 3 January 2019 as Assistant Archivist here at the University of Strathclyde Archives & Special Collections. My background in archives began when I became a Graduate Trainee at the University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections in 2011. This traineeship gave me a real appreciation of the amazing stories that the records of an institution can tell and allowed me to realise that I wanted to pursue a career in heritage, and particularly with archival records. The next step was to get the Archival qualification and I graduated with a Masters Degree in Information Management and Preservation from the University of Glasgow in 2013. Since then I have had a number of archive roles within the University of Glasgow including Business Archives Cataloguer, Heritage Engagement Officer, and I was also Cataloguing Archivist at the Glasgow School of Art.

I’m really excited to get to grips with a new collection and discover the fascinating records that the University of Strathclyde holds. As Assistant Archivist I will be assisting the University Archivist in making the collections discoverable by cataloguing them, working to continue collecting records that tell the story of the University of Strathclyde and support our researchers and students, and also promoting the Archives through outreach activities.

I have begun my cataloguing activities with an accession to the collection of the ‘Occupational Health and Environmental Diseases Association’ (OEDA) papers.

This extensive collection was catalogued in 2017 during a Wellcome Trust funded project ‘Killer Dust’ to catalogue and preserve the University of Strathclyde’s collections relating to asbestos.

The OEDA papers are a very important collection in terms of recording asbestos-related health problems in employees, helping those affected gain compensation, and the fight to have asbestos recognised as a dangerous substance. OEDA was founded by Nancy Tait following the death of her husband due to asbestos exposure and it was the world’s first asbestos action group. You can find out more about OEDA and Nancy Tait in this blog-post. Recently, the University of Strathclyde received an additional few boxes to add to this collection and it is these papers that have made up my first cataloguing job. It has been great to begin to gain familiarity with the collections here at Strathclyde with this very valuable set of records.

#cataloguing #archives #special collections #archives and special collections #archivist #asbestos #university of strathclyde #news #staff

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thebrewstorian · 5 years

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What’s the story with the Hop Growers of America? Glad you asked.

When you have spent so much time do outreach and gathering lovely oral histories, sometimes you get a bit of a backlog of collections.

Those are all the collections that don’t have links on the OHBA guide or do have a link but it goes to a collection guide that is ... lacking ...

We are working through them, but an amazing amount of detail goes into writing a finding aid!

What is a finding aid? Wikipedia says a finding aid is:

a document containing detailed information about a specific collection of records within an archive. They often consist of an inventory and description of the materials, their source, and their structure. The finding aid for a collection is usually compiled by the collection's entity of origin, or by an archivist or librarian during archival processing, and serves the purpose of locating specific information within the collection ... As long as humans have stored documents, they have created tools to navigate their storage systems; ancient Sumerians created them to locate bureaucratic records. In modern times, finding aids were paper documents such as lists or index cards; now they can be created in electronic formats like spreadsheets or databases.

I tell students that it is something that tells you what is in a collection, but doesn’t actually give you all the information in that collection. It’s like all the front matter to a book and the index at the end, but not the actual meat of the book itself. It’s a guide to let you know if this is a collection you might want to use for your research.

Some finding aids for large collections are really short -- and then there are the finding aids I write for small collections... Anyone who has read this blog knows that nothing I write is short. Because I just love words!!!

The materials that make up the Hop Growers of America collection were actually received from the Oregon Hop Commission in 2014 as part of the Oregon Hop Growers Association Records. Because these items were not about the OHGA specifically, we separated them out into a distinct collection.

In a nutshell, these records give you information about the functioning of the HGA organization. The bulk of the collection is comprised of meeting minutes from committees within the organization, as well as annual HGA reports and U.S. Hop Promotion Committee minutes. You'll also find annual reports from the International Hop Conference, in which many of the major hop-growing countries, such as Japan and Germany, shared crop statistics with each other. Finally, there are reports on crop growth, organizational budgets and financial statements, grower directories, and correspondence.

The HGA organization was founded in 1956 in Washington State. Its mission has always been to create a healthier and more efficient United States hops industry for corporations and farmers through education, advocacy, promotion, and support for technical and scientific research. As a trade organization and registered 501-C5 nonprofit, HGA also focuses on education, advocacy, promotion, and support for technical and scientific research.

Local, state, and regional hop growers associations were formed and dissolved with some regularity in the early decades of commercial production on the west coast. The first major nationwide association was the U.S. Hop Growers Association, founded in 1943 and based in San Francisco, California. The organization published the periodical magazine The Hopper from 1945-1954, though the California offices and organization closed in 1953.

Hops have deep roots in the United States. Early settlers to North America could pick native wild hops in the woods around their settlements. But by the turn of the 19th century, specific areas specializing in growing hops had formed in America. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York all became early hop growing regions. By the early 1800s, hop growing had declined in the northern New England states; New York had higher quality soil and was closer to large population centers, and as a result it became the major hop-growing region from the 1880s until the beginning of the 20th century.

Hop production shifted again, this time to the west coast. Hop growing arrived in 1850s and by the turn of the 20th century both Oregon and California produced more hops than New York. Early western farmers were also helped by the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which allowed them to transport their hops to the breweries in the midwest and east. Hops were still grown during Prohibition, but primarily for export; when the Prohibition was lifted in 1933, hop acreage rapidly increased. Oregon, Washington and California led in hop production, and soon Idaho joined the other three western hop producing states. Following World War II, the U.S. was the largest hop producing country in the world, and much of what was produced was exported.

You can read more about what’s in the collection in the HGA finding aid!

You can learn more about the Hop Growers of America on their site!

#hops history #hop growers of america #oregon hops and brewing #finding aid #archives jargon

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