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fetish of records and the value of records



Ed Southern wrote

"I would certainly not underestimate the "responsibility of administering
archives for accountability and evidence" (Dr. Cox's message of 7/3), but
I think it is possible to overlook the importance of the physical nature
of evidence, which is, in some form or fashion, what we must always begin
with (and, as Dr. Cox says, digital media are "harder to fondle"). Thomas
Tanselle, in A Rationale of Textual Criticism, has some intereresting
things to say on this subject (though his original context is literary
manuscripts and printed texts therefrom): "...every text has been affected
in one way or another by the physical means of its transmission; and
second...every copy of a text is a separate piece of documentary evidence.
The implication of the first is that reading a text with historical
understanding must involve reading the physical evidence present in the
same document...."

Actually, I quite agree, and I have read and cited Tanselle's writings for
years.  However, believing that sometimes the evidence in a document is
intricately intertwined with that record's physical attributes (intrinsic
value) is very, very different from saying that the reason one becomes an
archivist is because they like to fondle and roll in old documents (not
intrinsic value, but antiquarian obsession).  The reason one becomes an
archivist or records manager is because they understand the immense
societal importance of records - for accountability, evidence, social and
corporate memory and so on - not because of a fetish with old records.  My
concern is that if we convey to the world that archivists are people with
peculiar attractions to old records, we eliminate the possibility of
gaining an audience about the importance of records.  My other concern is
that the peculiar fascination with old documents impairs one's ability to
assess the value of these records - we can't objectively deal with things
if we have a perverse relationship with them.  So, yes, I think that for
some records their physical attributes are an intricate part of their
evidence and, hence, their value - but I do not believe this was really
the message being conveyed on the listserve.

For those who think records are so important that they might actually take
a moment and read studies from their own professional literature, they
might want to read Helen Wood on the fetish of the document  in Margaret
Proctor and C.P. Lewis, eds., New Directions in Archival Research
(Liverpool: Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies, 2000), ISBN
0-9537963-0-2.  Her investigation into the fetish of the document is an
intriguing study how various custodians and users view and treat archival
records. You can find an online description of Wood's study in Timothy
McSweeney's More Ephemeral Problems in an article by Cathy Alter, "Eat the
Document," posted December 14, 1999 and available at
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/1999/12/14document.html. According to Alter,
Wood's study "centers around the participatory role the archivist has in
creating and influencing fetishistic behavior -- in themselves and in
those who use, and sometimes abuse, archives."  Wood understands that
archivists "use ritualistic methods in the preserving, promoting,
managing, and displaying of archives."  An example, according to Alter's
reading of Wood is the employment of "searchroom rules": "Whether the
researcher is required to wear white gloves, use supports and weights to
cushion the document, or refrain from speaking, they fetishize through the
ritualized process of examining the document. Searchroom rules, which are
often mandated by the archivist, also create an environment of heightened
sensory perception and arousal -- everything is focused on the archive and
its user."


Richard J. Cox
Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice:  412-624-3245
FAX:    412-648-7001
e-mail: rcox@mail.sis.pitt.edu
homepage: http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~rjc

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