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Re: Sharon Centanne's STOP CHENEY email to list



May 25, 2001

Hi Peter (Kurilecz),

    Hmmm, very interesting. Don't men usually tell women to be objective and
not subjective?  But, Peter, the field of archives is completely subjective
in terms of  decisions of archival value and collections maintenance.

     My comments about Sharon's, and others, right to express their political
views in our professional online archives forum was characterized by you as:
        1. not factual
        2. unobjective
        3. not directly related to archives profession

    And, you remind us that:
        1. archivists don't resolve or clarify history
        2. intrusion of politics may result in the loss of funding re:
donations
        3. the archivist must remain neutral


    I just really disagree with your points above.

    Briefly, I was only arguing for allowing archivists to discuss pressing
social concerns online.  A good example:  remember the discussions related to
cultural heritage loss re: Yugolavia/Bosnia and the destruction of passports
and other important government records?     We discussed on the listserv
efforts to lobby our government officials and National Archives to  speak out
against this tragedy.

    Re: archivist's subjectivity.  I learned in academic study  (journalism,
history and especially women's studies courses) that identifying your
subjectivity is preferable to  maintaining a false, or fake objectivity.  I
try to always identify my subjectivity to researchers using my archival
collection and ask for researchers'  perspectives/ subjectivity regarding
their topics.  I also identify my subjectivity in my exhibits, presentations,
and other historical projects I work on.

    I realize that I work in a heightened political environment (labor union)
but I have also worked in academic archives, historical societies and a major
urban public library, and they are also very political workplaces.    I guess
we just disagree on where politics and archives intersect.  I'm would still
encourage archivists to speak out on issues that directly affect our archives
and facilities.

    Finally, the archivist as acquirer and appraiser and processer and
describer of collections most definitely does resolve, clarify or complicate
historical discussions. Not to mention that most (not all, of course)
archivists are also historians in their own right with historical training
and an interest in historical analysis.  In my opinion, remaining neutral
never helps us to carry out our responsibilities effectively, but being
passionate advocates or enthusiastic activists does.  (I have been involved
in efforts to save women's movement-related historical materials in NYC for
the past 8 years and this history would be lost otherwise.)

    One last thing--    I think that Chris Jackson said it best in an old
message to the listserve --
        Re: Sonny and Cher and more (4/12/99)
    I am inclined to believe that if this list is anything worthwhile it is
more than simply mail and notes...We are also a community. A community where
issues are discussed and points of view debated.  As part of all this we also
sometimes are lighthearted, tell jokes (some terrible) or recount stories we
hope others will find intersting or amusing.
    Perhaps an inevitable part of such a community is that at times some of
us will find other's enthusiasm greater than ours.  So be it.  That is the
price we pay for being human.  I would much rather belong to a warm, caring
community than to a trains-run-on-time-I-don't have-time-to-delete community.
    I realize this list-serv is designed as a device to enable us to be
better archivists, but I have zero interest in belonging to a list which
ignores the human side of the job.  If we become a humorless group which
actively seeks out to destroy whimsicalness then we are just as pathetic as
our public image and deserve the disinterest and scorn we sometimes attract..

    Touche, Chris.

                                       Lucinda

Lucinda Manning
UFT Archives & Records Center
United Federation of Teachers
NY, NY   10010
212-598-9213

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