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Re: Where's the Archives content?



Title: RE: Where's the Archives content?

Bridgette,

First off, thank you for the intelligent and articulate manner in which you have brought a discussion of the events of the past two weeks into the stated purview of this listserv, i.e., how as archivists do we professionally respond to the events and what implications do they have for our profession, rather than emphasizing the emotionally personal reactions to the events themselves.

{{ASIDE: I am not downplaying the emotional personal reactions, but again, is THIS the forum for it?}}

I wish I could answer the questions you've raised because I have similar questions of my own. There is far too much truth in saying that the victors get to write the histories...

As for the trend towards 24-hour news coverage, I had more of that than I could stand with the local coverage that we were inundated with during Tropical Storm Allison...ever watch a TV reporter try to report that "Yes, it's STILL raining", for a week straight? Sheesh..."Responsible Media" begins to sound like a classic oxymoron...

I'm finding myself thinking more and more about the Oklahoma City bombing and the fact that we went through a knee jerk response afterwards...looking back through the "record" of that event as reflected through postings to this list(OAALc...Obligatory Archives & Archivist Listserv content) is rather revealing how we, as a community of professionals, dealt with large scale un-natural disasters. Or not dealt with them, as they case may be.

As for literally protecting the collections for which we are responsible, I think our European compatriots have greater experience there...I wonder of any of them might comment?

Dennis