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I hope that this observation about the imbalance of what's out there in terms of readings on archives can reach folks in fields engaging with (and writing/teaching about) archives. This gap may not jump out to many folks outside the archives field. https://twitter.com/dorothyjberry/status/1343990876528377861
I know many scholars in other fields who perceive this and work to include voices of working archivists in writing and teaching. But as Dorothy notes, institutions generally don't see archivists as interlocutors who could shape scholarly conversations if given writing support.
Those writings could, in turn, give excellent new attention to the institutions themselves by highlighting aspects of collections that scholars aren't able to address, simply because the nature of the engagements with the materials is fundamentally different, & equally rigorous.
I think there are administrators, institutions, etc., who know and believe this, but lack models for how to create such support. (Do people know of good models for it?) Some places may encourage archivists to write but then expect them to heroically squeeze it in on the side...
...which is what most scholars not in research postitions at universities have to endure all the time.
The only _scenario_ out there I've seen are tenure-track level archive/library positions at universities, where people are required to publish. But this is a scenario rather than a model, since it's only applicable to a tiny percentage of archives positions, even at Univs.
On 3 occasions I was invited by scholars to submit an article to interdiscip volumes abt archives where they felt they must have an archivist in there. Each time I withdrew b/c it was impossible to finish a research article & also maintain the basic archival operations of my job.
It's embarassing to admit that, since I have to also acknowledge my privilege in being invited. If people, especially other archivists, see those volumes and critique them for not including archivists, it will be hard for me to avoid having feelings of failure cross my mind.
Though archival processes are, for me, more satisfying than writing, the feeling of having to leave a bunch of experiences on the table aches over time. Others must feel the same way. I'm astonished by fellow working archivists who publish articles. I raise my glass to you all.
(It's noon here. It's just coffee in the glass.)
