In a message dated Sun, 3 Jul 2005 14:55:49 EDT Maarja Krusten <
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writes:
> Academic historians post all
> over the place but seem to shy away from engaging in discussions of archival
> issues and record keeping. I don't know why.
Thank you for the kind words, Maarja. Re your above observation, last year's
Assn. of Canadian Archivists national conference theme was "What's History Got
To Do With It?" One of the key objectives was to provide a forum for
face-to-face discussions and interdisciplinary presentations, much as you have
suggested as what is needed beyond list exchanges -- with which I totally agree. Many
historians were invited, but almost none attended that conference to the
great disappointment of the organizers. There were a number of excellent papers
presented at that conference (I was not in attendance), including an opening
presentation by the same title by Tom Nesmith, erstwhile editor of the ACA
journal Archivaria, and a closing commentary by Terry Cook, both of which were
outstanding. I will be publishing Tom's paper very shortly on mybestdocs.com. An
excellent read.
As noted in my last post, it seems very much a similar situation on the other
side, i.e., ARM professional's seeming disinterest in historian perspectives
-- not just in the products of their studies of history, but in their
perspective on records and recordkeeping. When serving on the planning committee of
the Pittsburgh meeting of the SAA a few years ago, I made a case for the need
for some speakers from other disciplines, including IT, history, etc. I was
invited to obtain some speakers that would provide such a mix. I believe that it
was the first time that SAA had ever had as a keynote speaker, and possibly a
speaker in any capacity, a CEO of a system development firm (Bill Hooton, then
Pres of Tower Software, USA). Bill (now Asst. Dir of the FBI with the RM
portfolio) made an excellent presentation on the developer's perspective, including
what it costs (by the minute) to upgrade software and how important it is for
users not to just put up wish lists and complain that developers don't
listen, but to present a case for the changes that will have the most impact on all
of the users they represent. Otherwise, software developers would fritter away
their limited resources in a dozen directions including many dead ends. I
also obtained committee backing to invite Shelley Davis, former historian of the
IRS, and author of Unbridled Power to speak, which she did. No one could find
a greater advocate for sound recordkeeping than Shelley, and no one to my
knowledge has ever written a book the central them of which was recordkeeping --
albeit abuses in recordkeeping -- in the USG that had sold 40,000 copies by
that time. I made the misjudgment that there would be standing room only as ARM
people would be so interested to hear what a historian had to say about serious
lapses in recordkeeping in a major US agency. This was not about the history
of the IRS. It was about real life, current, recordkeeping issues. Yet only a
handful of ARM professionals showed up at that session. It was an
embarrassment. Her book is still a must read in my opinion for all ARM professionals. And
it reads almost like a thriller novel. Anyone interested may view an essay I
did on the book, "Thinking about accountability, recordkeeping and Shelley
Davis' Unbridled Power : a commentary" that is in the Recent Papers section of
mybestdocs.com or directly at http://www.mybestdocs.com/barry-r-on%20sdavis.html.
Interestingly, like Maarja Krusten, Shelley Davis had her professional
beginnings as an archivist before turning to a career as a government historian.
Regards,
Rick Barry
www.mybestdocs.com
Cofounder, Open Reader Consortium
www.openreader.org
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