<<<<Is there such a thing as a typical archivist?>>>>
<<<No, there isn't - absolutely not! ... I doubt whether there are any
denominators which really are common to all archivists (when closely
examined), and I wouldn't really care for any attempt to stereotype people
from any profession.>>>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Hill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: A typical archivist...?
<<Aidan ... I immediately agreed with you when I read your post but then I
thought a little more. If we have no commonality or typicality then surely
we are not what we are. Anyone can do what we do - with or without
education or training ... Libraries have seen this foist on them so perhaps
we should be careful what we wish for ... Regards Sue>>
Well, it's generally encouraging to receive any sort of response to
one's postings, so thank you for contributing that.
I suppose what I instinctively feel suspicious about are any suggestions
that one can make assumptions about people. Maybe archivists are all
engaged in broadly similar work and these days almost all of them gained
their basic skills from attending one of a fairly small number of training
courses. But probably very few of them (if any) will be in posts where
they are in practice actually utilising every single one of the topics which
were taught on those respective courses.
Do all archivists look the same? Do they all of them dress fairly
conservatively (or all otherwise)? Do they all have exactly the same
fundamental values or the same life philosophies? Do they all have
extrovert (or all have introvert) personalities? Do they all usually share
the same politics, or the same (pro- or anti-) religious attitudes? Do they
all actively pursue historical research outside working hours? Should there
be pressure to conform in any of these areas? Are they all invariably
meticulous over points of fine detail? Are they all strongly pro- (or all
strongly anti-) genealogists? I think the answer to every single one of
these questions is 'No'.
How might archivists answer the basic question: 'What is a record
office actually for?' I think it's both a fair question and an important
one. Would there be subtle differences in the answers offered by different
archivists? Would many of them be giving a different answer today to what
they might have done in the 1960s or 1970s? And how do you think new
archivists might be answering it in another twenty-five or thirty years from
now (given - say - the effects of changing public expectations, new
developments in the potential of digitisation, and the possibility of
changing attitudes towards issues of personal privacy)? Will there be
further differences in the future? Personally I rather expect that there
will be.
Aidan Jones.
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