Archives and the Absurd

In the latest issue of the American Archivist (72:2) Scott Cline argues that, since archives presuppose “that there will be a future and generations to which archives will matter,” the archival profession is a “faith-based profession.” A commitment to a long-term view of human existence, Cline suggests, is absurd. (For some suggestions about the absurdity of this belief, see the mashup of apocalyptic scenarios below.) With Kierkegaard, Cline claims, “we can live in this world only on the strength of the absurd, which … [one] ‘grasps by faith.’” Through faith archivists embrace the absurd and “toil in the preservation of the past for the benefit of the present and ‘an indefinite future.’” (“‘To the Limit of Our Integrity’: Reflections on Archival Being,” 334.)

Video via Larry Cebula over at Northwest History, who was kind enough the other day to draw attention to my repository.

The Royal Society: Past, Present and Future

To celebrate its 350^th anniversary, the Royal Society created an interactive timeline, Trailblazing, which offers access to the most influential, inspiring, and intriguing papers published by the society.

Below: “A Letter of Benjamin Franklin … concerning an electrical Kite.” 

“Books are beautiful …

... even in death.” See: “Yuri Dojc's Last Folio: An Exhibition.”

Googled

Nicholson Baker remembers “the antegoogluvian era”; Robert Darnton considers “Google and the New Digital Future.”

Legal Research in the Digital Age

From Nathan Kozuskanich, “Originalism in a Digital Age: An Inquiry into the Right to Bear Arms,” Journal of the Early Republic 29:4 (2009): 586, 606:

The digitization of historical documents into comprehensive archives with keyword search capabilities opens up a new avenue for scholars to recover the usage and meaning of key constitutional phrases, like "bear arms." …

Although digital research cannot be a substitute for traditional historical methods, it can give legal scholars access to a wealth of resources that have been relatively unused in constitutional research. Indeed, a historical focus on context and change over time can complement the legal focus on structure and precedent.

More on The Case for Books

Robert Darnton was on the Diane Rehm show recently, talking about The Case for Books. Darnton’s interest in the history of the book began in the archives. Now, as the director of a great university library, he says he is appalled by the amount of digital archival material that we are losing.

Going West, Through the Book

From the New Zealand Book Council: