Members of the Chronicling Resistance steering committee and thinking partners met April 9, 2019. This was the last formal event for thinking partners in Phase I of the project. Discussion topics at the meeting included where the project was and what it had accomplished, potential next steps, and best practices for future work.
Those in attendance agreed that the project had learned much about what the barriers are to people using traditional library/archive reading rooms and about the collections in PACSCL institutions which relate to resistance. We have also learned that thinking about resistance is often very local: in talking about resistance heros and what resistance means to them, attendees at our listening sessions often mentioned someone in their family or community elders. These outcomes will inform our future development of the project, which includes a grant application in concert with the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Further discussion focused on best practices for reaching out to communities and making archives and libraries more open. We discussed the possibility of developing training for PACSCL library staff on implicit bias and anti-oppression work. We also discussed what it might mean to provide support for activists in archives who may encounter traumatic material. The issue of encouraging more students from a variety of backgrounds to explore libraries and archives as a potential career was raised.
We also discussed issues of preservation and access to collections in both institutional and non-institutional settings. Many communities don’t want their materials to go to a university or historical society, but prefer to preserve them within the community which created the materials. If we put together kits for groups to use in preserving their archives, will they want these and no further contact, or should there be a continued relationship? What might both these options look like?
The meeting closed with conversation about the news from the previous day that the Historical Society of Pennsylvania was laying off 30% of its staff. While not directly related to the project, HSP is a PACSCL member, and everyone at the meeting expressed sadness at the news. Many people around the table also stated that such news forces us to consider how Philadelphia values, preserves, and thinks about its cultural heritage — one of the very questions being explored in Chronicling Resistance.
