Archives: Power

Randall Jimerson’s “Embracing the Power of Archives” is a thought provoking reflection on the responsibilities of archives. Using metaphors of a temple, a prison, and a restaurant, Jimerson explains the different ways that people understand archives and the power that archives hold. The ample pop culture references made Jimerson a fun read, but more importantly, he manages to convey complex ideas with simple language.

On the rise of postmodern thought Jimerson states, “There is a fundamental, if unpleasant, truth in this postmodern critique. Unfortunately it is obscured in writings of many postmodernists by jargon, convoluted syntactical gyrations, and a good dose of claptrap.” (22) On one hand, I completely love this statement. On the other, I am tempted to analyze Jimerson’s idealistic suggestions in light of everyday archival practices.

Jimerson’s first suggestion is for archives to abandon the pretense of neutrality and objectivity. The ability to be purely objective is not possible. However, representing diverse segments of society does require that archivist not get too caught up with one political perspective. For Jimerson, the guise of objectivity hides political decisions, yet I feel like embracing the politics could very well lead to the same situation.

The benefit of acknowledging biases is that it becomes easier for society to hold archive accountable. As an ideal, archival accountability sounds great. In practice, what does it mean to hold an institution accountable? There are many answers. Accountability could mean having open board meetings, letting people have a say in collecting practices, or it could influence staff procedures.

Probably the most crucial of Jimerson’s suggestions is for archivists to recognize that that they hold power and are responsible to society. An aspect of archival power missing from this article is that people need to learn about archival practices for any of these suggestions to stick. If people think that archives are supposed to keep everything and archivist know that this is not practical financially or for users, Jimerson’s suggestions could cause more strife than most archives can deal with.

Reading

Jimerson, Randall. “Embracing the Power of Archives,” American Archivist 69, no. 1 (Spring - Summer, 2006): 19-32.