Podcast Series: Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age

Episode 1: Background, Forum, and Fruition

The digital age has brought an onslaught of changes to the practice of information preservation. With so much out there at a time, how can archivists keep up? How do librarians fit into the task of finding and safeguarding materials? How can archivists, curators, and librarians work together to collect, restore, and preserve information for years to come? Susan Mizruchi, director of the Center for Humanities at Boston University, used the leverage of her administrative role to explore these questions. To her, the solution was within walking distance: connecting BU faculty and librarians with staff at the Boston Public Library. Inspired by a lively forum, Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age was born, bringing together experts from divergent fields in academia, as well as public libraries.

In this first episode, Susan explains her background as an academic and her longstanding involvement with public and academic libraries. She also speaks on the process of finding the text’s diverse contributors from across professional roles, countries, ethnicities, and subjects.

Episode 2: Let’s Talk Politics

Whether we like to admit it or not, politics surround our civic, professional, and personal lives. The media we choose, products we buy, and people we engage with reflect our own governance, political party, and position in society. So how do politics factor into the preservation, curation, and dissemination of digital materials? Susan Mizruchi, director of the Center for Humanities at Boston University, discusses the politics that color the practice of preservation. What is the political urgency in protecting records? How do we ensure that archivists are being valued for their work? Does the compensation keep up with the ongoing pedagogical and technical roles that librarians are being asked to take on?

In this second episode, Susan talks the politics of protecting materials and the issues of status and pay that arise in librarianship. She also digs into the value of collaboration between librarians, archivists, and faculty, offering examples of mutually-beneficial partnerships that formed during the process of putting together her edited volume, Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age.

Episode 3: Navigating the Flood of Information

Our digital age has brought with it a mushrooming number of sources, articles, and perspectives to choose from. What should be preserved? How open should resources be? How do librarians and archivists navigate our complicated, ever-changing digital world? Susan Mizruchi, editor of Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age, discusses the concerns librarians hold as our digital footprint expands: how can we make information more accessible, and how do we teach new scholars around the world to sort, dissect, and apply this knowledge?

In this third episode, Susan discusses the duplicity of the digital age. What are some of the darker consequences of free, digital resources—overstimulation, the gatekeeping of information for profit—and how can we curb these negative growths? She also touches on how community archivists challenge traditional notions of what an archive should be through an activist agenda and aversion to institutional protocols.