#Trump fired Colleen Shogan, the #Archivist of the #UnitedStates….

The national archivist is responsible for overseeing government records & heads the National Archives [#NARA], an agency Trump has repeatedly criticized since it alerted the #DOJ to Trump's mishandling of #ClassifiedDocuments in early 2022.

#labor #law #petty #revenge #USpol
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-will-fire-kennedy-center-board-make-himself-chair-2025-02-08/

I’ve been thinking lately (always a mistake) about all the cultural works to which we don't have access. Everything removed from streaming; everything locked behind DRM so that most libraries and archives won't have copies which can redundantly survive disruption. Sometimes I get real sad about the future readers and historians and others who just won't be able to find copies of the incredible things made during the current digital dark age.

As ever, I try to let this radicalize me rather than lead me into despair. I know that there are lots of horrors worth raging against, but this is one I feel well-positioned to work against. It's low-stakes enough that I won't feel self-loathing if I burn out or need to take a break. It's no secret that I like to read and organize books so this is a topic close to my heart and one which can bring me joy and allow me to share it with those around me too. There is a fair bit of tech nerd stuff to it, enough that I have an opportunity to learn & practice new things, but not so much that I’m totally out of my depth. And there are plenty of communities out there to help and share strategies.

But the big thing I see missing from my understanding and many of the conversations about shadow libraries and unauthorized archivism is the social and professional practice of librarianship rather than mechanical practice of data storage. I don't have space to go to library school, but I could definitely stand to read (and archive) introductory books on the topic, or take an online class. Friends who know: what are some of the better places to get started with an introduction to library & information science and archive science?

#libraries #librarian #archivist #archives #archivism #archivist #libraryScience #informationScience #archiveScience #culture #repositories #dataHoard #archiving #piracy #unauthorizedArchives #guerillaArchives #shadowLibraries #digiPres #digitalPreservation

Are you an American #archivist interested in #labor issues in our profession? Please consider self-nominating for the Society of American Archivists Archival Worker Labor Task Force, which is a new three year task force responsible for identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing archival worker labor (including students and interns) issues that SAA can impact. You have until December 15 to apply! https://www2.archivists.org/news/2024/be-the-change-call-for-saa-leader-self-nominations

Librarians, Archivists:

Yesterday I wrote a short statement of my opposition to trumpian fascism and hid it in an archives where it cant be found but will someday be stumbled upon.

Consider creating a secret archive of statements from colleagues and students, such that if we should disappear or be murdered, our testaments will appeal directly to future historians. Also consider some secrecy around this project, or having it backed up in some secure location.

“Why is Google Books removing access to out-of-copyright books that it once hosted as open access? There is a good chance that the mass-deaccession policy of libraries, on the ground that "it's available for free online", will be one of the most stupid acts of modern curatorship.”

https://twitter.com/AntigoneJournal/status/1853160640073838664

Open #Archivist position at SEGA

[...] the Transmedia West Team is seeking an Archivist to support the growing needs of our team. In documenting Sonic’s storied history (past, present, and future!), you will be critical to the preservation of Sonic lore, canon, characters, and universes, helping to bring consistency, connectivity, and creativity to all things Sonic across various forms of media including games, animation, comics, and more. [...]

https://paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=97863&clientkey=E743DEB45C5896F708643C7D7B581397

Really exciting opportunity to join Cambridge University Libraries as a Digital #Archivist! This role is based within the Dept. of Archives and Modern MSS and will support the delivery of the #DigitalPreservation Programme for born-digital #archives. More info https://jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/47852/

New Episode: hpr4168 :: Beyond Economic Recovery

Hosted by Trixter on 2024-07-24 is flagged as Clean and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.

Tags: #archiving, #archivist, #legal, #TINLA, #IANAL

https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr4168/index.html

Very long-shot request here... but does *anyone* have an original VHS rip of the Seybold New York 1998 keynote by Steve Jobs? The MP4 available on archive.org has some nightmarish codec issues, and the only version on YT is 144p.

Even if it's not a first-generation rip, I'm sure we can do better than this

Sorry for all the hashtags here, trying to get a little exposure on this.

Thanks!

Happy Saturday! We're delighted to launch this year's hashtags. Have a look at the topics and share any archives you find that relate to the topics. We love to share what you find :)

#archives #archive #archivist #GLAM #libraries #galleries #museums #universities #research #history @histodons @archivistodon

looks like i never made an #introduction post when joining this instance so here:

i'm a #deaf #writer and #archivist working in #museums. my list of fandoms is extensive but currently at the forefront are #hellsing, #StarTrekTOS, #reanimator, #hannibal, and lawrence dane. also a longtime #yugioh fan (dm + arcv) and have been playing #eso for a few years.

other interests are old movies and my old man oc #MauriceMontgomery and old things in general, plus my cats. nice to meet you

#Introduction

Hi, I’m Liz! I’m an #archivist working on #recordsManagement & #digitalPreservation. I mostly post on #digipres topics.

I also post about #powerlifting or my #cat.

I live in #Vienna, sometimes I share my #WienLiebe, other times #grant.

Besides English, I speak/read German, French, Italian, & a little Czech. I’m learning some Portuguese too!

Other stuff: #antifascism #feminism #histGender #communityArchives #antifa #vegan Working on a project using #Transkribus

Can we please, as people who work with large public #datasets, start using torrents? I am just simply trying to find an old version of the #ImageNet Object Detection from Video dataset, and all of the links are broken! For multiple years! Another ImageNet dataset I’m downloading is downloading at 500KB/s.

People have clearly been looking for and using these datasets, and now I need to retrain something and I’m without them. We need to band together and start a torrent tracker for datasets so that we don’t need to rely on one website to download from. With proper permission from the dataset owners of course…

I’m so committed I might buy my own domain and start hosting a torrent tracker. Anyone interested?

Folks working in #libraries and #preservation:
I have some small books that have a musty, mold like smell. There is no visible mold.
I'd like to try and get rid of the scent, they scan and shelve them all in sealed plastic containers.

My current idea is baking soda in a sealed container, put the book(s) in for up to 7 days.

Is this viable, or is some sort of other option better? Mini ozone generator? Some other powder to remove scents? Active carbon?
Thanks!

What is a good way of crawling and archiving a complete website for offline viewing? One of the services that has a lot of data that is important to me is shutting down without any options for archiving my data. It has a pretty JavaScript heavy UI and is protected with a login page that includes MFA. Ideally I'd be able to save it to a nice format like WARC.