From Los Angeles Archivists Collection:

Steven Booth, Archivist for the Barack Obama Presidential Library, National Archives and Records Administration by Lamar Abrams

The varying interpretations of ORGANIZE have proven to be more permeable than we may have initially realized. While it is necessary to acknowledge and critique traditional classification and organizational systems that reinforce existing power structures, for many of us what is inspiring and at the heart of our work is how we might potentially forge, preserve, and strengthen connections through the systems, standards, and profession we work within, even as we fight to break down oppresive structures.

Dorothy Berry’s account of her work for Umbra Search African American History asserts that through digital collections and database organization it can be possible to bring to the fore voices that are not silent in the archives, but hidden. Connecting existing archival materials on Black life, rather than leaving them sequestered and scattered amidst collections of those whose historical privilege aligned with the archival institution’s, is a means to simultaneously utilize traditional archival skillsets whilst subverting the legacy upon which the profession is built.

The Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archive for Action demonstrates the power of representation in archives to affect future change. Yet another instance where organization of information allows activists to organize in formation against patriarchy. And of course, organizing in formation often takes the form of unionization. Erin Hurley asks what unionization might look like in an era where anti-union efforts might be as blatant as locking out your faculty, including librarians and archivists, or as insidious as a professional culture of limited term and part-time project positions.

We also hear from our archivist colleagues in Los Angeles highlighting collections about union organizations on the silver screen and in the sky, and about the labor involved in organizing archival collections and exhibitions.

For all the breadth of topics falling under the theme of ORGANIZE, this is an issue about connections among people.

Christine Hertzel interviewed and profiles archivist groups similar to LAAC, and Grace Danico had the pleasure of speaking with Obama archivist, Steven Booth. The archivist charged with the legacy of a community organizer turned president states that the greatest reward of the archival profession is relationships built with other archivists. We couldn’t agree more.

Read the entire issue online here.