The video of last week's panel discussion exploring themes in Laura Millar's book, A Matter of Facts: The Value of Evidence in an Information Age, the 2021 selection for the One Book, One Profession reading initiative sponsored by the SAA Publications Board, is available to watch for free at www.pathlms.com/saa/events/2430.
In her book, Millar makes the case that records, archives, data, and other sources of documentary proof are crucial in fostering a society that is respectful, inclusive, democratic, and self-aware. Events in the past year alone-such as the COVID-19 pandemic, protests driven by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol-illustrate the urgent need for authentic and accessible sources of evidence, from medical statistics to live videos to Twitter messages and Facebook posts. A truer, more inclusive documentary record demands new strategies and different approaches.
SAA Publications Editor Stacie Williams introduced the hour-long virtual event, with SAA Fellow Louis Jones serving as the facilitator. The panelists were Laura Millar (author and independent consultant in records, archives, and information management based in British Columbia), Valencia L. Johnson (archivist for Student Life at Princeton University), and Geoffrey Yeo (Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Information Studies at University College London), all of whom convincingly make the case for why archives matter, and how we can—and must—convince the world of their value!
Check it out at www.pathlms.com/saa/events/2430.
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Abigail Christian
Archival Outlook Editor & Production Coordinator
Society of American Archivists
achristian@archivists.org------------------------------