Hello all!
On May 5, the Archival Workers' Collective launched a story-gathering initiative to receive and amplify stories of how the Trump Administration has impacted archives and archival workers. We have shared stories from institutions facing budget cuts, censorship, project cancellations, job losses, professional and economic precarity, and immigration concerns. These blog posts have reached viewers from around the world.
While these stories are sobering, we hope that through our efforts to share them that we build a collective call to action - both within our profession and beyond to our external allies.
How you can help:
1. Share Your Experience Have the dismantling of IMLS, NEH, National Park Service, and other government agencies affected you and your institution? Have the White House's policies on DEIA initiatives or other activities caused you to change how you conduct your work? We want to hear from you.
2. Spread the Word Help us reach more archival workers by sharing this initiative with your networks.
About our initiative:
Impacts of the Trump Administration on Archives and Archival Workers Story-Telling Initiative
The Archival Workers' Collective (AWC) is a grassroots collective seeking to gather and amplify the stories about the impacts of the Trump Administration on archives and archival workers. Have the dismantling of IMLS, NEH, National Park Service, and other government agencies affected you and your institution? Have the White House's policies on DEIA initiatives or other activities caused you to change how you conduct your work? We seek to gather and amplify the stories of archives and archival workers on our blog to spread the word on how these actions are impacting our field.
Please share the AWC story-gathering form widely and contribute your own story!
Important note: Please only share information and phrasing that you feel comfortable with us sharing publicly. The responses will be reviewed by AWC organizers. We will do our best to share all submitted stories, but capacity constraints may require us to share selected submissions.
Questions or feedback? Email us at archivalworkerscollective@gmail.com.
Related Initiatives
We also encourage participation in these allied data-gathering efforts:
Know of additional initiatives we should add? Please let us know!
For federal workers impacted by layoffs, please also view this Society of American Archivists resource page.
In solidarity,
Members of the Archival Workers' Collective
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Lydia Tang
Senior Outreach and Engagement Coordinator
Lyrasis
East Lansing MI
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