DESCRIPTION
Eirini Melena Karoutsos is a graduate student at Pratt Institute School of Information earning her MSLIS and an Advanced Certification in Archives. She has worked in the book industry for three years and is currently a graduate assistant at Pratt Manhattan Library. Her research is focused in cataloging, metadata, and understanding how marginalized groups are represented in libraries and archives. Additionally, she recently published the chapbook
Nowhere with Derailleur Press.
Eirini will present on “She Will Be Loved: Digital Spaces at the Lesbian Herstory Archive” where she asks how we create connection through digital environments and discusses the crossroads of access, restrictions, and queer digital spaces.
Jordi Padilla-Delgado works as Records Manager at Lloret de Mar Municipal Archive (SAMLM; Catalonia, Spain). He’s also developing some research lines on Sex-Affective & Gender Diversity lost memory at Archival Science & Records Management School, University Autònoma Barcelona (ESAGED-UAB).
Jordi will present on “LGBTQ+ Memory: Power, Community and Intersectionality in Archives” where we will try to approach various aspects and points of interest about the dialectics that are established between institutional archives and community archives while we are looking for the (lost) LGBTQ+ memory in both.
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Eirini Melena Karoutsos is a graduate student at Pratt Institute School of Information earning her MSLIS and an Advanced Certification in Archives. She has worked in the book industry for three years and is currently a graduate assistant at Pratt Manhattan Library. Her research is focused in cataloging, metadata, and understanding how marginalized groups are represented in libraries and archives. Additionally, she recently published the chapbook Nowhere with Derailleur Press.
- Title: She Will Be Loved: Digital Spaces at the Lesbian Herstory Archive
- Abstract: This project was focused on the nature of working as an archivist without physical inventory access and the intersection of queer material and technological mediums. Both of these subjects directly affected how I conducted my internship as unspoken parameters of my job. On September 6th, I began working under Désirée Yael Vester at the Lesbian Herstory Archive, a community-driven archive focused on the preservation of feminist and queer history through print materials, photography and memorabilia. The Lesbian Herstory Archive has always had a focus on the physical connection between patrons and material but Covid-19 restricted the archive’s ability to function in this way. I was focused primarily on the periodical and book sections of the archive, using Airtable and LibraryThing to make the collections accessible through search and LHA’s digital archive. To do this, I searched titles and publishers on Google and more established queer digital archives, such as Independent Voices, to find information to add to the database entries, with a particular focus in finding photography of periodical covers. The project began with me focusing on adding information to the book entries in LibraryThing with the other six interns. Over time, I was moved to working alone in Airtable on the periodical section.
Jordi Padilla-Delgado works as Records Manager at Lloret de Mar Municipal Archive (SAMLM; Catalonia, Spain). He's also developing some research lines on Sex-Affective & Gender Diversity lost memory at Archival Science & Records Management School, University Autònoma Barcelona (ESAGED-UAB).
- Title: LGBTQ+ Memory: Power, Community and Intersectionality in Archives
- Abstract: Archives are, first of all, a political reality and, as such, reflect in their organization and mechanisms those of the dominant power, which, in our case, is characterized by being, fundamentally and among other aspects, white, classist, cis-hetero-patriarchal, nationalist and denier / concealer of minorities. Moreover, the archives are used by the dominant power as an instrument of political action and as ammunition to impose its ideology on the whole of society. Faced with this reality, minorities have been forced to self-organize in order to build their own collections. This initiative is an expression of the belief that “if we don't do it, no one will”. On the specific case of LGBTQ+ community archives, initially, relations with the archival institution start from mistrust: if the former tend to reproach the institutional ones for abandonment and neglect, if not hostility and the persecution of the group, the latter punctually can criticize the archival practices of the community, calling them not very rigorous and lacking scientific and academic foundation. Fortunately, the natural evolution and the numerous studies carried out on the subject have contributed not only to normalize relations but have also led to the emergence of new opportunities for collaboration, learning and exchange between the two areas and in both directions. In this presentation we will try to approach various aspects and points of interest about the dialectics that are established between institutional archives and community archives while we are looking for the (lost) LGBTQ+ memory in both. We will wonder about the genesis of the documentary collections that refer to the experience of sexual dissidence and about the notable differences in the treatment and projection made of it in each case.
#ARCHIVES*RECORDS-2021#Section-Meeting