Jonathan, thanks for this important article on the value of this dimension of diversity. Intellectual pluralism can be elevated through diverse associations of all kinds, and librarians need to avail themselves of a range of options, such as the ones you describe.
Very glad to see that you mention Robert Nisbet, who wrote compellingly about civic society institutions and their importance. Renewing civic institutions is important in a time of monocultures and overpowering influences--and control--from the federal government, large national associations, large technology companies and monopolies that shut off diverse thinking.
I recently discovered another new substack, Civic Attention, that may be helpful as a way of thinking about digital culture and how to renew civil society institutions instead of living only within that culture.
Such an important article. I teach in Florida, a state of 20+ million people. I teach a course, "Libraries and Cultural Heritage organizations. "Class assignments include visits to local history sites and archives of local communities. I seem to be the default independent study supervisor for students that have interest in religious archives (maybe because I am a member of the Catholic Library association) and the riches in those collections are hardly known to most librarians. I wish I had spent less time on big national issues and more on what is right next store. My students are more prepared to understand the communities in which they will work with the focus on local and state archives. A good book of interest to all that opens up LIS students' hearts is --Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You--David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty. This is required reading before students connect with local history archives.
Nice article, Jonathan. I agree on the importance of regional affiliations and prioritize attending my regional archivist group's annual meeting (where I'm currently writing from!). I'm disheartened to hear that this year attendance is down from what organizers were expecting. It sounds like some archivists at other institutions are experiencing budget tightening that prevented them from coming. On a somewhat related note, I suppose one downside to belonging to diverse archival affiliation groups is also that archivists have to choose which conferences to attend and how much attention should/can be dedicated to each group.
Jonathan, thanks for this important article on the value of this dimension of diversity. Intellectual pluralism can be elevated through diverse associations of all kinds, and librarians need to avail themselves of a range of options, such as the ones you describe.
Very glad to see that you mention Robert Nisbet, who wrote compellingly about civic society institutions and their importance. Renewing civic institutions is important in a time of monocultures and overpowering influences--and control--from the federal government, large national associations, large technology companies and monopolies that shut off diverse thinking.
I recently discovered another new substack, Civic Attention, that may be helpful as a way of thinking about digital culture and how to renew civil society institutions instead of living only within that culture.
https://civicattention.substack.com/
Such an important article. I teach in Florida, a state of 20+ million people. I teach a course, "Libraries and Cultural Heritage organizations. "Class assignments include visits to local history sites and archives of local communities. I seem to be the default independent study supervisor for students that have interest in religious archives (maybe because I am a member of the Catholic Library association) and the riches in those collections are hardly known to most librarians. I wish I had spent less time on big national issues and more on what is right next store. My students are more prepared to understand the communities in which they will work with the focus on local and state archives. A good book of interest to all that opens up LIS students' hearts is --Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You--David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty. This is required reading before students connect with local history archives.
Nice article, Jonathan. I agree on the importance of regional affiliations and prioritize attending my regional archivist group's annual meeting (where I'm currently writing from!). I'm disheartened to hear that this year attendance is down from what organizers were expecting. It sounds like some archivists at other institutions are experiencing budget tightening that prevented them from coming. On a somewhat related note, I suppose one downside to belonging to diverse archival affiliation groups is also that archivists have to choose which conferences to attend and how much attention should/can be dedicated to each group.