Course talk:ARST573/Literary Archives

Hi Katie, As part of the blog at RBSC at UBC, students wrote about the processing of the Douglas Coupland fonds. This might give you a case study to discuss in the arrangement and description section? Or it might spark some ideas. Here is one of the blog entries: http://blogs.ubc.ca/rbscnew/2012/08/20/unpacking-the-douglas-coupland-fonds-no-food-allowed-or-cleaning-up-the-cheese/ (I think we've talked about the pizza box before...) If you search "Douglas Coupland" in the blog, then you get all the entries related to it. Anyway, just a thought!

Hello fellow pod folk! Obviously, this draft is still in its infancy. I need to expand on most sections, especially the introductory bit and the History section. Any comments on the overall structure and my choice of topics for the sections would be especially appreciated! I'm still unsure about it. I'm also thinking about adding a list of literary archives, with links to their websites.

Thanks! Katie

Hi, Katie.

This is looking great! I think the structure is very logical and clear and your topics are really pertinent and useful (so much so that I am thinking about "borrowing" one or two for my own page, particularly the list of literary archives-related organizations). I also love the idea of including a list of literary archives, as Lisa included a list of archives in Ontario, and I may also add a list of performing arts archives to my page.

I can't believe it didn't occur to me until now, but I actually did some reading on literary archives for a paper I did for our selection and acquisition last term. In particular, Catherine Hobbs at LAC is a big literary manuscripts person, so perhaps you could expand the Literary Archives in the United States section to Literary Archives in the North America and could add some details from her articles. Here are a couple that might be useful:

• Hobbs, Catherine. “New Approaches to Canadian Literary Archives.” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue D’études Canadiennes 40, no. 2 (2007): 109–119.
• Hobbs, Catherine. “Personal Archives: The Character of Personal Archives: Reflections on the Value of Records of Individuals.” Archivaria no. 52 (Fall 2001): 126–135.
• Stewart, Virginia R. “A Primer on Manuscript Field Work.” In A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice, edited by Maygene F. Daniels and Timothy Walch, 124–138. Washington, D.C: National Archives and Records Service, U.S. General Services Administration, 1984. (I think this includes stuff about literary materials, but I may be misremembering.)

One of the things that came up in these articles that would be interesting to talk about is the challenge of dealing with a still living donors (including dealing with their concerns about privacy), which seems to come up a lot with literary materials.

I hope this is useful, but feel free to ask me if you have questions. Great work, Katie!

Thanks Chelsea! I have read Catherine Hobbs and found them very interesting, but did not quit manage to fit what she had to say into the entry. I am planning on adding a section on Canada though, so those articles will probably be relevant for that topic.

I have also read and thought about the practice of authors donating their papers while still living. It's becoming increasingly common and raises some interesting issues (Does their awareness of the destiny of their papers into the archives affect how and what they keep? Should the author give input into the selection, arrangement, and description of their fonds?). Also, a lot has been written and debated about the market that exists for authors' papers. Repositories that have the money spend big bucks on more well known authors papers. I haven't figured out how to work any of this into the entry either, but may find one as it evolves.

Hi, Katie.

I echo Chelsea in saying, looking great! You have a very practical structure and it appropriately highlights the main topics concerning literary archives. A few comments: 1. I would consider placing the copyright topic within a heading rather than subheading. You can always introduce the topic and leave room for future contributions as more resources and information becomes available. I think it is a strong topic and don't forget to link it to Cristen's page. 2. If you are wondering what photographs to add, I would suggest adding in photos from your two case studies. You also might want to consider including a hyperlink to their website. 3. Chelsea made some great suggestions. I was also wondering if you had enough resources concerning literary archives in Canada. If you do have enough, I would also suggest expanding your heading to incorporate North America or even separate Canada. You can always provide a paragraph about Canadian literary archives and open up the topic for future contributions. Within your acquisitions section, you previously mentioned the challenges concerning the separation of the donors records. Perhaps you will have enough information to create a separate heading or subheading focusing on all of the challenges. This would allow you to also incorporate Chelsea's suggestion.

I hope this helps.

-L

Hi Chelsea, Thanks for the good suggestions! I am leaning toward making copyright its own heading, and you made a good point that even if I don't have enough to say about it, others could expand on it in the future. I'm also leaning toward adding a section on literary archives in Canada, as I think I have enough sources now.

Photos are definitely needed on my entry, and the case studies do seem like the most logical place. I know there are pictures out there for the Rushdie archives at Emory University (which had gotten a decent amount of press). I'm hoping to embed the video related to his archives, which is currently just a link. I just need to figure out the copyright situation.

Okay, Katie, now I am starting to feel a little guilty

I realize that you and I have both been suggesting that Lisa narrow down and focus on just the provincial archives of Ontario in order to make her topic more manageable and focused, but the class (myself included) has been pushing you to expand your section to all of North America (and beyond, in some instances). I am rethinking that a bit now because, of course, there is plenty to talk about just related to the U.S. and literary archives (heck, you could do a whole wiki on the Harry Ransom Center stuff alone!).

So, I am backtracking and saying that I think that while Canadian archival literature certainly has interesting things to offer on the topic of literary archives, for the purposes of this wiki it might be biting off a little too much to cover all of North America, and if you decide to focus only on the U.S., I am sure that will still be great!

Hi Katie,

I agree with Chelsea! Now that I am trying to tackle the surmountable task of including everything I can about the Archives of Ontario, I have come to realize that broader does not equal better. I recommend incorporating a small paragraph about Canada and remained focused on the U.S. There is a lot to cover there as it is.

Thanks Lisa and Chelsea! I have been leaning toward, as Lisa suggested, including a section on Canada, but not going into as much depth within in as I will for the US.

I definitely think adding a section on Canadian Literary Archives would benefit your section. Particularly pointing out the differences between other in North America.

-Robert

Hi Katie,

I see that you write about the Harry Ransome Center as one of the first literary archives in the US! Perhaps you could provide an external hyperlink to the Center's webpage within this section? I checked out their website and it seems a pretty interesting resource: www.hrc.utexas.edu

Chelsea

Good idea Chelsea! The Ransom Center's website is definitely a good place to look around if you want to know more about literary archives.

Hi Katie,

This looks awesome. I'm looking forward to reading that entire section you're going to dedicate to Lewis Carroll's manuscripts ;). Just kidding! This is just a minor comment, but Greg suggested we all have Categories at the bottom of our wiki, if you take a look under the heading "Getting Started" on the ARST573 course page, step number 5, it will give you the instructions on how to do it!

Other than that, looks great!

Hi Taryn, In the event that my section on Lewis Carroll doesn't quite pan out, here's a little something fun I stumbled upon that you could look at instead: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/carroll/.

Also, thanks so much for pointing out that I needed to add the Categories at the bottom! I just put it in.

Katie

Hey Katie, I'm not sure if you already found these resources on LA and copyright: http://www.ica.org/?lid=6450&bid=613 http://glam-archives.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/copyright100907.pdf http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11091/12027. If you do find enough info, I think it would be a great section :)

Thanks Mariko! I hadn't seen the ICA doc yet and will definitely take a look. I do hope to make this its own section if possible, as this type of archival material presents some unique considerations when it comes to copyright and privacy.

-Katie

hi Katie. If you do decide to go ahead with this section, here is some information about copyright of James Joyce's unpublished works (just an example): https://joycefoundation.osu.edu/joyce-copyright/fair-use-and-permissions/about-law/currently-unpublished The people who held copyright after his death were notoriously protective of his published works (and I think unpublished too). They aren't scholarly sources, but there are many news articles from when copyright expired on his work.

Hi, Katie.

And if you want a "scholarly-ish" article about the Joyce kerfuffle, this article was super interesting!

Spoo, Robert E. “Archival Foreclosure: A Scholar’s Lawsuit Against the Estate of James Joyce.” American Archivist 71, no. 2 (Winter 2008): 544–551.

Man, what that family was willing to do to protect the privacy of one of its members and how they misused copyright to do it! That seems like its certainly one of the issues about literary copyright...the "legacy" of these famous writer types looms so much larger than for ordinary schmoes like me. The families become sort of rabid about protecting that legacy, whether through copyright litigation or privacy restrictions.

Thanks for the suggestion Chelsea! I just downloaded the article.

Somehow "kerfuffle" seems like an appropriate word to use talking about Joyce:) In defense of his family, there are A LOT of Joyceans out there and, given that he didn't publish very many books, yet so much has been written about them, I can imagine how hungry and persistent Joyce scholars are for more to work with. Of course, I still need to read up on all this kerfuffle. I'm curious if it was about the money or about protecting his legacy.

Katie

Hey, Katie

In this case, and also in the J.D. Salinger case, which was apparently a big deal in the 1990s (I think), it's really about protecting legacy or privacy. So, it's actually a little bizarre because in those particular cases, copyright is just being used as an excuse (more or less) for restricting scholarly publishing on what authors or families of authors might deem to be private or sensitive topics. In the article I recommended, the kerfuffle wasn't even about James Joyce, but about another member of the Joyce family.

This sort of ties back to the issue of living authors (or living family of dead authors) jeopardizing the evidentiary value of archives, which you mentioned above. If you wanted to have a little section about the challenges around managing literary archives, you could include something about this (the nature of the artist / public figure wanting to present a particular view to the public), as well as perhaps something about the inflated cost of acquiring the fonds of literary superstars.

Thanks Cristen! I knew a tiny bit about all the copyright drama around Joyce's writings, but have never read about it extensively. This would definitely provide an interesting illustration of literary copyright issues. Researching this could be dangerous though - lots of potential to get sidetracked!

Katie

Hi Katie,

My last comment caused me to spend a bit of time surfing the British Library website - its addicting! But I did stumble upon something that seems pretty cool... the library has digitized some of their historical literary manuscripts and made an app for them for Ipod and Android systems. It seems pretty interesting and made me think about a possible section in your wiki about public access.

Just thought I would pass the link and suggestion on to you :)

http://www.bl.uk/ebooktreasures/index.html

Chelsea

Oh my goodness, that is great! I may need to get a few of those e-books...

As I mentioned in my comment to your first post, I will definitely consider a section on public access. Thanks!

Hi Katie,

Great work thus far! I just have a few small suggestions...

Your footnote number 12 is placed halfway through the word "letters" in the case study section of your article.

I was wondering if you could provide more information about the authors you highlight, such as their time spans and most famous works? This could help give more context to your examination of their archives and why their archives are significant today.

Also, if you are looking to make your wiki article longer you could include a section on Canadian literary archives. I see that you have already found Catherine Hobbs' article "New Approaches to Canadian Literary Archives." I'm not sure if you have already seen these resources, but UBC's RBSC has a "Literary Archives Guide" produced by the Canadian government. Library and Archives Canada also has a webpage that contains information exclusively on literary archives that may be helpful.

A few years ago when I was in London I stopped at the British Library. They have a great collection of literary archives... I could have spent forever looking at their Jane Austen exhibit! Perhaps you could mention the library's collection or the role of exhibits in literary archives?

Links to potential sources: British Library http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/manuscripts/mssliterarytheatre/msslittheatre.html

Literary archives Guide, Canadian government http://webcat2.library.ubc.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=615299

Library and Archives Canada http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/literaryarchives/index-e.html

Chelsea

Thanks Chelsea! I like your idea of adding a little bit of info about the authors whose archives I highlight. At the very least, I should provide links to such information. And thanks for the suggested resources on Canadian literary archives. These will be helpful, especially since the consensus on this discussion page seems to be that I should have a section on Canada (I promise I was hoping to do that!).

I had not thought about discussing the exhibition of literary archives, but that could definitely be interesting. Perhaps it could be part of a section on public access as you suggested in your other comment? Hmm...

Hi Katie,

If you're looking for some more examples of literary archives Roald Dahl, my favourite children's author, has an archives ( http://www.roalddahlmuseum.org/archives/ ) in the UK.

Thanks Kathryn! I have not spent much time looking at institutions devoted to a single author, so I think it would be good for me to take a look at what they do.

Katie

Hey, Katie.

Do you mind giving me your real email address? I wanted to send you an email about something only tangentially related to the wiki.

Thanks! cgs