Stray thoughts and observations

Hi, Jessie!

I am never sure what sorts of comments to provide for these pages, so I have mostly just been posing questions that came up for me while I was reading ('cause you know I always have questions) or pointing out things I would be interested in hearing more about.

I wondered if you had come across enough in your research to justify a separate section about the biggest differences between "normal archives" and religious archives. I am thinking here about the differences in access and restrictions on access more than anything. Another key difference is that issue of documenting the "spiritual or intangible" that you mention in your page. This is very fascinating to me (and something that comes up in performing arts archives, too), so I would love to hear more about this if your sources go into more detail.

I am also sort of interested in the idea of a religious archivist who is not a member of the denomination they serve. Of course, as archivists we don't have to be subject experts on the materials we preserve, but normally we only have to adhere to our own institutional and professional standards and not the "ethos and ideology of the sponsoring denomination." If you have run across anything more about how non-religious archivists deal with this tension, I'd love to read more about it.

I agree with Mariko that talking a bit about religious archives as a barrier to or a partner in reconciliation would be super interesting! Great job, Jessie...looking forward to reading more!