We Will Be Remembered through What We Post

In this social media driven decade, the way we will be remembered may be reflected in what we post. What we project to the world online today will likely be the information about us that is easiest to gather in the future. Therefore, we must be aware that who we are, at least as far as history is concerned, might be molded by the Internet. In my view, our public face is being melded with what should be a more private side and the reality of our lives is perverted by an online public image. It is up to individuals to consciously create their own personal brand, or suffer the consequences of allowing others to attempt to reconstruct our lives through our random posts and musings.

On the Internet, what we record becomes part of a permanent record of our lives. Today, most people leave behind a great documentation footprint through digital means. It wasn't that long ago when most people did not leave much documentation behind for the world to see. Even 20th century lives are reconstructed from sometimes hard to find sources. We are lucky to find records that tell us about someone's pre-21st century life - handwritten correspondence, diaries and the like formed the personal papers from an earlier period.

A note that a friend penned to me in high school. We would
have been horrified to post these thoughts for others to see.

Remember hiding your diary under your mattress so your younger sister wouldn't find it? Remember passing private notes to friends in class? Today, young people are less likely to draw that line between public and private. Do you have something to say to a friend? Tweet it to the world; put your inner most thoughts in a blog. It's a very different world from the one I grew up in and society has a different mindset from the society in which I was trained as an archivist in the 1990s.

In this second decade of the 21st century, individuals can have more power over how they are remembered. The proliferation of the public records people create by interacting with their government and public groups online are augmented by those writings and postings which strike my generation as more private in nature. Many call this the "age of oversharing." Perhaps after a decade of this, we as individuals need to step back, take a hard look at our sharing habits, and curb our communication. While those sharing information online (the content creators) are sharing more and more, archivists are working to understand more fully the rapid transition our society has made in personal documentation, and we are considering what aspects of it are important to our profession.

Regular readers of this blog know my deep fascination with diary writing in particular. A recent article in the  Huffington Post discussed how the act of diary writing itself is changing and how there are many people who now write diaries for public consumption in a way that hasn't been done in the past. "On some level, when we vent, we want to be heard -- if only by our future selves. Why else would we choose such a permanent format for sorting out our thoughts?" [Crum. These are My Confessions: What Diary Keeping Means in the Age of Oversharing. ] Yet, venting for our future self in a personal journal is very different from online venting. I think this point needs to be more deeply considered by information professionals on every level.

• What online personal content should be worthy of "permanent" status?  And controversially:
• What content should be created? Do information/cultural heritage professionals have a role to play beyond gathering content? Should we also be helping individuals manage their online documentation and help curb the creation of unending documented random thoughts?

A particularly poignant and perhaps egregious example of the way we broadcast without forethought is evident in a high profile 2013 Twitter scandal.  Certainly, Justine Sacco wanted to vent when she wrote the tweets that eventually led to her dismissal from her high powered job, but did she really want to be heard?

As a teacher / librarian / archivist, this issue has an important place in my life. Every day, I watch students create content that shouldn't be shared. I realize the permanence of the words they place online. They do not. I realize how their content is affecting society and can affect their lives. As a mentor, I have a responsibility to help them fully understand how information impacts them. As an archivist, I believe that it would be to the profession's benefit to spread this message to a greater populace. Is the information we are spewing worth the computer space we are using? Computer space is cheap, but the never ending bombardment of gossip and misinformation is not, in my opinion.

We once documented our thoughts for ourselves, to share with a friend in a letter, or in well-thought out speeches. Today, as content creators, a quick thought easily flies out our fingers onto a screen and into what we may perceive as a void. "[the sharing of] our once-discreet musings could be seen as narcissistic -- a strategic move in a quest for validation...But it’s something else, too. When such observations are compiled into a work of art, they become an honest reflection on how we absorb and produce information." [Crum]

Certainly, there is a benefit for informational professionals and historians to have so much now available to us. If archivists can successfully save what is being broadcast, and if we can successfully preserve and provide access to it, we will have an abundance of material to examine, consider and study. Perhaps we will have a rich view of early twenty-first century life and a rich view of how we use information. We will be able to study society through a combined public and private lens that past historians could only have dreamed.

However, I wonder if alternately, this bombardment of information provides an inaccurate understanding of how individuals really function. Does all this information accurately reflect our communities? What role can ideas of personal branding and full understanding of an online image play in protecting documentation that accurately projects our own lives and our times? Can, and should, information professionals craft a salient message to help protect the value of good information versus bad (if indeed there is such as thing as good versus bad information at all)?

Understanding Social Media and Other Forms of Communication

 

Using Twitter to express displeasure. Anonymously.

Using an app to send pictures that enables your data to disappear in a matter of seconds.

Reality or fantasy?

A Little Knowledge Can Save You A Lot of Trouble

I bring up this topic this week because of a couple of recent incidents that have crossed my path. Looking over the should of a young person, I learned about the app "snap chat" that says you can control how long your recipient sees your information.The person who showed me this app said that it's great because your information just "disappears" in a matter of time.

We all should know that information doesn't just disappear. I decided to do a little research. I found that though this tool can be a fun one to send something such as a happy birthday wish (as its use was framed for me by the person who showed it to me,) I learned that it is most popular for sexting. Thinking that a person can send a risque photo of oneself that just "disappears," snap chat has gained popularity for this purpose. As an informational professional, this concerns me greatly. Information does not just go away on its own.

In another incident, someone expressed extreme displeasure with another person by tweeting it. Rude language, tone, and message does not disappear after you post it. I am concerned about the future of those I teach who engage in such behaviors. Posting under "anonymous" usually does not leave you unknown, especially when your twitter handle with your name is visible right under the page that declares you as "anonymous," as was the post that is the subject of this paragraph. Be aware of the information that you put out there for all to see. This should not be a new idea to most of us.

The Right Tool for the Job

An overall understanding of what happens to information is valuable for everyone. For those of us who use information to gain clients, customers and patrons, using diverse tools with a knowledge of each tool is critical to achieving goals.

I have found that people tend to have a go to tool for communication and many of them use it for ALL communication. Yet, using the right tool for the right job is important. It is important to effectively get our message across and it could be important to your reputation.

One of the most important jobs in 2012 for educators and information specialists is effective use of such tools. Whether you are using Facebook to promote your ideas and your museum as a community resource, or you are teaching students the ins and outs of information use, you need to be aware of what you are using and why. Set an example for good digital citizenship and use the right tools for the right job.

For example, do not tweet your concerns about patron behavior to get visitors to conform to useful rules. Consider saving it for a blog post that puts a positive spin on the issue.  The longer format allows you to better explain yourself and inform. Rather than tweeting something such as, "Remember! There is no food allowed in the Archives!" Write on your blog about the need to preserve papers and the important role visitors play in saving our collective history by employing a few preservation techniques such as not eating near materials.

Understanding digital information and its potential can make or break your reputation as an individual or institution. Learn as much as you can about your options and try to post in the appropriate place with thoughtfulness and good intentions.

Blogging Our Posterity

A friend recently posted this question on her Facebook page:

"Do bloggers really want honest feedback or are they just looking for affirmation? Blogs used to be filled with interesting ideas and cutting edge information, but now in a time when everyone and their monkey has a blog, I am beginning to wonder what the purpose is..."


After a little back and forth banter, I responded:


"I've actually thought about this a bit from a professional point of view - as an archivist. People now have an opportunity to have their words and lives saved in a way they thought they never could before. Perhaps posting online is a way to validate yourself, make a statement, and know that the words will be there 'forever.' I often spend time convincing my audiences at programs that historical societies are interested in their family papers. While people seem to intuitively 'get' that the Internet is waiting for their words and that in a digital environment people care what they say, they don't translate it to papers at an institution, but it's the same thing. It's sort of as if the Internet has given them permission to have their ideas saved for posterity." 


In an age where we explore our identity online --  from "Lifestreaming" to personal timelines to "curating our world to show our own unique point of view to spitting out what is on our mind at any particular moment -- what is the purpose of the blog? And how does this all fit together from a documentation / community / life story perspective. Do people post with an expectation that others will read and converse? Are people just trying to make their own mark on the world?... or maybe a little bit of both? Is blogging a bit like graffiti tagging or is it more permanent like having your collection of personal papers in an archival repository? (And yes, I do want your honest feedback, as always. I don't need personal affirmation here.)

New England Cultural Institutions Using Social Media

I just put up a preliminary list with links to New England Cultural Institutions Using Social Media. I intend this list to serve a few purposes:

1. To serve as models for other cultural institutions wishing to develop their use of social media to promote and provide better access to their institution and what they do.
2. To help institutions in the region better communicate with each other and work together to develop social media strategies.
3. To serve as a list for our audiences who wish to see the diversity of cultural heritage institutions in the region and who wish to have a more direct connection to the institutions they support and enjoy.

I would like to work to make this list comprehensive. So far it includes a few institutions that contacted me for inclusion when I put out a call on Twitter. It also includes institutions I located over the past few days through Internet searching. If you have not been included and would like to be on this list, please contact me through my blog, twitter (@ArchivesInfo), or ArchivesInfo Facebook page or email me at melissa @ mannon . org. Please also let me know if you find errors in the pages.

My original intention was to include museums, archives and historical societies in this list. The New England Archivists has a nice list of archives blogs, so I linked to that instead of to the archives themselves. (I'm in favor of helping to drive traffic to associations I support!) I have added an "intangible heritage" category as well, after the nice people at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater asked if I were putting out a call to them too. On Twitter I regularly promote intangible heritage and the need to document it, So I thought this would be an appropriate additional category. I did not include public libraries because so many of them were early adapters of the Internet and social media that they are much easier to find in social media channels.

So, I hope that you find this list useful. It has been fun to do. I've learned about a few very unique institutions about which I was previously unaware. I hope that you will too!

List of Ask-A-Curator Blogposts

The following is a list of blog posts evaluating the Ask-A-Curator Twitter event that took place on September 1, 2010. Please add your related blog post to the comments section if you do not see it here.

Archimuse - Notes for Evaluating a Good Idea
ArchivesInfo - What We Can Learn from Ask A Curator
Artinfo24.com - Ask a Curator Fazit und Auswertung zum Twitter Event (german)
Artlog - Ask a Museum about Art, Exhibitions & Viagra
DASM - (Actu) Ask a Curator (en francais)
Gallerina - Twitter Asked, Curators Answered
MuseuPicasso - Notes for Evaluating a Good Idea
MuseoThyssen - Ask a Curator en Twitter (spanish)
Uncataloged Museum - Random Thoughts on Ask a Curator Day

Blog versus Diary: Just New Technology or a Whole New Way of Thinking?

Since college in the late eighties, I have been torn between two worlds. I have been "old fashioned" since I was a little girl. I love old books, old buildings, old documents, and old ways. I was the girl who wanted to be an archaeologist in six grade so I could learn more about King Tut and see what it was "really like" to walk like an Egyptian. I was the high school student who volunteered to organize old scrapbooks at the local Vanderbilt mansion so I could learn what it was like to live in a different time, under different circumstances, in big poofy dresses with early plumbing and electrical systems. Then I met my husband, who had been taking apart computers since the age of 11. He dragged me kicking and screaming from a typewriter to a computer so I could write my college papers in the newfangled way and move from the "dark ages." Next up, there came graduate school where I was thrust into technology and absorbed as much as I could. Finally, in my first job, I was hired as an archivist / reference librarian in a public library where my position quickly expanded to include "Internet Coordinator" and my transformation was complete...

"You are the youngest and fresh out of grad school so you know more about computers than the rest of us and we need a library web page." Marvelous!

I love computers. I love them because they help me make the connections between old and new that I so love to evaluate. I love using my computer for organizing, researching, photo editing, etc. I love to write things on my computer that I plan to share with others. BUT that's exactly what my computer is to me -- a tool for sharing. It is not for the things I plan to keep all to myself or for my family legacy.

For the private, I use my diary. It is a small book that I keep by my bedside and I write in it with a pen -- and I'm not ashamed to admit that I prefer the fancy old-fashioned kind of pen too. The kind that you may get once in a lifetime. I love the tactile feel of it all and of the cozying up under the covers, while reaching into my brain to figure out what is going on in there. A cup of tea beside me or a glass of wine helps too. The artifacts and environment are certainly part of the experience, but as usual I digress and will save that observation for a later day.

In some ways, this is a game of semantics as the words I use in my profession and to identify myself are slowly hijacked by those more ensconced in computer than I (I guess). My Twitter friend Dennis Moser said it well in his blog "Non-Flat Culture" in an article titled "Curate" Archives"...What's Next" http://nonflat.ning.com/forum/topics/curate-archive-whats-next?xg_source=shorten_twitter . (Go take a look at his rant so that I don't have to repeat it.) I just wonder, should we use new words for new online things? Why do we have to forget about things like the value of being with ourselves to just hand over the words to new technology?

Now, let's take the word "blog." According to Wikipedia "A blog (a contraction of the term "web log")is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." And there are many different types of blogs. The one that most interests me for this posting is the "personal blog" which crashes into my little world of off-line diary writing. According to Wikipedia, "The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following."

Obviously, I blog so I can appreciate this. I write this ArchivesInfo blog. I also maintain a Garden blog. I love using this media to communicate with the world. And that's the crux of it all. A blog is a tool of communication. I am not sitting down to work out my most private thoughts with myself. I am very much aware that you are reading what I am saying. So, is this just a new way to write my personal thoughts or is it a whole new way of thinking about personal thoughts? Should I be sharing my diary with you online as well? Is the private become less private and is that okay for us as a human race?

I once mentioned to my college advisor, who is also an enthusiastic diary keeper, that sometimes when I write in my diary I think about people who might one day read the diary. She was horrified and quickly said, "I NEVER think about that." To her, a woman about twenty years my senior, the diary is very personal. To me, a practical archivist living on the cusp of a huge change in society, I tentatively let go of some privacy, but yearn to keep some of it at the same time.

I am heartened by those who take on blogging as a means of expression, while at the same time I am disheartened that these people may totally give up the idea of diary writing. I am glad that computers (when people can get access to them) help level the playing field a bit, giving everyone a voice. But I don't want the old to be totally lost among the new. When we turn totally towards computing, we lose a bit of something special. Somehow, handing down my ThinkPad to my daughter is not the same as giving her a box of my diaries. This generation needs to think about whether blogging and other computer tools are just a new technology to make the old better or if we are beginning to think about culture in a whole new way. I believe that it is quite possible to we are losing a valuable piece of culture and self-expression by plunging ahead without appreciating what is behind.

Web 2.0 for Cultural Heritage Institutions and Their Users

Web 2.0 is the term currently en vogue for the facilitation of information sharing across the Internet. The terminology tries to express the evolution of the Internet from a one-sided presentation of ideas to an evolving system of communication. Contributors use various platforms to encourage discussions with individuals in the networks they develop.Some of the most commonly known Web 2.0 tools are blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. New technologies have lots of advantages to the individuals and cultural heritage institutions that choose to use them. I am not an expert in these areas, but I have been exploring the use of this technology for sharing ideas related to cultural heritage and I want to share my views with you.

I began my professional career almost twenty years ago as a sort of “jack-of-all trades” at the Waltham Public Library in Massachusetts. I was hired as an Archivist and Reference Librarian, but my job description quickly grew to that of the library’s first “Internet Coordinator” as well. In the old days (may I call them that?), libraries were racing to get on the “World Wide Web” to stake a presence in the emerging online world where people could access information about you and what you do twenty-four hours a day. Our headiest concern was what sort of information should go on a library web page. We put our address, hours, staff, contact information, circulation rules, a link to our library’s networked catalog, rules for use of the archives and other standard administrative topics that one could get through our telephone messaging system or by viewing the various user handbooks and printed information we had throughout the library.

But the Internet quickly grew and librarians’ ideas about what an internationally networked system could be developed accordingly. Through the library web site, patrons can order books, interact with a librarian, sign up for a class or read the library’s blog. The site is growing (now without me for over fifteen years), seeking new ways to interest people and looking for ways to reach new audiences.

It is interesting to see the many ways institutions are taking advantage of the opportunity to interact directly with their communities and potential audiences. We are still trying to figure out what sort of information we should post about ourselves, but now we have a lot more places to reach out and many more ways to accomplish the task. Cultural heritage institutions are trying to find interested citizens who want their information, while attracting people who may not even know they are interested.

I have been experimenting with online social networking tools and hope that you will share your own thoughts with me about your experiences through them. I have a Facebook page for Facebook group devoted to Cross-Professional CollaborationI also have been Tweeting for a few months and am migrating this newsletter and random thoughts I have during the month to a blog. Based on my experiences, I think that these tools offer incredible opportunities for cultural heritage, but not just for the institutions themselves. Web 2.0 benefits everyone by making institutions more open and accessible to individuals, encouraging dialogues between professionals and non-professionals, and spreading the idea that the collections in repositories embody everyone’s cultural heritage and everyone has a right to interact with our archives, artifacts, and special collections.

One of my favorite uses of “new” technology at the moment is the blog of the Beinecke Library at Yale University.Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities shares interesting items from the Beinecke collections, gives a little history about them, and explains how they fit within the larger collections. Some materials are fascinating, some are funny, some are beautiful, but they all attract me to the work that Beinecke is doing.

Blogs like Beinecke’s are a great way to attract audiences. They offer people an inside look at what an institution does and how it functions. Blogs provide a means to make something that once seemed very formal a little more approachable. Blogs done right make the reader feel like they have a personal acquaintance with the author, encouraging the reader to support the person on the other end whom they come to view as a sort of friend.

Similarly, through Facebook, one can develop a better appreciation for an institution. Facebook was one of my first personal experiences with “social” networking. I began meeting people with similar interests around the world by searching for museums, libraries and archives who were using the platform to promote their work. I became a member of like-minded groups and follow threads of thought related to my work. In fact, as I explored, I realized that there were no Facebook sites spanning the cultural heritage professions of museums, libraries, and archives, so I started one that now has 75 members. I find that I do most of the “talking,” few people respond to my posts or post on their own, but we are a part of a community and I hope we feel we are working to a common goal. This seems to be the case on most of the museum, library and archives Facebook sites to which I belong. There’s a lot of talking, perhaps a lot of listening, but not a lot of interaction. The sites on which most people seem to interact provoke a sense of awe or outrage. I think cultural heritage institutions do not fit this bill in general and perhaps Facebook is not our best networking option.

To me, Twitter has the most potential for audience building and direct contact with potential supporters, but it requires patience and persistence. Twittering since late last year, I have over 250 “followers.” I have made professional contacts across the globe, have been asked to be a guest blogger for an Australian Oral History site, and am “talking” daily to real live people with similar interests and ideas. Furthermore, my work is not just attracting archivists, museum professionals, and librarians. I pick up followers who may be interested in a single thing that I say related to records management, genealogy, sports history, etc. I even posted something today about being a cat person. I’m sure there is a librarian out there interested in cats who will be interested![In fact, one-day after writing the first draft of this newsletter, my cat Twitter post has generated three responses from like-minded cat lovers.]

Twitter is like being in a crowded room where someone overhears a conversation and sidles alongside to hear more. The constant chatter of Twitter offers cultural heritage professionals a great opportunity to attract interest. It offers our patrons an equally great opportunity to find out that we are interesting and approachable. The more we talk in our short 140 character bursts, the more others listen (as long as we don’t talk too much!) We can open ourselves up to the community and encourage them to see collections and better yet, we can encourage them to interact with us directly. The more we all interact, the stronger our networking circle becomes. The more support we have , the better for cultural heritage institutions and culture in general.

Once upon a time, a person sitting in his home after a long day of work would have no reason to be interested in the Beinecke Library, but today, a few tweets from a likeminded friend can steer them to hours of fabulously entertaining resources from the collections that just might make them want to visit. Use the technology available today to explore the possibilities for reaching out.

My Stuff, My Life: Archives – What should I keep?

See my guest blog post at Lifetime Memories and Stories My Stuff, My Life: Archives What Should I Keep It was an honor to be asked to write for an Australian audience.