Because I am sensitive to the problems of Archivists, before yesterday I participated in the contest launched by Archives Online . It was propose a picture of the transformations of business archivists. I could not help but make a brief comment on the sociology of work . Just to say, it becomes increasingly difficult to account for what the workers at a time when, increasingly, the activities become homogeneous one profession to another. I take it down there.
This photo, taken from The Simpsons, illustrates perfectly the image archivists still commonly attached to a stigma with which the profession has not finished fighting. And, paradoxically perhaps, developments in the art will not change a thing, quite the contrary. For this reason, representation of the archivist as someone who works in the dust and waste paper is so powerful? Not only because of the many representations that may have currency in the media and elsewhere, but mainly because it is easily describable and understandable. From the outside, archivists look increasingly to other professions: they participate in meetings, are installed in front of computers where they handle software austere, they "manage to information, "discuss" skills "organized" systems "... Nothing that is not very clear to the layman: the content of their work has become difficult to explain and just say, it became difficult to make account. While that which manipulates large scrolls or texts in Latin, from the outside, doing something more specific, clearer, more easy to classify: it is clear what differentiates it from other workers. That is probably why the image of the archivist will remain much longer this one, as the teacher who professes to remain a silent audience, the sales person who tries to refourguer a product, the policeman who runs after the thief ... whatever the actual content of their activities. Clichés die hard!
be added in addition that this situation has implications for new entrants to the labor market. It is very difficult today to explain to a high school student what may be the content of this or that profession. During the class council in my school, career plans involve the most common occupations often well identified: one wants to be a lawyer, social worker, nurse, etc.. Professions where one can "see" what people are doing. It is much harder to get students to consider more traditional business enterprises - except perhaps "commercial" is often chosen by boys interested in compensation and convinced that they are "able to sell" everything and anything. This probably stems from the simple fact that it is difficult for a college student to understand what these gentlemen are serious about their computers ...
This photo, taken from The Simpsons, illustrates perfectly the image archivists still commonly attached to a stigma with which the profession has not finished fighting. And, paradoxically perhaps, developments in the art will not change a thing, quite the contrary. For this reason, representation of the archivist as someone who works in the dust and waste paper is so powerful? Not only because of the many representations that may have currency in the media and elsewhere, but mainly because it is easily describable and understandable. From the outside, archivists look increasingly to other professions: they participate in meetings, are installed in front of computers where they handle software austere, they "manage to information, "discuss" skills "organized" systems "... Nothing that is not very clear to the layman: the content of their work has become difficult to explain and just say, it became difficult to make account. While that which manipulates large scrolls or texts in Latin, from the outside, doing something more specific, clearer, more easy to classify: it is clear what differentiates it from other workers. That is probably why the image of the archivist will remain much longer this one, as the teacher who professes to remain a silent audience, the sales person who tries to refourguer a product, the policeman who runs after the thief ... whatever the actual content of their activities. Clichés die hard!
be added in addition that this situation has implications for new entrants to the labor market. It is very difficult today to explain to a high school student what may be the content of this or that profession. During the class council in my school, career plans involve the most common occupations often well identified: one wants to be a lawyer, social worker, nurse, etc.. Professions where one can "see" what people are doing. It is much harder to get students to consider more traditional business enterprises - except perhaps "commercial" is often chosen by boys interested in compensation and convinced that they are "able to sell" everything and anything. This probably stems from the simple fact that it is difficult for a college student to understand what these gentlemen are serious about their computers ...
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