Changing the Design: A Proactive Approach to Community Archiving
In recent years, community archiving workshop tutorials have gained popularity as institutions and universities, and community members work to demystify archiving for the public. Designing a community archiving workshop is a learning process marked by trial and error. A community archiving workshop is an education tutorial on the best practices to keep, store, and preserve items. Some people, though, may view the workshop as an actual service to help organize and preserve their items. This distinction between tutorial and service can be incorporated in the workshop description to convey workshop goals.
Some proactive strategies in the design process can minimize difficulties such as considering audience and desired outcomes. What I have learned, first and foremost, is that community encompasses a wide range of age groups, and all these groups might be interested in archiving. More specifically, it is important to personalize the workshop, making it accessible to a range of age groups and gearing it toward a central theme or subject. Before the event, I have often asked the organization’s staff to provide a registration form for attendees with general demographic questions to ensure that my materials match the audience. Another tip is to ascertain whether the workshop is for a specific event or celebration so that the materials can align.
The suggestions above are based on my experience designing, planning, and delivering community archiving workshops. For instance, for a community archiving workshop hosted at a public library, I have interacted with elderly individuals and even children accompanied by their parents. Many of the materials that I and members of my team designed are from our perspective as graduate students working with high school and college-age students with whom we have more familiarity. For children, we set up a craft table where they create their own artifacts and digitize their drawings. Parents can also explore other stations of interest around physical and digital archiving practices while their children craft. For elderly individuals, we have learned to offer more resources on scaling back their archive in terms of distributing items like family photos to their children and grandchildren. As workshop participants have noted, the responsibility of holding and preserving the entire family historical archive can be a burden on elderly individuals who are often looking to downsize. Given that community archiving workshops are held in public spaces such as community halls, libraries, and recreation centers, the workshop needs to be inclusive of these diverse audiences. If the event space is not able to accommodate a wide range of age groups, you run the risk of having to turn away individuals.
In the design process, your workshop should have the flexibility to address a specific theme or subject matter. I have been approached by community organizations such as the North Shore Juneteenth Association to do events in celebration of federal holidays like Juneteenth. For such organizations, it is valuable to host workshops on preserving community materials amid a larger celebration honoring Black history. I begin with an initial conversation with the event host to understand their goals and themes and how the workshop can align. I brainstorm some ideas based on the event description before having a follow-up conversation with staff. For an event like Juneteenth, I brought forth the idea of incorporating the importance of preserving Black history as a collective community practice that represents the meaning of Juneteenth celebrations. I also suggest that the event include the contributions of 20th and 21st century Black archivists and historians as a segway into current practices. The actual archiving workshop covered the definition of an archive and the significance of these archival practices to Black history and culture in terms of preservation, representation and identity, and cultural memory.
Other considerations include defining an archive and its various formats, providing handouts with suggested materials and a step-by-step guide, and maintaining enough staff to assist and answer participant questions. By being proactive in the design process, community archiving workshops can be inclusive while covering important themes. The strategies outlined above are just a start: every community archiving workshop will vary in terms of space, setup, and in the expertise of participants.