To put it mildly, 2020 has been a year like no other in our collective memories. It’s been filled with challenges and tragedies that none of us could have imagined just one short year ago. Finding “new normals” in both our professional and personal lives in this constantly shifting environment has required the flexibility of an Olympic gymnast and the patience of a saint.
After the initial shock of closures settled in, many archival institutions and libraries were put in a unique situation where physical facilities remained closed but resources continued to be used and requested virtually, often at a higher pace than any time in the past. Archivists used to primarily working with physical materials found themselves focused entirely on metadata clean-up, name authority work, and even card catalog conversion. Priorities shifted and workflows changed as we all tried our best to adapt.
SAA worked hard to adjust to the new environment, holding the first ever virtual Annual Meeting this summer. Plans were underway for the first virtual VMS annual meeting, when first Mary Alice and later Patrick were dealing with personal health issues, resulting in the difficult decision to postpone the Section meeting. We apologize for cancelling the meeting at such short notice and look forward to bringing you an engaging meeting, be it virtual or not, in 2021.
In the spirit of adaptation and under the new leadership of Liz Gadelha, Views has a new look and feel. It is our hope that the new format will facilitate communication between members so that we can share experiences, support each other, and work together to make the most of this challenging time.
With most researchers working remotely, our digitized (and digital) materials are receiving greater scrutiny than ever before now that they serve as the main resources available for use. Amidst this time of national reckoning about racial injustice, with renewed calls for equity and fairness in our society, the topic of conscious editing and equitable description could not be more germane. With our primary concern being visually-based formats, most of us can testify to finding ourselves in situations where we’ve had to address difficult and problematic legacy descriptions of visual materials while maintaining the historical record.
Over the course of the year, through the listserv, social media, and/or Views, we encourage Section members to share any challenges at and/or approaches taken by their institutions when tackling these issues. By doing so you will help us tailor programming content for next year’s annual Section meeting. We also hope to use your responses to periodically host informal Zoom meetings where members can virtually meet and share some of the ways we are working/moving forward in these unprecedented times. Many thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding and for your hard work that ensures the continuation of research in this constantly changing landscape.
Patrick Cullom, VMS Chair (2020 - 2021), Visual Materials Processing Archivist, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mary Alice Harper, VMS Immediate Past Chair (2020 - 2021), Head of Description and Access, Visual Materials, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.