Archiving Against Professionalism

Abstract

I. Defining Professionalism

This article addresses how historical and moral notions of professionalism in the archival context artificially constrict workers’ understanding of their roles with regard to interpretive power and intellectual production, and thus hinder communication of the value and potentiality of the archival endeavor to outsiders. Based on historical analysis of grounding texts of archival theory, engagement with critical theory and the literature of the “archival turn,” and recent critiques of professionalism by working archivists and librarians, I urge archival workers to focus on building collective power in order to redefine the terms of our work and to develop a liberatory archival practice.