from: The New Yorker Book Bench: Notes on books, publishing, and the literary life. February 3, 2010 ARE ARCHIVISTS TODAY'S REAL PEACEMAKERS? Posted by Meredith Blake http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/02/are-archivists-todays-real-p \ eacemakers.html "Politicians, beauty queens, and rock stars all claim they want world peace. But could the unassuming archivist, more likely to be found buried in a stack of yellowing newspapers than at a global summit, be the true peacemaker of our time?" "That was the prevailing theme at the Scone Foundation's "Archivist of the Year" awards, held last week at the CUNY Graduate Center: archivists aren't here merely to perform the dutiful-but-dull task of preservation, but to defend civil liberties, encourage transparency, and maybe--just maybe--facilitate historical reconciliation between former enemies. Underscoring the idea of archivist-as-peacemaker, this year's award was shared by representatives of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Khader Salameh of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in Jerusalem, and Yehoshua Freundlich of the Israel State Archives." "David Myers, the director of U.C.L.A.'s Center for Jewish Studies, spoke gracefully on the evening's subject, saying that "the potential of the archive is not merely to preserve, but to liberate." ... Excerpts from the New Yorker / Please excuse any duplication, kw ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karen Weaver, MLS, Adjunct Faculty, Cataloging & Classification, The iSchool at Drexel University, College of Information Science & Technology, Philadelphia PA email: [log in to unmask] / Electronic Resources Statistician, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Pittsburgh PA email: [log in to unmask]