"Dear Mary Jane" by John A. Fleckner [favorite article of David Klaassen]

Name: David Klaassen

Title: Retired

Institution: University of Minnesota

Years in Profession: 39

Title of Influential American Archivist Article: "Dear Mary Jane: Some Reflections on Being an Archivist"

Author(s) of Article: John A. Fleckner

Volume and Date: 54:1 (Winter 1991)

How has this article influenced you as an archivist? 

John Fleckner didn't influence me to do any aspect of my work differently, nor did he help me see it in a different way. Rather, as seems appropriate for an archivist who preserves the existing record, he reminded—and, in so doing, inspired and reinvigorated—me to recall what attracted me to the profession and why what we do matters, what it is that we "profess" as a profession. I don't know if his words speak as effectively to persons entering the profession a generation or two after he and I did, but a literature that speaks increasingly to the "how" aspects of the field still needs to consider the "why" as well.