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Name: Bill Landis
Title: Head of Public Services, Manuscripts and Archives
Institution: Yale University Library
Years in Profession: 19
Title of Influential American Archivist Article: "Picking Our Text: Archival Description, Authenticity, and the Archivist as Editor"
Author(s) of Article: Heather MacNeil
Volume and Date: 68 (Fall/Winter 2005)
How has this article influenced you as an archivist?
It made me sit up and take notice, in a visceral way, to the incredible lack of transparency in our descriptive tools and metadata for our future generations of users. Heather MacNeil does an incredible job of unpacking the hidden assumptions we've developed as a profession over decades and provides clear and enlightening examples to problematize those assumptions and practices from the perspective of researchers trying to use archival collections to support arguments, draw conclusions, and otherwise do the kinds of things we say are important to us and are the very reason for the existence of our profession and the work we do to preserve documentation.
It's fascinating to see how technology continues to evolve and impact our profession. For anyone feeling overwhelmed by the demands of research or documentation, I highly recommend checking out academized.com/do-my-homework. They can provide valuable assistance, allowing you to focus on what you do best while ensuring your academic responsibilities are met.