For the Public Good: Libraries, Archives, Museums and Issues of Social Responsibility

Margaret Hedstrom, Associate Dean & Professor, School of Information, UM
Bradley Taylor, Associate Director, Museum Studies Program, UM
October 23, 2011 2:00 pm
Michigan League, Hussey Room

Collecting institutions have entered the 21st century with traditional assumptions about their place in society a matter of some debate.  Changes in both the public and private funding of libraries, archives, and museums as well as our national economic malaise have caused institutions to innovate, collaborate, and adapt.  It has also caused them to reduce program offerings, terminate services, lay off employees, sell collections (often under controversial circumstances), and even close permanently.

At the same time, the demand for access to information has never been higher.  While collecting institutions struggle to find their footing, generations weaned on the web, YouTube, and FaceBook increasingly demand information that is immediate, personally relevant, and malleable.  As a result of these sea changes, collecting institutions have renewed their interest in users/audience and in a broader role in society at large, returning momentarily to earlier exhortations that such institutions exist fundamentally to serve “the public good.”

This conversation will explore the following questions:

• What obligations do collecting institutions have to provide intellectual and physical access to their collections?
• What role should professional organizations play in articulating a larger vision of social responsibility to the public?
• As publicly supported institutions, what is the responsibility of libraries, archives, and museums to their users/audiences?  To society at large?
• To what extent are social change and activism consistent with a mandate for cultural institutions to serve the public good?

 

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Margaret Hedstrom is Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan where she teaches in the areas of archives, electronic records management, and digital preservation. She is PI for a NSF-sponsored traineeship (IGERT) called "Open Data" that is investigating tools and policies for data sharing and data management in partnership with faculty and doctoral students in bioinformatics, computer science, information science, and materials research. She was project director for the CAMiLEON Project, an international research project that investigated the feasibility of emulation as a digital preservation strategy. Her current research interests include digital preservation strategies, sharing and reuse of scientific data, and the role of archives in shaping collective memory.  She is a member of the Board for Research Data and Information, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences.  She has served on the National Digital Strategy Advisory Board to the Library of Congress, and the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, U.S. Department of State, and on the ACLS Commission on Cyber-Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Hedstrom is a fellow of the Society of American Archivists and recipient of a Distinguished Scholarly Achievement Award from the University of Michigan for her work with archives and cultural heritage preservation in South Africa.

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Bradley L. Taylor is the Associate Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Michigan.  His degrees include advanced work in both museum studies and information and library studies at the University of Michigan, where his doctoral research received "Dissertation of the Year" recognition from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).  He has published several articles on the effect of surrogation on the affective response to objects in museum settings.  His current research addresses the role of the museum in the society; to this end, he is completing an article on Detroit's Heidelberg Project and the role of the artist/curator in the community.  Taylor teaches in the graduate proseminar for the Museum Studies Program and was recently instrumental in the development of a new undergraduate minor in museum studies at UM.