I should have first complemented you on your efforts to compile blogs about archives, before beginning an unsolicited rant on the topic. However, I am glad that my post triggered you to compose such an eloquent and useful statement regarding your ‘ArchivesBlogs’ project. I started reading blogs about archives when seeking information about presentations from the SAA Washington, D.C. conference. Jeanne Kramer-Smyth’s and RLG’s Hanging Together both provided helpful postings which relayed much useful information to the inquisitive yet not-in-attendance archivist. To this emerging archival blogger community, I would like to extend my gratitude and offer my sincerest respect, whatever that may be worth. I have a suspicion that blogging will take on an increasingly important role in information dissemination at future SAA conferences.

As the administrator of ‘ArchivesBlogs,’ Mark you should obviously feel free to add, remove and edit feeds however you see fit. However, one way to keep ‘ArchivesBlogs’ on track might be to feed relevant tags from blogs, instead of feeds representing the blog itself. For instance, I have a slight suspicion that ArchivesBlogs readers are not going to want to see some of the rubbish I post on my blog such as my on going quest to read every possible interpretation of the historian Perry Miller.

The power of blogging is evinced when communities or networks occur in which people participate in open debate, and share ideas about which they harbor thoughtful care. It is at this precise moment however, when unsettling aspects of our 2.0 identities arise, as bloggers become more than strangers firing missives off into the ether. We become known to one another through our written thought. However obvious this point may be, I find it very disconcerting as at times I do not wish to amplify my ideas as loud as blogging is capable. I should have thought about this before writing a post and linking back to ArchivesBlogs, and instead written a more discrete e-mail.

Now that the damage is done, and I have made my presence felt (even if only to you Mark) I would like to let you know that I am an archivist (note: not an anarchivist,) a graduate student (at the CUNY Graduate Center) and an avid user of library catalogs. I believe we both have B.A.’s in philosophy, enjoy music and our roughly the same age. I was thinking about attending the Library Camp East event today, but instead decided to go to work to try and finish up the finding aids for the Florence Kelley Papers and Nicholas Kelley Papers on which I have been working for the last few months. I will continue to check back into the Secret Mirror and ArchivesBlogs in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration.

I love reading blogs like this though, and Spellbound, and others. It keeps me feeling like I’ve got a bead on current trends or helps me review topics of study I’ve forgotten.