CT9999.K84

Verne Harris is coming to my faculty! I am only barely restraining myself from using capslock here guys and you'll please have to allow me this moment of sheer archival geekery, because only a handful of you might even know the man's name.

Harris is arguably one of the "celebrities" of the world of archival theory. We read quite a few of his papers in class and I did a presentation on yet another that he co-authored (with Wendy Duff, "Stories and Names: Archival Description as Narrating Records and Constructing Meanings" in Archival Science). He writes about deconstructionist theory as applicable to archives. I loved the paper I presented on - arguing that no classification system can ever claim to be free of bias, ever - and I'm excited to hear him talk about the very notion of an archive and how politics (invariably) invade that space.

Alright, less geeking out, more tacos! Siete de Mayo party!

I'm going to wake up a little bit early on Sunday morning and hide chocolate eggs all around the shared living area of the suite.

Interesting trivia about the Library of Congress classification system (Reference Section Edition!)

• The system was created around 1902.
• All classification schemes are culturally charged; you can see that legacy in several places, including the prominent place given to religion.
• When running through the order of the countries, it starts with the big imperial powers of the day: England, France, and Germany. Italy and Greece also feature at the top. The US is second to last on the list, while Canada feels somewhat awkwardly tacked on at the end.
• Canada used to have free reign of the "F" section, but in recent history much of that space was reclaimed. "FC" was assigned to Canada, but to save a lot of busy work, the books already held in collections were left where they were. Those wishing to research Canada must search "F" and "FC".
• Though the letters were doubtlessly neutral at the time, the Bible is somewhat awkwardly classified under "BS".

Thirty-one hours till my plane takes off and seven and a half pages (2600 words) are written. I'm hoping to get to ten or eleven before I'm done! If I can get this drafted over the course of the afternoon, I'll pop over to the faculty coffee house for a little while. How decadent! Then it'll be home for lots of revising! There's no real central thread just yet and THIS MUST BE REMEDIED. The ideas are sound and relevant, just a bit all over the place.

Bless Metro for being open 24 hours - I will need the protein and electrolytes.

Edit 1: 6pm, 3300 words
Remaining to do: 2 portions write-up of the Québec website, two other flesh-outs to go back to, conclusion. I had to stop to nap, fail!

Edit 2: 8:30 pm 3600 words
Remaining to do: Conclusion, flesh-outs, edit. Stopped for things like food and to go print off paper (which turned into a Faculty coffee house detour - also I was hungry and am running out of food here :P)
Best news of the week: Word2007 defaults to Calibri font, size 11. Switching to Times New, size 12 takes a 9 and 3/4 page paper up to 11 pages!

Edit 3: Quarter to two in the morning, 3700 words and still working on the second draft. Reference list compiled. Succesfully completed laundry and comparing of woes with roommate. Will be going to be at 3am no matter what because it's a busy day tomorrow - should hopefully have bulk of it done by then.

Second iSchool event went well! Commited some awkward social faux pas is failing to say a proper goodbye the group I was standing with (plans changed suddenly when I wasn't looking and that always, always throws me for a bender). This isn't ideal, but as I am wont to be lacking in all of the proper niceties anyway, maybe it's good warning? I was terribly useful while playing iSchool bingo, as finding someone, anyone from the Archives stream was difficult (I should know - I couldn't sign my own and had to search for someone else.) In a pinch, I also served as an "is from out of province" signee, which was maybe a bit sketch.

The end result of today was a free lunch and several coffee "dates" to follow-up on, though I can't be sure I'll actually still be invited to the group coffee. Either way, hooray for people!