---
date: 2022-05-11
icon: 🌱
category: seedling
title: archives and attics
tags:
categories: seedling
lastMod: 2022-06-21
---
🌱 *seedling*

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There seems to be a popular belief that an archive is where you put things you don't need anymore. They remain there, safe for when you need them, but they require no maintenance. In our [personal knowledge management]({{< ref "personal knowledge management" >}}) systems, in our code bases, wherever, you just throw things in there.

That is not an archive. That is an attic.

Archives require maintenance, care, and intention. They require *workers* who catalog the  materials of people and institutions.

Calling our junk folders archives keeps the labor of archivists invisible.[^2]

[^2]: How does this invisible labor affect [archival silence]({{< ref "archival silence" >}})?