Life-logging

My colleague Leslie Fields posted a message on her blog For The Record ( http://smithrecords.wordpress.com/)about the recent New Yorker article (May 28, 2007), describing Gordon Bell and his project for Microsoft called MyLifeBits.  Bell is recording “the daily minutuea of life” according to article author Alec Wilkinson.  Another recent article found in the February 2, 2007 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott Carlson describes his experiences with a digital audio recorder hanging around his neck.  Both articles are fascinating reading whether you agree with the concept of not. 

As an archivist, I think about the meriad of ways that one would need to “access the 22,000 emails, 58,000 photographs,…every Web page he [Bell] has visited.”  Why collect the data if it is not accessible?  That begs the question, is it necessary to collect the daily minutiae of life, even healthy?  What about the self-sensoring that goes on in daily life?  Is someone ready to be confronted with the reality of a recording that shows them in a differing light from what they believe?  What about the purpose of memory and context within life?  Can a recording, even the most faithful, deliver the multiple points of emotional, visual, psychic, and tactil access points to a life experience? 

There’s plenty to chew on in these articles and I hope to see, read and hear more about life-logging on this blog and others. 

School for Social Work connections

This week incoming and returning students of the Smith College School for Social Work (SSW) hit campus for an intensive 2 term coursework experience.  Afterward, SSW students head out to the field for practical applications of their classroom work.  There are many records in the College Archives that document the School.  If you are interested in learning more about the history of the School please consult the Five College Archives & Manuscripts Database at: http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/index.html, type in “Smith College School for Social Work” in the search box and scroll through the list that is generated.  You will find records in all sorts of places!  Also, feel free to contact the College Archives and ask for additional information.  Not all of the information about the collections is available in the database.

Commencement at Smith

We’ve just celebrated the 129th Commencement at Smith with Gloria Steinem, Class of 1956, as the guest speaker.  You can read the text of her speech at: http://www.smith.edu/collegerelations/com2007.php.  The first commencement where a woman was the guest speaker occurred in 1919, at the 40th commencement celebration of Smith!  Virginia Crocheron Guildersleeve was the Dean of Barnard College.  Her speech titled, “Ordeal by Fire” discussed women’s colleges and the challenges and opportunities the First World War brought to them. 

Original copies of Commencement speeches are available in the Class Records in the College Archives.  Published versions are also available in issues of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly magazine.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!

A complete list of Smith College Commencement speakers can be found at: http://www.smith.edu/collegerelations/speakers.php

Finding Archival Materials

Start your search for materials in the Smith College Archives by reviewing the Archives website at:

www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/archives

 This website will provide you with general information about the Archives and links to additional resources.  As you take time to explore this source we’ll post more information about specific parts of the website.