Spark Talks: Storehouses of Memory

In partnership with Searchlight New Mexico, the School for Advanced Research is pleased to host a summer series of discussions on issues of interest to all New Mexicans: the future of public lands; the importance of archives to history and free expression; and the unprecedented challenges facing higher education here and nationally. Welcome to Spark Talks!

Please note: this event takes place at 6:00 PM.
Gates open at 5:30 PM. Talk begins at 6 PM.

Archival libraries preserve documents and ephemeral materials from history, creating repositories for materials that serve as resources to help us better understand our past. They also serve as a central tool for answering new questions about the past and are essential to the work of historians, policymakers, and curious citizens. But questions such as who crafts the archive, what materials are welcomed into its files, and how far an archive is willing to go to protect the integrity of its holdings raise issues that cross boundaries between authority, ethics, and the law. 

In a conversation focused on two storied institutions—the Library of Congress and the University of New Mexico’s Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections—this panel will examine how decisions are made to create and maintain archives, and the related implications for how we understand the past.

Moderator and panelists will be announced soon.

Image: A drawer from the old Library of Congress card catalog. Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic