ARTchivist's Notebook: Up power, down power

November 22, 2024

We all have power. Whether it’s our vote, our ability to help someone in need, or simply to make someone smile, we all make countless decisions every day...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Small, useful things

November 5, 2024

Gift bag contents from the San Fernando Japanese American Community Center On Saturday I attended “Super Bingo,” a fundraiser at the San Fernando Japanese...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Old Reference Resources Never Die

October 15, 2024

Even cats are curious about what’s inside! Old reference books never die…they just get moved to the circulating collection. I’m currently researching an...

ARTchivist's Notebook: New Community Archives Publications!

September 24, 2024

New Publications For and About Community Archives! I’m super-excited to share several new publications relevant to community-based archives! If you noticed...

ARTchivist's Notebook: To Wikidata or Not To Wikidata

September 13, 2024

Metadata Learning & Unlearning Summit For the past few months I’ve been working on a research project for Curationist, looking into two Wikidata-related...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Weathering with you

August 19, 2024

Some thoughts on what cannot be preserved or reconstructed and the fragility of memory.

Happy-ish new year

January 17, 2024

Happy-ish new year... Have you made any new year's resolutions? Are you tired of the Internet asking if you have? My new year's resolution this year is not...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Sometimes the work is not the work

October 18, 2023

Sometimes the work is not the work Or, why can't I just catalog something? Recently, I've been doing a lot of work that requires "research." I'm currently...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Security through obscurity

August 11, 2023

"Security through obscurity" Truly inclusive metadata sometimes involves not describing at all. Some of you know that I used to work as a web designer. Back...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Can metadata be poetry?

March 31, 2023

Can metadata be poetry? I've been thinking a lot lately about Robin Coste Lewis' book, Voyage of the Sable Venus and other poems, in which she crafted a...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Writing and Speaking

February 22, 2023

Writing and Speaking I can't believe I haven't written to you since October! It's been a busy season, with speaking and writing work beginning to take up a...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration

October 2, 2022

On Saturday, September 24, I had the honor of attending a ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum for the unveiling of "Irei: National Monument for...

ARTchivist's Notebook: DALL-E & Me, or Alt text as AI instructions

September 15, 2022

ARTchivist's Notebook: DALL-E & Me, or Alt text as AI instructions By now you're probably familiar with AI image generators DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and others....

ARTchivist's Notebook: Should you use the term "decolonize"?

August 11, 2022

Should you use the term "decolonize"? When I started my DEI metadata consulting business about 18 months ago, I thought it would be cool to say I was...

ARTchivist's Notebook: An unexpected resource for DEI in metadata

July 5, 2022

Style Guides: An unexpected resource for DEI in metadata (Screenshot of a slide from our Society of American Archivists Reparative Description Webinar) Last...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Artle, or Art Without Metadata

June 7, 2022

Like lots of people, I've been playing Artle, the new Wordle-esque game from the National Gallery of Art. Each day brings a new challenge, in the form of an...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Metadata-tion

April 5, 2022

Metadata-tion Records are like clouds Credit: Dmitry Makeev, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Here's one for the catalogers and processors. I've been...

ARTchivist's Notebook: The role of corporate archives in truth and reconciliation

January 25, 2022

The role of corporate archives in truth and reconciliation In listening to the podcast episode "How Companies Reckon with Past Wrongdoing" from HBR Ideacast,...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Archives as time travel

January 11, 2022

Archives as time travel The past is never dead. It's not even past. -- William Faulkner It's a new year, still shadowed by COVID, and I wish the recent past...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Seeing ourselves in archives

November 9, 2021

Seeing ourselves in archives On giving away Auntie's things (Irene Yamamoto, January 1978) A year ago this week, my Auntie Irene passed away. At the end of...

ARTchivist's Notebook: The White Gaze

October 26, 2021

The White Gaze Is photography inherently racist? The Getty's exhibition "Photo Flux: Unshuttering LA" (which closed on Oct. 10) explores the ways...

ARTchivist's Notebook: Looting in metadata

October 12, 2021

Looting in metadata Representing the provenance of stolen items It's no longer surprising to hear how the treasures in the world's museums were acquired...