#  Rick Prelinger: George Parker Winship Lecture Effacements in the Repository: Do Physical Objects have the Right to Exist? 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 17, 2017** 

 05:30PM - 05:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Lamont Library, Forum Room, Harvard Yard, Followed by a reception at Houghton Library**  



 

 



 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 5.30PM  
LAMONT LIBRARY, FORUM ROOM, FOLLOWED BY A RECEPTION AT HOUGHTON LIBRARY  
GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP LECTURE  
EFFACEMENTS IN THE REPOSITORY: DO PHYSICAL OBJECTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST?  
   
Rick Prelinger presents Houghton Library’s 107th biannual George Parker Winship Lecture.  
   
While archives and special collections are collecting at an unprecedented pace, growth and shrinkage have become close partners. As constraints swell and digitization marches on, deaccessioning has moved from the periphery of practice toward the center. Entire legacy media forms—newspapers, academic journals, videotapes, reference works, maps, even film—are becoming digital by default. Rather than replaying old polemics and engaging in nostalgia for paper, ink and celluloid, this talk will treat broader issues that have received much less examination. How do physical materials held by libraries and archives become obsolete, then inconvenient, and finally difficult? Does inconvenience have its merits? Do objects in these categories have the right to exist? Are certain affordances introduced only when physical and digital collections interact? How might bibliography, filmography and mediagraphy remediate and repair gaps in collections introduced by their custodians? And, in a time when monuments celebrating white supremacy are being pulled off their pedestals, are librarians and archivists practicing erasure or healing?  
   
Free Admission – Harvard ID or other photo identification required for admission to Lamont Library  
Lamont Library, Forum Room  
Reception in Houghton Library’s Edison and Newman Room will follow.  
   
These events are co-sponsored by Houghton Library and the Harvard Film Archive

 

 



 

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