In light of the coming of summer, I’d like to suggest a slight change to the format of our readings.
I’d like to discuss a document commissioned by SAA in the early 1980’s, The Image of Archivists: Resource Allocaters’ Perceptions, commonly referred to as “The Levy Report.” It’s about 60 pages long and is available as a PDF on the SAA website: http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/Image-of-Archivists-Levy1984.pdf. I’ll shoot for starting that discussion in two weeks, on June 21.
After that, how about some light summer reading? What about one of those Brad Meltzer thrillers that involve archives? I’ve heard they’re not too bad. That could take us through most of the summer.
Then we’ll pick up toward the end of August or early September with Blouin and Rosenberg’s Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives, which was the clear choice for the next book in the poll. This will give you a chance to start reading it over the summer if you like. I have read it, and if I am correct it was somewhat slower going than the books we’ve read so far.
Unless I hear a groundswell of support for diving into B&R right away, this is the schedule we’ll go with. When I figure out what “fluffy” book we’ll be taking to the beach with us, I’ll announce it. Recommendations welcome! And I haven’t read the Levy Report yet, but I expect there may be some interesting fodder for us there.
Archivists Reading Together 
Thanks for “taking it easy” and holding off on the heavy stuff until fall – I probably shouldn’t add anything to my already heavy ACA reading list!
If we want to pursue an idea further that History’s Babel touched on – ideas of making copies of materials vs. digitization (your post below, Kate), maybe we’d like to look at Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Short and freely available!
Coming late to this – but I’m in for the Levy report, etc. Heard it cited much but never read it. Now I have.