The Relational Archivist: Centering People in the Archive

By Elizabeth Rivera

Learn how to cultivate collaborative relationships and place people at the center of archival work to create a growing and thriving archive.

Relational archivists will set the standard for professional practice in the 21st century by connecting people to people. Rather than primarily focusing on the acquisition and processing of collections to attract academic researchers, Rivera uses relatable examples from her own archival experiences to argue that taking the time to cultivate collaborative relationships will pay rich dividends and create a thriving archive. Drawing on real-life examples, she shows how new exhibits, programs, and donations have grown from these relationships, strengthening both the archive and its partners. Such relationships enable growth and progress impossible for an archivist laboring in isolation.

The Relational Archivist draws from both public history and the writings of archivists focused on social justice, political activism, and community engagement allowing archivists to understand their work within a broader community. Archivists are in a unique position to use the treasures of the archive to activate learning, foster community engagement, and help people better understand their own relationship to the past.

This call-to-arms for modern archivists provides a vision, the underlying theory, and the real-life examples that can arm the archival professional to thrive in our modern world. Meaning making happens when the stories of life speak to people over time and space. The archive exists as a place to preserve the stories of meaning, and the archivist works to promote the stories so that more people are exposed to the legacy of the stories contained in the archive. This transformative work of meaning making happens across and within archives of all types and sizes. It happens when the archival leaders have the courage to become intentionally relational and place people at the center of their archive.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GL4D8SXF
• ISBN13: 9798216277156
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"