Archives, Education, and Access: Learning at Interference Archive

Abstract

Archives are a tool for education and the access policy of an archive affects what kind of education takes place in its space. In this paper, we describe how Interference Archive (IA), a community archive in Brooklyn, New York, provides access through an open stacks policy and experiential learning, which allows for unique educational opportunities. These methods of providing access are intended to subvert representational power, allowing visitors, donors, and volunteers to take part in deciding how histories are told, how materials are accessed, and how the collection is re-used as a resource for learning about contemporary and historical social movements.