What does it mean to be a document? Highlight Episode

Sponsored by ACRL

Recorded on 01/29/2018
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 25

In a world of fluid authorship and textual explosion, the very definition of a document is evolving in unexpected and exciting ways. Old categories give way to new, and items that seemed clearly outside the bounds of textuality are finding their way into the mix. Sound, video, and games all inform our understanding of texts. In this week’s retrospective episode Joe Janes, the author of the book Documents that Changed the Way We Live, offers his perspective on what it means to be a document and talks through the history surrounding the Rosie the Riveter poster and Webster’s Dictionary.


About the guest:

Joe Janes is a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. He is the author of several books, including Documents That Changed the Way We Live, and Library 2020, and has written a monthly column for American Libraries magazine since 2002. He holds the M.L.S. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University, and has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Toronto, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the State University of New York at Albany as well as at Syracuse and Washington.


About the Music:
The intro and outro music in Authority File is “Grapes,” mixed by I dunno. The transition music is “Peace ( There’s A better Way ),” mixed by Loveshadow. The music is available on ccMixter, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (cc-by 4.0).