I am delighted to see so many replies objecting to the volunteer aspect of this NARA project. In a time of extreme precarity in the humanities, NARA should be paying for skilled work, not asking for free labor that further devalues our already devalued work.
Reposted from
Phil Lewis
The National Archives is looking for volunteers with an increasingly rare skill: Reading cursive.
Comments
NARA is not. If the government thinks this work is important, it needs to pay appropriately. If it’s not important enough to pay people, it shouldn’t get done.
Younger generations could be gainfully employed if people with what should be a psychiatric disorder continue hoarding obscene amounts of money. (If they were hoarding cats or newspapers, we'd be looking after them. Only money gets a pass.)
But no pay, no work. Volunteering for this stuff does not help humanities workers. It undercuts the urgency of the budget crisis by letting work continue without $$$