Episode 9: The Archivist's View

Reframing History

In this week’s episode I spoke with Rachel H. Simmons, the archivist for the Winter Park Public Library (https://www.wppl.org/). Working with the community to craft a more holistic narrative that weaves the collective experience together relies on the support of archivist. In thinking about the project that inspires this podcast, we recognize it as public scholarship to enhance civic discourse. Public Scholarship is defined by Imagining America (https://imaginingamerica.org/). IA help to define public scholarship as projects that promote mutually-beneficial partnerships between higher education and organizations in the public and private sphere. Under that framework community institutions like the local library and academic institutions (Rollins College [https://www.rollins.edu/history/] and the University of Central Florida [http://history.cah.ucf.edu/]) can do much to bridge the gap between knowledge creation and community engagement. In this conversation, Ms. Simmons talks about h