Bridgett Johnson-Pride '18MAMS was named Director of Public Services for Archives and Special Collections at Harvard University in October, 2023. Before her position at Harvard, Bridget Johnson-Pride was reference librarian for the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, and Art and Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. We caught up with Johnson-Pride about her current role, and how she engages with patrons as an extroverted archivist.
Creating a Collaborative Library System
“About a year ago, we embarked on this journey to centralize our public and technical services within the Art, Archives and Special Collections (AASC) unit of the Harvard University libraries,” says Bridgett Johnson-Pride '18MAMS, noting that the Art, Archives and Special Collections unit is composed of five of Harvard's libraries: The Fine Arts Library, The Harvard Film Archive, the Loeb Music Library, the Harvard University Archives, and the Houghton Library. “As Director of Public Services, my team focuses on reference teaching and access to materials at the Houghton Library and the Harvard University Archives.
Johnson-Pride has been tasked with rebuilding her department, in light of the new organizational structure. “We are trying to align our services across Archives and Special Collections within AASC. Our users are the same, even though we are currently five distinct libraries within a much larger library system at Harvard. There are different policies at each library. We’re trying to get a feel for the requirements to use materials at different libraries and how we can make them as similar as possible [across the board] for users who visit Harvard to do research.” The department is experimenting with different ways of moving materials across the campus, so that users can access more of the collection, regardless of what physical building they happen to visit.
“We would like to create a more seamless experience for our users. For example, it would be wonderful if our users could look at sheet music, hear a recording, and look at a composer’s or musician’s papers all in one reading room. This allows our users to draw lines of connection between the different types of material, even if they are not always housed in the same repository, which we see a lot in archival study.” She notes that this has, in the past, confused many visiting researchers. “They may need to visit three or four different libraries at Harvard to track down all of the materials. We want to put less burden on the user by doing the work to bring the collection together. It’s been a fabulous logistical study,” says Johnson-Pride.
As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Johnson-Pride considers herself somewhat of an outlier in the library and information science profession, but this works to her advantage. “In my role, I’m building connections with library colleagues, learning about projects and goals. Working in public services, I can take a bird’s eye view of [individual] goals. Our mission is to be champions of curiosity and help our users in their quest for knowledge. What do I have to do to make that experience easier? It’s fun to sit with colleagues across campus and talk about what barriers they have [to overcome].”
Johnson-Pride has made time to meet with colleagues at the other libraries and schools on campus. “Doing that exchange with our partners on campus can be really exciting. Archivists get a bad rap for not being vocal and outgoing, but I love being in a position where that is expected of me.” Further, she feels that archivists should be prepared to interact with the public. “There is still this notion that if you process archives, you won’t have to talk to people. Nothing could be further from the truth! At a large place like Harvard, everyone puts in a couple of hours a week in the reading room, talking to researchers. Hearing their questions will help you think more holistically about a user’s brain pathways and how to get to the nugget of their research. And that will make you better at your job.”
As one of two libraries open to the public, users often visit the Houghton Library without understanding that it is a special collection. “We are a closed stack library, but people will visit and want to see where the books are,” says Johnson-Pride. “It offers an opportunity to explain what a special collections library is, what it means to be a closed stacks library, and what exhibits they can see right away.”
Supporting Underrepresented Identities in Archives
Outside of her work at Harvard, Johnson-Pride is serving her third year as a judge for the David Ruggles Book Collecting Prize, designed to support and encourage young book collectors of color. “It’s aimed at identifying BIPOC folks under 25 years old who are collectors,” she says. “Patrick Olson reached out to me and a couple other BIPOC archivists and specialists in rare books and manuscripts. I was tapped specifically for my passion for zines, and how zine culture [influences] archives. It’s been an exciting project to be a part of, hearing about people’s collecting habits and why it’s important to them.”
Johnson-Pride also contributed to Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations on Archives and Practice (Litwin Books, April 2024). “[It’s a book of] casual conversation about working in archives as queer people,” she says. “We talked about our projects and how they have impacted us as people within the LGBTQIA+ community.” Among the issues discussed was whether a person’s sexual identity should be included as a search term to access their materials. “How do we help our users do research on people we know are queer if those search terms aren’t used in their collection?” she asks, citing as an example, finding a record of the author James Baldwin that did not include his homosexuality, though it is central to his work. In some cases, she says, the person’s papers may be restricted by family members who don’t want to reveal or emphasize that part of the person’s life. “We’re trying to shed light on who we are loyal to, as an archive. What politics do we have to [contend with], and does that mean that we are perpetrating incorrect information? That’s a question I continue to have in this work. How does that play into the tools that we make available to our users? How does that play into what we are providing access to and our donor agreements?”
Advice for Future Archivists
“The most helpful thing for me was being focused on growing my professional network,” says Johnson-Pride. “I reached out to faculty, librarians, and archivists and asked to get coffee or to talk. [Students should] get out into the world to meet people and ask questions about their work and the things that excite them. This will help you immensely when you start applying for jobs!”
As for her work in archives, it helped her to learn how repositories can vary, depending on their architecture and how their staff interact with patrons. “Ask questions,” advises Johnson-Pride. “Being bold and brave enough to introduce yourself is the first key to unlocking success in this field. The people you are approaching may be shy, so you need to make the first move.”