A thumbnail for episode 4 of the Bright Archives podcast with a photograph of guest Eira Tansey with blurred trees in the background.

Eira Tansey on Archives and Climate Change

Climate change is reshaping our known world, including our archives. We talk with Eira Tansey, an archivist and researcher who specializes in the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage. She recently published a report with the Council on Library and Information Resources called “A Green New Deal for Archives,” one of the first comprehensive looks at what we need to do to protect our histories. She also founded Memory Rising, which provides research, consulting, and archival services with expertise in climate change, environmental and labor movements, and Ohio Valley regional history. This is the first episode of the Vernacular Archives series on the Bright Archives podcast.

We talk with Eira about the impacts of climate change on archives, how archives can be used to tell stories about climate change, and how labor issues impact the ability of archivists to respond to the effects of our changing environment.

“In my ideal world, there would be archivists everywhere. Every government would have tons of archivists on staff. Every religious institution, every hospital, every public school. Just imagine how much more we could know about our history if we have more archivists.”

About the Bright Archives Podcast

The Bright Archives podcast explores what it means to build meaningful archives. We want to listen deeply to the world around us to investigate the value preservation has for all of us. The episodes are hosted by Katherine Barbera and David Bernabo.

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