Collecting fandom

[delphipsmith]

Just got back from the SAA conference in Cleveland (if you ever get a chance to eat at this place don't pass it up it is To Die For) and my little fangirl heart is very happy. There was a great lightning round (where lots of people talk one after another very quickly) on collecting fandom, and then later three of us did a panel discussion on archival and primary source material in dystopian/horror fiction. Fabulous.

Pursuant to that, Archive of Our Own recently announced that they'll be importing en masse yet another archive of fanfic, this one relating to Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas of the Harry Potter books:

The Seamus/Dean Forever Archive was a Harry Potter archive which was active from approximately 2002-2005...Open Doors will be working with Miss Cora, the moderator, to import Seamus/Dean Forever into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, both its fanfiction and fanart will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

I'm happy to say that this isn't the first time AO3 has taken on a preservation role for fanfic collections. They've imported others in the past, as part of their Open Doors project. They're also encouraging people to document the stories surrounding fan communities via the Fanlore site.

So if you know a fan archive that's become -- or about to become -- defunct, or if you have an archive you can't or don't wish to maintain any more, contact AO3. If you have a story to tell about a fan community, or about how you got into fandom, visit Fanlore and preserve it for posterity.

And please spread the word: what we do has value, don't let it get lost!

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

It's sad, though, to see the archives passing into history

[haruhi-fan.livejournal.com]

Ohh welcome back and nice seafood recommendation! I do try to take down places I see on nice food shows like Eat St. and You Gotta Eat Here for whenever I am on the road. Ta!

[arcanetrivia]

*mourns The Thin Line*