The Lynx's Den

“This little cutie climbed up on me while I applied to adopt her”

Both come from the Latin "burgus", meaning castle or fortified town. A burglar being someone who bypassed the security of fortifications.

Meanwhile burger comes via Hamburg, the burg of Hamma.

The current Head Archivist/Librarian of DC Comics, Benjamin LeClear, is wildly unqualified. He has not only never been to library school but had never worked in an archival/information specialist capacity before being named Archivist.

He has no MLIS or Certificate in Archival Science/Archival Administration/Public History, with only a B.A. in History; despite being an Archivist for seven years, he’s neglected to obtain such credentials or educational certification.

If he does have some sort of additional qualification, it’s not publicly available on either his LinkedIn page or any officially published DC material, and isn’t obvious from his professional conduct.

He had no prior library, archival, or information specialist experience or training. He was a customer service manager for decades before becoming an Executive Assistant at DC in 2012; in 2015 he went directly from being an Executive Assistant to “Manager of the DC Library Archives.” He’s since been promoted to Senior Manager.

Multiple library and archival professionals, after viewing the few public videos of him/the archives that exist, have noticed several issues regarding archival storage and preservation practices (potential lack of UV-protected glass, disorganized and un-sorted materials, shelving issues, etc.)

LeClear's lack of qualifications and competency are leading to a marked institutional-level inability to carry out work competently: DC Comics has a clear lack of writing/artistic style guides, required reading lists for writers, established continuity and lore-keeping best practices, cross-office information sharing guidelines, etc.

It’s also leading to an obvious institutional disengagement with both the academic community and the general public. Archive access appears to be exclusive to DC Comics insiders and specific comics journalists, and there’s zero official presence (on or offline) for the Archives. This is extremely odd for one of the largest media companies in the world, and has had a notable impact in the academic space (the lack of a DC-focused equivalent for Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, for example).

Not sure how to solve this problem at this juncture, but I think it's an issue comics fans and professionals in the library/archival space absolutely need to know about.

Relevant Links:

LeClear's LinkedIn

Two DC Universe Infinite Q&As, one from May 2020 and the other from Jan 2021, where he discusses his experience (or lack thereof), how he got the job, and how he approaches his work

A "behind the scenes" video interview with Syfy that shows the DC Archives and showcases LeClear's professional conduct

It's my personal opinion that you honestly don't need an MLIS for most library jobs (even if they're theoretically required), and even most Librarian-level work can realistically be learned on the job. But archivists should always have special training, and to give someone that job who not only hasn't been trained but has never worked in a remotely similar job before showcases mindboggling levels of disrespect for the profession and a fundamental misunderstanding of what archivists do. It also says a lot that they haven't required him to obtain any further education or credentials despite being in that position for seven years.

Apart from the potential preservation impact of allowing an unqualified person to handle fragile and rare materials on a daily basis, if you want one of the (many) reasons putting an unqualified person in a position like this is so damaging, take a look at one of his responses from the Q&As:

"We're also pretty insular. Always happy to help the academic community if we can, but the collection is really for DC and its fans."

LeClear is showcasing a very specific type of gatekeeping fan and information-hoarding historian mentality vs. a traditional librarian/archivist approach to his work (which would be to curate collections for the purpose of sharing information with other people) and it damages the archive's practical functionality. After all, what's the point of being an information specialist and the curator of one of the largest media archives in the world if you don't intend to share that information with other people?

First of all, all the above. All of it. Including the part about not necessarily needing schooling or a degree to do the job IF AND ONLY IF you have relevant experience.

Second, I’m just gonna define, loosely, what an archive is, because most people don’t know. - A library is a public building that holds, for the most part, published works of all kinds (unless it’s a Special Library (yes that is the name) in which case they are collected around a certain focus). You can touch them, you can hold them, and usually take them home. - A museum is a public building that holds, for the most part, rare documents/objects/photographs that are collected around a certain focus. You cannot touch them, you cannot hold them, and you cannot take them home. - An archive is a public building that holds, for the most part, unpublished or rare documents/photographs(/sometimes objects) that are collected around a certain focus. You can usually touch them, you can usually hold them, but you cannot take them home.

Third, I want to emphasize that comics *are* academic. (Spoiler. Most things are.) They are incredibly valuable resources for social anthropology, and I’ve seen metas on this site about how Batman (for example) has changed over time and what that means/represents about the culture that created those stories. And this means both the content AND the physical comics themselves. The material that the comics are made out of, throughout the publication history, can tell us a lot about standards of the time. For example examining what ink/paper/printers were used can tell us a lot about when certain technological advancements became widespread enough to be used in a comic setting, aka created en masse.

But fourth: “Apart from the potential preservation impact of allowing an unqualified person to handle fragile and rare materials on a daily basis,” lemme just unpack this real quick. From the perspective of someone who can tell you in excruciating detail what physical preservation means.

1) Potential lack of UV-protected glass. This is only a possibility, so I don’t want to get too alarmist or angry here, but UV protection is BASIC. THE FIRST THING you learn about physical preservation is the physical environment of the archive. Temperature, humidity, and light exposure. Temperature should be somewhere between 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity should be between 45-55% for paper materials. Light (aka UV) exposure should be ZERO. NONE. FUCKING NONE. BLOCK THAT SHIT OUT.

Temperature and humidity need to be controlled because high humidity can create an ideal environment for mold and pests while low humidity can cause cracking and shriveling of materials. High temperature can also invite pests and mold as well as hasten acidic deterioration by drying out materials too much. Low temperature is actually mostly fine, but dropping temperature too quickly can result in damage to materials.

Light exposure fades materials. Oh, that’s not that bad you say WELL YOU’RE WRONG. Mold and pests can be frozen out and cleaned (though some pest damage aka eating away at paper is irreversable). Paper can be rehumidified and possibly in some cases deacidified or at least stabilized. FADING DUE TO UV EXPOSURE IS PERMANENT. CANNOT BE UNDONE. EVER.

Do you know what materials are most susceptible to light damage? Materials with high acidity and high ink/color. GUESS WHAT COMICS ARE MADE OUT OF. Especially early comics printed on cheap wood pulp paper that was high in lignin (acidic) before we figured out how to make paper again. Anyway, if you want a quick demonstration of what I’m talking about, have you ever seen colored construction paper that’s been out in the sun? Yeah, that takes DAYS. DAYS, AND THAT DAMAGE IS IRREVERSIBLE.

2) Disorganized and un-sorted materials. Ok let me explain something, because this is actually a bigger deal than you would think. (This is also why the MAJORITY of archives are closed-stacks, because this is super important.) Imagine a library. Imagine, instead of covers and bindings, all the book pages were kept in boxes, loose, divided by chapter into folders. Now imagine that there are no page numbers, and no chapter numbers on the pages. Just the text. All the labeling is on the outside of the box or the folder. The only reason you know what book you are looking at is because the title is on the outside of the box. This is, in a very basic way, what most archive stacks are like.

Now imagine that you dropped a box. The pages of the book would go everywhere (trust me, I’ve done it) and now you have no way to put them back together. Now, functionally, the narrative of the book you were reading is scrambled if you’re lucky, and utter nonsense if you’re not.

That is why organization in an archive is crucial. If something is misfiled, it is GONE. Lost to existence unless and until someone finds it again by complete chance. This is a TRUE STORY, the original patent for the Wright Flyer (the very first successful heavier-than-air aircraft invented by the Wright Brothers in 1903) was lost, presumed stolen, because it was MISFILED in storage for DECADES (source).

In an archive, if there isn’t an organization system in place it is very easy for either materials to get lost in the stacks the same way the patent was, OR for people to walk off with them without anyone noticing.

3) Shelving issues. This...could mean a lot of different things. It could mean not enough shelving, improper use of available shelf space, or over-burdening. This could, at minimum, be actively causing physical damage to the materials or, at maximum, be causing a very real and serious hazard for anyone walking around the stacks.

If it’s not enough shelving, it could mean that materials are piled on top of each other which puts physical strain on them, and/or that the materials are sitting on the floor. This is bad in case of potential flooding, all archival materials should be stored at least 6 inches off the floor at any given time. (For at home storage if the floor is necessary, store your materials in sealed plastic bins.)

“Improper use” of available shelf space can and does result in either space being underutilized and boxes ending up on the floor (see above) or boxes being forced into a space where they don’t fit, resulting in bending or possible tearing of the materials in them. (Both are ultimately fixable by either a humidity chamber or Japanese tissue paper, but it’s better to Not have to fix them in the first place.)

Over-burdening shelves, by either shoving boxes where they don’t fit (see above) or stacking an extra row on the top is extremely dangerous, and could result in either falling boxes or a complete shelf collapse. Both of which could seriously injure someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both falling boxes and a shelf collapse would also just be a disaster for the physical well-being of the materials and for their organization, see point 2 above.

AND ONE MORE THING.

“We’re also pretty insular. Always happy to help the academic community if we can, but the collection is really for DC and its fans.” 

Define “fans” for me please. What, pray tell, does that *mean*. What is The Right Kind Of Fan here? Is it “really” for “DC and its fans” and less for the “academic community” because you know if literally anyone who knew better stepped foot into the fucking shambles I guarantee you’ve made of that archive over SEVEN YEARS they would FUCKING CALL YOU ON IT YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A CORPORATE CRONY??????