Tilting at Windmills: Reflections on the Establishment of the Journal of Western Archives

Abstract

This article discusses how associations form professional identities and reflects on the establishment of the Journal of Western Archives. It highlights the ways in which the establishment of the journal is a manifestation of the development of a Western regional archival identity and underscores the role that individuals play in the creation of associational identities. One of the most compelling vignettes in world literature, found in Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quijote, deals with the difficulties of establishing identity. In the novel, Don Quijote forges a new identity for himself as a valiant knight errant; he is accompanied by his neighbor Sancho Panza, whom he has made his faithful squire, as he goes on various adventures. In the incident referenced, Quijote and Panza have just come upon thirty or forty windmills. Quijote declares that the windmills are giants and that they must be vanquished before they can cause more misery and suffering. The following conversation, illustrative of the difficulty of forming a new identity, occurs. “What giants?” asked Sancho Panza. “The ones you can see over there,” answered his master, “with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long.” “Now look, your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seem to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.” “Obviously,” replied Don Quijote, “you don’t know much about adventures. Those are giants—and if you’re frightened, 1 Daines: Tilting at Windmills Published by DigitalCommons@USU, 2010 take yourself away from here and say your prayers, while I go charging into savage and unequal combat with them.” Quijote, in reality a retired country gentleman named Alonzo Quijano, is clearly deeply invested in the new identity that he is creating for himself, while Sancho Panza is struggling to adapt to his new identity as a faithful squire. Panza is far more comfortable with his former identity as Quijano’s neighbor. Over the course of the novel, Panza comes to accept the new identity that Quijano has created for him and recognize the benefits that this new identity has given him. The process of identity formation is particularly interesting to me, as I have been deeply enmeshed, over the last two decades, in the process of transitioning from an identity of a student studying to enter medical school to the identity of a professional archivist. Identity is composed of various meanings that we and others attach to ourselves. These “meanings, or self-conceptions, are based on the social roles and group memberships a person holds (social identities) as well as the personal and character traits they display, and others attribute to them, based on their conduct (personal identities).” In professional settings, identity development “often involves tailoring one’s identity to a prototypic role identity.” This is a difficult task for archivists working in the United States, as our archival identity is currently in flux. Rand Jimerson has argued that the “most striking feature of the American archival profession in recent years is its ongoing search for identity and for public acceptance as a socially significant profession.” The archival profession’s concern with identity development is not unique. Other professions have also struggled to create cohesive professional identities that are seen as socially significant by the general public. Jimerson identifies three broad manifestations of American archivists’ search for professional identity as “developing internal standards for professional recognition; enhancing the public image of archives and archivists; and strengthening the research and theoretical foundations of the profession.” 1. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism/ Miguel de Cervantes, trans. Burton Raffel; ed. Diana de Armas Wilson (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 43–44. 2. Herminia Ibarra and Jennifer L. Petriglieri, “Identity Work and Play,” Journal of Organizational Change Management 23, no. 1 (2010), 11.