Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief (Death and Culture)

Libraries and archives are liminal spaces between what once was and what might be remembered.

This edited collection explores this dynamic through international case studies, theoretical discussions and practical guidance, considering how these spaces activate moments of grief through preservation and documentation. Drawing on cultural, personal and literary perspectives, this volume examines grief across temporalities and the ephemerality of digital and material memory spaces.

This is an essential study that deftly shows how archival practice, critical librarianship and the digital humanities can transform the ways communities preserve memory, process loss and find meaning in the aftermath of grief.

Kaylee P. Alexander is Research Data Librarian at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library.

Robert Spinelli is Archivist for Special Collections at Middle Tennessee State University and Adjunct Professor at American Baptist College.