So, You Want To Be An Archivist

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Title:	So, You Want To Be An Archivist (titled: "How do I run an archive" on the table of contents)
Creator:	SpookyChick
Date(s):	April 12, 2001 (written), September 2001 (posted)
Medium:	online
Fandom:	focus on The X-Files but applicable to many fandoms
Topic:
External Links:	So, You Want To Be An Archivist
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So, You Want To Be An Archivist is a 2001 essay by SpookyChick.

It was posted to the X-Files website Working Stiffs in 2001.

Excerpts

Take this quiz to see if you have what it takes to archive XF fan fiction.

Do you seek:

A) glory? B) fame? C) personal self-fulfillment?

If you answered yes to A, B, or C...

Close archive site. Become fanfic author. Post brilliant things to alt.tv.x-files.creative. Sit back and wait for the archivists to come to you.

Answered "no" to all of the above? Well, you've almost made it!

Now, check all of the following statements that apply:

I...

___ don't have enough headaches from reading a computer screen already. ___ have a Secret, Unfulfilled Longing to be a librarian. ___ didn't want a life anyway.

Checked any of these statements?

Congratulations! Archiving may be right for you!

How to Archive XF Fan Fiction (The Short Version)

Read fanfic.

Read more fanfic.

E-mail authors for permission to post their writing.

Read still more fanfic, while sorting through an inbox full of MAILER-DAEMON "ADDRESS: UNKNOWN" returned messages. (Authors are busy people. They move around a lot.)

Eventually... post a few pieces of fiction with permission.

(You know what's coming next, right?)

Read even more fanfic.

Repeat.

How to Archive XF Fan Fiction (The Long Version, or, Now I'm Actually Going to Be Serious. Really. I Swear.)

All evidence thus far to the contrary, I love archiving. There may not be "glory" or "fame," but it is quite fulfilling in its own way. And, while I have invested in several pairs of reading glasses... and the whole "librarian" thing probably hits a bit too close to home... well, I do have a life.

Really.

I swear.

I have been archiving at Prometheus 1013 (P1013) since November 2000, which was six months after I started reading XF fan fiction. Prometheus 1013 is a mid-sized archive, adding an average of 10-15 pieces a week to an established collection of about 600 stories. I got into archiving because I loved reading fan fiction; and as far as I can tell, that is the only good reason to do so. If you don't love it, you'll probably tire of archiving quickly. Even the most dedicated, long-time archivists I know express feelings of burn-out. And I know of few webmasters that have archived actively for more than three years.

It's great fun while it lasts, though!

Open vs. Closed Archives

If your basic aim is to share your favorite fic with the online community, you may prefer a "closed" archive. By this, I mean that you may choose not to invite story submissions. That way, you need only add fic to your collection as you run across it at leisure.

On the other hand, you may decide to invite authors to e-mail you their work. Thus your archive will be "open" to direct submissions. The upside of an open archive is that it may enhance traffic at your site; as we all know, 'philes appreciate a chance to voice their opinions! Open archives are also a great way to make friends and read excellent fic that you might not otherwise discover. The downside of direct submission is that it means more reading and e-mailing for you. If the traffic at your site grows beyond a certain level, submissions may become unmanageable.

And if you run a selective archive, there will always be that tricky issue of rejecting stories.

Selective vs. Automatic Archives

A "selective" archive does not automatically add all fic that is submitted. Instead, archivists evaluate the quality of fanfic and add only the stories that meet their standards. Selective archiving is a huge service to readers, because there's simply no way for an individual to sort through all the XF fiction available on web. Selective archiving also fills server space more slowly, if that is a concern for you.

"Automatically" archiving all of a certain kind of fiction (all submissions, all MSR, all slash) may or may not be a timesaver for you. If you're archiving everything, you don't have to carefully evaluate each submission. But you probably have a higher volume of authors to correspond with and more fiction to format and upload.

Specialty vs. General Archives

I mentioned above that you might choose to automatically archive all of "a certain kind" of fan fiction. There are many examples of "specialty" archives: Down in the Basement (Slash) and The Annex (novels) are two. Each of these archives collects fiction in a certain genre, which is extremely helpful to readers. If you have a passion for a particular character, a certain romantic pairing, or a type of fiction (humor, poetry), you may want to open a specialty archive. I'd suggest you look around online first, though, because odds are good that existing archives cover your favorite niche. That's not to say you shouldn't open your archive anyway; but at the very least, you may want to contact like-minded archivists to see if you can exchange links or meet people who share your interest.

We archivists are a friendly bunch!

The alternative to a specialty archive, logically, is a general archive.Ephemeral and Gossamer are two examples. The downside of a general archive is that more fic equals more work. But the flexibility of a general archive can be appealing; if you get tired of reading and posting MSR, you can go m/m Slash for a while and your readers won't be in for a total shock.

Actually, they will still be shocked. I have tried this. But if you have advertised your site as a general archive, they at least lose their right to complain.

Actually, they will still complain.

-)

Review and Recommendation Sites

Review sites are akin to selective archives: they offer evaluations to help readers sort through an ocean of XF fiction. The House of Fanfic, Sayonara Support Group, and my site, P1013, are all review sites. HOF and SSG are peer-reviewed; groups of readers split story submissions amongst themselves and post reviews of every piece. This is a fantastic way to run an archive; but it takes coordination and (most important!) volunteers. All the peer-review sites that I know of are struggling to meet their demand for reviewers. At P1013, in contrast, I am the only reviewer. While I don't face the challenges of finding and coordinating volunteers, it is a lot more work for one person to do all the reviews.

Recommendation sites are selective archives that "select" on the basis of quality. There are TONS of recommendation sites, such as Visions of Truth and Lara's Favorites. Recommendation sites may or may not include reviews. It's totally up to the archivist.

Legal Issues: Disclaimers and Permissions

You've read fan fiction. You've seen the requisite disclaimer at the beginning of every story. Livia Balaban's "Disclaimer Haiku" is one of my favorite versions:

Legal restrictions

Make me sing this harsh refrain:

I do not own them.

Legally, your archive must also include a disclaimer that says you don't own any of the X-Files characters and that you make no money from your site. If you have more questions about copyright law, look up the section on "Cold Sweat Inducers" at Working Stiffs. That site covers it all.

Archivists, like authors, don't own "them." But we have a second legal burden, because we also don't own the *stories* about "them."

The single most important thing an archivist will ever need is an author's permission.

It doesn't matter where you find the fiction that you want to archive. It could be on a hundred sites already, posted to a thousand mailing lists. You, personally, still have to get permission to archive.

Now, many authors make your life easier. Near their disclaimer on each story, they may include a header with a name like "Distribution" or "Archiving" with specific instructions. Most authors grant permission for "major" sites to archive. That means Gossamer, Ephemeral, and sometimes Xemplary; it doesn't include you. What covers you is the rest of their statement, which is usually a variation on one of three options:

"Please just let me know," "Please ask permission first," or "No archive."

"Please just let me know"

Obviously, this is a gift from a higher power. God bless the permissive author! :-) Archive away. Just make sure to drop authors a line to inform them.

"Please ask permission first"

This one is more work for you. You need to e-mail authors and wait for their responses before you may post their stories. Authors are sometimes slow to respond; other times, they have abandoned their e-mail addresses or URLs entirely. That happens all the time.

Honestly, waiting can be rather... frustrating.

(I had other adjectives in mind, but my editor threatened to quit if I printed them.)

You have to wait anyway. If you skip this step -- which I confess that I occasionally did, out of accident or laziness, in my early days of archiving -- you WILL eventually pay for it. 99% of authors will appreciate the compliment of being archived and be grateful that you bothered to tell them at all. But that other 1% will chew your butt up one side and down the other.

And have every right to do so.

On a related note... this may be a good time to introduce Murphy's Law of Archiving:

If anything can possibly be misunderstood in your correspondence with an author, it will.

To any writers reading this essay, allow me to add an Auxiliary Plea to Authors:

Please give archivists the benefit of the doubt. They like your work. Why else would they bother?

"No archive"

... does not always mean that you cannot include a story at your site. If this is the header featured on your latest favorite fic, do not despair. E-mail the author. Often writers will allow you to link to their stories at their own sites. (In contrast to archiving a story in-house, this kind of archiving is often called an "external link.")

However, some authors do not allow archiving, on principle. Then it doesn't matter how cool your site is, or if you want to name their stories "Best Fic In The History Of The Universe." When you get turned down like this, it can feel like a slap in the face. Try not to take it too hard, because it's truly not personal.

Why do authors request external links or refuse archive requests outright? Usually it is to increase traffic at their own sites, to revise their work more easily, or to retain the ability to remove a story quickly if the need arises. Whatever the reason, it is an author's prerogative.

"What if there are no instructions about archiving in a story's headers?"

Make your best guess. What works for me is to treat such stories like "please just let me know" pieces. I e-mail authors an archive notice as soon as I post their work. I always offer to remove stories immediately at an author's request.

Legally, if an author asks you to remove one of his/her pieces from your site -- whether it's when you first archive the story, or at any time later -- you must remove it. It's not yours.

"I tried to e-mail the author. She never answered," or, "I tried to e-mail the author. My message was returned because the mailbox was closed."

(Did I mention that authors switch e-mail addresses and URLs all the time?)

If you make a good faith effort to track authors down but have no success, can you legally post their work? This is a gray area.

My feeling is that if you've found a story online, it is already in the public domain. If somebody wants to find it, they can. So putting it on your site is not creating access to a story that would not otherwise be available. I suggest that you post a policy on your site (perhaps with your X-Files disclaimer) stating that you make a reasonable effort to contact authors for permission before posting stories.

A "reasonable effort" might include checking Gossamer and a site with a large directory of author links. At Gossamer, you can look up an author's name and check their most recently dated submission for an e-mail address and/or URL. There are a number of lists of author URLs; check P1013, the Spooky Awards, or In Their Own Words. You might also try using a search engine.

Organization

... is key! This is what makes an archive useful. After all, any 'phile with a mouse and a modem can find some fanfic. The trick is locating particular pieces. At a minimum, an archive really ought to list stories by title or author. Most sites list both ways.

There are an infinite number of ways to sort fiction. Anyone who's visited P1013 will know this, and roll their eyes at my insanity accordingly. I sort fiction by format (vignette, case-file, PWP); by point of view (1st, 2nd, 3rd persons); by romantic pairing (MSR, noromo, slash); by rating (PG, R, NC-17); by character (Skinner, LGM, Krycek).

There's humor. Angst. MulderTorture (more angst). Character death (still more angst).

The list goes on...

But don't worry, I won't.

Your site's organization will depend upon -- and perhaps define -- the type of archive you choose. A Lone Gunmen archive might sort fic by whether it features Byers, Langly, or Frohike. Slash archives might sort by pairing: M/K, M/Sk, and so on. You get the idea.

In addition to planning an organization scheme in your head, it's essential to lay it out clearly at your site. An easily accessible menu or other navigation tool is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to make your site of any practical use to readers.

Generating Site Traffic

If you are archiving fiction primarily for your own edification, you may not be concerned about traffic.

But if you're like the rest of us... it's just lovely to have visitors.

Rohan Seth's X-Files & Millennium Banner Exchange is a must. It is the #1 advertising exchange among XF fan sites. There are also dozens of banner exchanges hosted by individual sites, and probably hundreds of web rings. Yahoo! Rings is a good place to start looking.

"Top Site" lists are also helpful publicity tools. Lots of fan sites sponsor them. A few of the most popular are FTXZ's Yearly Top 50, the Top 27, and DuchovnyNet's Top 50 'Shipper Sites of Excellence. There are dozens of these lists for different XF fan groups -- Slash, Fanfic, etc. Entering your archive in appropriate lists helps reach potential readers.

Another good idea is to exchange links with sites that share your target audience. Many sites have "affiliate" programs to trade link buttons; even if webmasters don't have such a program, they are usually happy to trade banners or text links. Several sites, such as DuchovnyNet's All X-Files Links Page, have automated add-a-link pages that do not even require that you post the host site's link to your own archive (though it is courteous to do so).

If you plan to update your archive on a regular basis (every week, every month) you might want to set up a mailing list (Yahoo! Groups is a reliable host, but they may give you trouble if you archive slash). That way, readers can sign up to receive word when your site is updated, to come read the new stories. You may even want to send out e-mails with summaries or reviews of your archived fiction.

Site Maintenance

If you are actively archiving, you will obviously be reading, e-mailing authors for permission, and then posting fanfic on a regular basis.

What you may not anticipate is the amount of time you could spend keeping author URLs and e-mail addresses up-to-date. I might've mentioned already (oh, did I?) that authors are frequent movers. Half the time, you won't hear about the move; so you need to remember to check your links every once in a while. The other half of the time; authors will let you know. That means you will need to accommodate whatever they request. Usually writers will ask you to change (one) main e-mail listing so that they can continue to receive feedback from your readers. Sometimes, though, they will ask you go through and change every mention of an e-mail address (or a URL, or a pen name) in their stories. That will obviously take longer.

And there you have it. That's how to plan, promote, and maintain an archive of XF fan fiction.

Before you go, let's review what we've learned. Here's one last quiz:

You get an e-mail from an XF friend.

She writes: "I'm thinking of opening an archive."

Do you:

A) Send flowers and condolences,

B) Show your support by writing fic in honor of her new archive... and plotting a sudden, inexplicable change of URLs just for fun,

Or:

C) Enthusiastically fire up the modem and offer to get involved by manually re-formatting a few, choice direct submissions... a/k/a Stories From the Land Before Line Breaks...

If you answered A or B: Kudos! You passed the test, and obviously paid close attention to this article.

But if you answered C... There's nothing more I can do for you. You are truly, hopelessly, an archivist.

Congratulations, and welcome to the club.

-)