ALA Member
$49.49
Price
$54.99
Item Number
979-8-89255-277-6
Published
2026
Publisher
ALA Neal-Schuman
SAA
Pages
152
Width
6"
Height
9"
Format
Softcover
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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
- Reviews
Listen to a podcast with the authors now!
Foreword by Connie Willis
Spanning H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine to Marvel’s Loki, this delightful book considers how science fiction stories portray archives and archivists, analyzes the ways in which these portrayals affect readers’ views, and shows how archivists can leverage these insights to improve the public’s understanding of the discipline.
The fascination with time travel and its consistent popularity within the science fiction genre is deeply rooted in science fiction writers’ and readers’ passion for history and, by extension, for libraries and other kinds of archives. However, time travel, archives, and history intersect in the public imagination in ways that don’t always match up with the reality of archival work. This book engages archivists and devotees of science fiction alike by exploring common tropes within the genre—and common assumptions in the archival profession—and providing context. Presenting a book that can serve as a teaching text, readers’ advisory guide, and thought-provoking page turner, the authors
- explore dozens of novels, short stories, movies, and TV series (particularly Doctor Who), spotlighting different science fictional approaches to writing about time travel while pointing out how archives and archivists are represented in different time travel stories;
- examine how various cultures and societies view and understand time differently, using works such as Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toshikazo Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts to show how differences in temporal perception affect the presentation of time travel in their works;
- look at stereotypes, outdated views, and biases depicted within time travel depictions of archives, comparing these portrayals with real-world archives and historical records;
- discuss ways in which understanding time travel fiction can help archivists improve their relationships with the public and encourage more accurate fictional depictions of their work; and
- connect the concepts in their book to cultural heritage practices that encourage critical thinking about archivists' roles in documenting our times.
Examination copies are available for instructors who are interested in adopting this title for course use.
Series Introduction
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Missed Connections: Time Travel Versus Archives in Popular Culture
Chapter 2
Integration: Archives in Time Travel Narratives
Chapter 3
Constructing the Current and Future Archives 55
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Authors
Index
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"A fascinating look at science fiction writing and how it represents archivists and archives."
— Fine Books & Collections