"To the Limit of Our Integrity": Reflections on Archival Being

Archivists toil in a professional world of power and power relationships. To mediate the power of archives and use it for the greater public good, archivists must engage their work with a deep understanding of what it means to be archivists, subscribe to a set of values that informs how they do their work, and embrace archival being. Four values are key to archival being: faith, radical self-understanding, intention, and integrity. By internalizing these values, as individuals and as a profession, archivists can better conduct their work in a moral, ethical manner for the benefit of society.