I Don’t Like Wading Into Ao3 Debates, But I Want To Give My Professional Opinion On Ao3 With Regard

I don’t like wading into Ao3 debates, but I want to give my professional opinion on Ao3 with regard to archives vs. libraries.

I am a professional librarian (MSLS) and I have worked in both archives and public libraries and a lot of the confusion and concern I see surrounding Ao3 is a fundamental misunderstanding of How Archives Work.

An archive is a collection related to a subject. That subject often a person but sometimes a field or concept or project. And the purpose of an archive is to keep everything. And I mean everything. I was going to say “short of biohazards” but since I know there’s a sealed R. Crumb Devil Gal chocolate bar in the UNC Chapel Hill archives, we really do mean everything.

When a collection of materials–which are usually unique and original and can be photos, manuscripts, letters, recordings (audio and/or visual), notes and notebooks, objects, published books, whatever–on and/or from the subject arrive at the archive, they are examined, preserved for longevity, accessioned and cataloged (added to the archive’s records), and added to the archive. You measure collections in linear feet. As in, once it’s all preserved and boxed and secure, you note how many feet of shelf space it takes up. And some of y'all on Ao3 have a lot of linear feet to your name (and I’m proud of you).

This is an archive: it is designed to preserve the original materials related to a subject. That is its purpose. Archives are how we have the original scroll manuscript of On the Road, for example, or the Lomax recordings of American folksongs, or Tijuana Bibles, or James Joyce’s loveletters to Nora.

Now you, a member of the public, can access some archives. Some are easier to access than others. The one I worked in was open to the public; good luck getting into the British Archives without a good reason.

So now apply this to Ao3–which is an archive both in name and in purpose. It is intended to preserve fan-created content long term. And this means everything, whether you personally like the materials or not. It is a repository for as much as possible.

And the “whether you personally like the materials or not” is important, hence why I mentioned Jim’s loveletters and Tijuana Bibles in particular. (RIP Jim, you would have loved pegging.)

If it’s made by fans and it exists, we should keep it to document the history and progression of fandom. That is the point. We have lost enough materials related to the subject of fans of media and we don’t need to lose any more.

The fact of the matter is that Ao3 is only one facet of the OTW, which preserves other fan-related materials (convention booklets and zines, for example). Somehow Ao3, an archive on the subject of fanfiction, has been divorced from the rest of the project, mostly by way of “purity culture” and panic over “dangerous” fiction.

The fact that you can go through an archive and find interesting information is the other side of archives. No, they shouldn’t be like the banker’s box of old letters stuffed in my closet. Yes, they should be organized and as accessible as is appropriate for the state of the materials.

It’s really, really cool to find stuff in an archive, I’m not even going to lie. I have done it before and I will do it again. And yet there are other items in an archive that I might not want or need or be interested in at all–but they’re still there. That’s the cataloging and accessioning: to keep up with what’s there, to stay “on topic” with collecting, and to be able to find things in that archive. Bless the tag wranglers who are doing the cataloging at Ao3.

The pearl clutching seems to come from 1. the creation of “dangerous” fanworks and 2. public access to those “dangerous” fanworks. These are issues of “purity culture” and opinions on censorship and should not involve Ao3.

Ao3, under the umbrella of the OTW, is a documentation and preservation project first and foremost.

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reblog to read again later

Perennial, a Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic

Words: 566 words Summary: Lucina gives Gerome flowers. Pairing/Character: Gerome/Lucina Warnings: None! Extra Info: For this meme. Rating: G Genre: Light romance/friendship

Notes:

BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING!!! (Neither did I.)

I hope you like it! 💙

Tags

fire emblem ao3 fanfic ao3 fe13 lucina gerome tumblr prompt fun mannatea mannafics fire emblem fanfiction

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satsuki-tsuki

4 months ago

Levihan

Tags

levi ackerman attack on titan shingeki no kyojin snk levihan hanji zoe hange zoe shingeki no kyoujin levi x hanji levi x hange the art so good!

583 notes View Post

satsuki-tsuki

2 weeks ago

💌 THE FORMULA OF L𖹭VE

Biologist Hange Zoë needs a test subject for her study of the cycles of love. Levi Ackerman, just released from jail, volunteers to be her test subject just to keep his facade in the university.

Tags: #LeviAckerman #HangeZoe #LeviHan #Fanfic #Ao3

Mature, eventual smut, descriptions of violence and blood.

Full synopsis: Hange Zoë is a professor of microcellular biology at Sina District University and needs funds to pay for her PhD in sociobiology. Her bosses have offered her a scholarship if she can submit a flawless admissions article, so she’s in. Her research: neurological cycles of falling in love. Test subject? Nonexistent.

Levi Ackerman has just been released from prison and got a job at the same university. Hange discovers the real reason why he’s there and promises to keep quiet ... only if he promises to be her test subject.

A.K.A

Hange’s so busy with her article she doesn’t even care who Levi kills, as long as he is helping in her investigation. Levi searches for his mother’s killer.

Read here!

Tags

levihan levi x hanji levi x hange levihan fanfic Levihan fanfiction

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satsuki-tsuki

5 months ago

"who fell first who fell harder" i actually need them both to be down horrendously bad for each other. hope that helps

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satsuki-tsuki

5 months ago

Merry Christmas! 🎄✨♥️

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draco malfoy dramione hermione granger draco x hermione

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satsuki-tsuki

1 month ago

Creativity is a muscle - something inherently exercise-able. That’s what I’ve been taught, anyway.

Sometimes I worry that my imagination has rusted away, atrophied, disintegrated. But then I have the most interesting dream, and it tells me not to worry.

All is not lost.

My everyday life demands more and more of my attention these days. My window of opportunity for living in daydream ether becomes smaller and smaller by the week, it seems. A part of my brain is panicking, saying I don’t have enough time - I feel like that’s part lie.

But complacency has its damage. Its toll.

And it’s hard not to listen to that part-alarm, part-siren in my head, when for so long all I wanted to do was create.

I’d be a fool to ignore it, even if it’s just an anxious attempt to keep that part of me alive and well.

Because I do care about the little lost artist. She is me, after all.

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satsuki-tsuki

3 weeks ago

Levihan Week 2025 Thematics

ATTENTION🚨

We are pleased to officially announce the thematics for #LevihanWeek2025!

Do you see the themes you voted for? 👀

We hope that everyone is as excited as we are! 💚💜

To ensure that #LevihanWeek2025 runs smoothly and that we guarantee a safe space for everyone, please pay attention to the guidelines and follow accordingly ❗️