Pitter Patter Putter Patter *you Look Down And See This*

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.

AoT characters! I love them all <3

Konbini (NiccoSasha)

Summary: they made eye contact once in the convenience store and now she can't stop thinking about him Rating: G

The pillows are ridiculously warm on both sides tonight, and even though the thermostat reads 21°C, the air swirling around the room feels nothing close to the temperature; if anything, it feels much closer to 35°C. She heaves out a sigh.

"This is ridiculous," she murmurs quietly as she tosses her blanket aside and swings her legs out of bed, marching downstairs to fetch herself a glass of water.

The scene from this afternoon replays in her mind, the ice cubes clinking merrily inside the glass every time she moves the glass in circular motion, the same array of thoughts haunting her nerves—the blond haired man; the absence of smile on his face; the ridiculous amount of lobster flesh he hoarded in the basket; the air of indifference emitted from all over himself; his brown eyes.

She had never seen him before. Is he new? Maybe she could ask Connie or Jean tomorrow, if they know anything about the mysterious man.

She presses a hand on her temple. No. No. They probably don't know him. This is a terrible idea to ask them. A small sigh escapes her mouth. Why does she care so much about him?

Bringing the glass to her mouth, she closes her eyes in an attempt to discard the image of the handsome man from her mind. She swallows the water in one big gulp.

Back in bed, her mind still preoccupied with the ghost of the brown eyed man — evidently unable to remove him from her mind — coupled with the incessant nagging of her heart to make an effort to look for him when morning arrives, she picks up the pillow nearest to her reach and hauls it over to her face. She screams into it.

Just as the scream dies down, the bedside table trembles from the force of her vibrating phone. She flails her hand and pats down the surface, reaching for her phone. Once the phone makes its way to her her grasp, she shoves the pillow aside and scans the Notification Center. A text message from Jean.

"What does Jean want at 3AM?" she says with a grunt.

Upon reading the message, her eyes widen in exhilaration. Surprise mingled with disbelief. She reads it three more times, just to be sure.

Hey, Niccolo from Economics wants your number. Can I give it to him? Tall guy, no smile, blond. He saw you at Konbini earlier today. 

"Niccolo, huh."

more NiccoSasha fics on my ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64988437/chapters/167080744

The Forbidden Forest.

let’s officially welcome summer holidays with a new, horribly rough drawing of levi

Orpheus looking back at Eurydice because he loves her something something Kaz can't help but look at Inej at the end of SOC

On to 2025 we go!

I guess you could call this a modern AU version of Levi and Hange. I've been dying to draw people hugging, and since anything turns into Levihan lately, this is what happened lol xD

(Reference is under the cut.)

One day, Hange opened her eyes

One of the coolest parts about being a fan of fanfic is you can actually contact the author. And they will respond. And then you can message them nonstop until they allow you into their lives and then you’re becoming their beta reader and suddenly you know multiple authors of all types of fiction books and fanfic authors who will drag out their deleted fics for you to read at a moments notice.

Anyway. Comment on fics and message authors. It’s absolutely worth it.