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This Be The Beloved Curse: Learning To Love Ever-Evolving Born-Digital Description, Ruth E. Bryan, Megan M. Mummey, Andrew Mcdonnell

Library Presentations

The title of the presentation, “This be the beloved curse” is taken from Philip Larkin’s poem “This be the curse.” In it, Larkin describes the cycle of life where children are messed up by their parents, who, with the best intentions, “...fill you with the faults they had/and add some extra, just for you.” He goes on to explain, though, that our parents, in their turn, were equally messed up “...by fools in old-style hats and coats…”, handing on what Larkin terms “misery” from one generation to another.

As archivists, and especially as archivists working with digital formats, our “beloved …