Tacit narratives: The meanings of archives

Archivists and historians usually consider archives as repositories of historical sources and the archivist as a neutral custodian. Sociologists and anthropologists see “the archive” also as a system of collecting, categorizing, and exploiting memories. Archivists are hesitantly acknowledging their role in shaping memories. I advocate that archival fonds, archival documents, archival institutions, and archival systems contain tacit narratives which must be deconstructed in order to understand the meanings of archives. Revision of a paper presented, on the invitation of the Master's Programme in Archival Studies, Department of History, University of Manitoba, in the History Department Colloquium series of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 20 February, 2001. Some of the arguments were used earlier in two papers I presented in the seminar “Archives, Documentation and the Institutions of Social Memory”, organized by the Bentley Historical Library and the International Institute of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 14 February, 2001.     

Tacit narratives: The meanings of archives

Archivists and historians usually consider archives as repositories of historical sources and the archivist as a neutral custodian. Sociologists and anthropologists see “the archive” also as a system of collecting, categorizing, and exploiting memories. Archivists are hesitantly acknowledging their role in shaping memories. I advocate that archival fonds, archival documents, archival institutions, and archival systems contain tacit narratives which must be deconstructed in order to understand the meanings of archives. Revision of a paper presented, on the invitation of the Master's Programme in Archival Studies, Department of History, University of Manitoba, in the History Department Colloquium series of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 20 February, 2001. Some of the arguments were used earlier in two papers I presented in the seminar “Archives, Documentation and the Institutions of Social Memory”, organized by the Bentley Historical Library and the International Institute of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 14 February, 2001.     

Recordkeeping metadata and archival description: a revisit

Metadata go through an evolutionary process from creation to archival preservation. During this process, some metadata are re-used (inheritance), other metadata are eliminated (extinction) and still others are updated or newly generated (mutation). Unlike other literature that focuses on metadata inheritance and mutation, this evolutionary view highlights the extinction of metadata. As such, it might raise awareness about the appraisal and selection of metadata in digital curation practice.     

Emerging themes in Finnish archival science and records management education

The paper focuses on the convergence of Finnish research and education in archival science with information science in general and in records management with information management in particular. Two issues influencing this development are: the convergence of professionals previously worked in the archival and library sectors and in information management and services; and the wide-spread, extensive growth in the use of digital technology to manage internal and external organizational information. At the level of society the opportunities provided by digital technology to manage heritage information in memory organizations like archives, libraries and museums, are tremendous and the role of documentary heritage at the global, European and national levels is well recognized. These developments are changing the information and operating environments of memory organizations and public and private enterprises. These changes, in turn, are generating new requirements in archival science and records management education and research. This paper focuses on the implications of these changes for the planning, implementation and further development of an information studies curriculum. This curriculum development is considered crucial in order to respond to the new demands, and is also implicitly linked to the emerging Finnish information society. This article is based on Huotari, M.-L. and Valtonen, M.R., “Integrating Records and Archives Management with Information Studies in Finland”, in L. Ashcroft (ed.),Continuity, Culture, Competition—the Future of Library and Information Studies Education, Proceedings of the 4th British-Nordic Conference on Library and Information Studies 21–23 March 2001, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 249–254 (Dublin: MCB UP Limited, 2002).     

Digital archives and metadata as critical infrastructure to keep community memory safe for the future – lessons from Japanese activities

This paper discusses some key issues for digital archives and metadata in a networked information environment to keep our community memory for the future. The paper is based primarily on the experiences and lessons learnt by the author from his research activities on metadata and digital archives. The author participated in a study group on digital archives hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Japanese Government from February 2011 to March 2012. The group discussed the promotion of digital archives in Japan, particularly at memory institutions. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011 caused serious damage in the north-eastern part of Japan, especially the Pacific coastal regions. This disaster significantly affected the discussions of the group. The basic lesson that the author learned is that digital archives built on a robust information environment are essential for keeping our community memory safe for the future. Not only do the primary digital resources need to be properly maintained and preserved for the future but also secondary resources, metadata and meta-metadata. We need to use Linked Open Data technologies to enhance the usability of such digital resources in the archives.     

档案与文化认同的价值实现:公民、社群、国家的视角

在全球化挑战及现代性冲击背景下,文化认同危机日益凸显。档案是人类文化遗产的重要组成部分,是建构集体记忆的重要资源;其具有的证据价值、文化价值、记忆价值、情感价值,使之成为形塑文化认同的重要来源和依托载体。采用描述性研究方法从公民、社群、国家三个维度剖析档案作用于文化认同的功用,进一步探讨档案文化认同价值的具体体现,既是对档案价值丰富内涵与价值意蕴的深化拓展,也为档案部门基于文化认同视角开展公共服务提供理论参考。     

Wayfinding: Navigating Archival Theory in Times of Technological Change

Are new technologies creating better frameworks for achieving “best practice”? What impact might tools like ArchivesSpace have on the future of the profession? Implementing ArchivesSpace at the Archives and Special Collections Department at the University of Minnesota brought internal practices in closer alignment with archival standards, and in doing so drastically changed the way we intellectually and physically manage our repositories. This article will explore whether or not these changes undermine traditional theoretical frameworks for archivists, or simply represent a realignment of professional principles.     

论档案记忆研究的学术坐标

本文根据社会记忆的基本要素结构,重点对社会记忆研究的三种切入式传统(主体-中介-客体)进行了剖解和阐释,揭示出档案记忆研究是以中介切入的方式来思考和探视社会记忆.这是档案记忆研究在社会记忆理论研究框架中的立足点,是将档案记忆放入社会记忆系统加以考察,既与社会记忆理论研究接轨,又能独立展开的学术坐标.     

档案记忆再生产研究的学术价值与问题思考

档案记忆再生产研究是运用马克思社会再生产和当代社会记忆理论,对档案记忆的生产（生成）与再生产行为及其过程进行多方位、整体性探讨,旨在探索发现档案记忆再生产行为的内在机制与本质规律。作为档案记忆研究的自然延伸和再度阐释,档案记忆再生产研究具有整合档案记忆研究既有成果、开拓档案记忆研究新空间、助推社会记忆研究新发展、打开学科知识交汇的新门径等学术价值;需要我们探索解决其中涉及的科学性问题、本体论问题、合法性问题、体系化问题、关系性问题、方法论问题,以构建一体化的档案记忆理论体系。     

A first introduction to archival science

This first introduction, written for educational purposes, is meant to be a concise basic text in which the core concepts of archival science are coherently defined and explained, in a non-polemical way and departing from a de-institutionalised point of view. It is not intended to support or reject any single theory, but to provide an overview. It should be read as a synthesis of a variety of shared ideas and views, not as a manifesto of a new approach to archival science. If there is anything new to it, it might be located in the coherent and integrated presentation. In this primer of archival science annotation has been avoided. The first of several versions of this First Introduction was written in August 1995. It was meant to meet the need of the Netherlands Archiefschool for a basic text on archival science which could support its different programs for archival education and training. After ample discussion with the archival science teachers of the Archiefschool, it was introduced in the 1995/1996 courses. From then on, it has been used in almost all courses and classes on archival science on the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels and in several training and retraining programs of the Archiefschool. The design of the first version has been maintained in all subsequent versions, including this last one. Still, the text has frequently been adapted as a result of discussions with students and colleagues, in and outside the school. This first English version can almost be deemed as a collective product. Of the numerous colleagues who were engaged in this discussion and contributed to the text, special mention has to be made of Peter Horsman, Hans Scheurkogel, Hans Hofman, Eric Ketelaar, Herman Coppens and Kent Hayworth, who commented the English version. For the final text and all imperfections that may still cling to it I am, of course, responsible. An earlier version in Dutch has been published as: Theo thomassen, “Een korte introductie in de archivistiek”, in: P.J. Horsman, F.C.J. Ketelaar en T.H.P.M. Thomassen (red.),Naar een nieuw paradigma in de archivistiek ('s-Gravenhage, 1999), pp. 11–20.     

社会记忆再生产:档案编纂工作研究新视角

人类文明发展至今积累了无数的社会记忆,这些记忆中有很大一部分以档案为载体不断被激发及延续。档案编纂工作按一定主题整合分散的档案,在此过程中将留存于这些档案中的社会记忆串连起来,用以唤醒、传承社会记忆,实现记忆意义的生成与深化,这既是档案工作的重要组成部分,也是档案记忆再生产的过程。社会记忆再生产理论拓展了档案编纂工作的性质与功能,基于此对编纂工作提出新的要求,进而推动档案编纂工作的调整与优化,推动其社会功能放大。     

Archival ambience and sensory memory: Generating queer intimacies in the settler colonial archive

The shift to archives as rhetorical places creates opportunities to examine environmental accessibility, the role of archives in legitimating official public memory, and tactics to evoke memory at the margins. I conceptualize the relation between archival environments, feeling, and memory as “archival ambience.” Ambience challenges modern theories of invention and foregrounds the entanglements of sensory culture, corporeality, sensation, feeling, and memory. Ambience reimagines invention and circulation as the relational materiality of bodies and as central to the generation of intimacies. This essay models a sensory engagement with archives at the American Heritage Center and Grace Hebard and Agnes Wergeland collections. Guided by the settler colonial environment of the American Heritage Center (AHC) and what remains of Hebard and Wergeland, I craft a queer sense of their “intimate friendship” and argue that perception of Hebard and Wergeland's intimate friendship takes shape through the sensory culture of the AHC and that their queerness is an effect of the archive.