Archival representations of immigration and ethnicity in North American history: from the ethnicization of archives to the archivization of ethnicity

This article traces the representations of ethnicity and immigration in mainstream American and Canadian archives since the 1950s. It identifies three main periods of evolution of these ethnic archives: the era prior to the civil rights movement, the 1960–1980s and the 1990s and beyond. Relying on an understanding of archival collections as social constructions anchored in specific historical contexts, the article considers the various political, economic, social and technological factors that affected ethnic archives over time, especially as they relate to changing scholarly and popular conceptions of ethnicity in North America. It pays particular attention to the impact of historical scholarship in fields related to immigration and ethnicity and of postmodernist archival theories that challenge the traditional view of archives as evidence of the past. It suggests that the relationship between ethnic archives and their historical context is dialectical: not only are they affected by the context in which they are developed and managed, but they also have an impact on that context as they favor certain conceptions of ethnicity and types of ethnic groups at the expense of others. Both curators and users of archival materials should therefore pay closer attention to the history of the processes that went into the construction of these archives to avoid falling victims to the illusion of ethnic authenticity.     

史学思潮与档案景观的变迁

从本体意涵来看,历史与档案具有诸多共通之处,二者兼为“往事本身”与“往事记录”,共同服务于人类社会对过去的记载、追忆与缅怀。从发展历程来看,史学思潮对档案景观的变迁多有影响,二者亦有诸多契合之处,传统史学对档案文献的奉为圭臬,新史学对史料范围的延展及对档案关注点的转移,后现代史学对档案真实性的质疑及对档案范式的影响,使得历史与档案的关系进一步深化。从本体意涵和发展历程两个层面来看,档案之于历史不应犹如异乡,历史之于档案亦非渐行渐远。     

Archiving justice: conceptualizing the archives of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will complete its proceedings over the coming years, leaving behind an enormous collection of records. The ICTY archive provides a record of conviction and acquittal, prosecution case, and defense response—a vast series of contested facts and arguments. The ICTY winds down with a decidedly mixed reputation, especially among the communities of the Balkans, doing damage to the already-discredited idea of a Tribunal capable of aiding the processes of reconciliation. And yet the UN still speaks of the reconciliatory purposes the ICTY archives may serve. Pursuing reconciliation, however, sets up the archives for failure. It would be better for those establishing the archives to focus on other, attainable goals, taking into account Minow’s caution against judicial records that merely ‘speak for themselves.’ This essay provides historical context for the development of the ICTY archives, outlining its two decades of work, and emphasizes the political context from and into which the archives will emerge.     

Toward a survivor-centered approach to records documenting human rights abuse: lessons from community archives

This article proposes a theoretical framework for managing records documenting human rights abuse based on five key principles learned from community archives discourses: participation, shared stewardship, multiplicity, archival activism, and reflexivity. In shifting the focus of human rights archives to these core community-centric values, this paper proposes a survivor-centered approach to such records and argues that survivors should maintain control over the decision-making processes related to records documenting their abuse.     

档案法律融入数据法律体系的内在逻辑、问题与路径

档案法律应融入整个数据法律体系,其内在逻辑在于“数据”与“档案”的密切关系,即“数据态”是档案的存在形态之一,档案是需要长久保存的数据,对国家和社会具有保存价值的数据需要归档。然而,当前档案法律在数据长期保存中的角色有待明确,数据法律对档案工作造成挤压,档案法律对数据归档的解释力不足,为公共利益的存档与个人数据权益存在矛盾。为此,应该重塑“档案”认知和“归档”思维,构建数据协同治理机制,促进档案法律和数据法律下位法的协调。     

Public records and minorities: problems and possibilities for Sámi and Kven

The Kven and Sámi peoples of northern Norway have been represented as groups without a voice in public records. Through the project ‘National Minorities in Public Records in Norway,’ however, hundreds of documents written in the Sámi and Kven languages were found inside the public archives. These documents were neither labeled, nor cataloged in any way as non-Norwegian-language documents. This essay raises a number of questions related to how a lack of knowledge has influenced our understanding of ethnic minorities both in archives and in research related to minorities. Furthermore, recent experience leads us to a few more questions concerning the usage of sources. How do Norwegian ministries treat requests for access to official documents less than 60-years old related to the Kven and Sámi peoples? How were documents in minority languages arranged and archived by archival personnel? How can an oppressed collective memory serve as a counter-memory for minorities? How can archival documents change our understanding of minorities? What might archivists do to make minorities more visible in archives? This paper describes my personal experiences and reflections in connection with the project.     

档案研究中"过程说"的理论初探—以云南陆军讲武堂的历史和档案文献研究为例

文章以云南陆军讲武堂的历史和档案文献研究为例,对档案研究中的"过程说"进行阐释。从档案是历史存在过程的客观呈现形式、档案文本的解读与利用须从历史存在具有的过程性角度进行及档案与历史存在具有"过程"统一性三个角度,对"过程说"适用于档案研究的基础进行了分析。文章认为以"过程说"作为档案研究的方法,不仅能够为档案的整理工作提供指导,也能够通过对历史存在时间和空间及档案形成范围的界定,在一定程度上控制档案的"泛化",并促进档案文献体系的完善。     

Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation,radical user orientation,and broader contextualisation of records management

User perspective and user studies have received noticeably little practical attention in archives and archival science. The purpose of this article is to address the issues of communication and user participation in archival contexts. Two action research projects-based digital archives are discussed. The insights gained during the research and development work are used to formulate a new approach to a participatory archive. In spite of the historical nature of the archives discussed, the suggested ways of interacting with an archive are not specific to historical records. The fundamental characteristics of the proposed approach are decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and contextualisation of both records and the entire archival process.

Framing photographs,denying archives: the difficulty of focusing on archival photographs

This article pursues the varying understandings of the photograph in archival literature. An in-depth review of the scholarship uncovers several possible reasons why archivists and those writing about photographic archives apparently continue to struggle with the photograph, including: the sheer difficulty that photographs as an elusive medium present; past debates about photography in art history, history, and archival literature; and the challenges that the photograph as an evasive document presents to the contradictory nature of archives themselves and to conceptions of archival science. Having evolved from an understanding of photographs that conflated content with meaning to postmodernist notions of contingent and plural meanings in which photographs participate, archival writings on the photograph hold promise as they begin to tread the waters that Schwartz charted in the last 15 years. This paper follows that historical progression in order to trace the discourse on photographic archives that has emerged over the past three decades.

Culture and evidence: or what good are the archives? Archives and archivists in twentieth century England

Archives have the potential to change people’s lives. They are created to enable the conduct of business and accountability, but they also support a democratic society’s expectations for transparency and the protection of rights, they underpin citizen’s rights and are the raw material of our history and memory. This paper examines these issues in the context of the historical development of archives and archivists in twentieth century England. The research lays the foundations for understanding how and why the modern archives and records management profession developed in England. This paper will investigate the historical conflict (or is it a continuum?) between archives as culture and as evidence. The story identifies and highlights the contributions made by many fascinating individuals who established archives services and professional practice in England in the twentieth century. They shaped the archive in a very real way, and their individual enthusiasms, interests and understandings set the course of the English archival profession. To a great extent, it was these individuals, rather than government or legislation, that set the boundaries of English archives, they decided what was included (acquired) and what was not (of archival value.) The conclusion will consider the more fundamental questions: what are archives and what are they for, or perhaps, ‘what good are the archives’?     

Re-imaging and re-imagining the past after ‘memoricide’: intimate archives as inscribed memories of the missing

This paper discusses a number of stories about loss, grief and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the attempts by the survivors to construct intimate archives about their shattered lives. In addition to the loss of human lives, the deliberate destruction of documents, photographs, books and official records has been deeply felt by the genocide survivors and other victims of ‘memoricide’ in Bosnia as a very personal loss, an aggravated trauma and a metaphor for annihilation of their personal, family and communal existence. Subsequently, for them, the recreation of personal records and communal archives ultimately becomes an attempt to reclaim their own past and, in the process, to reaffirm their identities and recreate and sustain a sense of continuity in a post-genocide context. Using a series of ethnographic vignettes from Bosnia and the Bosnian refugee diaspora, the paper highlights the importance of the survivors’ emotional (and embodied) attachment to various forms of records and archival material. It also demonstrates the potential for research in memory and archival studies to actively engage in the creation of historical narratives about violations of human rights, thus contributing to truth-finding, social healing and reconciliation processes in post-conflict and post-genocide communities.     

我国现行《档案法》存在的问题及修改策略研究

本文从档案法律关系入手,分析了现行《档案法》中档案法律关系主体、客体和内容（权利、义务）存在的问题,并提出档案法律关系主体上要增加公民或其他组织为档案行政主体、明确档案业务约束对象和利用约束对象范围,客体上要完善档案定义、健全档案行为,内容上要保障档案法律主体权利与义务均衡、完善权利义务监督保障体系等修改策略。     

国外档案学研究的"情感转向"

"情感转向"是当前国外档案学研究领域出现的一种新的研究取向。情感理论被引入档案学领域,并得到进一步的发展和阐释。档案学者运用情感理论分析档案现象,提出情感价值作为档案鉴定标准以及情感公正、不可能的档案想象和想象的档案等观点。研究者还从实践层面分析了社群档案与情感体验、情感与离散档案问题处理以及档案与情感创伤等特定情境中的档案与情感问题。透过情感角度来观察和思考社会中的档案现象,"情感转向"为档案学领域提供了一个新的研究视角。     

论“三个体系”建立中档案工作者核心职责的拓展

本文基于"三个体系"建立带给档案工作的新变化,认为新时期的档案工作者核心职责可以实现由档案史料保存者、原始记忆坚守者、档案实体整理者、档案资源"守摊者"向历史记录传播人、历史文化研究人、档案信息提供人和档案工作"把关人"等方向拓展。     

“魂系历史主义”--档案元数据核心集构建的机理研究

目前,学界对档案元数据的研究已度过仿制阶段,构建档案领域专有的元数据核心集势在必行。本文首先剖析了“魂系历史主义”思想的精神实质,一是尊重客观、尊重历史,二是尊重有机联系或整体联系。在此基础上揭示了档案历史联系与历史的“同构性”规律,提出了从“魂系历史主义”视角来构建档案元数据核心集的研究机理。它为档案用户提供了一个“档案历史联系”元数据系统,通过该系统可以全面地了解人类历史的发展过程和本来面貌。     

Imagining transformative spaces: the personal–political sites of community archives

Although much has been written about formal archival spaces, little scholarship has addressed the physical spaces of community archives. This paper asks: How do community members imagine the physical spaces that steward identity-based community archives? Based on focus groups with more than 54 community archives users at five different community archives sites across Southern California, this paper examines how members of marginalized communities conceive of the physical space inhabited by community archives representing their communities. The sites explored range from a prominent location on a university campus, to storefronts, strip malls, and small cinderblock buildings. Yet across sites, users spoke about community archives spaces as symbolic and affectively moving locations. Many users described their community archives site as a “home-away-from-home,” marked by intergenerational dialog and a profound sense of belonging. For other users, community archives sites were described as “politically generative spaces” which foster dialog and debate about identity, representation, and activism and enable the community to envision its future. And yet, while the very existence of community archives is political, many participants felt that the full political potential of these sites is not yet realized. By listening to the voices of the communities represented and served by community archives, our research both indicates that a shift is warranted in archival metaphors of space and reveals how community archives are personally and politically transformative spaces for the communities they represent and serve.     

Editors’ introduction to Keeping cultures alive: Archives and Indigenous human rights

Keeping Cultures Alive investigates the relationship between Indigenous human rights and the archives through an interdisciplinary and comparative lens, bringing together papers by Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts in Indigenous studies, human rights, law and archival science. It explores Indigenous human rights in an international context with particular reference to the implications of the international human rights agenda for current and future archival practice in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.     

交流与合作:美国数字人文与档案领域的互动及启示

美国数字人文研究发端较早,与档案领域的交流互动频繁。本文通过梳理美国数字人文与档案领域的合作历程,把握两者的研究趋向及发展环境,总结出美国数字人文对档案理论研究、档案业务实践、档案教育培训三个维度的影响。同时,指出我国档案领域可借鉴美国经验:从思想层汲取并融合数字人文理念;从业务层开展"档案+数字人文"基础设施建设;从人才层注重培养档案人才的数字人文素质;从平台层打造特色的涉档数字人文中心。