Fair use of electronic archives

Research Affiliate, Research Program on Communications Policy M.I.T., 254 Concord Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138     

档案信息上网若干问题探析

档案信息上网问题可以算作我国档案界一个跨世纪的话题.面对着功能强大的互联网,看着图书情报界纷纷在网上粉墨登场,一些档案部门也跃跃欲试,希望能早日在互联网上获得一张通向信息时代的通行证.     

档案利用工作探讨

一、加强对档案利用工作重要性的认识 首先,它体现了档案工作的最终目的,是实现档案自身价值的有效途径.党和国家重视发展档案事业,不断加大对档案事业的投入,都是为了档案的提供利用,只有坚持做好利用工作,档案的作用才能充分发挥出来,才能实现档案潜在的价值.     

Analyzing archives and finding facts: use and users of digital data records

This article focuses on use and users of data from the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), U.S. Who is using archival electronic records, and why are they using them? It describes the changes in use and consequently user groups over the last 30 years. The changes in use are related to the evolution of reference services for electronic records at NARA, as well as to growth in the types of electronic records accessioned by NARA. The first user group consisted mainly of researchers with a social science background, who usually expected to handle the data themselves. The user community expanded when electronic records with personal value, like casualty records, were transferred to NARA, and broadened yet again when a selection of NARA’s electronic records became available online. Archivists trying to develop user services for electronic records will find that the needs and expectations of fact or information seeking data users are different from those of researchers using and analyzing data files.     

Archives of the new possession: Spanish colonial records and the American creation of a ‘national’ archives for the Philippines

Through the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded to the United States all its colonial authority over the Philippines, including its other colonies. The Treaty also placed in American possession the Spanish records kept in the various agencies of the former colonial administration of the islands. Upon assumption of its role as the new de facto colonial regime, the American insular government initiated the process of collecting the Spanish colonial records to be housed in a central repository that became the nucleus of the National Archives of the Philippines. An important aspect of understanding the context of archives in post-colonial Philippines is to trace its early beginnings and to examine the archives’ association with former colonial powers. Established against the backdrop of the shift in the continuum of colonial regimes, the archive is undeniably a colonial creation and a manifestation of colonial domination. For the contemporary imagination, however, its very presence represents a common and collective past that consequently contributes to the formation of a “national consciousness” and ironically reinforces the idea of nationhood of the formerly colonized territory.     

Preface: Historical research on archives and knowledge cultures: an interdisciplinary wave

Introduces the collection of articles collected in the special issue "Knowledge Cultures.”     

Here,there and everywhere: an analysis of reference services in academic archives

The purpose of this study is to investigate how archivists conduct reference services. The investigators administered two surveys to 19 participants at 15 Canadian academic archives to understand archivists’ behaviour while performing reference. There is no standard approach to reference as many archivists use institution-specific tools coupled with their own knowledge. Finding aids are the most frequently accessed tool and are most often used in conjunction with other tools. Limited resources are the primary barrier to the provision of effective reference services. The tools that are employed by archives are archivist focused, which results in reference services that are not user focused.     

Cultivating archives: meanings and identities

By cultivating archives through successive activations, people and communities define their identities. In these activations, the meanings of archives are constructed and reconstructed. Archives are not a static artifact imbued with the record creator’s voice alone, but a dynamic process involving an infinite number of stakeholders over time and space. Thus, archives are never closed, but open into the future. Furthermore, digital archives are always in a state of becoming, being created and recreated by technologies of migration and reconstruction.     

普通公民利用档案的特点及行为引导

笔者所谈普通公民利用档案,是指档案的利用者是那些普通人.这些普通人既不是专家、学者、专业人员,也不是由于专业原因对档案发生兴趣的人,而是我们在街头常见的"愉快的行人".他们当中的大多数人不熟悉档案馆及其馆藏,他们是由于一些偶然的因素甚至是猎奇心理被吸引到档案馆来的利用者.     

Discussion forum: Federal records and archives

Ten years of experience in working with Federal records and archives has shown me that many Federal employees, as well as those using Federal records and archives, do not fully understand the terms “permanent records” and “archives,” nor can they, most often, provide an adequate definition of a Federal record. This article will try to clarify what Federal records, permanent records, and archives are. It addresses who creates and maintains them, who determines which records become archives, and some of the legal issues relating to records and access to them.     

Afterword: in and out of the archives

This Afterword to the papers in the ARCS special issue on Knowledge Cultures assesses the historical approach contained in most of the essays in light of current concerns in archival science and among contemporary scholars in the field.     

试论档案利用者实证研究

目前,档案学界关于利用者的实证研究处于薄弱环节。获取完整真实的档案利用者信息是提升档案馆效能的关键,开展档案利用者实证研究,不仅可以掌握目标利用者群体的信息需求特征,以此构建档案馆可持续发展的策略。而且还为管理者制定战略规划提供依据,促进档案馆人员观念更新。