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.

流失海外历史档案的追溯对档案文化建设的作用

流失海外历史档案是我国档案资源的重要组成部分,对这部分档案的追溯、收集和开发对档案文化建设可以起到多方面的作用:既可以丰富馆藏档案文化资源的积累,也可以促进档案管理文化的建设,还会加强对我国历史档案的保护和开发,扩大档案文化产品在世界范围的影响力。     

From the memory of the act to the act itself.The evolution of written records as proof of jural acts in England, 11th to 17th century

This article traces the trajectory from distrust to trust in written records as proof of the conveyance of land in England between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. During that period of time, such records were transformed from an aide-memoire of an essentially oral act, to the indisputable proof of the act they recorded and, finally, to the very embodiment of the act itself. The article focuses specifically on one particular class of conveyance, i.e., transfers of freehold interests in land held by free tenure, on one particular form of conveyance, i.e., feoffments with livery of seisin, and on one particular type of record, i.e., the charters that recorded such conveyances. The article concludes that the ascension of written proof by the end of the 17th century is attributable to a number of factors, among them, the growth of royal jurisdiction over land, the rise of literacy, the growth of commerce, and an increasing distrust on the part of the judiciary in the capacity of a lay jury to properly assess written records.     

Affect in the archive: trauma,grief, delight and texts. Some personal reflections

Historians, as users of archives, often discuss the thrill and emotion of their ‘discoveries’. We can form romantic attachments or be repulsed across the decades. Archives containing the physical remains of the past can transport us, we can move beyond the here and now. Before the Museum of Melbourne digitised Alfred Howitt’s correspondence, I once opened a letter written to him on classic nineteenth-century blued paper. As I pulled the missive from its envelope, I could smell tobacco smoke. I was immediately in the room with him. Recently, after completing an article on the topic of frontier violence, my co-author and I both described a feeling of stress and trauma that came from reading colonial records of ‘skirmishes’ and ‘dispersals’. In this paper, I want to reflect on the experience of Affect in the archive.     

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.     

Search for tomorrow: The electronic records research program of the u.s. national historical publications and records commission

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) is a small grant-making agency affiliated with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The Commission is charged with promoting the preservation and dissemination of documentary source materials to ensure an understanding of U.S. history. Recognizing that the increasing use of computers created challenges for preserving the documentary record, the Commission adopted a research agenda in 1991 to promote research and development on the preservation and continued accessibility of documentary materials in electronic form. From 1991 to the present the Commission awarded 31 grants totaling $2,276,665 for electronic records research. Most of this research has focused on two issues of central concern to archivists: (1) electronic record keeping (tools and techniques to manage electronic records produced in an office environment, such as word processing documents and electronic mail), and (2) best practices for storing, describing, and providing access to all electronic records of long-term value. NHPRC grants have raised the visibility of electronic records issues among archivists. The grants have enabled numerous archives to begin to address electronic records problems, and, perhaps most importantly, they have stimulated discussion about electronic records among archivists and records managers.     

Evaluating a digital community archive from the user perspective: The case of formative multifaceted evaluation

Multifaceted evaluation studies of digital archives are important to understanding multiple aspects of user experience and improving the quality of the systems. This study provides an example of a formative evaluation of the community digital heritage archive. Using a multifaceted evaluation framework, the study focused on three aspects of the site relevant to users: interface, collections, and information organization. The study adopted a mixed-methods design with a questionnaire and interviews with community members. The findings indicate that in addition to a usable interface, the quality of objects, depth of metadata, contextual information, and coverage are important to users. The lack of representation of marginalized groups that were part of the community's history emerged as an important theme. The findings from the study were used to redesign the site and to expand the archive's coverage. This research also points to the need for evaluation models that focus on community-based criteria.     

The footprint and the stepping foot: archival records, evidence, and time

This paper provides an analysis of the archival concepts of “record” and “evidence” as socio-cultural constructs arising out of a particular view of time. Archival records are usually characterized as having certain relationships to evidence in its temporal aspects—specifically, the requirement for a temporal disconnect between creation and use. This disconnect also necessitates a break between knowledge and the knower in which the record must be externalized and set aside from its creator in order to have “recordness”. This paper explores how Western concepts of time impact concepts of records and archival evidences and proposes an alternative framing. Since records have such power in our lives and societies, practitioners must begin to work with an expanded concept of record and sensitivity to differing time frames and worldviews. The paper proposes a new definition of “record” as an intentional, stable, semantic structure, which is used to identify three broad categories of record types, based on event-orientation or object-orientation, that are flexible enough to account for differing cultural and spiritual understandings of time.     

新形势下档案信息资源开发以及两个一体化

文章针对档案信息资源开发的理论基础、计算机技术的运用对开发工作的影响以及新形势下如何做好档案信息资源开发工作等进行了论述,并在此基础上探讨了文件工作档案工作一体化和图书情报档案一体化的相关理论基础及其对档案信息资源开发的影响和其实施的可行性.     

Understanding the 9/11 Commission archive: control, access, and the politics of manipulation

This article examines a range of issues surrounding the archive developed by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known and the ??9/11 Commission.?? We provide a partial biography of the 9/11 Commission??s archival record as it was being assembled. This contemporaneous analysis of the politics surrounding this archive during its formative stage lends insights into the political and power dynamics shaping this archive. We review how the public record and public knowledge of 9/11 were shaped by the processes surrounding the accretion of this archive by charting records access and control controversies before, during, and years after the Commission submitted its final report. Despite claims from all sides that what was needed was an unfiltered, non-partisan and accurate review of what went wrong and how it went wrong, the story we outline underscores that the composition, accumulation, access to, and control of the archival record surrounding 9/11 was shaped as much by political concerns over blame and responsibility (and evading it) as it was by good faith efforts to get to the heart of the matter. In the charged atmospherics of modern US politics, custodial power over the record and access to it was used to prevent political embarrassment and to submerge??as opposed to surface??basic facts. Those with powers over access were not willing to risk having the documentary record either accessed or analyzed in a truly independent manner. This does not bode well, and in fact represents a deeper structural reality that will confound similar future governmental investigations that require access from those it is investigating. There is no reason to doubt that, absent a seismic shift in how the record is maintained and controlled, the archive will continue to be used as a means to shape and interfere with legitimate inquiries.     

The records of memory, the archives of identity: celebrations, texts and archival sensibilities

Using a variety of examples of non-traditional archives, the article explores the concept of cultural archives that embraces dynamic events such as commemorations, monuments, and other community-based representations. The paradigm of the postcolonial archive is considered and analyzed as a potential model for such a living cultural archive.     

从世界范围研究文件与档案的本质区别——从电子文件的网络实时归档说起

关于文件与档案的本质区别,在我国,从上个世纪30年代到现在,研究的文章恐怕已有成百上千.我今天又来唠叨这个问题,是因为自从电子文件的"网络实时归档"和"介质实体归档"两种新事物出现以后,便有了一个问题:如何为之定性呢?     

图书馆管理文化与文化管理

本文分别就图书馆管理文化和图书馆文化管理的概念等基本问题简单做了说明，对二者的关系进行了深入的分析。     

电子文件形成与档案工作者的介入

一、电子文件形成的基础 大家都知道,电子文件形成离不开计算机,而计算机运行又离不开它的运行基础,什么是计算机运行基础呢?我认为下列几个方面都是它的运行基础:     

长江大保护项目档案资源整合机制的形成与保障

本文以长江大保护项目档案资源整合为例,通过调研长江大保护项目档案资源的建设情况,分析项目档案资源整合困境,阐明项目档案资源整合机制的形成与保障.     

The archival nexus: rethinking the interplay of archival ideas about the nature, value, and use of records

This article traces an alternative to the evidence/memory dichotomy in archival discourse by highlighting the nexus between archival ideas about the nature, value, and use of records as viewed and imagined through the lens of an archival concept of evidence as a relation between record and event. This article then explores how “the archival nexus” provides a different framework for understanding the various meaning-making processes surrounding archives both within and outside the archival repository, and for rethinking the role of the archivist and the position of the archival discipline with regard to other disciplines that explicitly address and engage with the archive.     

The turning point in 1985. The history of appraisal and disposal of records in Iceland

The article sets off with a brief summary of the history of appraisal and disposal of records as processed at the National Archives of Iceland (NAI) since its establishment in 1882 to present times. Rules on appraisal and disposal of records introduced in 1900, 1911, and 1916 were ignored and all records were kept. Status quo remained until 1985 when a new National Archives Act was passed. The appraisal and disposal process adopted then is described and explained. It included the publication of instructions on records management as well as forms relating to records management. The influence of acts of law on the appraisal and disposal process is explained. Finally the experience with the arrangement of organised appraisal in Iceland is described.     

电子文件原始性的认定与维护

档案在法律上的凭证作用基于它的原始性，因此，认定电子件的原始性，是保证其具有凭证作用的关键。