Metadata as a machine for feeling in Germaine Greer’s archive

ABSTRACT

What happens when a human coder meets a machine one? This article explores this question with reference to the archive of Professor Germaine Greer: Australian-born feminist, performer, scholar, and professional controversialist. It does so by staging two very different data encounters with the 70,000-word finding aid for the print journalism series, a key component of Greer’s archive. The first encounter is archivist’s creation of the finding aid; the second, archivist and literary scholar’s interpretation of this archival metadata using sentiment analysis. Interrogating these activities side-by-side opens up a productive middle ground between humanities scholars and computer technicians, between historians and archivists, between the hand made and the machine made.

This article argues that sentiment analysis offers a new and highly productive method of interrogating archival metadata, and that, as a method which privileges emotive understandings of content, it is particularly appropriate to the study of feminist archives like Greer’s. It also argues that these kinds of detailed finding aids are new datasets that reward analysis in their own right, and particularly when considered in dialogue with—rather than simply used as straightforward navigational tools for—the ‘original’ archival content.     

Personal Papers of Russian Émigrés in the United States in the State Archive of the Russian Federation

SUMMARY

This article discusses the repatriation of émigré archives to the Russian Federation and the significance of this phenomenon in Russian cultural life. Particular attention is paid to six archival collections acquired by the State Archive of the Russian Federation in the 1990s.     

A fair history of the Web? Examining country balance in the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive, an important initiative that maintains a record of the evolving Web, has the promise of being a key resource for historians and those who study the Web itself. The archive's goal is to index the whole Web without making any judgments about which pages are worth saving. The potential importance of the archive for longitudinal and historical Web research leads to the need to evaluate its coverage. This article focuses upon whether there is an international bias in its coverage. The results show that there are indeed large national differences in the archive's coverage of the Web. A subsequent statistical analysis found differing national average site ages and hyperlink structures to be plausible explanations for this uneven coverage. Although the bias is unintentional, researchers using the archive in the future need to be aware of this problem.     

The more multidisciplinary the better? – The prevalence and interdisciplinarity of research collaborations in multidisciplinary institutions

Scientific research is increasingly relying on collaborations to address complex real-world problems. Many researchers, policymakers, and administrators consider a multidisciplinary environment an important factor for fostering research collaborations, especially interdisciplinary ones that involve researchers from different disciplines. However, it remains unknown whether a higher level of multidisciplinarity within an academic institution is associated with internal collaborations that are more prevalent and more interdisciplinary. Analyzing 90,000 publications by 2500 faculty members in over 100 academic institutions from three multidisciplinary areas, information, public policy, and neuroscience, we investigated the connection between multidisciplinarity and research collaborations. Based on social network analysis and text mining, our analysis suggests that more multidisciplinary institutions are not necessarily more collaborative, although they do feature collaborations that are more interdisciplinary. Our findings provide implications for academic administrators and policymakers to promote research collaborations and interdisciplinarity in academic institutions.     

Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science

The concept of “collective” or “social” memory has assumed increasing prominence in the discourse of archivists over the past few decades. Archives are frequently characterized as crucial institutions of social memory, and many professional activities are considered forms of memory preservation. We present a systematic examination of the relationships between archives and collective memory as articulated in the English-language archival literature. We first identify the major themes regarding collective memory and categorize archival writings into four major threads. We then analyze citations extracted from 165 articles about collective memory published between 1980 and 2010 in four leading English-language archival studies journals. We identify the most influential scholars and publications and trace the evolution of the collective memory concept in that literature. By comparing the archival literature on collective memory to that indexed in Thomson’s Web of Science and in Google Scholar, we identify specific disciplines, authors, and works that archivists working on collective memory may find useful. We find that in general the archival literature on collective memory is fairly insular and self-referential and call on archivists to actively engage other disciplines when carrying out collective memory research.     

Be/longing in the archival body: eros and the “Endearing” value of material lives

This paper explores the nature of the archival body and the ways in which it is temporally situated and yet also always in motion. Applying transdisciplinary logics, it argues that the affective nature of archival productions follows the machinations of metamorphoses and (un)becoming. Using two queer/ed and transgender archives as sites of inquiry, the paper explores the erotic and affective nature of accessing the archival body in its multimodal forms. Although touching, smelling and stroking what remains of distinct material lives might elucidate arousal and certain other affective and haptic responses within the visitor to the archives, the records themselves hold and cradle their creators and their storytelling techniques along with their relationships to longing for and belonging in the archival body of knowledge. This approach suggests that understanding of the record and its affects can be enriched by temporal perspectives that acknowledge distinct and diverse temporalities and promote generative understandings of potentially meaningful progressions of time and everyday rhythms embodied within archival materials.     

The Development in Germany of Archival Processing – The Vertical and Horizontal Appraisal

Based on a discussion about appraisal which has been going on for over a 100 years, the so-called vertical and horizontal appraisal have been developed and tested since the middle of the 1990s. During this process the tasks, functions and competences of the agencies, which are to be appraised were analysed. The appraisal of the content itself is undertaken only when multiple archival processing has been eliminated by this method and the most significant records identified. Actual tasks and functions of single administrative branches of different institutions (federal government, states, counties, and municipalities) are appraised, apart from already closed records. In this way, agencies creating archives and records today receive written decisions on the appraisal of records, which will be offered to the archives in future. Archivists of different institutions are involved in this appraisal procedure. The experience gained here has continually developed the techniques of vertical and horizontal appraisal. This appraisal procedure is being further developed in a constant balance between theory and practice.     

The emergence of the anti‐hero in the contemporary drama

A brief discussion of the protagonist as he appears in the Western Theatre of today. An examination of new conditions of heroism as envisioned by playwrights in the Contemporary theatre.     

The media and the crisis of democracy in the age of Bush‐2

In this study, I demonstrate the consequences of the triumph of neoliberalism and media deregulation for democracy. I argue that the tremendous concentration of power in the hands of corporate groups who control powerful media conglomerates has intensified a crisis of democracy in the United States and elsewhere. Providing case studies of how mainstream media in the United States have become tools of conservative and corporate interests since the 1980s, I discuss how the corporate media helped forge a conservative hegemony, failed to address key social problems, and promoted the candidacy of George W. Bush in the 2000 US presidential election.     

“Seans chernoi magii na Taganke”: The Hunt for Master and Margarita in the Pravda Digital Archive

This article describes the process of tracking down an obscure yet politically and culturally significant Russian theater review, “Seans chernoi magii na Taganke” by N. Potapov, published in Pravda, the official organ of the Soviet Communist Party from 1918 to 1991. What at first appeared to be a routine reference question turned into a journey full of twists and turns, a quest for the missing review. The purpose of this article is threefold: to highlight some of the challenges that librarians and researchers face when working with Russian, East European, and Eurasian materials; to inform researchers about the capabilities and limitations of the Pravda Digital Archive and similar databases (e.g., Izvestiia Digital Archive, Literaturnaia Gazeta Digital Archive) produced by East View Information Services; and to encourage discussion about the preservation of and long-term access to research materials from the region.     

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Relations between the UK and Europe in the library world

In this paper I will look at relations in the book world between the UK and the rest of Europe. I will consider the London International Book Fair in its European context and will go on to show some of the impact of the European Union on libraries, publishers and booksellers. I will look to see whether there is any light at the end of The Tunnel.     

Sailing on the Silicon Sea – The Design of a Virtual Maritime Museum

Following the development of a virtual museum this paper theorises the implications this has had for the Western Australian Maritime Museum (http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/). It is an opportunity to explore the relationship between both theory and praxis. The context for the analysis is the Diving into Shipwrecks internet project (http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/excavate/intro/intro_frame.html) developed as a constellation of shipwreck excavations. The success of the project is highlighted through an assessment of statistical data and more qualitative forms of feedback. Having established one model in a virtual museum this paper then reflects upon other forms of the web museums that are appearing on the internet. The discussion has implications for cultural organisations that seek to create on-line environments.     

Beyond “green buildings:” exploring the effects of Jevons’ Paradox on the sustainability of archival practices

The sustainability of archival institutions will be greatly affected by attempts to mitigate their carbon footprint to meet the challenges of global climate change. This paper explores how recordkeeping practices may enhance or undermine the sustainability of archives. To enhance sustainability, it is a common practice to increase the efficiency of recordkeeping practices. However, increases to efficiency may lead to a phenomenon known as Jevons’ Paradox. Jevons’ Paradox occurs when improvements in efficiency to a system or process result in an increase in use (instead of a decrease) of a resource. The failure of the paperless office demonstrates Jevons’ Paradox, and it has wide implications for the future sustainability of repositories. This paper advances the notion that “green” technologies alone are not enough to ensure sustainability. They must be deployed in concert with a systematic use of archival practices and theories for environmental sustainability to be ensured.     

Exploring the extent of openness of open government data – A critique of open government datasets in the UK

The claim of the open government data (OGD) movement is that it would add considerable value to the political, economic and social development of nations. Thus, during the past few years, governments around the world have been under increasing pressure to release data to encourage citizen participation in government. In the UK, the government publishes its data on the data.gov.uk website for the public to find, view, download and interrogate.¹ In this paper, we evaluate the extent of openness of OGD in the UK – a recognised global leader in the OGD movement – by examining a sample of 400 datasets listed on this website. The examination uses an ‘ordinary citizen’ test, which is developed based on the original eight Sebastopol principles of open data. Our examination discovers that existing prevalent measures of openness of data are inadequate. Our findings demonstrate that the majority of the published government resources on the website are informational rather than granular data. In fact, only a small minority of these advertised as open data are actually open, which severely limits their open government utilities.     

Television's “Event Worlds” and the Immediacies of Seeing: Notes from the Documentary Archive

This article raises questions about the pictorial organization of documentary material in the context of a broader phenomenology of television. It looks particularly at the way in which combinations of shots generate “event worlds” for the viewer to engage with and gain knowledge from. Continuity and narrative development is often achieved by a commentary working across disparate kinds of material, including archive footage. How the visuals relate to specific times, places, and actions can vary considerably even within the same sequence. The viewing modes appropriate to watching composite material are briefly discussed, including their relationship to ideas of the evidential and the immediate. Two examples from the British documentary archive are cited to bring out the issues of perceptual management and cognitive control that are raised.     

The Development of Library and Information Profession in the Chinese Academy of Sciences

1　Introduction　　Overthepast45years(1950～1995),undertheleadershipoftheChineseAcademyofSciences(CAS),andinacommoneffortofthestaffmembers,thelibraryandinformationsystemofCAShasbecomeasys-temwithmulti-disciplines,multi-levelsandmulti-functions.Thesystemi…     

The Anolysis of the Causes of Chinese People＇s Incorrect Use of PP in the English longuage and the Solutions

Through discussing how the Polite Principle rescues the Cooperative Principle in English and Chinese .this thesis proves that PP is suitable both in English and Chinese .What＇s more, Chinese people has the thoughts and tradition of polite- ness. However when Chinese people confront with English they are easy to fall into embarrassments. This thesis points out two reasons of pragmatic failure. One is the cultural difference and the different use of PP in Chinese and English. The other is the unsuitable education system and belief. Finally, this thesis proposes three kinds of methods： 1. The supplement of au- thentic material which can reduce inauthennc input, improve cultural awareness and stimulate learning motivation.2.Changing the classroom from the teachers＂ arenas to students＇ forums 3. Learning English on the mteruet.