Full Bibliography

HIST577

Record-keeping Theory and Practice

More detailed week by week bibliographies can be found here.

 

Bibliography (general)

Students should ensure that they have carried out the Recommended Reading before each class.

General

Bantin, Philip C. Understanding data and information systems for recordkeeping. (London: Facet 2008). Places records within the context of the information systems typically used by institutions – provides a very useful perspective.

 

Bastian, Jeannette A. and Ben Alexander (eds), Community Archives: the shaping of memory (London: Facet, 2009). The basic text on this topical subject.

 

Bawden, D. and L. Robinson, Introduction to Information Science (London, 2012). Excellent and up-to-date introduction to the information sector.

 

Bettington, Jackie (ed.), Keeping archives, 3rd edn (Dickson A.C.T./Australian Society of Archivists, 2008). Useful series of articles on essential archival processes. Second edition edited by Judith Ellis is very different and also still worth reading.

 

Brown, Caroline (ed.), Archives and recordkeeping: theory into practice (London: Facet, 2014). A series of essays various recordkeeping topics, trying to tease out the theory-practice relationship.

 

Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P. The Social Life of Information. (Boston: Harvard Business School Press). Becoming dated but remains relevant. Places information and information technology in a broad social context.

 

Craig, Barbara L., Archival Appraisal (Munich: KG Saur, 2004). Readable, comprehensive text.

 

Craven, Louise (ed.), What are archives? Cultural and theoretical perspectives: A reader (London: Ashgate, 2008). Discussion of the ‘shifting landscape’ of archives from a postmodern perspective.

 

Eastwood, T. and MacNeil, H (eds) Currents of Archival Thinking. (Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2010). ‘Explores the progression, direction, and drift of archival thinking’ and includes some very thought-provoking essays.

 

Gilliland, Anne, Conceptualizing the 21st-century Archives (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2014). An important scholar’s statement on archives today, with historical context.

 

Harris, Verne, Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006). Important text, with value beyond the South African context.

 

Hill, Jennie (ed.) The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping (London: Facet, 2010). Collection of essays by contemporary record-keeping theorists/practitioners.

 

Jenkinson, Sir Charles Hilary, A Manual of Archive Administration, 2nd edn. (London: Lund Humphries, 1965 – or earlier editions if available). The classic English textbook, first published in 1922.

 

Jimerson, Randall C. (ed.), American Archival Studies: Readings in Theory and Practice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2000). Collection of classic articles.

 

Levy, David M., Scrolling Forward, Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001) A reflection on the nature of documents, from outside the profession/discipline.

 

McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005) Valuable theoretical articles from a records continuum perspective

 

MacNeil, Heather, Trusting Records: legal, historical and diplomatic perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000). Study of the notions of truth and accountability from archival and historical perspectives.

 

Miller, Laura, Archives: Principles and Practice (London: Facet, 2010). Textbook from a Canadian archivist with a UK PhD - useful comparison with Williams.

 

Muller, Samuel, Johan Adriaan Feith and Robert Fruin, Manual for the arrangement and description of archives : drawn up by direction of the Netherlands Association of Archivists, translation of the second edition by Arthur H. Leavitt ; with new introductions by Peter Horsman et al. (Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2003 – or earlier editions, if available). The first archival textbook, first published in Dutch in 1898.

 

O’Toole, James and Richard J. Cox, Understanding Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006). Useful basic text, from a U.S. perspective.

 

Ridener, John, From Polders to Postmodernism: A Concise History of Archival Theory (Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, LLC, 2009). Concise to the point of simplistic account of the Dutch Manual, Jenkinson, Schellenberg and contemporary North American theorists, from a North American perspective. Should be used with caution.

 

Schellenberg, Theodore Roosevelt, Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1956).

 

Shepherd, Elizabeth and Geoffrey Yeo, Managing Records: A handbook of principles and practice (London: Facet Publishing, 2003). Very densely written but conceptually sophisticated account of records management.

 

Steedman, Carolyn, Dust: The Archive and Cultural History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002). Reflections on the archive by an historian.

 

Tough, Alistair and Michael Moss (eds), Record keeping in a hybrid environment: managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unique information objects in context (Oxford:  Chandos, 2006). Useful series of essays covering records management and archives, with focus on the digital.

 

Williams, Caroline, Managing Archives: Foundations, Principles and Practice (Oxford: Chandos, 2006). The textbook written to complement this programme.

 

 

Journals (most available online)

Business Archives - principles and practice HF5001.B8

Journal of Documentation Z1007.J1

Archives and Records (formerly

Journal of the Society of Archivists) CD4.S1

Managing Information Z671.M1

Records Management Journal. HF5736.A1.R3

Records Management Bulletin. (of the IRMS) HF5736.A1.R1

 

International journals

Archival Science CD921.A3

Archives and Manuscripts (Australia) CD4.A2

Archivaria (Canada) CD921.A1

Comma (ICA) CD1.C1

Journal of Archival Organization

You may need to use:

Archives (Journal of the British Records Association)

IQ (formerly Informaa quarterly - Records Management Association of Australia) HF5736.A1.I1

Information Management Journal (formerly Records Management Quarterly). HF5736.A1.I2

Records and Information Management Report (was Records and Retrieval Report) Z699.5.A7.R7

Journal of Government Information (was Government Information Quarterly) is an international journal offering a broader perspective on public sector information management. Worth browsing.

 

The UK National Archives (TNA)

Information Management site: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/informationmanagement/  is the key site for ALL professional information and guidance. You MUST become familiar with the whole of this section of the website.

 

Archives Sector site: for TNA’s responsibilities towards the wider archive following the winding up of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 2011. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/

 

International organisations

IRMT International Records Management Trust at http://www.irmt.org

Conference and workshop reviews, toolkits, especially resources provided for Evidence based governance in the electronic age

National Archives of Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/index.aspx

 

Blogs

There are many blogs which you might find of interest, including TNA;

the Archives Hub;

ArchivesNext (Kate Theimer) - http://www.archivesnext.com/;

Recordkeeping roundtable -http://rkroundtable.org/;

The Cardigan Continuum - https://thecardigancontinuum.wordpress.com/; Thinking records (James Lappin) -

http://thinkingrecords.co.uk/; M Sarah Wickham - https://msarahwickham.wordpress.com/.

Useful lists are: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/blog.htm;

http://archivesblogs.com/; http://www.tab.com/resource/top-records-and-informationmanagement-

blogs/#BlogList.

 

Week 1: History and development of record-keeping in theory and practice

Wk 1/1 An introduction to record-keeping research

In this class, you will be presenting your summaries of the following articles in the groups you have been allocated to, followed by a class discussion of the themes and ideas which each item raises.

 

D. Bawden & L. Robinson, Introduction to Information Science (London, 2012), ch.11

 

A. Flinn, M. Stevens & E. Shepherd, ‘Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream’, Archival Science 9 (2009), pp.71–86

 

J Lappin, ‘What will be the next records management orthodoxy?’, Records Management Journal, 20:3 (2010), pp.252–264

 

M. Moss, ‘The Hutton Inquiry, the President of Nigeria and What the Butler Hoped to See’, English Historical Review 120 :487 (June 2005), pp.577-592

 

Wk 1/2 History and development of record-keeping theory and practice

 

No prior reading of the formative works is required for this session, although it will be expected that students will familiarise themselves with the writings of Muller, Feith and Fruin, Jenkinson and Schellenberg (in the original texts/translations) over the course of the module.

 

Before this class you will find it helpful to read the following:

 

Terry Cook, ‘What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift’, Archivaria, 43 (1997), pp.17-63 Influential overview of the development of archival theory, written by an avowed postmodernist. Note that Cook (below) has subsequently proposed a 4th ‘paradigm shift’.

 

Verne Harris, ‘Concerned with the Writings of Others: archival canons, discourses and voices’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25/2 (2004), pp.211-220 A reflection by a current archivist / archival theorist on the value of reading the classics of record-keeping literature.

 

Bibliography

Theory

Cook, T., ‘Evidence, memory, identity, and community: four shifting archival paradigms’, Archival Science, 13:2-3 (2013), pp.95-120. Not a classic article, nor good as preliminary reading – included because it further develops his model of record-keeping’s history.

 

Eastwood, Terry, ‘Jenkinson’s Writings on Some Enduring Archival Themes’, American Archivist, 67:1 (2004), pp.31-45. Biographical and contextual introduction to Jenkinson’s work. Also published as introduction to 2003 edition of Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson.

 

Eastwood, T. and MacNeil, H. (eds) Currents of Archival Thinking. (Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2010). Ch 1. Eastwood T. ‘A contested realm: the nature of archives and the orientation of archival science’, pp. 3-21.

 

Ellis, Roger H. and Peter Walne (eds), Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2003, also 1980 edn). A collection of classic writings – important as a supplement to his 1922 Manual.

 

Hollaender, Albert E.J., Essays in Memory of Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Chichester: Moore and Tyler, 1962). A festschrift volume.

 

Horsman, Peter, Eric Ketelaar and Theo Thomassen, ‘New Respect for the Old Order: The Context of the Dutch Manual’, American Archivist, 66:2 (2003), pp.249-70. Discussion of the origin and influence of the work of Muller, Feith and Fruin. Also published as introduction to the reissued volume.

Jenkinson, Sir Charles Hilary, A Manual of Archive Administration, 2nd edn (London: Lund Humphries, 1965). The classic English textbook, first published in 1922 – be aware that the 2nd edition, first published in 1937 has significant differences from the first.

 

Ketelaar, Eric, ‘Archival theory and the Dutch Manual’, Archivaria, 41 (1996), pp.31-40, repr. In Eric Ketelaar, The Archival Image: Collected Essays (Hilversum: Verloren, 1997), pp.55-65. Analysis of the context for the writing and adoption of Muller, Feith and Fruin.

 

Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1962). Included as essential background for understanding Cook’s intellectual framework. No one is allowed to use the phrase ‘paradigm shift’ without first having read Kuhn and at least one of his critics!

 

MacNeil, H. Trusting Records: Legal, Historical and Diplomatice Perspectives. (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000). Historical analysis of ‘recordness’.

 

Muller, Samuel, Johan Adriaan Feith and Robert Fruin, Manual for the arrangement and description of archives : drawn up by direction of the Netherlands Association of Archivists, translation of the second edition by Arthur H. Leavitt ; with new introductions by Peter Horsman et al. (Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2003, and earlier editions, if available). The first archival textbook, first published in Dutch in 1898.

 

Piggott, Michael, review of Ridener, From Polders to Postmodernism, in Archives and Manuscripts, 38:1 (2010), pp.168-73. In my view, a well-justified set of criticisms, which should be read alongside Ridener.

 

Procter, Margaret, ‘Life before Jenkinson – the Development of British Archival Theory and Thought at the Turn of the Twentieth Century’, Archives, 32:119 (2008), pp.140-61. Discussion of the influences on Jenkinson and their positions on key aspects of archival theory.

 

Ridener, John, From Polders to Postmodernism: A Concise History of Archival Theory (Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, LLC, 2009). Concise to the point of simplistic account of the Dutch Manual, Jenkinson, Schellenberg and contemporary North American theorists, from a North American perspective. Basically an expansion of Cook (1997), above – should be used with reference to Piggott’s review.

 

Schellenberg, Theodore Roosevelt, Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1956). The classic American textbook.

 

Smith, Jane F., ‘Theodore R. Shellenberg: Americanizer and Popularizer’, American Archivist, 44:4 (1981). Biographical account of Schellenberg’s life and work.

 

History of Practice

Mullins, Daniel A., Harvey Whitehouse, and Quentin D. Atkinson. ‘The role of writing and recordkeeping in the cultural evolution of human cooperation’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 90 (2013), pp.141-151.

 

Clanchy, Michael, From memory to written record England 1066-1307 (3rd ed, 2013 or 2^nd ed 1993). Very influential text.

 

Duchein, M., ‘The history of European archives and the development of the archival profession in Europe’, American Archivist 1992 (55:1), pp. 14-25

 

Lappin, J, ‘What will be the next records management orthodoxy?’, RMJ, 20:3 (2010) pp.252 – 264. A useful discussion of the relevance of theory to practice.

 

McKemmish, S. and M. Piggott (eds), The Records Continuum: Ian MacLean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994)

 

Moore, Lara Jennifer, Restoring Order: The Ecole des Chartes and the Organization of Archives and Libraries in France 1820-1870 (Duluth, MINN: Litwin Books, 2008). Accessible text on the history of archival systems in France.

 

Posner, E., Archives in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 1972). Classic text on the subject.

 

Records and technology, their interdependence over time: JSA special issue 2011 (32:1) particularly Barbara Craig, ‘Machines, methods and modernity in the British Civil Service, c.1870-c1950’, pp.63-78 and V. Johnson, Plus ca change ...? The salutary tale of the telephone and its implications for archival thinking about the digital revolution’, pp79-92. Examples of the role of technology in record-keeping changes.

 

Shepherd, Elizabeth, Archives and archivists in 20th century England (Ashgate, 2009). The basic text on the history of the UK profession.

 

Sickinger, P., Public records and archives in classical Athens (Chapel Hill, 1999).

 

Tough, A., and P.Lihoma, ‘The development of recordkeeping systems in the British Empire and Commonwealth, 1870s-1960s’, Archives and Manuscripts 40:3 (2012), pp. 191-216.

 

Wilson, Don W. ‘Culture and conflict: Defining the National Archives’, Government Information Quarterly 13.2 (1996), pp. 187-194. Note date but some useful context for America.

 

Week 2: What are records and archives?

 

Week 2/1 What is a record? (inc. E-records)

 

Before this class, you will find it helpful to read the following (which you should read in chronological order):

M.K. Buckland, ‘What is a “document”?’, Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 48:9 (1997) pp.804-809.

D.M. Levy, Scrolling Forward, Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001), Chapter 2 ‘What are documents?’

G. Yeo, ‘Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents’, Records Management Journal, 21:1 (2011), pp. 8 – 27.

 

Week 2/2 What are archives?

Before this class, you may find it helpful to read the following:

Luciana Duranti, ‘Archives as a Place’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24:2 (1996), pp.242-55.

M.A. Greene, ‘The Power of Meaning: The Archival Mission in the Postmodern Age’, American Archivist, 65:1 (2002), pp.42-55.

 

Bibliography

Basic definitions of records

Duranti, L., ‘The Archival Bond’, Archives and Museum Informatics, 11 (1997), pp.11:3-4 (1997), pp.213-18. Records defined as documents which have received the ‘archival bond’ (i.e. been placed in an archival context, archives being defined in a non-historical sense).

International Organization for Standardization, ISO 15489-1: 2001 Information and Documentation – records management – part 1: general (Geneva: ISO, 2001). Provides the standard definition of a record.

 

Livelton, T., Archival Theory, Records, and the Public (Lanham, MD and London: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, 1996), pp.59-63. Definition of records within the context of a definition of archives.

 

McKemmish, S., ‘Traces: Document, record, archive, archives’ in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.1-74. Definition of a record from a records continuum

perspective.

 

Reed, B., ‘Records’, in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.101-30. Defines records as dynamic and relational entities.

 

Schellenberg, T.R., Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1956), pp.15-16, 53-57. The first ‘archival’ definition of a record in Anglophone theory.

 

Shepherd, E. and G. Yeo, Managing Records: A handbook of principles and practice (London: Facet Publishing, 2003), pp. 1-29 and ch.4. Definition of records from a records management perspective.

 

Yeo, G., 'Concepts of Record (1): evidence, information, and persistent representations', American Archivist 70:2 (2007), pp.315-43. Argues that records are ‘persistent representations of activities, created by participants or observers or their authorized proxies’.

 

--- 'Concepts of Record (2): prototypes and boundary objects', American Archivist 71:1 (2008), pp.118-43. Explores how record-keepers identify records and degrees of recordness.

 

--- ‘ Representing the Act: Records and Speech Act Theory’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 31:2 (2010), pp.95-117. Discussion of the value of speech act theory to archive studies – of interest as an example of the importation of a theory from another discipline.

 

--- ‘Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents’, Records Management Journal, 21:1 (2011), pp. 8 – 27. Explores the notion that a record is not simply a special type of document (particularly in the digital sphere).

 

Williams, Caroline, ‘Records and archives: concepts, roles and definitions’, in Caroline Brown (ed), Archives and recordkeeping: theory into practice (London: Facet, 2014), pp.1-29. Accessibleliterature review.

 

Practice-based Definitions

Lemieux, V.L., ‘Let the Ghosts Speak: An Empirical Exploration of the “Nature” of the Record’, Archivaria, 51 (2001), pp.81-111. Based on an analysis of record-keeping in Jamaican banks.

 

Trace, Ciaran B., ‘What is Recorded is Never Simply “What Happened”: Record Keeping in Modern Organizational Culture’, Archival Science, 2:1-2 (2002), pp.137-59. Looks at the creation of records from a postmodern perspective, viewing records as proactive agents.

 

Williams, Caroline, Managing Archives: Foundations, Principles and Practice (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), pp.3-19. Puts the ISO definition into real life – and archival – context.

 

 

Transactionality

Horsman, Peter, ‘Archival description from a distant view’, paper given at ‘Working With Knowledge’, conference held in Canberra, Australia, 6-7 May 1998, available online at http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/asa/stama/conf/WWKHorsman.htm. Discusses the nature of records as dynamic, process-based entities. Also useful as a theoretical text on description.

 

Information

Bawden, D. and L. Robinson, Introduction to Information Science (London, 2012). Excellent and up-to-date introduction to the information sector, with some useful definitions.

 

Best, David P. (ed.), The Fourth Resource: Information and its Management (Aldershot and Brookfield: Aslib/Gower, 1996). Basic text on information management.

 

Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information (Yale: Harvard Business School, 2000). Discusses the relationship between information and knowledge in terms of social context. Now feels a little dated in its treatment of IT but still an interesting read.

 

Dineen, Jesse David and Christian Brauner, ‘Practical and Philosophical Considerations for Defining Information as Well-formed Meaningful Data in the Information Sciences’, Library Trends, 63:3 (2015), pp.378-400. The basic argument is contained in the title – however provides a guide to previous literature and explains why information does not have to be ‘true’.

 

Documents and the Documentation movement

 

Beard, David, ‘From work to text to document’, Archival Science, 8:3 (2008), pp.217-26. Discussion of the relationship between the concepts of ‘work’, ‘text’ and ‘document’ in different disciplines, suggesting that the discourses of memory institutions are fundamental to disciplines focusing on the ‘document’.

 

Buckland, Michael K., ‘What is a “Document”?’, Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 48:9 (1997), pp.804-809 (also available as a prepub. version at http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/whatdoc.html). Thought-provoking exploration of the nature of the document, using scholarship associated with the early C20th Documentation movement.

 

Duranti, Luciana, Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Lanham, MD and London: Society of American Archivists and Association of Canadian Archivists in association with The Scarecrow Press, 1998). Textbook discussion of document analysis and its value within a digital environment (the basic premise of the InterPARES project).

 

Elliott, Clark A., ‘Communication and Events in History: Toward a Theory for Documenting the Past’, American Archivist, 48:4 (1985), pp.357-68. Exploration of documents as a form of communication and proposes a classification of the document-event relationship, using the example of letters in Harvard University Archives.

 

Hartland, Robert, Sue McKemmish and Frank Upward, ‘Documents’, in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.75-100. Discussion of ‘document analysis’ (diplomatic) in physical and digital environments.

 

Levy, David M., Scrolling Forward, Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001). Aimed at popular audience and therefore very readable account of the role of documents in society.

 

Tourney, Michele M., ‘Caging Virtual Antelopes: Suzanne Briet’s Definition of Documents in the Context of the Digital Age’, Archival Science, 3:3 (2003), pp.291-311. Discussion of the Documentation movement and its relevance for defining documents in a digital context.

 

Williams, Caroline, ‘Diplomatic Attitudes: From Mabillon to Metadata’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 26:1 (2005), pp.1-24. (Re)introduces diplomatic to a UK readership.

 

Authenticity and Reliability

Duncan, Chris, ‘Authenticity or Bust’, Archivaria, 68 (2009), pp.97-118. Discussion of the meaning of authenticity, critiquing ISO 15489.

 

Duranti, Luciana, ‘Reliability and Authenticity: The Concepts and their Implications’, Archivaria 39 (1995), pp.5-10. Provides a differentiation between the two concepts: reliability relates the record to the event and authenticity warrants that the record is what it claims to be.

 

Gilliland-Swetland, Anne J., ‘Testing Our Truths: Delineating the Parameters of the Authentic Archival Record’, American Archivist, 65/2 (2002), pp.196-215. Discussion of the authenticity of electronic records as defined by InterPARES 1.

 

Mak, Bonnie, ‘On the Uses of Authenticity’, Archivaria, 73 (2012), pp.1-17. Discussion of present day debates over authenticity in the light of early-modern understandings, focusing on the function of authenticity, rather than its ontology. Includes useful bibliography.

 

Park, Eun G., ‘Understanding “Authenticity” in Records and Information Management: Analyzing Practitioner Constructs’, American Archivist, 62:4 (2001), pp.270-91. Looks at concept of authenticity as articulated by practitioners.

 

Context

Brothman, Brien, ‘Declining Derrida: Integrity, Tensegrity, and the Preservation of Archives from Deconstruction’, Archivaria, 48 (1999), pp.64-88. A critique of Derrida, showing concerns regarding the potentially limitless definition of context that postmodernism encourages.

 

Darms, Lisa, ‘The Archival Object: A Memoir of Disintegration’, Archivaria,67 (2009), pp.143-55. An analysis of a complex artefact within an archive, using it to interrogate the nature of the record and archival concepts, especially context.

 

MacNeil, Heather, ‘Contemporary Archival Diplomatics as a Method of Inquiry: Lessons Learned from Two Research Projects’, Archival Science, 4:3-4 (2004), pp.199-232. Diplomatic definition of context (juridical-administrative context, provenancial context, procedural context, and documentary context) in a digital environment.

 

Nesmith, Tom, ‘’Reopening Archives: Bringing New Contextualities into Archival Theory and Practice’, Archivaria,60 (2005), pp.259-74. Identifies a ‘contextual turn’ in archival theory and discusses an expanded notion of contextuality.

 

Nordland, Lori Podolsky, ‘The Concept of “Secondary Provenance”: Re-interpreteing Ac ko mok ki’s Map as Evolving Text’, Archivaria,58 (2004), pp.147-59. Use of deconstructive methodology to interpret the context of a map, contrasting this understanding with conventional descriptive practices.

 

Trace, Ciaran B., ‘What is Recorded is Never Simply “What Happened”: Record Keeping in Modern Organizational Culture’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.137-159. Discussion of context of creation in operational record-keeping.

 

Evidence and Accountability

 

Brothman, Brien, ‘Afterglow: Conceptions of Record and Evidence in Archival Discourse’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.311-42. Suggests that the evidentiality of records is dependent on use.

 

Caswell, Michelle. "Khmer Rouge archives: accountability, truth, and memory in Cambodia." Archival Science 10.1 (2010): 25-44. See also Harris’s Archives and Justice in the general bibliography.

 

Clanchy, Michael, From Memory to Written Record, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993). Fascinating historical; account of the origins of record-keeping for evidential purposes in medieval England. A classic.

 

Cox, Richard J., Managing Records as Evidence and Information (Westport, CT and London: Quorum Books, 2001). Emphasis on evidentiality over information – in the context of the ‘Pittsburgh project’ on electronic records.

 

--- and David A. Wallace (eds), Archives and the public good: accountability and records in modern society (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).

 

Duranti, Luciana, ‘The Archival Bond’, Archives and Museum Informatics, 11 (1997), pp.11:3-4 (1997), pp.213-18. Denies that evidence is a defining characteristic of records.

 

Harris, Verne, ‘Law, Evidence and Electronic Records: A Strategic Perspective from the Global Periphery’, Comma 1:2 (2001), pp.29-43. Contests centrality of evidence to the concept of a record.

 

MacNeil, Heather, Trusting Records: legal, historical and diplomatic perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000). Examination of records as bearers of evidence from legal and historical perspectives.

 

Meehan, Jennifer, ‘Towards an Archival Concept of Evidence’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.127-46. Discussion of the relationship between memory and evidence in relation to archival records.

--- ‘The archival nexus: rethinking the interplay of archival ideas about the nature, value, and use of records’, Archival Science, 9:3-4 (2009), pp.157-64. As above, arguing that memory

and evidence should not be seen as an either/or dichotomy.

 

Millar, Laura, ‘An Obligation of Trust: Speculation on Accountability and Description’ American Archivist, 69:1 (2006), pp.60-78. Description as a tool for accountability, exploring both post-hoc and continuum-based description.

 

Moss, Michael, ‘Opening Pandora’s Box: What is an Archive in the Digital Environment?’, in Louise Craven (ed.), What are archives? Cultural and theoretical perspectives: A reader (London: Ashgate, 2008), chapter 4. Discussion of the evidential/inscription versus meaning/collection dichotomy, with focus on the digital environment, emphasising the fiduciary (trustworthiness) aspect of archives.

 

Moss, Michael, ‘Without the Data, the Tools are Useless; Without the Software, the Data is Unmanageable’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 31: 1 (2010), pp.1-14. Discussion of the archives/records management division from the perspective of digital records and

accountability.

 

O’Toole, James M., ‘Archives and Historical Accountability: Toward a Moral Theology of Archives’, Archivaria, 58 (2004), pp.3-20. Posits the existence of ‘archival theology’, requiring a broader moral vision than professional codes of ethics, in particular a notion of historical

accountability.

 

Pittsburgh Project, available at

http://web.archive.org/web/20000818163633/www.sis.pitt.edu/~nhprc/. The U.S. equivalent of the InterPARES project, which focused on evidence rather than authenticity.

 

Tough, A., ‘Accountability, open government and record keeping: time to think again?’, Records Management Journal, 21:3 (2011), pp.225 – 236. Argues that the main priority is to ensure that a record survives at all, rather than that it should be protected from political pressure.

 

Uniqueness

 

Benjamin, Walter, ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ (1936). Available in translation at http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm. Seminal text about the ‘aura’ of the original.

 

O’Toole, James M., ‘On the Idea of Uniqueness’, American Archivist, 57:4 (1994), pp.632-58.

Exploration of the idea of uniqueness in archival theory (and the importance of theory for practice).

 

Yeo, Geoffrey, ‘ “Nothing is the same as something else”: significant properties and ideas of identity and originality’, Archival Science, 10:2 (2010), pp.85-116. Discussion of ideas of ‘original’and ‘copy’, with particular reference to the digital environment.

 

Symbolism

Condé, Anne-Marie, ‘The symbolic significance of archives: a discussion’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:2 (2005), pp.92-108. Adds to O’Toole by discussing the symbolism of donation of records of dead 1WW soldiers to the Australian War Memorial.

 

O’Toole, James, ‘The Symbolic Significance of Archives’, American Archivist, 56:2 (1993), pp.234-55. Discussion of the non-practical motivations for record-keeping, looking at records forms,uses and usages.

 

Little, Hannah, ‘Archive Fever as Genealogical Fever: Coming Home to Scottish Archives’, Archivaria, 64 (2007), pp.89-112. The role of archives in providing ‘identity’ for the Scottish diaspora, with discussion of the concept of authenticity in a heritage context.

 

Wood, Helen, ‘The Fetish of the Document: an exploration of attitudes towards archives’ in Margaret Procter and C.P. Lewis (eds), New Directions in Archival Research (Liverpool: LUCAS, 2000), pp.20-48. Discussion of fetishistic attitudes to archives by users (and archivists).

 

Physicality of Records

 

Rekrut, Ala, ‘Material Literacy: Reading Records as Material Culture’, Archivaria, 60 (2005), pp.11-37. Argues for the importance of their materiality to understanding records.

 

Rylance, Keli, ‘Archives and the Intangible’, Archivaria, 62 (2006), pp.103-20. Discussion of the UNESCO’s Program for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage as a means of considering archives as ‘culturally meaningful expressions’, regardless of their physicality.

 

Wood, Helen, ‘The Fetish of the Document: an exploration of attitudes towards archives’ in Margaret Procter and C.P. Lewis (eds), New Directions in Archival Research (Liverpool: LUCAS, 2000), pp.20-48. Includes discussion of sniffing, stroking and eating documents.

 

Yee, Susan, ‘The Archive’ in Sherry Turkle (ed.), Evocative Objects: Things we think with (Cambridge MA and London: MIT Press, 2007), pp.30-7. Celebration of the physical qualities of the Le Corbusier archive.

 

Recordness beyond the text

Bartlett, N., ‘Diplomatics for Photographic Images: Academic Exoticism?’ American Archivist 59 (Fall 1996), pp. 486–94. Response to Schwartz (below).

 

Buchanan, A., ‘Cardiff and Miller’s Road Trip: Between Archive and Fiction’, Archivaria, 73 (2012), pp.19-41. Analysis of an art installation as a form of multi-layered record.

 

Conway, P. and R. Punzalan, ‘Fields of Vision: Towards a New Theory of Visual Literacy for Digitized Archival Photographs’, Archivaria 71 (2011), pp.63-97. Discussion of photographs as records based on analysis of user behaviour. Also useful for its methodology.

 

Schlak, T., ‘Framing Photographs, Denying Archives: The Difficulty of Focusing on Archival Photographs’, Archival Science 8 (2008), pp. 85–101. Discussion of the problems inherent in the ontology of photography: is it a record, is it reality, is it art?

 

Schwartz, J., ‘ “We Make Our Tools and Our Tools Make Us”: Lessons from Photographs for the Practice, Politics, and Poetics of Diplomatics’, Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995),pp.40-74.

 

Discussion of the limitations of archival theory when examined from a visual perspective. 

 

--- ‘ “Records of Simple Truths and Precision’: Photography, Archives, and the Illusion of Control’, Archivaria 50 (Spring 2000), pp. 1–40. Study of nineteenth-century writings on the photographic record.

--- ‘Coming to Terms with Photographs: Descriptive Standards, Linguistic ‘Othering’, and the Margins of Archivy,” Archivaria 54 (2002), pp. 142–71. Problematizes the textual model of recordness.

 

--- ‘Negotiating the Visual Turn: New Perspectives on Images and Archives’, American Archivist 67 (Spring/Summer 2004), pp.107-22. Argues that existing archival practices are inadequate for visual materials.

 

Recordness in a digital environment

Dollar, C. M., Authentic Electronic Records: Strategies for Long-Term Access (Chicago: Cohasset Associates, 2000). Includes useful introduction to relevant projects (be aware of date) and definitions.

 

Duranti, Luciana, ‘The Concept of Electronic Record’, in Luciana Durant, Terry Eastwood and Heather MacNeil, Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic Records (Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002), ch.1. Definition of the record used by the

University of British Columbia project on electronic records.

 

--- ‘The InterPARES 2 Project (2002-2007): An Overview’, Archivaria,64 (2007), pp.113-121. Discussion of the second phase of the InterPARES project.

 

Guercio, Maria, ‘Principles, Methods, and Instruments for the Creation, Preservation, and Use of Archival Records in the Digital Environment’, American Archivist, 64:2 (2001). Italian perspective on definition and management of electronic records within a lifecycle model.

 

Hunter, Gregory S., Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual, How-To-Do-It Manuals for Librarians No.122 (New York and London: Neal-Schuman, 2003), ch.10. Basic account of the differences between physical and digital records.

 

McLeod, Julie and Catherine Hare, How to Manage Records in the e-Environment, 2nd edn (London and New York: Routledge and Taylor and Francis, n.d.), ch.2. Discussion of the nature of erecords from a U.K. perspective.

 

MacNeil, Heather, ‘Trusting Records in a Postmodern World’, Archivaria, 51 (2001), pp.36-47. Brief discussion of the notion of truth as pertaining to postmodern record-keeping.

 

--- ‘Providing Grounds for Trust II: The Findings of the Authenticity Task Force of InterPARES’, Archivaria, 54 (2002), pp.24-58. Discussion of the InterPARES project.

--- ‘Contemporary Archival Diplomatics as a Method of Inquiry: Lessons Learned from Two Research Projects’, Archival Science, 4:3-4 (2004), pp.199-232. Discussion of the UBC and InterPARES 1 projects.

 

Reed, Barbara, ‘Metadata: Core record or core business?’, Archives and Manuscripts, 25 (1997), pp.218-41; also available at http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/recordscontinuum/brep1.html. Compares metadata models from UBC, Pittsburgh and Australian Standards.

 

Tough, Alistair, ‘Records and the transition to the digital’, in ibid. and Michael Moss (eds.), Record Keeping in a Hybrid Environment. Managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unpublished information objects in context (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), ch.1. Discussion digital records in terms of current standards and methodologies.

 

Basic definitions of archives

 

Cox, Richard J., Ethics, Accountability, and Recordkeeping in a Dangerous World (London: Facet Publishing, 2006), pp.231-56. Explores archives as place, function, mission and idea, starting from a definition in terms of ‘documentary heritage’.

 

Duranti, Luciana, ‘The Archival Bond’, Archives and Museum Informatics, 11 (1997), pp.11:3-4 (1997), pp.213-18. Defines archives as aggregates of records, with the ‘archival bond’ distinguishing records from documents.

 

Hofman, Hans, ‘The Archive’, in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.131-58. Definition from a records continuum perspective.

 

Hunter, Gregory S., Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual, How-To-Do-It Manuals for Librarians No.122 (New York and London: Neal-Schuman, 2003), ch.1. Defines in contradistinction to libraries and manuscripts.

 

Jenkinson, Charles Hilary, Sir, A Manual of Archive Administration, reissued rev. 2nd edn, (London: Lund Humphries, 1965), pp.1-15. Defines as documents set aside for preservation in official custody.

 

Livelton, Trevor, Archival Theory, Records, and the Public (Lanham, MD and London: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, 1996), ch.3. Discussion of the basic definitions provided by classic theorists, with particular emphasis on Schellenberg and the archives/records distinction.

 

McKemmish, Sue, ‘Introducing Archives and Archival Programs’ in Keeping archives, 2nd edn (Port Melbourne: Thorpe/Australian Society of Archivists, 1993), pp.1-24. Defines as records of continuing value. 

 

McKemmish, Sue, ‘Traces: Document, record, archive, archives’ in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.1-74. Definition from a records continuum perspective.

 

Muller, Samuel, Johan Adriaan Feith and Robert Fruin, Manual for the Arrangement and Description of Archives, 2nd edn trans. by Arthur H. Leavitt, with introduction by Peter Horsman (Chicago: Society of American Archivists), or earlier editions, ch. 1. Defines as an organic whole and totality of records produced by an organisation.

 

Schellenberg, T.R., Modern Archives. Principles and Techniques (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), pp.11-16. Defines in terms of use by others rather than creators or for purposes other than for which they were created.

 

Williams, Caroline, Managing Archives: Foundations, Principles and Practice (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), pp.3-7 and 18-19. Defines in terms of decision to preserve.

 

Archiving and Society

Brothman, Brien, ‘Perfect present, perfect gift: finding a place for archival consciousness in social theory’, Archival Science, 10:2 (2010), pp.141-189. Seeks to reframe archival work as intergenerational ‘gift-giving’, in contrast to legal and economic justifications for record-keeping, characterised as the professional response to an age of crisis.

 

Carter, Rodney G.S., ‘Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.215-33. Exploration of the absences from the archival record as an aspect of marginalisation.

 

Greene, Mark A., ‘The Power of Meaning: The Archival Mission in the Postmodern Age’, American Archivist, 65:1 (2002), pp.42-55. Emphasis on the cultural role of archives in contradistinction to the importance of accountability to record-keeping.

 

Ketelaar, Eric, ‘Archives of the people, by the people, for the people’ in Eric Ketelaar, The Archival Image. Collected Essays (Hilversum: Verloren, 1997), pp.15-26. Text of a lecture given in 1992, identifying a societal mission for archives and archivists.

 

--- ‘Archivalisation and Archiving’, Archives and Manuscripts, 27:1 (1999), pp.54-61. Defines ‘archivalisation’ as the decision to consider something worth archiving. States that this is socially and culturally determined and that understanding these factors will improve recordkeeping.

 

--- ‘Tacit Narratives: The Meanings of Archives’, Archival Science, 1 (2001), pp.131-41. Postmodern perspective on the archival endeavour.

 

--- ‘Archives as Spaces of Memory’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 29:1 (2008), pp.9-28. Overview of the role of archives in truth, justice and memory, with advocacy of using Web 2.0 technologies to transform archives into ‘social spaces of memory’.

 

Schwartz, Joan M. and Terry Cook, ‘Archives, Records and Power: the making of modern memory’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.1-19. Discusses the relationship between archives and power –and the power of the archivist.

 

Archive as Place/Post-custodialism

 

Bastian, Jeannette A., ‘Taking Custody, Giving Access: A Postcustodial Role for a New Century’, Archivaria, 53 (2002), pp.76-93. History of the concept of custody in archival theory.

 

Cunningham, Adrian, ‘Archival Institutions’, in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.21-50. Discussion of archival institutions, as places and functions over time.

 

Derrida, Jacques, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, trans. by Eric Prenowitz (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Discussion of the ‘Archon’ to argue that archives always have a place. Very influential on discussion of archives outside the recordkeeping discipline.

 

Duranti, Luciana, ‘Archives as a Place’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24:2 (1996), pp.242-55. Emphasises the importance of the ‘archival threshold’ and custody in the definition/value of an archive.

 

McKemmish, Sue (ed.), ‘In the Agora’, Archives and Manuscripts, 25:1 (1997), pp.88-103. Reproduces an e-mail debate between Luciana Duranti and Australian archivists on her article ‘Archives as a Place’.

 

Tough, Alistair G., ‘The Post-custodial/Pro-custodial Argument from a Records Management Perspective’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25:1 (2004), pp.19-26. Analysis of the debate to 2004, arguing that it has to some extent represented the archival tail wagging the records management dog and that it has not taken into account the applicability of theory in practice.

 

Archives and Memory

Bearman, David, ‘Selection and Appraisal’ in Archival Methods, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report no. 9 (1989, repr. 1991), ch.VI. Argues against viewing archives in terms of their memory function.

 

Blouin, Francis X. jr. and William G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007). Varied collection of essays, particularly valuable for international content.

 

Brothman, Brien, ‘The Past That Archives Keep: Memory, History, and the Preservation of Archival Records’, Archivaria, 51 (2001), pp.48-80. Emphasises importance of memory and long term preservation to archival discourse.

 

Cox, Richard, ‘The Concept of Public Memory and its Impact on Archival Public Programming’, Archivaria, 36 (1993), pp.122-35. Discusses the value of concept of memory to advocacy and outreach, from a U.S. perspective but with wider relevance. --- Closing an Era: Historical Perspectives on Modern Archives and Records Management (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), ch.6. As above.

 

Craig, Barbara L., ‘Selected Themes in the Literature on Memory and Their Pertinence to Archives’, American Archivist, 65:2 (2002), pp.276-289. Useful overview of a vast (and growing) literature – inevitably already somewhat dated.

 

Foote, K., ‘To remember and forget: archives, memory, and culture’, American Archivist, 53 (1990) pp.378-93. Discussion of the memory metaphor, using examples of nuclear industry records (the imperative to remember) and the destruction of sites of trauma (the desire to forget).

 

Ketelaar, Eric, ‘Sharing: Collected Memories in Communities of Records’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:1 (2005), pp.44-61. Sees ‘memory-texts’ (including archives) as the means of mediation between individual and social memories.

 

--- ‘Archives, memories and identities’, in Caroline Brown (ed.), Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into practice (London: Facet, 2013), pp.131-29.

 

Jacobsen, Trond, Ricardo L. Punzalan and Margaret L. Hedstrom, ‘Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science’, Archival Science 13:1 (2013), pp.1-35. Identifies key writers on memory in an archival context – useful model for how to do a literature review.

 

Jimerson, Randall C., ‘Archives and Memory’, OCLC Systems and Services, 19:3 (2003), pp.89-95. Discussion of four types of memory – personal, collective, historical and archival with focus on role of archives in supporting/constructing memories.

 

--- ‘Constructing Memory’, from idem., Archives Power (Chicago, Society of American Archivists, 2009), pp. 190-236.

 

Meehan, Jennifer, ‘Towards an Archival Concept of Evidence’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.127-46. Discussion of the relationship between memory and evidence in relation to archival records.

 

--- ‘The archival nexus: rethinking the interplay of archival ideas about the nature, value, and use of records’, Archival Science, 9:3-4 (2009), pp.157-64. As above, arguing that memory and evidence should not be seen as an either/or dichotomy.

 

Millar, Laura, ‘Touchstones: Considering the Relationship between Memory and Archives’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.105-26. Discussion of the differences between memory and archives, and the role played by archives in remembering.

 

Nora, P., Les Lieux de Mémoire, 3 vols (Paris, 1984-6). Key text for concept of ‘sites of memory’.

 

Piggott, Michael, ‘Archives and Memory’ in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.299-328. Thoughtful account of the topic.

 

--- ‘Building Collective Memory Archives’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:1 (2005), pp.62-83. Explores the problems of equating memory and archives and looks at the place of memory within the records continuum.

 

Samuel, Raphael, Theatres of Memory, 2 vols (London: Verso, 1994-98). Key historical text on ‘sites of memory’, including archives.

 

Schwartz, Joan M. and Terry Cook, ‘Archives, Records and Power: the making of modern memory’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.1-19. Call to archivists to acknowledge their power in the construction of memory.

 

Personal Record-keeping

Ashmore, Paul, Ruth Craggs, and Hannah Neate, ‘Working-with: talking and sorting in personal archives’, Journal of Historical Geography, 38:1 (2012), pp.81-89. Researchers discuss use of personal records still in the custody of their creators.

 

Cox, Richard, Personal archives and a new archival calling: readings, reflections and ruminations (Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, 2009). Argues for the growing importance of personal archives and the ‘citizen-archivist’, from the perspective of a record-keeping professional.

 

Dalgleish, Paul, ‘The appraisal of personal records of Members of Parliament in theory and practice’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24:1 (1996), pp. 86-101. Includes discussion of the archives/personal papers dichotomy.

 

Fisher, Rob, ‘In Search of a Theory of Private Archives: The Foundational Writings of Jenkinson and Schellenberg Revisited’, Archivaria, 67 (2009), pp.1-24. Useful overview of the personal papers problem in archival theory.

 

Harris, Verne, ‘On the Back of a Tiger: Deconstructive Possibilities in ‘Evidence of Me’, Archives and Manuscripts 29:1 (2001), pp.8-21. Deconstructive critique of McKemmish ‘Evidence of Me..’, below.

 

Hobbs, Catherine, ‘The Character of Personal Archives: Reflections on the Value of Records of Individuals’, Archivaria, 52 (2001), pp.126-35. Explores the differences between personal documentation and institutional archives, in terms of their inherent nature and recordkeeping processes.

 

Hurley, Chris, “Personal Papers and the Treatment of Archival Principles,” Archives and Manuscripts, 6 (1977), pp.351–65. Discussion of differences (or not) between personal papers and public archives.

 

McKemmish, Sue, ‘Evidence of Me...’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24:1 (1996), pp.28-45. Exploration of personal record-keeping from a records continuum perspective.

 

Upward, Frank and Sue McKemmish, ‘In Search of the Lost Tiger, by Way of Sainte-Beuve: Reconstructing the Possibilities in “Evidence of Me”’, Archives and Manuscripts, 29:1 (2001), pp.22-42. Response to Harris, above, arguing that his criticisms are evidence of a failure to

appreciate the possibilities of the records continuum approach as formulated by Upward. Shares characteristics of all Upward’s writings.

 

Williams, Caroline, ‘Personal Papers: Perceptions and Practices’, in Louise Craven (ed.), What are archives? Cultural and theoretical perspectives: A reader (London: Ashgate, 2008), chapter 3. Discussion of the management of personal papers in different national contexts.

 

Week 3 Models and Principles of Record-keeping

 

Week 3/1: Models of Record-keeping

 

Before this class, you may find it helpful to read the following:

 

Jay Atherton, ‘From Life-Cycle to Continuum: Some Thoughts on the Records Management-Archives Relationship’, Archivaria, 21 (1985-86), pp.43-51

 

Sarah J. Flynn, ‘The records continuum model in context and its implications for archival practice’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:1 (2001), pp.79-94

 

Mary Vardigan and Cole Whiteman, ‘ICPSR meets OAIS: applying the OAIS reference model to the social science archive context’, Archival Science, 7:1 (2007), pp. 73-87.

 

Week 3/1: Fonds, Provenance and Original Order

In this class we will examine the history and interpretation of the concepts of respect des fonds and provenance, in preparation for exploring their use in practice. Before the class you may find it helpful to read:

Terry Cook, ‘The Concept of the Archival Fonds in the Post-Custodial Era: Theory, Problems and Solutions’, Archivaria, 35 (1993), pp.24-37.

Michel Duchein, ‘Theoretical Problems and Practical Problems of Respect des Fonds in Archival Science’, Archivaria, 16 (1983), pp.64-82.

Laura Millar, ‘The Death of the Fonds and the Resurrection of Provenance: Archival Context in Space and Time’, Archivaria, 53 (2002), pp.1-15.

Bibliography

Models in General

Tough, Alistair, ‘Records and the transition to the digital’, in ibid. and Michael Moss (eds.), Record Keeping in a Hybrid Environment. Managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unpublished information objects in context (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), ch.1., esp. pp. 2-9.

 

The Records Lifecycle

Brien Brothman, ‘Archives, Life-Cycles, and Death Wishes: A Helical Model of Record-keeping’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.235-69. A development of the concept of a lifecycle model into a postmodern metaphorical exploration of record formation.

McCleod, Julie, ‘The Records’ Lifecycle: myth, mantra or misnomer’, Records Management Journal, 6:1 (1996), pp.5-11. Currently missing from library.

Shepherd, Elizabeth and Geoffrey Yeo, Managing Records: A handbook of principles and practice (London: Facet Publishing, 2003), pp.5-9. Basic discussion from records management perspective.

Williams, Caroline, Managing Archives: Foundations, Principles and Practice (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), pp.10-13. Basic discussion from archival perspective.

The Records Continuum

Atherton, Jay, ‘From Life-Cycle to Continuum: Some Thoughts on the Records Management- Archives Relationship’, Archivaria, 21 (1985-86), pp.43-51. The first explicit articulation of a records continuum concept.

Cook, Terry, ‘Beyond the Screen: the Records Continuum and Archival Cultural Heritage’, paper presented at the Australian Society of Archivists’ National Conference 2000, available at http://www.archivists.org.au/files/Conference_Papers/2000/terrycook.pdf. Cook’s critique of the continuum model and its potential threat to the record-keeping profession. Currently unavailable – I am trying to obtain a copy from the author.

Cumming, Kate, ‘Ways of seeing: contextualising the continuum’, Records Management Journal, 20:1 (2010), pp.41-52. Literature review on the history of the model.

Flynn, Sarah J., ‘The records continuum model in context and its implications for archival practice’ Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:1 (2001), pp.79-94. Role of the continuum model in practice at the-then PRO.

Harris, Verne, ‘Record-keeping and Records Continuum Thinkers: Examining a Seminal Australian Text (Archives: Recordkeeping in Society)’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:2 (2005), pp.160- 70. Usefully but not negatively critical book review.

McKemmish, Sue, ‘Placing Records Continuum Theory and Practice’, Archival Science, 1 (2001), pp.333-59. Looks at the history of the continuum concept in Australia and in an international context, including defending the model against attacks by Verne Harris and Terry Cook inter alia.

Records Continuum Research Group http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/

Reed, Barbara, ‘Reading the records continuum: interpretations and explorations’ Archives and Manuscripts, 33:1 (2005), pp.18-43. Explains the records continuum model using a hypothetical case study. An accessible starting point.

Upward, Frank, ‘Structuring the Records Continuum Part One: Post-custodial Principles and Properties’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24:2 (1996), pp.268-85. The original article introducing the Australian continuum model.

 

--- ‘Structuring the Records Continuum Part Two: Structuration Theory and Recordkeeping’, Archives and Manuscripts, 25:1 (1997), pp.10-35. Relates the records continuum to the work of sociologist Anthony Givens.

--- ‘Modelling the Continuum as Paradigm Shift in Recordkeeping and Archiving Processes, and Beyond – A Personal Reflection’, Records Management Journal 10/3 (2000), pp.115- 139. Argues that although the continuum was developed as a metaphor for teaching purposes but is now a ‘worldview’, which has relevance for records managers (though few ‘real life’ examples of how).

--- ‘The Records Continuum and the Concept of an End Product’, Archives and Manuscripts, 32:1 (2004), pp.40-63. Defence of his ideas against attack that he tends to devalue the cultural and memory functions of records and discussion of the context of his first presentation of the continuum model.

--- ‘The Records Continuum’ in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.197-222. Textbook account (or as close as Upward gets to such a thing), making particular reference to Foucault.

OAIS

ISO 14721:2003, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). The international standard.

 

OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata, ‘Preservation Metadata and the OAIS Information Model: A Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects’ (2002), http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/pm_framework.pdf. Description of

the OAIS model.

 

McMeekin, Sharon M., ‘With a Little Help from OAIS: Starting down the Digital Curation Path’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 32.2 (2011), pp.241-253. Use of the OAIS in setting up a digital repository.

Paradigm project website, pages on the OAIS:

http://www.paradigm.ac.uk/workbook/introduction/oais.html. Useful explanation of the role of the OAIS in the Paradigm project (digital papers of politicians).

Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS), Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, Final Report of the PREMIS Working Group (May 2005), available at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/past/orprojects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf. Section 1 introduces the PREMIS data model, an alternative to the OAIS.

Ross, Seamus, ‘Approaching digital preservation holistically’, in Alistair Tough and Michael Moss (eds.), Record Keeping in a Hybrid Environment. Managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unpublished information objects in context (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), ch.6, esp. pp.136-8. Discussion of the OAIS framework but without a diagram so should not be used in isolation.

Vardigan, Mary and Cole Whiteman, ‘ICPSR meets OAIS: applying the OAIS reference model to the social science archive context’, Archival Science, 7:1 (2007), pp.73-87. Examination of the use of the model in practice.

 

Fonds, Provenance and Original Order

Barr, Debra, “The Fonds Concept in the Working Group on Archival Descriptive Standards Report,” Archivaria, 25 (1987–88), pp.163–70. Discussion of the problem of equating the fonds with a physical aggregation of records, with reference to practical examples.

Bearman, David A. and Richard H. Lytle, ‘The Power of the Principle of Provenance’, Archivaria, 21 (1985-6), pp.14-27. An early articulation of the concept of functional provenance and its value for records management. Also argues for the importance of authority records.

Bearman, David, ‘Record-Keeping Systems’, Archivaria, 36 (1993), pp.16-36. Argues that provenance derives from record-keeping systems rather than records creators.

Boles, Frank, ‘Disrespecting Original Order’, American Archivist 45 (1982), pp.26-32. Argues for a pragmatic approach based on user requirements (NB. Think very carefully before adopting this approach!)

Cook, Terry, ‘The Concept of the Archival Fonds in the Post-Custodial Era: Theory, Problems and Solutions’, Archivaria, 35 (1993) pp.24-37. Discussion of the problems with the concepts of fonds and provenance and their solution through ‘virtual fonds’ or multiple-provenance description.

Duchein, Michel, ‘Theoretical Problems and Practical Problems of Respect des Fonds in Archival Science’, Archivaria, 16 (1983), pp.64-82. Key article on the history of respect des fonds and its interpretation.

Eastwood, Terry (ed.), The Archival Fonds: From Theory to Practice (Ottowa: Bureau of Canadian Archivists, 1992). Not in the Sydney Jones Library but an essential text if you want to do further research in this area.

Groth, Paul, Yolanda Gil, James Cheney and Simon Miles, ‘Requirements for Provenance on the Web’, International Journal of Digital Curation, 7:1 (2012), pp.39-56. Discussion of the importance of provenance for trusting web-based information (not primarily archival).

Includes discussion of the W3C Group on Provenance.

Horsman, Peter, ‘Dirty Hands: a new perspective on the original order’, Archives and Manuscripts, 27 (1999), pp.42-53. Argues for the importance of maintaining original order, using a compelling example from the City Archives of Dordrecht.

--- ‘The Last Dance of the Phoenix, or the De-discovery of the Archival Fonds’, Archivaria, 54 (2004), pp.1-23. Explores the complexity of the notions of fonds and provenance by examination of their articulation over the history of record-keeping. Argues that the fonds represents records as never experienced by their creators and serves the convenience of archivists rather than the user – concluding with a plea for the rehabilitation of the more flexible ‘record-group’ concept.

Hurley, Chris, ‘Problems with Provenance’, Archives and Manuscripts, 23:2 (1995), pp.234-59.

Available at

http://infotech.monash.edu/research/groups/rcrg/publications/provenance.html.

Explores the problems of relating the concept of provenance to records creation and the records created.

Krawczyk, Bob, ‘Cross Reference Heaven: The Abandonment of the Fonds as the Primary Level of Arrangement for Ontario Government Records’, Archivaria, 48 (1999), pp.131-153. Use of the series system in Ontario in order to tackle the problem of administrative change and the difficulty of identifying ‘fonds-creating bodies’. Useful in showing examples of problems with traditional concepts of provenance

MacNeil, Heather, ‘Archival Theory and Practice: Between Two Paradigms’, Archivaria, 37 (1994), pp.6-20. Argues that respect des fonds is the principle shaping the new record-keeping paradigm.

--- ‘Archivalterity: Rethinking Original Order’, Archivaria,66 (2008), pp.1-24. Examines the challenge of postmodern textual criticism to archival theories of arrangement.

Meehan, Jennifer, ‘Making the Leap from Parts to Whole: Evidence and Inference in Archival Arrangement and Description’, American Archivist 72:1 (Spring/Summer 2009), pp. 72–90. Analysis of what an archivist does when arranging and describing archival materials.

Millar, Laura, ‘The Death of the Fonds and the Resurrection of Provenance: Archival Context in Space and Time’, Archivaria, 53 (2002), pp.1-15. Discussion of the problem of identifying the fonds in dispersed archives, de-emphasising the importance of creation and redefining

provenance.

Roper, Michael, ‘The Development of the Principles of Provenance and Respect for Original Order in the Public Record Office’ in Barbara L. Craig (ed.), The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottowa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), pp.134-53.

Historical account of the use of the principles in a U.K. context.

Sweeney, Shelley, ‘The Ambiguous Origins of the Archival Principle of “Provenance”’, Libraries and the Cultural Record 43:2 (2008), pp.193-213, available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/libraries_and_culture/v043/43.2.sweeney.pdf. Contrasts the archival definition of provenance with that used by librarians and curators and provides a history of the understanding of the principle since the C18th.

Yeo, Geoffrey, ‘The Conceptual Fonds and the Physical Collection’, Archivaria, 73 (2012), pp.43-80.

The Australian Series System

Healy, Susan, ‘The Classification of Modern Government Records in England and Australia’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 11 (1990), pp.21-6. Discussion of classification as used at the then PRO, in particular records affected by administrative changes, through the perspective of the Australian series system.

Hurley, Chris, ‘The Australian Series System – an Exposition’, in Sue McKemmish and Michael Piggott (eds), The Records Continuum: Ian MacLean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994), pp.150-72 also available online at

http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/chtrc1.html. Description of the series system as a ‘model’ – a useful starting point.

Krawczyk, Bob, ‘Cross Reference Heaven: The Abandonment of the Fonds as the Primary Level of Arrangement for Ontario Government Records’, Archivaria, 48 (1999), pp.131-153. Use of the series system in Ontario in order to tackle the problem of administrative change and the difficulty of identifying ‘fonds-creating bodies’. Useful in showing examples of problems with traditional concepts of provenance.

 

McKemmish, Sue, ‘Are Records Ever Actual?’ in Sue McKemmish and Michael Piggott (eds), The Records Continuum: Ian MacLean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994), also available online at http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/smcktrc.html. Discusses problems with traditional definitions from a records continuum perspective.

Wagland, Mark and Russell Kelly, ‘The Series System – A revolution in archival control’ in Sue McKemmish and Michael Piggott (eds), The Records Continuum: Ian MacLean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994), pp.131-49. Account of the history and use of the Commonwealth Records System.

Personal Papers (see also Personal Record-keeping above)

Douglas, Jennifer and Heather MacNeil, ‘Arranging the Self: Literary and Archival Perspectives on Writers’ Archives’, Archivaria, 67 (2009), pp.25-39. Looks at principles of archival arrangement and compares these with principles of biographical writing, using three Canadian case studies.

Hurley, Chris, “Personal Papers and the Treatment of Archival Principles,” Archives and Manuscripts, 6 (1977), pp.351–65. Discussion of the problem of original order when applied to personal papers.

Meehan, Jennifer, ‘Rethinking Original Order and Personal Records’, Archivaria 70 (2010), pp.27- 44. . Reinterpretation of the concept of original order, defining is as a form of contextualization.

Yeo, Geoffrey, ‘Custodial History, Provenance, and the Description of Personal Records’, Libraries & the Cultural Record, 44:1 (2009), pp.50-64, available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/libraries_and_culture/v044/44.1.yeo.pdf. Discussion of the problems of artificial collections and complex custodial histories using the example of the papers of Sir Richard Fanshaw (1608-66).

 

Week 4 Appraisal

Archival appraisal determines what gets kept for posterity – and what doesn’t. It is therefore one of the most critical tasks facing those responsible for records and it is essential that everyone working within record-keeping understands their responsibilities regarding appraisal. Because of

its importance for society, both now and in the future, appraisal has been the subject of many debates and experiments, both in theory and in practice.

 

Week 4/1: Record values

In this class we will explore the notion of archival ‘value’, from different perspectives, including legal, financial, historical, aesthetic, symbolic and emotional. We will examine the relationship between appraisal and acquisition and debate the importance of subjectivity, objectivity and

transparency in appraisal decisions. Before this class you will find it helpful to have read:

Richard Cox, ‘The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective’, Archivaria, 38 (1994), pp.11-36.

Verne Harris, ‘Postmodernism and Archival Appraisal: Seven Theses’, in ibid., Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), pp.101-6.

Week 4/2: Group presentations

This class will give you the opportunity to debate different methods of appraisal. The methods/approaches/attitudes we shall discuss are as follows:

 

As well as relevant reading on the method assigned to your group, you should read

Anne Gilliland, ‘Archival appraisal: practising on shifting sands’, in C. Brown (ed), Archives and recordkeeping: theory into practice (London: Facet, 2014), pp. 31-62.

The class will be divided groups, each of which will be required to research one of the above topics and consider its history and its theoretical and practical strengths and weaknesses. You will also be expected to have done sufficient reading to understand the basic principles of the other

methods/approaches/attitudes, in order to debate their relative usefulness in different situations.

 

 

Bibliography

Bearman, David, ‘Selection and Appraisal’ in Archival Methods, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report no. 9 (1989, repr. 1991), ch.I. Argues that appraising archivists need to substitute the language of cost-benefit (institutional cost versus societal benefit) with risk management (probability of incurring unacceptable risks as consequence of disposal).

Bettington, Jackie, ‘Appraisal and Disposal’ in Jackie Bettington (ed.), Keeping archives, 3rd edn (Dickson A.C.T./Australian Society of Archivists, 2008). Useful practical overview, exploring how actions should derive from an understanding of the context in which they take place.

Boles, Frank, ‘Mix Two Parts Interest to One Part Information and Appraise Until Done: Understanding Contemporary Record Selection Processes’, American Archivist, 50 (1987), pp.356-68. Discussion of the contexts within which appraisal occurs.

--- Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, Archival Fundamentals series II (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005). Includes a very useful historical overview and important section on the effect of organisational mission (though N.B. it is an American text). Chapters 4-5 are helpfully practical.

Boles, Frank and Mark A. Greene, ‘Et Tu Schellenberg? Thoughts on the Dagger of American Appraisal Theory’, American Archivist, 59 (1996), pp.298-310. Response to Luciana Duranti, below.

Booms, Hans, ‘Society and the formation of a documentary heritage: issues in the appraisal of archival sources’, Archivaria, 24 (1987), pp.69-107. An important article in the history of appraisal theory, arguing that appraisal is the act that turns societal data into historical sources and therefore that archivists should identify the key events etc. worthy of being documented.

Craig, Barbara L., Archival Appraisal (Munich: KG Saur, 2004). Focuses in particular on the what, why and practical aspects of how.

Cook, Michael, The Management of Information from Archives, 2nd edn (Aldershot and Burlington VT: Gower and Ashgate, 1999), ch.4. A textbook account.

--- ‘Appraisal and Access: We should expect changes driven by the media and by public awareness.’ RMJ 8:1 (April 1998).

Cook, Terry, ‘Remembering the Future. Appraisal of Records and the Role of Archives in Constructive Social Memory’, in F.X. Blouin jr and W.G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp.169-81. Appraisal as shaping the future historical record, with an overview of appraisal theory and a description of current Canadian practices.

Cox, Richard, ‘The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective’, Archivaria, 38 (1994), pp.11-36. Discussion of the relationship between theory and practice by developing twelve ‘principles of appraisal’.

--- ‘The End of Collecting: Towards a New Purpose for Archival Appraisal’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.287-309. Discussion of the relationship between appraisal and collecting, within the context of the symbolic importance of archives.

 

--- No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2004). Argues that appraisal is poorly understood by the public and considers the relationship between appraisal and collection. Useful when pondering the problem that everything has potential value.

Duranti, Luciana, ‘The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory’ American Archivist, 57 (1994), pp. 328-344. The classic articulation of the Jenkinsonian position (archivists should not appraise – although Duranti has distanced herself from this position and denies that she

should be considered neo-Jenkinsonian).

Eastwood, Terry, ‘Towards a Social Theory of Appraisal’ in Barbara L. Craig (ed.), The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottowa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), pp.71-89. Identifies appraisal as part of the ‘memory-making’ function of archives.

--- ‘How goes it with appraisal?’, Archivaria, 36 (1993), pp.121-31. Expansion of ideas expressed in previous article.

Ericson, Timothy L., ‘At the rim of “creative dissatisfaction”: Archivists and Acquisition Development’, Archivaria, 33 (1991-2), pp.66-77. Useful on the relationship between appraisal and acquisition and between objects and information.

Ham, Gerald F., ‘The Archival Edge’, American Archivist, 38 (1975), pp.5-13. Key article in kickstarting the appraisal debate in Anglophone archival theory, arguing that current appraisal practices were inadequate and that archivists should be trying to plug the gaps in the historical record.

--- ‘Archival choices: managing the historical record in an age of abundance’, American Archivist, 47 (1984), pp.11-22 also in Nancy E. Peace (ed.), Archival Choices: managing the historical record in an age of abundance (Lexington MA: Lexington Books, 1984), pp.133- 47. Argues that it is no longer possible to keep everything and that ‘collection management’ including cooperation between institutions represents a new way of considering archival processes (and an early exposition of a notion of a record-keeping continuum).

Harris, Verne, ‘Postmodernism and Archival Appraisal: Seven Theses’, in ibid., Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), pp.101-6. Suggests that appraisal is a process of storytelling and represents the wielding of political power by archivists, which should be transparent and for which they should be held accountable.

Hosker, Rachel and Lesley Richmond, ‘ “Seek and Destroy” – an archival appraisal theory and strategy’, in Alistair Tough and Michael Moss (eds), Record keeping in a hybrid environment: managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unique information objects in context (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), ch.7. Includes discussion of different types of appraisal and a description of the approach to appraisal and its documentation used at Glasgow University Archive Services.

Jenkinson, Charles Hilary, A Manual of Archive Administration, 2nd edn. (London: Lund Humphries, 1965), esp. pp.145-53. Articulation of the position that archivists should not appraise. 

JISC Infonet HE Records Management: Guidance on archival appraisal (2007) http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/partnerships/records-retention-he/archivalappraisal. Practical guidance in an HE context.

 

Kolsrud, Ole, ‘The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Techniques – Some Comparative Observations’, American Archivist, 55:1 (1992), pp.26-57. Comparison of the history of appraisal in England, Norway, Germany and the U.S.

Marx, Karl, ‘Theses on Feuerbach’ (1845), available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm (translated by Cyril Smith). Arguably nothing to do with appraisal – but an important influence on Harris, above. The final (11th) thesis reads: ‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’

Menne-Haritz, Angelika, ‘Appraisal or Documentation: Can we Appraise Archives by Selecting Content?’, American Archivist, 57:3 (1994), pp.528-42. Explores modern (especially German) appraisal theories in the context of the historical backgrounds to record-keeping. Argues that appraisal aims to make decision-making processes evident, not to create acomplete record of society.

National Archives (US), ‘Intrinsic Value in Archival Material’, Staff Information Paper number 21 (1982), available at http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/archivesresources/archival-material-intrinsic-value.html. Identifies categories of ‘intrinsic value’intended to guide micro-appraisal decisions.

Parker, E., Managing your organisation’s records, Chapter 3 ‘How long is a piece of string?’. Appraisal in a records management context.

Reed, Barbara, ‘Appraisal and Disposal’, in Judith Ellis, (ed.), Keeping archives, 2nd edn (Port Melbourne: Thorpe/Australian Society of Archivists, 1993), pp.157-206. Still a useful overview.

Schellenberg, T.R., ‘The Appraisal of Modern Public Records’, National Archives Bulletin 8 (1956), available at http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/archivesresources/appraisal-of-records.html. Schellenberg’s fullest articulation of primary and secondary, evidential and informational values.

Theimer, K. (ed), Appraisal and Acquisition. Innovative practices for archives and special collections (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). Very practice-focussed – a good source of real-lifeexamples.

Tschan, Reto, ‘A comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on Appraisal’, American Archivist, 56:2  (2002), pp.176-95. Brief articulation of their views on appraisal and their influence, including their value in a digital environment.

Williams, Caroline, Managing Archives: Foundations, Principles and Practice (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), pp.35-69. Definitions within a practical archival context, taking into account different institutional drivers.

--- ‘Studying Reality: The Application of Theory in an Aspect of UK Practice’, Archivaria, 62 (2006), pp.77-101. Examination of appraisal practices in the U.K. in relation to archival theory.

TNA Practice, past and present

Collingridge, John H., ‘Records management in England since the Grigg Report’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2:6 (1960), pp.242-247. Contemporary account of the Grigg System.

 

Mercer, Helen, ‘The National Archives: Appraisal Policy. Background Paper – The Grigg System and Beyond’ (London, 2004), http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/informationmanagement/ background_appraisal.pdf. Explains the context for the 2004 appraisal policy.

Note date, i.e. before planned reduction of the 30-year rule.The National Archives, Best Practice Guide for Appraising and Selecting Documents for The NationalArchives (London, 2013). Current practice guidelines.

--- http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/projects-andwork/selection-disposition.htm. You should use the links on this page to Acquisition,Disposition, Appraisal and Operational Selection Policies.

--- Disposal scheduling 2012. Discusses principles as well as practice http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/informationmanagement/sched_disposal.pdf

--- Evaluating information assets: appraising the inventory of electronic records.http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/appraisal_toolkit.pdf. Now historical.

--- Records Management Retention Scheduling series (generic retention schedules for various acilitative functions) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/informationmanagement/browse-guidance-standards/?letter=r&keyword=retention

--- Sampling of case files (2009)http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/osp48.pdf

--- ‘Surveying historical records: some guidelines’, 2004 ttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/surveyinghistorical-records.pdf

--- ‘What is appraisal?’ (2013) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/informationmanagement/what-is-appraisal.pdf. Very basic guide to TNA’s principles.

Macro-appraisal

Cook, Terry, ‘Mind over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal’ in Barbara L. Craig

(ed.), The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottowa: Association of anadian Archivists, 1992), pp.38-70. The first articulation of the macro-appraisalapproach.

--- ‘Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis: documenting governance rather thangovernment’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25:1 (2004), pp.5-18. Identifies 10 keypremises of macro-appraisal as developed by the National Archives of Canada, arguing that although archival theory and appraisal theory are unrelated, appraisal is central to thearchival endeavour.

--- ‘Macroappraisal in Theory and Practice: Origins, Characteristics and Implementation inCanada, 1950-2000’, Archival Science, 5 (2005), pp.101-61. An overview of the background and implementation of macro-appraisal in Canada.

 

The Societal Model

Booms, Hans, ‘Society and the formation of a documentary heritage: issues in the appraisal of rchival sources’, Archivaria, 24 (1987), pp.69-107. Important article arguing for a form of documentation strategy in the context of 1970s Federal German Republic (West Germany).

--- ‘Uberlieferungsbildung: Keeping Archives as a Social and Political Activity’, Archivaria, 33 1991-2), pp.25-33. Discussion of his ideas on documentary heritage (see and their influence in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Kretzschmar, Robert, ‘Archival appraisal in Germany: A decade of theory, strategies, and practices’, Archival Science 5:2-4 (2005), pp.219-238. Discussion of post-Booms practice.

Documentation Strategy

Abraham, Terry, ‘Collection Policy or Documentation Strategy: Theory and Practice’ American Archivist, 54 (1991), pp.44-52. Useful literature review, arguing that documentation  strategy is ultimately an impossible ideal but that the processes it requires are beneficial.

Bearman, David, ‘Selection and Appraisal’ in Archival Methods, Archives and Museum InformaticsTechnical Report no. 9 (1989, repr. 1991), ch.VI. Argues that archives cannot create a comprehensive record of society.

Brown, Richard, ‘Records Acquisition Strategy and its Theoretical Foundation: The case for a oncept of Archival Hermeneutics, Archivaria, 33 (1991-2), pp.34-56. Critique of the documentation strategy approach in the context of Canadian public records (maintaining ithas value for private sector records).

Cook, Terry, ‘Documentation Strategy’, Archivaria, 34 (1992), pp.181-91. Response to a lecture by Helen Willa Samuels (basis of ‘Improving Our Disposition Strategy’, below), putting her ideas in context.

Johnson, Elizabeth Snowden, ‘Our Archives, Our Selves: Documentation Strategy and the Re-Appraisal of Professional Identity’, American Archivist, 71:1 (2008), pp.190-202.

Contextualises the literature on documentation strategies, arguing that the approach marked a change in professional identity.

Malkmus, Doris J., Documentation Strategy: Mastodon or Retro-Success?’, American Archivist, 71:2 2008), pp.384-409. Discusses attempts to implement documentation strategies in practice.

Samuels, Helen Willa ‘Who Controls the Past’, American Archivist, 49:2 (1986), pp.109-24, also epr. in Randall C. Jimerson (ed.), American Archival Studies: Readings in Theory and Practice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2000). The first articulation of the documentation strategy approach.

--- ‘Improving Our Disposition: Documentation Strategy’, Archivaria,33 (1991-2), pp.125-140. Puts her work, Varsity Letters, into context.

‘Minnesota Method’

 

Freeth, Stephen, ‘Business Archives at the Guildhall Library’, Journal of the Society of Archivists,21:2 (2000), pp.183-97. Description of acquisition of business records at the Guildhall Library in London, suggesting impracticability of the Minnesota Method.

Greene, Mark A., ‘“The Surest Proof”: A Utilitarian Approach to Appraisal’, Archivaria, 45 (1998), p.127-69. Analysis of the role of research use in making appraisal decisions, in the context of the Minnesota Method. Also useful on notions of archival value.

Greene, Mark A. and Todd J. Daniels-Howell, ‘Appraisal with an Attitude: A Pragmatist’s Guide to he Selection and Appraisal of Modern Business Records’, in James O’Toole (ed.), The Records of American Business (Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 1997), pp.161- 29. Main article explaining and justifying the ‘Minnesota Method’.

Functional Appraisal

Cook, Terry, ‘Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis: documenting governance rather than overnment’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25:1 (2004), pp.5-18. Focuses on functional analysis as the theoretical core of macro-appraisal.

Hosker, Rachel and Lesley Richmond, ‘ “Seek and Destroy” –  Alistair Tough and Michael Moss (eds), Record keeping in a hybrid environment: managing the creation, use, preservation and disposal of unique information

objects in context (Oxford: Chandos, 2006), ch.7. Description of the functional approach to appraisal and its documentation used at Glasgow University Archive Services.

Man, E., ‘A functional approach to appraisal and retention scheduling’ RMJ 15: 1 (2005), 21-33. Functional appraisal in an organisational context.

Samuels, Helen Willa, Varsity Letters. Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen, NJ nd London: Society of American Archivists and The Scarecrow Press, 1992), pp.1-29. The originator of documentation strategy defines its functional approach in the context of university archives.

Sampling

Boles, Frank, ‘Sampling in Archives’, American Archivist, 44:2 (1981), pp.125-30. Discussion of mathematical approaches to sampling in terms of their practicability.

Cook, Terry, ‘“Many are called but few are chosen”: Appraisal Guidelines for Sampling andSelecting Case Files’, Archivaria, 32 (1991), pp.25-50. Excellent account of sampling as a strategy within wider context of appraisal.

Dean, Jenny and Wendy Southern, ‘The practice of sampling in the disposal of Commonwealth ecords’, Archives and Manuscripts, 18:1 (1990), pp.53-62. A more practical account than Cook, above.

Kepley, David R., ‘Sampling in Archives: A Review’, American Archivist, 47:3 (1984), pp.237-42. Comparison of subjective and statistical sampling methods.

Kolish, Evelyn, ‘Sampling Methodology and its Application: An Illustration of the Tension BetweenTheory and Practice’, Archivaria, 38 (1994), pp.61-73. Discussion of the practical difficulties of obtaining a representative sample.

 

Participatory Appraisal and Other Approaches

Brown, Richard, ‘Records Acquisition Strategy and Its Theoretical Foundation: The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermeneutics’, Archivaria, 33 (1991-92), pp.34-56. Discusses the relationship between appraisal and the acquisition strategy in public records, in opposition to

the documentation strategy approach.

Caswell, M., and S. Mallick, ‘Collecting the easily missed stories: digital participatory microhistory and the South Asian American Digital Archive’, Archives and Manuscripts 42:1 (2014), pp.73-86. Defines a new participatory model designed to achieve greater representation.

Cook, T., ‘Building an archives: Appraisal theory for architectural records’, The American Archivist 59:2 (1996), 136-143. Note that in the UK (and probably elsewhere), planning permission records are a regular source of consternation in terms of appraisal.

Frost, Eldon, ‘A Weak Link in the Chain: Records Scheduling as a Source of Archival Acquisition’, Archivaria, 33 (1991-2), pp.78-86. Looks at records management processes in relation to archival appraisal and acquisition.

Honer, Elizabeth, and Susan Graham, ‘Should users have a role in determining the future archive? the approach adopted by the public record office, the UK national archive, to the selection of records for permanent preservation’, Liber Quarterly 11.4 (2001), pp.382-399. Note date

(i.e. predates current appraisal policy) but record of first efforts at participatory appraisal in the UK’s national archives.

Huvila, Isto, ‘Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and broader contextualisation of records management’, Archival Science 8.1 (2008), pp. 15-36.

Participatory appraisal (etc) within a community of practice. Johnston, Ian, ‘Whose History is it Anyway?’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:2 (2001), pp.214-29. Explores the notion of archival representation (particularly with regards to BME communities) and calls upon U.K. archives professionals to take a more active role in archives acquisition.

Kretzschmar, Robert, ‘Archival appraisal in Germany: A decade of theory, strategies, and practices’, Archival Science 5:2-4 (2005), pp.219-238. Useful both as an international comparison and as an overview of the issues.

Shilton, Katie, and Ramesh Srinivasan, ‘Participatory appraisal and arrangement for multicultural archival collections’, Archivaria, 63 (2007), pp.87-101. Key article on participatory appraisal.

Stanford, Charles B., and Linda M. Meyer, ‘Donor volunteers as archival appraisers? Possibilities and considerations’, Journal of Western Archives 2.1 (2011), pp.1-21. Report on the experimental use of volunteers in appraisal. 

The National Archives, Operational Selection Policies, available at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/projects-and-work/ospsubject.htm. Subject-based appraisal (read in conjunction with the TNA Appraisal Policy).

Whitman, James, ‘Systems of Appraisal for the Management of Research Records – Content, Value and Contingency’, Records Management Journal 10/2 (2000), pp.87-101. Discussion of appraisal theory in the context of records resulting from publicly-funded research.

 

Digital appraisal

Bromley, B.S., R. Christman and S.G.E. Page, ‘ “I really can’t wait to archive this exchange”: Exploring Processing as Appraisal in the Tim Kaime email project’, in K. Theimer (ed), Appraisal and Acquisition (Lanham: Rowmore and Littlefield, 2015), pp. 31-44. A useful case study of item-level appraisal in the electronic environment. Available on VITAL.

Eastwood, T., ‘Appraising digital records for long-term preservation’, Data Science Journal 3 (2004), pp. 202-208. Overview by the lead of the InterPARES1 Appraisal Task Force.

InterPARES, Appraisal Task Force Report (2001), http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip1_aptf_report.pdf.

Kim, Y. and S. Ross, ‘Closing the loop: assisting archival appraisal and information retrieval in one sweep’, Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50:1 (2013), pp. 1-10. Available here: http://www.asis.org/asist2013/proceedings/submissions/papers/35paper.pdf. Suggests information retrieval methods could be used as the basis for automated appraisal.

 

Week 5: Description

Description is one of the core archival tasks both for management and access functions. This weekwe will explore the functions of description and the basic tools archivists have used in descriptive practice.

 

Before this class you will find it helpful to have read:

Duranti, Luciana, ‘Origin and Development of the Concept of Archival Description’, Archivaria, 35 (1993), pp.47-54 

Duff, Wendy M. and Verne Harris, ‘Stories and Names: Archival Description as Narrating Records and Constructing Meanings’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.263-85

Light, Michelle and Tom Hyry, ‘Colophons and Annotations: New Directions for the Finding Aid’, American Archivist, 65:2 (2002), pp.216-30

 

Week 5/2: ISAD(G) and MAD

In this class we will look at the main standards in use in the U.K.

Before the class, you need to familiarise yourself with the standards:

International Council on Archives, ISAD(G) General International Standard Archival Description, 2nd edn., (Madrid: ICA, 2000) also available at www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD(G).pdf

Procter, Margaret and Michael Cook, Manual of Archival Description, 3rd edn (Aldershot and Burlington VT: Gower, 2000).

In order to debate the potential problems with ISAD (G) you should read the articles by David Bearman and Peter Horsman, and at least one of the articles by Chris Hurley. Jenny Bunn also useful here.

Bibliography

Bearman, David, ‘Documenting Documentation’, Archivaria, 34 (1992), pp.33-49, repr. in David Bearman, David, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1994), pp. 222-252. Critique of ISAD(G) for its focus on description of objects rather than documentation of activities for the purposes of users.

Bunn, J., ‘Developing descriptive standards: a renewed call to action’, Archives and Records, 34.2 (2013), pp. 235-247. Argues that descriptive standards failed to resolve their primary purpose: resource description or information exchange (and therefore achieve neither well).

Cox, Robert, ‘Alice in the Archives: The Evolution of the Catablog’, http://umass.academia.edu/RobertCox/Papers/431954/Alice_in_the_Archives_Evolution_41of_the_Catablog_2011_. Catablogs are web-based catalogues, not using specialist archival software.

Freeth, Stephen, ‘Finding Aids’ in Turton, Alison (ed.), Managing Business Archives (London: Butterworth Heinemann in association with the Business Archives Council, 1991), pp.266- 317. Basic account of finding aids in the context of business archives.

Horsman, Peter, ‘Archival description from a distant view’, paper given at ‘Working With Knowledge’, conference held in Canberra, Australia, 6-7 May 1998, available online at http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/asa/stama/conf/WWKHorsman.htm. Critique of current descriptive practices as too ‘documentary’, focusing on objects, not contexts and processes.

Higgins, Sarah, Christopher Hilton, and Lyn Dafis, ‘Archives context and discovery: rethinking arrangement and description for the digital age’, ICA Second Annual Conference: Girona, 2015. Available here: http://www.girona.cat/web/ica2014/ponents/textos/id174.pdf.

Valid critique of problems of ISAD(G) for description in the digital era.

Hurley, Chris, ‘The Making and Keeping of Records (1): What are Finding Aids For?’, Archives and Manuscripts, 26:1 (1998), pp.57-77. Available at http://infotech.monash.edu/research/groups/rcrg/publications/makingkeeping1.html. Argues that in a continuum model description is not simply for management of access but is integral to the status of records as evidence.

--- ‘The Making and Keeping of Records (2): The tyranny of listing’, Archives and Manuscripts, 28:1 (2000), pp.8-23. Discussion of descriptive functions and practices across the continuum (includes critique of ISAD(G)).

--- ‘Parallel Provenance: (1) What, if Anything, is Archival Description?’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:1 (2005), pp.110-45. Argues that traditional description is too narrow to document both the formation of records and the functions/processes in which they took part.

Criticises ISAD(G) in particular for its definition of ‘creator’.

--- ‘Parallel Provenance: (2) When something is not related to everything else’, Archives and Manuscripts, 33:2 (2005), pp.52-91. Continuation of the above.

MacNeil, Heather, ‘Picking our Text: Archival Description, Authenticity and the Archivist as Editor’, American Archivist, 68:2 (2005), pp.264-78. Discussion of the connection between archival description and archival authenticity.

Meehan, Jennifer, ‘Making the Leap from Parts to Whole: Evidence and Inference in Archival Arrangement and Description’, American Archivist, 72:1 (2009), pp.72-90. Explores the processes of interpretation undertaking when carrying out arrangement and description.

Millar, Laura, ‘An Obligation of Trust: Speculations on Accountability and Description’, American Archivist, 69:1 (2006), pp.60-78. Contrasts continuum-based description with traditional archival descriptive practices and argues that in the former, description becomes a tool for accountability.

Roe, Kathleen D., Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts, Archives Fundamentals series II (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005), Chapter 1. Good on function of arrangement and description in an archival context.

Yakel, Elizabeth, ‘Archival Representation’ Archival Science, 3:1 (2003), pp.1-25, reprinted in F.X. Blouin jr and W.G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory.

 

Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp.151- 63. Defines arrangement, classification and description as processes of representation and attempts a postmodern analysis of representative artefacts.

‘More Product Less Process’

Archivalpendium2.0 (16/11/2011), ‘Case Study MPLP for Entry-Level Archivists: The Congressman David Hobson Papers’ http://archivalpendium.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/case-studymplp-for-entry-level.html

Archives Hub Blog (05/01/2012) http://archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/2012/01/more-product-lessprocessing/

Austen, Barabara, ‘Speed reading in the archives’, Common-place 10:4 (July 2010), http://www.common-place.org/vol-10/no-04/tales/.

Cox, Richard, ‘Maximal Processing, or, Archivist on a Pale Horse’, Journal of Archival Organization, 8:2 (2010), pp.134-48. A word of caution.

Gorzalski, Matt, ‘Minimal Processing: Its Context and Influence in the Archival Community’, Journal of Archival Organization, 6:3 (2008), pp.186-200. Generally supportive account.

Greene, Mark A. and D. Meissner, ‘More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing’, American Archivist 68 (2005), pp.208-263. The seminal text.

--- ‘MPLP: It’s not just for Processing Anymore’, American Archivist 73 (2010), pp.175-203.

Further thoughts by the originators of MPLP.

McCrea, D.E., ‘Getting More for Less: Testing a New Processing Model at the University of Montana’, American Archivist 69 (2006), pp.284-290.

Meissner, D. and Mark A. Greene, ‘More Application while Less Appreciation: The Adopters and Antagonists of MPLP’, Journal of Archival Organization, 8:3-4 (2010), pp. 174-226. Focuses on the views of researchers and MPLP users.

On Archiving Schapiro, ‘Tweezers and shovels: On the Use of MPLP’ (09/03/2009) https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/schapiro/2009/03/09/more-product-less-process-mplp/.

Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections, Hidden Histories Project http://clir.pacscl.org/. Includes very useful project documentation, toolkits and presentations about the project.

Weideman, Christine, ‘Accessioning as Processing’, American Archivist 69 (2006), pp.274-283.

York City Archives, York: A City Making History http://citymakinghistory.wordpress.com/mplp/ and https://citymakinghistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/taking-stock-of-a-citymaking-history/. Blog posts on a project in England using MPLP.

Standards

Canadian Committee on Archival Description, Rules for Archival Description. Available online at http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/archdesrules.html. Useful for guidance on describing different types of material.

 

Chapman, Ann, ‘Collection-level descriptions: joining up the domains’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25:2 (2004), pp.259-74. Discussion of the Research Support Libraries Programme  Collection Description schema, particularly for cross-domain searching.

Cook, Michael, ‘Descriptive Standards: The Struggle Towards the Light’, Archivaria, 34 (1992), pp.50-57. History of descriptive standards in the UK.

Comma special issue 2012:2 Standards for records and archives International Council on Archives, ISAD(G) General International Standard Archival Description, 2nd edn., (Madrid: ICA, 2000) also available at www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD(G).pdf

Procter, Margaret and Michael Cook, Manual of Archival Description, 3rd edn (Aldershot and Burlington VT: Gower, 2000).

Shepherd, Elizabeth and Rachael Pringle, ‘Mapping Descriptive Standards Across Domains: a comparison of ISAD(G) and SPECTRUM’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 23:1 (2002), pp.17-34. SPECTRUM is the cataloguing standard used in museums.

Society of American Archivists, Describing Archives: A Content Standard, 2nd edn. (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007). Useful for describing the content of archives – supersedes APPM (Archives, Personal Papers and Manuscripts).

Walch, Victoria Irons, Standards for Archival Description. A handbook (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1994), also available online http://www.archivists.org/catalog/stds99/. Useful overview of standards then available

(note date).

 

Week 6 Users in the e-environment

Preparation for Week 6

For Week 6/1 familiarise yourself with the website of the ACERM project at

www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/ee/work/research/clis/information_records_management/rmarea/erm/

 

 

 

Week 6/1 Systems feasibility: the centrality of the user

 

RECOMMENDED READING

Bailey, S. and Jay Vidyarthi, ‘Human-computer interaction: the missing piece of the records management puzzle?’, RMJ 20:3 (2010), pp.279 – 290. Seeks to put the focus back on the individual within recordkeeping systems

Systems functionality and implementation

McLeod, J and S. Childs, ‘A strategic approach to making sense of the “wicked” problem of ERM’, RMS 23:2 (2013), 104-135. The article is based on the findings of an earlier research project: University of Northumbria, Accelerating positive Change in ERM project.

See Chapter 3 of the Final report (2010) for a report on the findings which include ‘critical success factors about successful systems implementation http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/static/5007/ceispdf/final.pdf

TNA Review of records management in Sharepoint 2010 - implications and issues. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/review-ofrecords-management-in-sharepoint-2010.pdf

On education and training (there will be more on this in HIST578 in S.2)

All the standard texts have sections dealing with service user issues and any good RO website should give you ideas about the kinds of education/training available Crockett, Margaret and Janet Foster (ICA) Training the trainer: a resource pack Available at http://www.archive-skills.com/trainer-pack.php

Edinburgh University Records Management training information for staff http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/records-managementsection/training

TNA www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education for an overview of what a national body is able to provide.

FURTHER READING: Recordkeeping systems, including case studies

Gregory, Keith ‘Implementing and electronic records management system: a public sector case study’, RMJ 2005 (15: 2) 80-85

Gunnlaugsdottir, Joanna, ‘As you sow, so you will reap: implementing ERMS’, RMJ 18:1, (2008) pp 21-39

Hare, C & J Mcleod, ‘Challenges of the dynamic e-environment for records management’, Chapter 2 in How to manage records in the e-environment, (Routledge [2006]), 19-34

Ladd, Mayank ‘Electronic document and records management: ten lessons learned before  implementation in the Highways Agency’. Records Management Bulletin 117 Dec 2003, pp.11-14

Inform Consult/ Archiving Consultancy Ltd: Scoping report to TNA on the Local Government digital continuity requirement, April 2010 at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/report-totna-on-local-authority-digital-continuity-v1-0.pdf (the extent to which local government make provision for the preservation of information – should suggest to you the importance of including archival functionality in office systems)

Macintosh, S ‘Making DIRKS work’, Records Management Bulletin 127 Aug 2005, pp.17-21

Maguire, Rachael, ‘Lessons learned from implementing an electronic records management system‘, RMJ 15:3 (2005), pp.150-157

McLeod, J BSI PD0025-2: 2002: Effective Records Management Part 2: Practical implementation of BS ISO 15489-1

New South Wales. A 2010 survey by NSW on attitudes and relationships between ICT and recordkeeping professionals. See the executive summary at https://web.archive.org/web/20101114100258/http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/topics/records-management/ict-attitudes-to-records-andrecordkeeping-survey-report/executive-summary

RMJ 15:3 (2005) is a special issue on ER and DM systems including Johnston, Gary P. and David V. Bowen, ‘The benefits of electronic records management systems: a general review of published and some unpublished cases‘ (pp. 131-140)

Smith, Helen ‘Imperatives for effective recordkeeping’, Ch. 3 in Ellis, J (ed) Selected essays in electronic recordkeeping in Australia, SAA, 2000.

Yeo, G ‘Establishing a records management programme: the ISO 15489 methodology’, RMS Bulletin 117 (Dec 2003)

For examples of educational or training provision, browse archive service websites – or TNA’s Archive Sector Updates (to 2012) at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/archives-sectorupdates.htm

 

Week 6/2 Search behaviour and locating sources

 

Bibliography and links

National networks

AIM http://www.aim25.ac.uk/

Archives Wales http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/

Archives Hub www.archiveshub.ac.uk

Scottish Archive network (SCAN) www.scan.org.uk

Discovery (TNA, the former A2A and National Register of Archives)

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Development of UK networks (history)

The strategic documents underpinning the development of archival networks in the UK were: National Council on Archives, Archives on-line. The establishment of a United Kingdom archival network (1998)

NCA British Archives: the way forward. 1999.

British Library Full disclosure: releasing the value of library and archive collections. 1999 at http://web.archive.org/web/20060524211643/http://www.bl.uk/about/cooperation/fdhome.html

Hunt, Richard, Unpublished MARM dissertation (2009) charting the development of the UK networks (available from MRP)

AIM25: For an overview see Cosgrave, Rachel, ‘The AIM25 project’, JSA 24:2 (2003), pp 159-174

Archives Hub:

Hill, Amanda, ‘Bringing Archives Online through the Archives Hub’, JSA 23:2 (Oct.2002), pp 239-48

Stevenson, J., ’‘'What Happens If I Click on This?': Experiences of the Archives Hub’,

Ariadne 57 [online], Oct 2008 at www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue57/stevenson/

On interoperability and data exchange

The following items introduce some of the general issues of importance when considering interoperability; they’re included here for that reason rather than for the information about specific networks. In the UK, professional debate about the relationship between (descriptive)

standards and interoperability has resurfaced with the recent creation of UKAD.

European Union Archival Network (EUAN). ‘Final report’ (Oct 2002) at http://www.euan.org/euan_final.doc (Project investigating pan-European interoperability)

Stevenson, J. and Bethan Ruddock, ‘Moving towards Interoperability: Experiences of the Archives Hub’, Ariadne 63, April 2010: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue63/stevenson-ruddock/

Stevenson, J., ‘ “What Happens If I Click on This?”: Experiences of the Archives Hub’, Ariadne 57 [online], Oct 2008 at www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue57/stevenson/

United Kingdom Archives Discovery Network (UKAD): http://www.ukad.org/index.html

You’ll also find lots of information about interoperability on the ArchivesHub blog

 

Week 7 - TUTORIAL WEEK

Week 8 Encoded Archival Description

 

Before class 8/1, you will find it helpful to read the following:

Peters, Victoria, ‘Developing Archival Context Standards for Functions in the Higher Education Sector’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 26:1 (2005), pp.75-85.

Pitti, Daniel, ‘Creator Description. Encoded Archival Context’ available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/bibcontrol/osmc/pittieac.pdf

Ruth, Janice E., ‘Encoded Archival Description: A Structural Overview’, American Archivist, 60:3 (1997), pp.310-29.

 

Bibliography

Archives and Museum Informatics, 12:3-4 (1998). Special issue on EAD, with U.K. case studies including Liverpool University Library.

Cosgrave, Rachel, ‘The AIM25 project’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 24:2 (2003), pp.159-174. Account of the Greater London archives gateway.

DeRose, Steven J., ‘Navigation, Access, and Control Using Structured Information’, American Archivist 60:3 (1997), pp.298-309. Explanation of SGML from the perspective of its use in EAD.

Digitisation of England’s Placenames project (Deep), http://englishplacenames.cerch.kcl.ac.uk/. Linked Data project for placenames.

Dooley, Jackie M., Encoded Archival Description: Context, Theory and Case Studies (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1998). Case studies now rather dated but still a useful overview.

EAC-CPF Homepage: http://eac.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/. Information about EAC and the EAC schema.

Hill, Amanda, ‘Bringing Archives Online through the Archives Hub’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 23:2 (2002), pp.239-48. Account of the Higher Education archives gateway.

Linking Lives project, http://archiveshub.ac.uk/linkinglives/. Archives Hub project experimenting with Linked Data.

Norbert, Joachim, ‘Drawing Context from the Linked Data Web: The 20th Century Press Archives’, http://elag2011.techlib.cz/files/download/id/45/drawing-context-from-the-linked-dataweb-the-20th-century-press-archives-neubert.pdf. Presentation on how linked data may be used in practice.

 

Ottosson, Per-Gunnar, ‘EAC and the development of national and European gateways to Archives’, Journal of Archival Organization, 3: 2-3 (2005), pp.261-274. Discussion of the Linking and Exploring Authority Files (LEAF) project (2001-2004).

Pitti, Daniel V., ‘Encoded Archival Description: The Development of an Encoding Standard for Archival Finding Aids’, American Archivist, 60:3 (1997), pp.268-83. The background and early use of EAD by the architect of the Berkeley finding aid project, which initiated EAD.

Roth, James M., ‘Serving UP EAD: An Exploratory Study on the Deployment and Utilization of Encoded Archival Description Finding Aids’, American Archivist, 64:2 (2001), pp.214-37. A study of the value of EAD by archivists using it in the U.S.

Society of American Archivists, EAD Cookbook 2002, available at http://saa-eadroundtable.github.io/. Includes processing guidelines, design principles and encodingprotocol (what the tags should be used for).

Szary, R., ‘Encoded archival context (EAC) and archival description: rationale and background’, Journal of Archival Organization, 3: 2-3 (2005), pp.217-227. Useful account of EAC and ISAAR-CPF.

Thurman, A. ‘Metadata standards for archival control: an introduction to EAD and EAC’, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 40: 3-4 (2005), pp.183-212. Another introductory account.

Warner, Amy, ‘Working together to make archive catalogues available online’, Recordkeeping (Sept 2008), pp.11-13. A brief but useful update.

Yakel, E., ‘Encoded Archival Description: Are Finding Aids Boundary Spanners or Barriers for Users?” Journal of Archival Organization, 2:1-2 (2004), pp.

 

Week 9 Indexing

Week 9/1: Authority Records

In this class we will define authority records and explore their role in archival description. We will look at how to use the HMC and ICA rules for constructing authority records and debate the extent of the archivist’s responsibility in providing authority records.

Durance, Cynthia, ‘Authority Control: beyond a Bowl of Alphabet Soup’, Archivaria, 35 (1993), pp.38-46.

Evans, Max J., ‘Authority Control: An Alternative to the Record Group Concept’, American Archivist, 49 (1986), pp.251-61.

To understand the background of providing authority information as part of archival description, you should also re-familiarise yourself with the Australian series system by reading at least one of the articles in that section of the bibliography for Week 4.

You should also familiarise yourself with the standards for constructing authority records:

International Council on Archives, ISAAR(CPF) International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, 2nd edn (2004), also available at www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAAR(CPF)2ed.pdf

International Council on Archives, ICA-ISDF, International Standard for Describing Functions (2008), available at http://www.ica.org/10208/standards/isdf-internationalstandard-for-describing-functions.html

International Council on Archives, ICA-ISDIAH, International Standard for Describing Institutions with Archival Holdings (2008), available at http://www.ica.org/download.php?id=1657

National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names (London: NCA, 1997), also available at http://archiveshub.ac.uk/ncarules/. The U.K. standard for names and places.

Week 9/2 Thesauri and subject indexing

Bearman, David, ‘Authority Control Issues and Prospects’, American Archivist 52:3 (1989), pp.286-99.

 

Bibliography

Authority Records

Bearman, David A. and Richard H. Lytle, ‘The Power of the Principle of Provenance’, Archivaria, 21 (1985-6), pp.14-27. An early articulation of the concept of functional provenance and its value for records management. Also argues for the importance of authority records.

Cunningham, A., ‘Harnessing the Power of Provenance in Archival Description: An Australian Perspective on the Development of the Second Edition of ISAAR(CPF)’, Journal of Archival Organization, 5:1-2 (2008), pp.15-31. Useful account of the history of ISAAR-CPF, from the perspective of the Australian series system.

Durance, Cynthia, ‘Authority Control: beyond a Bowl of Alphabet Soup’, Archivaria, 35 (1993), pp.38-46. Defines genres of authority and the benefits of their use.

Evans, Max J., ‘Authority Control: An Alternative to the Record Group Concept’, American Archivist, 49 (1986), pp.251-61. Old but still relevant argument for the use of authorities rather than the fonds as the fundamental principle of access.

Hurley, Chris, ‘What, If Anything, Is a Function’, Archives and Manuscripts, 21:2 (1993), pp.208-220. Available at http://infotech.monash.edu/research/groups/rcrg/publications/whatif.html. Argues for the importance of functions as a class of authority records.

Paterson, David E., ‘A Perspective on Indexing Slaves’ Names’, American Archivist, 64:1 (2001), pp. 132-42. Discusses the problem of creating authority records for individuals customarily identified only by their forename. Proposes using slaveowner’s name as primary reference point - an interesting ethical conundrum.

Peters, Victoria, ‘Developing Archival Context Standards for Functions in the Higher Education Sector’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 26:1 (2005), pp.75-85. Discussion of the project which informed the development of ICA-ISDF.

Procter, Margaret and Michael Cook, Manual of Archival Description, 3rd edn (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Gower, 2000), pp.43-51 and 261. Authority records in the context of MAD.

Szary, R., ‘Encoded archival context (EAC) and archival description: rationale and background’, Journal of Archival Organization, 3: 2-3 (2005), pp.217-227. Useful account of EAC and ISAAR-CPF.

Wells, E., ‘Related Material – The Arrangement and Description of Family Papers’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 33:2 (2012), pp.167–184. Argues for the importance of authority records in accessing collections with complex provenance.

Subject Indexing

Bearman, David, ‘Authority Control Issues and Prospects’, American Archivist 52:3 (1989), pp.286-99. Argues that archives cannot be subject indexed because they do not have subjects per se.

Bell, Hazel K. (ed.), Indexers and Indexes in Fact and Fiction (London and Toronto: British Library and University of Toronto Press, 2001). Funny celebration of the indexer’s art.

Cook, Michael, The Management of Information from Archives 2nd edn (Aldershot and Burlington VT: Gower and Ashgate, 1999), pp.186-208. Textbook account.

Craven, Tim, ‘Thesaurus Construction’, http://publish.uwo.ca/~craven/677/thesaur/main00.htm.

Very useful online tutorial.

Dooley, Jackie, ‘Subject Indexing in Context’, American Archivist, 55:2 (1992) pp.344-55. Focuses on subject indexing at fonds level, arguing for importance of understanding of users and consistency of indexing (but doesn’t offer a solution).

Garrod, Peter, ‘Use of the UNESCO Thesaurus for Archival Subject Indexing at UK NDAD’ Journal of the Society of Archivists, 21:1 (2000), pp.37-54. Description of using a thesaurus in practice.

Hunnisett, R.F., Indexing for Editors (London: British Records Association, 1972). The key text for those editing documents for publication.

ICONCLASS http://www.iconclass.nl/home. A thesaurus for describing the content of images..

Library of Congress, ‘Thesaurus for Graphic Materials’, http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/. A thesaurus for indexing visual materials by subject and genre/format.

Pugh, Mary Jo, ‘The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist’, American Archivist, 45 (1982), pp.33-44. Old but still useful – argues that automated systems will not solve our problems if we do not know what we, and our users, need.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, Thesaurus of Monument Types: a standard for use in archaeological and architectural records (London: RCHM, 1995). What it says on the tin.

The Getty, ‘Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online’, http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/. Thesaurus for art and architecture – primarily objects rather than content.

UK Archival Thesaurus, http://www.ukat.org.uk/. The UK modification of the UNESCO Thesaurus UK Data Archive, ‘Humanities and Social Science Electronic Thesaurus’, http://www.dataarchive.ac.uk/find/hasset-thesaurus/skos-hasset. Thesaurus used by the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex – good for humanities and social science subjects.

UNESCO, Thesaurus…list of descriptors for indexing and retrieving literature (Paris: UNESCO, 1995) also available at http://www2.ulcc.ac.uk/unesco/. International thesaurus used by archivists.

 

Week 9: Archives and their Users

 

Week 9/1: Archives beyond the discipline

To prepare for the class you should read material on the bibliography relevant to a discipline of which you have knowledge; alternatively you may wish to explore the writings of Derrida and/or Foucault on archives.

Week 9/2: The Professional and the User

 

You will find it helpful to read at least one of the articles in the ‘The Nature of Professions’ section of this week’s bibliography, one from the ‘Archives/Records Management Division’ section and one of the asterisked articles from the ‘Relationship between the Record-keeper and the User’ section. The asterisks are not a mark of quality but of a particular perspective.

Bibliography

Brothman Brien, ‘The Limits of Limits: Derridean Deconstruction and the Archival Institution’, Archivaria, 36 (1993), pp. 205-20. Exploration of Derrida’s interpretation of the archive, written before the publication of Archive Fever.

--- ‘Declining Derrida: Integrity, Tensegrity, and the Preservation of Archives from Deconstruction’, Archivaria, 48 (2000), pp.64-88. Offers suggestions as to why archivists have shown little interest in Derrida but argues his challenge is important.

Buchanan, Alexandrina, ‘Strangely Unfamiliar: Ideas of the Archive from outside the Discipline’, in Jennie Hill (ed.), Reappraising Archives (London: Facet, 2010). Discussion of external definitions from a record-keeping perspective.

Cook, Terry, ‘Fashionable Nonsense or Professional Rebirth: Postmodernism and the Practice of Archives’, Archivaria, 51 (2001), pp.14-35. Outline of postmodernist ideas on archives and their relevance for archivists.

Harris, Verne, ‘A Shaft of Darkness: Derrida in the Archive’ in Carolyn Hamilton et al. (eds), Refiguring the Archive (Cape Town: David Philip, 2002), also in Verne Harris, Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), pp.39- 53. A reading of Archive Fever and Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and OtherRuins.

--- ‘“Something Is Happening here and You Don’t Know What it Is”: Jacques Derrida Unplugged’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 26:1 (2005), pp.131-42, also in Verne Harris, Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), pp.69-84. Meditation on Derrida and the archive.

--- ‘Against the grain: psychologies and politics of secrecy’, Archival Science, 9:3-4 (2009), pp.133-42. Discussion of the archival profession’s reluctance to look beyond their own discourse, focusing on the idea of ‘the secret’.

History of the Human Sciences, 11 (1998). Special issues on archives in various disciplines.

Manoff, Marlene, ‘Theories of the Archive from Across the Disciplines’, portal: Libraries and the Academy, 4/1 (2004), pp.9-25. Overview of archival definitions from other disciplines. Little critical discussion.

The Nature of Professions

Cox, Richard, ‘Professionalism and Archivists in the United States’, American Archivist, 49 (1986), pp.229-47. Includes sociological analysis of the nature of professionalism.

Greene, Mark A., ‘The Power of Archives: Archivists’ Values and Value in the Postmodern Age’, American Archivist, 72:1 (2009), pp.17-41. Argues for common values as a characteristic of professions and suggests 10 core values for archivists.

Hunter, Gregory S., Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual, How- To-Do-It Manuals for Librarians No.122 (New York and London: Neal-Schuman, 2003), ch.13. Argues that archivists are on the way to becoming a profession.

Hurley, Chris, ‘Archives and Accountability’, Archives and Manuscripts, 34:2 (2006), pp.82-111. Argues that archivists are not accountable for their actions (accountability is a key characteristic of professionalism).

Locker, Anne, ‘Should Archivists be Professionals?’ in Margaret Procter and C.P. Lewis (eds.), New Directions in Archival Research (Liverpool: Lucas, 2000), pp.118-44. Defines the characteristics of professions and argues that record-keeping is, at most, a ‘soft’ profession.

Prendergraft Lee O. & J. Michael Pemberton, ‘Towards a Code of Ethics: Social Relevance and the Professionalization of Records Management’, Records Management Quarterly, 32:4 (1998), pp.51-57. Relates professionalization to the value society places upon specialist expertise.

Schön, Donald A., The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1991). Now classic work which identifies the propensity to reflect on action as a key characteristic of professionalism.

History of Record-keeping as a Profession

Cox, Richard, Closing an Era: Historical Perspectives on Modern Archives and Records Management (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), chs 1-2. History of records management as a profession in the context of the history of record-keeping.

Duchein, Michel, ‘The History of European Archives and the Development of the Archival Profession in Europe’, American Archivist, 55 (1992), pp.14-24. Overview of history of archives and archive repositories from the ancient world onwards, with then politicallyrelevant emphasis on moves towards harmonisation.

Emmerson, Peter, ‘The Growth of Records Management in the UK: from insignificant cog to vital component?’, in Margaret Procter and Caroline Williams (eds), Essays in Honour of Michael Cook (Liverpool: LUCAS, 2003), pp.132-51. History of records management profession in the U.K.

Shepherd, Elizabeth, Archives and Archivists in Twentieth-Century England (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009). Emphasis in particular on institutional context.

Vaisey, David, ‘Now and Then: reflections of forty years in archives’, in Margaret Procter and Caroline Williams (eds), Essays in Honour of Michael Cook (Liverpool: LUCAS, 2003), pp.115-31. Personal reflection on the history of the archives profession in the U.K.

Archives/Records Management Division

Cunningham, Adrian, ‘Beyond the Pale? The ‘Flinty’ Relationship between Archivists who Collect the Private Records of Individuals and the Rest of the Archival Profession’, Archives and Manuscripts, 24 (1996), pp.20-6. Discussion of the marginalisation of ‘collecting archivists’

(manuscripts curators).

Cunningham, Adrian, ‘What’s In a Name?: Broadening Our Horizons in the Pursuit of a Recordkeeping Profession that Cherishes Unity in Diversity’, Archives and Manuscripts, 29:1 (2001), pp.110-17. Argues that accepting a theoretical assertion of commonality based on the records continuum concept is meaningless without action to convert the theoretical vision into practical reality.

Dollar, Charles, ‘Archivists and Records Managers in the Information Age’, Archivaria, 36 (1993), pp.37-52. Traces the history of the division of the profession, in a North American context and argues for the need for reintegration.

Millar, Laura, ‘The Spirit of Total Archives: Seeking a Sustainable Archival System’, Archivaria, 47 (1999), pp.46–65. Argues that record-keepers need to be aware of their role and responsibilities in order to create a ‘sustainable archive system’.

 

Pederson, Ann E., ‘Professing Archives: A very human enterprise’, in McKemmish, Sue, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward, Archives: Recordkeeping in Society (Wagga Wagga NSW: Charles Sturt University, 2005), pp.51-74. History of the profession from a records continuum perspective.

Wallot, Jean-Pierre, ‘Limited Identities for a Common Identity: Archivists in the Twenty-First Century’, Archivaria, 41 (1996), pp.6-30. The evolution of the profession in the ‘information age’, arguing that this challenges narrow specialisation and that common identity for archivists will emerge through cross-pollination with other information professions.

Zelenyj, Dan, ‘Archivy Ad Portas: The Archives-Records Management Paradigm Re-visited in the Electronic Information Age’, Archivaria, 47 (1999), pp.66-84. Argues that the division between the two professions is untenable in the digital age.

Record-Keepers

Craig, Barbara L., ‘Canadian Archivists: What Types of People are They?’, Archivaria, 50 (2000), pp.79-92. Based on a national survey using the Keirsey Temperamental Sorter. Suggests Canadian archivists are dominated by the ‘guardian’ personality type, combining sensing with judgement.

Wolski, Gabrielle, ‘The Introduction of Youth to the Archival Profession’, Archives and Manscripts, 32:2 (2004), pp.162-9. Examines the concerns of young Australian archivists using Alain de Botton’s concept of ‘status anxiety’.

Record-keeping Education

Anderson, Karen, ‘Education and training for Records Professionals’, Records Management Journal, 17:2 (2007), pp.94-106. Discusses the relationship between education and training and the need of the profession to prioritise research over competency.

Anderson, K., Becker, S., Blanco-Rivera, J., Caswell, M., Chu, I-T., Daniels, M., Faulkhead, S., Gilliland, A., Greer, A., Guerra, F., Howard, T., Jacobsen, T., Kim, D., Krebs, A., Lau, A., McKemmish, S., Pearlstein, E., Pendse, L., Punzalan, R., Shepherd, E., Steele, J., White, K., Willer, M., & Wong, V. , ‘Educating for the archival multiverse: The Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI) pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG)’, The American Archivist, 74:1 (2011), pp. 69-101.

Currell, James and Michael Moss, ‘We are archivists, but are we OK?’, Records Management Journal, 18:1 (2008), pp.69-91. Discussion of the training of record-keepers in the light of the digital revolution.

Creative and Cultural Skills, ‘Creative and Cultural Skills’, http://ccskills.org.uk/. The sector skills strategy for the ‘Creative and Cultural Heritage Sector’ of which archives in heritage institutions (e.g. museums) form a part. Look up ‘archives’/’archivist’ National Occupational Standard for Library, Archives, Records and Information Management. The sector skills national occupational standard for our sector. Available at http://nosuat.ukces.org.uk/Pages/Search.aspx. Search under Developed by ‘LSIS’ and Suite ‘Libraries, Archives, Records and Information Management services’

Nesmith, Tom, ‘Professional Education in the Most Expansive Sense: What Will the Archivist Need to Know in the Twenty-First Century’, Archivaria, 42 (1996), pp.89-94. Emphasises humanistic learning over acquisition of specific skills.

--- ‘What is an Archival Education?’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 28:1 (2007), pp.1-17. Written from perspective of educator at the University of Manitoba, Canada, but addressed to a UK audience.

Procter, Margaret, ‘On the Crest of a Wave or Swimming Against the Tide? Professional Education in an Information-Conscious Society’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 26:2 (2005), pp.55-73. Contrasts skills sets envisioned by the Archives Task Force with those traditionally held by record-keeping professionals.

--- ‘Professional education and the public policy agenda’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 28:1 (2007) pp 19-34. Discussion of the MLA perspective on sector training. Should be read in conjunction with Archives for the 21st Century.

Quality Assurance Agency, Subject Benchmark Statement Librarianship, Information, Knowledge, Archives and Records Management (2015), available at http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-librarianship-15.pdf.  Benchmark for UK degrees in our sector.

Thomassen, Theo, ‘Modelling and Re-Modelling Archival Education and Training’, paper read at the First European Conference for Archival Educators, Marburg, 24-25 September 2001, available at http://www.ica-sae.org/mrconfpaper1.html. Argues that there has been a shift from a historically-orientated education to an information orientation – but that there should be diversity in curricula and teaching methods.

Vaisey, David, ‘Archival Training Past and Present’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:2 (2001), pp.231-6. Reflection on changes in training over 50 years.

Relationships with other professions

Archival Science, 8:4 (2008). Special issue, publishing papers from the Cultural Heritage Information Professionals (CHIPs) workshop in April 2008. See also Library Quarterly, 80:1 and Museum Management and Curatorship, 24:1 for other papers from the same workshop.

Marsden, Christopher, ‘Sectors and Domains: Some Reflections on Co-operation and Integration’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:1 (2001), pp.17-23. Seminal article on professional collaboration from an archival perspective – though note date.

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and The National Archives, Archives for the 21st Century (The Stationery Office Ltd, 2009), section 5, available at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/policies/archivescentury.htm. Emphasis on collaboration with other professions.

Rayward, W.B., ‘Electronic information and the functional integration of libraries, museums and archives’, in Edward Higgs (ed.), History and electronic artefacts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp 207–224. In an electronic environment, users don’t mind where information comes from.

RMB A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage, 8:1 (2007). Special issue on collaboration between museums, libraries and archives. 

Sieglerschmidt, Jörn, ‘Convergence of Internet services in the cultural heritage sector––the long way to common vocabularies, metadata formats, ontologies’, ISKO conference Vienna 2006. Available at http://opus.bsz-bw.de/swop/volltexte/2008/276/. Mainly technical discussion of digital teroperability.

Timms, Katherine, ‘New Partnerships for Old Sibling Rivals: The Development of Integrated Access Systems for the Holdings of Archives, Libraries and Museums’, Archivaria, 68 (2009), pp.67-95. Looks at models, institutional drivers and technical factors in the move towards integrated access systems.

Zorich, Diane M., Günter Waibel and Ricky Erway, Beyond the Silos of the LAMs: Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives and Museums. Report produced by OCLC Programs and Research (2008). Available at http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2008/2008-05.pdf. Report based on rkshops involving organisations already committed to partnership working – designed to offer practical strategies to take this forward.

Relationships between the Record-keeper and the User

Blais, Gabrielle and David Enns, ‘From Paper Archives to People Archives: Public Programming in the Management of Archives’, Archivaria, 31 (1990-1), pp.101-113. Argues that public programming should be integrated within ‘core’ archival functions. This was hotly contested at the time – see Cook and Craig below.

Cook, Terry, ‘Viewing the World Upside Down: Reflections on the Theoretical Underpinnings of Archival Public Programming’, Archivaria, 31 (1990-1), pp.123-34. An of its time defence of the archive against becoming a ‘McDonalds of Information’.

Craig, Barbara L., ‘What are Clients? Who are the Products? The Future of Archival Public Services in Perspective’, Archivaria, 31 (1990-1991), pp.135-141. Argues that the focus of all archival work is not the user but the record.

Dearstyne Bruce, What is the Use of Archives? A challenge for the profession’, American Archivist, 50:1 (1987), pp.76-87. Provides six approaches to improving understanding of archival use.

Flinn, Andrew, ‘Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 28:2 (2007), pp.151-76. History of the community archive movement and its challenge to the professional record-keeping mission.

Freeman, Elsie, ‘In the Eye of the Beholder: Archives Administration from the User’s Point of View’, American Archivist, 47 (1984), pp.11-23. Freeman was one of the first to argue for a move from a ‘materials-centred’ to a ‘client-centred’ approach.

Gee, Stacey, ‘A Standard Service for All? The case for a flexible attitude’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 23:2 (2002), 233-38. Response to the debate initiated by Ian Mortimer, below.

Hedstrom, Margaret, ‘Archives, Memory, and Interfaces with the Past’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.21-43. Explores the interpretative nature of the archivist’s work and argues that this should be made explicit.

Huvila, Isto, ‘Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and broader contextualisation of records management’, Archival Science 8:1 (2008), pp.15-36. Argues that archives have rarely made the user central – however note the users he isdescribing are ‘experts’ and the ‘archives’ are composed of digital surrogates.

Jimerson, Randall C., ‘Redefining Archival Identity: Meeting User Needs in the Information Society’, American Archivist, 52:3 (1989), pp.332-40. Argues that the profession should become customer-orientated rather than product-orientated.

Longmore, Bruno B.W., ‘Business Orientation and Customer Service Delivery: the tyranny of the customer’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 21:1 (2000), pp.27-36. Suggests that user demand detracts from ‘primary roles’ – the challenge for the archivist is to meet demand and improve customer service delivery, particularly for genealogists.

Marquis, K. (2006), ‘Not Dragon at the Gate but Research Partner. The Reference Archivist as Mediator’, in F.X. Blouin jr. and William G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), pp.36-42. The archivist as collaborator in the research process.

Menne-Haritz, Angelika, ‘Access – the reformulation of an archival paradigm’, Archival Science, 1 (2001), pp.57-82. Argues that the focus of archives is moving from storage to access, which involves reformulation of archival theory and reformation of all aspects of archival practice.

Mortimer, Ian, ‘Discriminating Between Readers: the case for a policy of flexibility’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 23:1 (2002), pp.59-67. Questions the archival profession’s concept of equitable service. See Gee, above, for a response.

Shilton, Katie and Ramesh Srinivasan, ‘Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival collections’, Archivaria, 63 (2007), pp.87-101. Advocates participatory practices as a means of engaging marginalized communities and adding to the contextual aspect of the archive.

Ethics and Trust

Bastian, Jeanette, ‘Ethics to Archivists and Records Managers’, in Caroline Brown (ed), Archives and recordkeeping: theory into practice (London: Facet, 2014), pp.102-29. Intended as a brief overview (adheres to conception of social justice as an archival endeavour).

Cline, Scott, ‘ “To the Limit of Our Integrity”: Reflections on Archival Being’, The American Archivist 72.2 (2009), pp. 331-343. Defines the archival endeavour in terms of faith, radical self-understanding, intention and integrity.

Benedict, Karen, M., Ethics and the archival profession: introduction and case studies (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2003). The case studies are particularly useful – what would you do?

Danielson, E., The Ethical Archivist (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004) Dingwall, Glenn, ‘Trusting archivists: the role of archival ethics codes in establishing public faith’, American Archivist, 67:1 (2004), pp.11-30. Exploration of the relationship between ethics and professionalism.

Gale, Colin, ‘Record-keeping as an ethical imperative’ Journal of the Society of Archivists, 27:1 (2006), pp.17–27. Discussion of the relationship between record-keeping and accountability, from an ethical perspective.

Greene, Mark A., ‘The Power of Archives: Archivists’ Values and Value in the Postmodern Age’, American Archivist, 72:1 (2009), pp.17-41. Argues for common values as a characteristic of professions and suggests 10 core values for archivists.

--- ‘ A Critique of Social Justice as an Archival Imperative: What Is It We're Doing That's All That Important?’ American Archivist, 76:2 (2013), pp. 302-334. Critique of Jimerson (2009).

Houston, Ronald D., ‘Archival Ethics and the Professionalization of Archival Enterprise’, Journal of Information Ethics 22.2 (2013), pp.331-43. Critique of existing codes of ethics. Posits confidentiality, dissociation, veracity and “avoidance of the irreversible” as fundamental to public trust.

Hurley, Chris, ‘Archives and Accountability’, Archives and Manuscripts, 34:2 (2006), pp.82-111. Argues that the archival ‘profession’ is unaccountable.

Jimerson, Randall C., Archives Power. Memory, Accountability and Social Justice (Chicago, Society of American Archivists, 2009). Key text for the idea that social justice should lie at the heart of the archival mission. Read in association with Greene (2013).

MacNeil, Heather, Without Consent. The Ethics of Disclosing Personal Information in Public Archives (Lanham, ML and London: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, 1992). Useful discussion of balancing the right to individual privacy against the public right to know. Note date.

Neazor, Mary, ‘Recordkeeping Professional Ethics and their Application’, Archivaria, 64 (2007), pp.47-87. Overview of the history of ethical codes in record-keeping and looks at discrepancies between the different codes of ethics in terms of their uncertain connection to societal context and argues the need for reform in a globalised society.

Prendergraft Lee O. & J. Michael Pemberton, ‘Towards a Code of Ethics: Social Relevance and the Professionalization of Records Management’, Records Management Quarterly, 32:4 (1998), pp.51-57. Importance of ethics to social relevance and hence to professionalization.

Speck, Jason G. ‘Protecting Public Trust: An Archival Wake-Up Call’, Journal of Archival Organization 8.1 (2010), pp. 31-53. Argues for the importance of trust to the archival endeavour.

User groups by discipline/area of interest

Anthropology and anthropologists

Frohmann, Bernd, ‘Documentary ethics, ontology and politics’, Archival Science, 8:3 (2008), pp.165-80. Examples from anthropology and management science.

Kaplan, Elisabeth, ‘“Many paths to partial truths”: archives, anthropology, and the power of representation’, Archival Science, 2:3-4 (2002), pp.209-220.

Zeitlyn, David, ‘Archiving anthropology’, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1:3 (2000), available online at http://www.qualitativeresearch.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1034/2236 .

Art and artists

Alphen, E. van, ‘Archival Obsessions and Obsessive Archives’, in M.A. Holly and M. Smith (eds), What is Research in the Visual Arts? Obsession, Archive, Encounter Clark Studies in the Visual Arts (Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Fine Art Institute, 2008), pp.65-84. Experience of the art historian as archive user.

--- ‘Visual Archives and the Holocaust: Christian Boltanski, Ydessa Hendeles and Peter Fogacs’, in A. Van den Braembussche, H. Kimmerle and N. Note (eds.) Intercultural Aesthetics: A Worldview Perspective (Springer, 2009), pp.137-55, available online at http://www.springerlink.com/content/q830968498237856/fulltext.pdf. Discussion of three ‘archival’ artists.

Breakell, Sue, ‘Perspectives: Negotiating the Archive’, paper given at a study date at Tate Britain, November 2007, available at http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/08spring/breakell.shtm. Art and archives from an archivist’s perspective.

Breakell, Sue and Victoria Worsley, ‘Collecting the traces: An archivist’s perspective’, Journal of Visual Arts Practice, 6:3 (2007), pp.175-89. Art and archives by two archivists.

Connarty, Jane and Josephine Lanyon, Ghosting : the role of the archive within contemporary artists' film and video (Bristol: Picture This Moving Image, 2006). Archives in film and video art.

Donelly, S., ‘Art in the Archives: An Artist's Residency in the Archives of the London School of Economics’, paper given at a conference at Tate Britain, November 2007, available at http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/08spring/donnelly.shtm. An art project undertaken at the LSE from the perspective of the archivist.

Duttmann, Alexander Garcia and Kai-Uwe Hernken, Uriel Orlow: Deposits (Berlin and Zürich: The Green Box, Kunst-Editionen, 2006). A series of art projects around the notion of archive, in collaboration with the Wiener Library, London.

Foster, Hal, ‘An Archival Impulse’, October 110 (2004), pp.3-22. Archives in contemporary art.

Godfrey, M., ‘The Artist as Historian’, October 120 (2007), pp.140-72. Discussion of ‘archival’ art practices.

Merewether, Charles (ed.), The Archive (London and Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel and the MIT Press, 2006). Discussion of the understanding and importance of the archive in contemporary art.

Orlow, Uriel and Ruth MacLennan, Re: The Archive, the Image and the Very Dead Sheep (London, Double Agents: 2004). An archival art project in conjunction with the-then PRO.

Shovlin, J. (2004), Naomi V. Jelish archive website: http://www.naomivjelish.org.uk/homepage.htm. A fictional archive conceived as an art project.

Smith, M., ‘Journeys, documenting, indexing, archives, and practice-based research: a conversation with Susan Pui San Lok’, Art Journal, 65:4 (2006), pp.18-35. Interview with an artist who has produced work based on placements in archive repositories.

Spieker, Sven, The Big Archive. Art from Bureaucracy (Cambridge, MA and London, MIT Press, 2008). Art and archives in the 20th century.

History and historians

Anderson, Ian G., ‘Are you being served? Historians and the Search for Primary Sources’, Archivaria, 58 (2004), pp.81-129. The results of a survey of UK academic historians’ information-seeking behaviour, suggesting that the ideal electronic finding aid would look like Amazon.

Beattie, Diane L., ‘An Archival User Study: Researchers in the Field of Women’s History’, Archivaria, 29 (1989-90), pp.33-50. Argues for the importance of user studies to inform archival practice.

Bolotenko, George, ‘Archivists and Historians: Keepers of the Well’, Archivaria, 16 (1983) pp.5-25. Part of the archivist/historian debate over professional identity.

Booth, D., ‘Sites of Truth or Metaphors of Power? Refiguring the Archive’, Sport in History 26:1 (2006), pp.91-109. Discussion of the non-neutrality of the archive – see also Johnes below.

Burton, Antoinette (ed.) Archive stories: facts, fictions, and the writing of history (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005). Historians on their experiences as archive users (mainly colonial archives).

--- ‘Archive Stories: Gender in the Making of Imperial and Colonial Histories’, in P. Levine (ed.), Gender and Empire, The Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp.281-93. The archive and the feminist historian.

Cook, Terry, ‘Clio: The Archivist’s Muse?’, Archivaria, 5 (1977-8), p.198-203. Part of archivist/historian debate over professional identity.

Cox, Richard, ‘Archivists and Historians: A view from the United States’, Archivaria, 19 (1984-5), pp.185-90. As Cook above.

Duff, Wendy and Catherine A. Johnson, ‘Accidently Found on Purpose: Information-Seeking Behavior of Historians’, Library Quarterly, 72 (2002), pp.472-96. Looks at how historians access information in archives, based on interviews with ten historians.

Duff, Wendy, Barbara Craig and John Cherry, ‘Finding and Using Archival Resources: A Cross- Canada Survey of Historians Studying Canadian History’, Archivaria, 58 (2004), pp.51-80. Argues for the continued importance of the archivist, and paper, to historians in the digital world.

Farge, Arlette, Le goût de l'archive (Paris: Le Seuil, 1989). Translated as The Allure of the Archives (Yale, 2013). Key text for the ‘reflexive turn’ in historiography, initiating the spate of historians writing about their experience of archive use.

Ferguson, K.E., ‘Theorizing Shiny Things: Archival Labors’, Theory & Event, 11:4 (2008) available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v011/11.4.ferguson.html. A feminist historian’s celebration of the archive.

Hull, Felix, ‘The Archivist should not be a Historian’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 6:5 (1980) pp.253-9. Part of the archivist/historian debate over professional identity.

Johnes M., ‘Archives, Truths and the Historian at Work: A Reply to Douglas Booth’s “Refiguring the Archive”’, Sport in History, 27:1 (2007) pp.127-35. Riposte to Booth above. 

Johnson Catherine A. and Wendy M. Duff, ‘Chatting up the Archivist: Social Capital and the Archival Researcher’, American Archivist, 68:1 (2005), pp.113-29. Discusses the relationship between historians and archivists in the searchroom.

Lamb, William Kaye, ‘The Archivist and the Historian’, American Historical Review 62:2, (1963), pp.385-91. Early exposition of the relationship.

Lowenthal, David, ‘Archival perils, an historian’s plaint’, Archives, 31:114 (2006), pp.49-75. Anecdotal discussion of archives as both places and accumulations of records, by a historian.

Nesmith, Tom, ‘Archives from the Bottom Up: Social History and Archival Scholarship’, Archivaria, 14 (1982), pp.5-26. Archivist’s view of relationship – part of debate over professional identity.

Orbach, Barbara, ‘The View from the Researcher’s Desk: Historians’ Perceptions of Research and Repositories’, American Archivist, 54:1 (1991), pp.28-43. Study based on interviews with 10 historians.

Procter, Margaret, ‘Consolidation and separation: British archives and American historians at the turn of the twentieth century’, Archival Science, 6 (2006), pp.361-79. Historical examination of the relationship.

Russell, M.U., ‘The Influence of Historians on the Archival Profession in the United States’, American Archivist 46:3 (1983), p.277-85. American view on the relationship.

Schwartz, Joan M., ‘“Having New Eyes”: Spaces of Archives, Landscapes of Power’, Archivaria, 61 (2006), pp.1-25. The archive and historical geography.

Spandoni, C., ‘In Defence of the New Professionalism: A rejoinder to George Bolotenko’, Archivaria, 19, (1984-5), pp.191-5. To be read in conjunction with Bolotenko above.

Spencer, T.T.,‘The Archivist as Historian: Towards a broader definition’, Archivaria 17, (1983-4), pp.296-300. Part of the archivist/historian debate over professional identity.

Steedman, Carolyn, Dust: The Archive and Cultural History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002). The archive for the cultural historian.

--- ‘“Something She Called a Fever”: Michelet, Derrida, and Dust (Or, in the Archives with Michelet and Derrida)’, from F.X. Blouin jr. and William G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), pp.4-19. Further development of the above.

Literature and literary scholars

Banting, Pamela, ‘The Archive as a Literary Genre: Some Theoretical Speculations’, Archivaria 23 (1986), pp.119-22.

Buss, Helen M. and Marlene Kadar, Working in Women’s Archives: researching women’s private literature and archival documents (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001). Feminist and post-structuralist reading of literary archives associated with female writers, from a literary rather than a historical perspective.

Hill, Jennie and Will Slocombe, ‘Archive-Text: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue’, English Language Notes, 45:1 (2007), pp.21-32. An archivist and a literary specialist discuss the archive/literature interface.

Keen, S., Romances of the archive in contemporary British fiction (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 2001). Image of the archive in fiction.

O’Driscoll, M. and E. Bishop, ‘Archiving “Archiving”’, English Studies in Canada, 30:1 (2004), pp.1- 16. Archives for literature scholars.

Smith, Carrie and Lisa Stead (eds), The Boundaries of the Literary Archive: Reclamation and Representation (Ashgate, 2013).

Performing Arts and Artists

Heike Roms and Richard Gough (eds), ‘On Archives and Archiving’, Performance Research, 7:4 (2002). Special issue edited by the principal investigator on the archive of performance art in Wales project (www.performance-wales.org)

Taylor, Diana, The archive and the repertoire : performing cultural memory in the Americas(Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 2003). The archive and performance. 

Philosophy and Philosophers

Benjamin, Walter, Walter Benjamin's Archive: images, texts, signs (London and New York: Verso: 2007). Images and transcriptions from the archive of a key critical theorist.

Derrida, Jacques, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, trans. Eric Prenowitz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Very influential essay by key postmodernist thinker.

Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), esp. Part III. Defines the archive as the discursive system which makes particular historical statements possible at one time but not at another. This and his earlier work, The Order of Things (which does not mention the archive) have been very influential on postmodern intellectual history.

Popular culture

Buckley, Karen, ‘”The Truth is in the Red Files”: An Overview of Archives in Popular Culture’, Archivaria, 66 (2008), pp. 95-203. Suggests that popular culture still identifies the archive with ‘truth’.

Chabin, M.-A., ‘Les nouvelles archives ou conclusion d'une revue de presse’ (The New Archives or Conclusions of a Media Review), Gazette des Archives, 192 (1996), pp.107-30. Review of appearances of archives in the media.

Young People

Duff, Wendy and Joan M. Cherry, ‘Archival Orientation for Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study of Impact’, American Archivist, 71:2 (2008), pp.499-529. Evaluation of the impact of archival orientation sessions, in a special collections setting.

Zhou, Xiaomu, ‘Student Archival Research Activity: An Exploratory Study’, American Archivist, 71:2 (2008), pp.476-98. Identifies possible improvements to student education in the use of archives, from a U.S. perspective.

Week 11/1 Community Archives

In this class we will continue to explore the boundaries between the profession and other stakeholders by examining the concept of community archives and considering their relationship, actual and potential, with traditional repositories.

Before the class, you may find it helpful to read:

Flinn, Andrew, 'Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges', Journal of the Society of Archivists, 28:2 (2007), pp.151-76. History of the community archive movement and their challenge to the professional record-keeping mission.

J. Newman, ‘Sustaining community archives’, Comma, 2011.1 (2011), pp.89-101.

Bibliography

AHRC Connected Communities Scoping Studies and Research Reviews, http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/CCScopingStudies.aspx. A useful set of bibliographies on community themes – none is specifically archival but a good resource for accessing current academic understandings of concepts of community.

Bastian, Jeannette A. and Ben Alexander, Community Archives: the shaping of memory (London: Facet, 2009). Collection of essays. The essay by Mander on the history of community archives in the UK (note date) is in VITAL.

Buss, Helen M. and Marlene Kadar, Working in Women’s Archives: researching women’s private literature and archival documents (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001). Women’s archives in Canada but with wider relevance.

Community Archives, http://www.communityarchives.org.uk/

Flinn, Andrew, ‘Other Ways of Thinking, Other Ways of Being. Documenting the Margins and the Transitory: What to Preserve, How to Collect’, in Louise Craven (ed.), What are archives? Cultural and theoretical perspectives: A reader (London: Ashgate, 2008), chapter 6.

Discussion of how to document activist and other grassroots movements.

--- ‘Independent Community Archives and Community-Generated Content “Writing, Saving and Sharing our Histories”’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16:1 (2010), pp.39-51. Study of use of technology for community interaction with archival material – argues that although the means are new, the aims of such interactions have a long history.

Flinn, Andrew, Mary Stevens and Elizabeth Shepherd, ‘Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy, and the mainstream’, Archival Science, 9:1-2 (2009), pp.71-86. Examination of independent community archival practice using London based case studies in relation to professional activities.

--- ‘New frameworks for community engagement in the archive sector: from handing over to handing on’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16:1-2 (2010), pp.59-76. Study of relationships between the profession and community archives.

Hopkins, Ieuan, ‘Places From Which to Speak’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 29:1 (2008), pp.83-109. Discussion of archives of diasporic (immigrant) communities in the context of ‘inclusion’ agendas.

Johnston, Ian, ‘Whose History is it Anyway?’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 22:2 (2001), pp.214-29. Explores the notion of archival representation (particularly with regards to BME communities) and calls upon U.K. archives professionals to take a more active role in archives acquisition.

Kushner, Tony, ‘A History of Jewish Archives in the United Kingdom’, Archives, 87 (1992), pp.3-16. History of one particular community’s archives.

Maliniemi, Kaisa, ‘Public records and minorities: problems and possibilities for Sámi and Kven’, Archival Science, 9:1-2 (2009), pp.15-27. Argues that lack of records about minority ethnic groups and in minority languages within public records is a misperception, reinforced by archival and historical practices. Based on a Norwegian case study, but relevant for other minority groups.

Mason, Kären M. and Tanya Zanisch-Belcher, ‘Raising the Archival Consciousness: How Women’s Archives Challenge Traditional Approaches to Collecting and Use, Or, What’s in a Name?’, Library Trends, 56:2 (2007) pp. 344–359, available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/v056/56.2mason.html. Discussion of women’s archives in the U.S. but of wider relevance.

Watson, Sheila (ed.), Museums and their Communities (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2007).  Communities in a related cultural context.

X, Ajamu, Topher Campbell and Mary Stevens, ‘Love and Lubrication in the Archives, or rukus!: A Black Queer Archive for the United Kingdom’, Archivaria, 68 (2009), pp.271-94. An interview between archival researcher Mary Stevens and the founders of rukus!, an on-line black queer community archive.

Genealogy and Genealogists

Boyns, R, ‘Archivists and Family Historians: Local Authority Record Repositories and the Family History User Group’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 20:1 (1999), pp.61-73. Argues that family historians are almost invisible in archival literature, despite their significance. An analysis of practice rather than theory.

Duff, Wendy M. and Catherine A. Johnson, ‘Where is the List with All the Names? Information- Seeking Behavior of Genealogists’, American Archivist, 66:1 (2003), pp.79-95. Study based on interviews with 10 genealogists.

Etherton, Judith, ‘The Role of Archives in the Perception of Self’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 27:2 (2006), pp.227-46. Discussion of family history for traumatised individuals.

Little, Hannah, ‘Archive Fever as Genealogical Fever: Coming Home to Scottish Archives’, Archivaria, 64 (2007), pp.89-112. The role of archives in providing ‘identity’ for the Scottish diaspora, with discussion of the concept of authenticity in a heritage context.

Longmore, Bruno B.W., ‘Business Orientation and Customer Service Delivery: the tyranny of the customer’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 21:1 (2000), pp.27-36. Suggests that user demand detracts from ‘primary roles’ – the challenge for the archivist is to meet demand and improve customer service delivery, particularly for genealogists.

Moss, Michael, ‘Choreographed Encounter – The Archive and Public History’, Archives, 32: 116 (2007), pp.41-57. Discussion of family history, using his own as examplar.

Tucker, Susan, ‘Doors Opening Wider: Library and |Archival Services to Family History’, Archivaria, 62 (2006), pp.127-58. International exploration of family history as a form of outreach, including study of online resources.

Yakel, Elizabeth, ‘Seeking Information, Seeking Connections, Seeking Meaning: Genealogists and Family Historians’, Information Research, 10:1 (2004), available at http://informationr.net/ir/10-1/paper205.html. Argues that genealogy is an ongoing process of seeking meaning, from family tree to contextual information, for purpose of constructing personal identity.

Yakel, Elizabeth and Deborah A. Torres, ‘Genealogists as a “Community of Records”’, American Archivist, 70:1 (2007), pp.93-113. Examines information-seeking and using behaviours of genealogists (also a helpful example of use of qualitative, interview-derived data in research).

Heritage (see also Archives and Memory, above)

Corsane, Gerard, Heritage, museums and galleries. An introductory reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2005). Includes useful essays on the 1980s heritage debate and heritage today.

Hewison, Robert, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a climate of decline (London: Methuen, 1987). Sets the heritage industry within a context of Thatcherite post-industrial decline.

Kitching, Christopher, ‘Public Interest or Private Property? In Celebration of Private Archives’, Archives, 30: 113 (2005). Maurice Bond Memorial Lecture, celebrating private archives as heritage.

Lowenthal, David, The Past is a Foreign Country (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). The first book to contrast history and heritage as different approaches to the past.

--- The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). As above – but starts to mention archives (and much more anecdotal).

--- ‘Archives, Heritage, and History’, in F.X. Blouin jr and W.G. Rosenberg, Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp.193-206. Discussion of threats to the status of the archive as repository of ‘truth’.

Millar, Laura, ‘Discharging Our Debt: The Evolution of the Total Archives Concept in English Canada’, Archivaria, 46 (1998), pp.103–146. Historical account of the evolution of a concept of a total archives or complete documentary heritage in 1970s Canada.

Samuel, Raphael, Theatres of Memory, 2 vols (London: Verso, 1994-98). Key historical text on ‘sites of memory’, including archives by a radical historian seeking to reclaim heritage for the Left. 

Smith, Laurajane, The Uses of Heritage (New York: Routledge, 2006). The heritage debate today, involving notions of community and identity, by a theoretical archaeologist.

Uzzell, David (ed.), Heritage Interpretation (London: Belhaven, 1989). A series of essays on interpreting historical sites for visitors (relevant for use of costumed interpreters in outreach events).

Wright, Patrick, On Living in an Old Country: the national past in contemporary Britain (London: Verso, 1985). Similar argument to Hewison’s but more sophisticate (less of a diatribe). Also worth looking at his website: http://www.patrickwright.net/.

 

Week 11/2 Theory and practice

 

Before this class you may find it useful to have read at least one article from each section of this week’s bibliography and be prepared to discuss your reading in class. Ar

 

Bibliography

Defining Archival Theory

Burke, Frank G., ‘The Future Course of Archival Theory in the United States’, American Archivist, 44 (1981), pp.40-46. Positivist definition of theory as the development of universal laws, entirely separate from action.

Eastwood, Terry, ‘What is Archival Theory and Why is it Important?’, Archivaria, 37 (1994), pp.122-130. Response to Roberts (1994), below, arguing that Roberts prioritises content and the historical role of archives over their other characteristics and functions.

Harris, Verne, ‘Concerned with the Writings of Others: archival canons, discourses and voices’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 25:2 (2004), pp.211-220. Discussion of the value of reading archival theorists.

Kimball, Gregg D., ‘The Burke-Cappon Debate: Some Further Criticisms and Considerations for Archival Theory’, American Archivist, 48:4 (1985), pp.369-76. Contextualisation of the date between Burke (above) and Cappon (below), written under Burke’s supervision.

Livelton, Trevor, Archival Theory, Records, and the Public (Lanham, MD and London: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, 1996), chs 1-2. Limits archival theory to ‘organized conceptual knowledge resulting from analysis of basic archival ideas’. See Nesmith below for critique.

Moss, Michael, ‘The Scent of the Slow Hound and the Snap of a Bull-dog: the place of research in the archival profession’, in Margaret Procter and C.P. Lewis (eds), New Directions in Archival Research (Liverpool: Lucas, 2000), pp.7-19. Argument for why archivists should engage in research for the benefit of users (primarily historians).

Stielow, Frederick J., ‘Archival Theory Redux and Redeemed: Definition and Context Toward a General Theory’, American Archivist, 54:1 (1991), pp.14-26. A positivist argument for theory as ‘simply the codification of rational and systematic thinking’.

Rejecting Archival Theory

Cappon, Lester, ‘What, Then, Is There to Theorize About?’, American Archivist, 45 (1982), pp.19-25. Attack on Burke, above, from the perspective that the archivist is, at heart, a historian. 

Roberts, John W., ‘Archival Theory: Much Ado About Shelving’, American Archivist, 50 (1987), pp.66-74.. Argues that there are two strains of ‘what passes as archival theory’: improving practical records control procedures and knowledge of historical context and value of records. The rest is superfluous.

--- ‘Archival Theory: Myth or Banality?’, American Archivist, 53 (1990), pp.110-20. Argues that archival theory oversimplifies the complicated and overcomplicates the simple: archival practice always changes because all archives are unique.

--- ‘Practice Makes Perfect, Theory Makes Theorists’, Archivaria, 37 (1994), pp.111-121. Reiteration of his view that archival theory is ‘inflated, pretentious, and virtually useless’, concentrating on methods and structures of archival work whilst diminishing the value of subject matter expertise.

Complicating and Extending Archival Theory

Brothman, Brien, ‘Orders of Value: Probing the Theoretical Terms of Archival Practice’, Archivaria, 32 (1991), pp.78-100. Aims to defamiliarise archival practice by exploring its keywords and metaphors. Either poetic or pretentious, depending on your outlook!

Cook, Terry, ‘Fashionable Nonsense or Professional Rebirth: Postmodernism and the Practice of Archives’, Archivaria, 51 (2001), pp.14-35. Argues for the relevance of postmodern ideas for archival practice: that whilst archivists must act (praxis), they must never stop questioning

their actions.

Cook, Terry, ‘“Another Brick in the Wall”: Terry Eastwood’s Masonry and Archival Walls, History, and Archival Appraisal’, Archivaria, 37 (1994), pp.96-103. Response to Eastwood, below (only read if you’ve read the Eastwood).

--- ‘Archival science and postmodernism: new formulations for old concepts’, Archival Science, 1 (2001), pp.3-24. Argues for the value of postmodernism to archival theory.

Eastwood, Terry, ‘Nailing a Little Jelly to the Wall of Archival Studies’, Archivaria, 35 (1993), pp.232-52. Critique of Brien Brothman’s ‘Orders of Value’, above.

Nesmith, Tom, ‘Still Fuzzy, But More Accurate: Some Thoughts on the “Ghosts” of Archival Theory’, Archivaria, 47 (1999), pp.136-50. Review of Trevor Livelton, Archive Theory, Records, and the Public (Lanham, MD and London, 1996), emphasising the importance of speculation and wider critical theory of human communication.

Theory/Practice Relationship

Cook, Terry, and Joan M. Schwartz, ‘Archives, Records, and Power: From (Postmodern) Theory to (Archival) Performance’, Archival Science, 2 (2002), pp.171-85. Exploration of how postmodernist theory may impact on archival practice.

MacNeil, Heather, ‘Archival Theory and Practice: Between Two Paradigms’, Archivaria, 37 (1994), pp.6-20. Describes archival theory and practice as situated along a continuum, bridged by methodology.

 

Mortensen, Preben, ‘The Place of Theory in Archival Practice’, Archivaria, 47 (1999), pp.1-26. Thoughtful exploration of the theory/practice relationship, criticising the idea that archival theory can be a ‘science’.

Nesmith, Tom, ‘Reopening Archives: Bringing New Contextualities into Archival Theory and Practice’, Archivaria, 60 (2005), pp.259-74. Exploration of how postmodernist theory may impact on archival practice.

Williams, Caroline, ‘Studying Reality: The Application of Theory in an Aspect of UK Practice’, Archivaria, 62 (2006), pp.77-101. Examination of appraisal practices in the U.K. in relation to archival theory.