ARCHIVAL SCIENCE最新文献

Why do individuals create and keep records? Little research has been done into the factors that motivate individuals to make records. This article uses the example of the personal records created by Bangladeshi rural women who participated in a development project to investigate the roles that personal choices and external influences play in the development of recordkeeping practices. By conducting interviews with participants after the end of the project, the author obtained some insights into the factors that encouraged them to create records during the project and the reasons why they continued or stopped doing it after the end of the project and about the role played by external actors, in particular local staff from non-governmental organisations, in influencing their recordkeeping practices. The author shows that the participants started creating and keeping records when they understood the importance that these records could have for them in the future and that the women who persevered with personal recordkeeping practices were those who were more educated and more information literate. On the other hand, the participants who wrote down information because they were encouraged to do so stopped doing it when the regular information flow ended, and they were no longer encouraged to capture information. The author argues that the factors that encourage individuals to create and keep records differ depending on the affordances that the records provide to them. Whereas external actors can play an important role in motivating people to keep records as evidence, for records that are kept for their informational content, personal motivations and recordkeeping literacy skills play a determinant role.

The study investigates which information is chosen for long-term retention in a municipality in Finland. The municipal Records Management Plan of the City of Helsinki was analyzed quantitatively to provide the research data. The results show that information pertaining to permanent or long-standing objects and phenomena, as well as those with long-lasting consequences (such as high-level decision-making, environmental factors, constructions, land use, and people), are more likely to have extended retention periods and may even be preserved permanently. According to archival literature, archival appraisal is a process influenced by theoretical considerations. However, the findings suggest that practical factors tend to guide the appraisal process more significantly. This raises the question of how appraisal decisions are made. The perceived value of information may depend on the level of detail provided about the functions and processes, as well as the knowledge possessed by the appraisers. However, the role that archival theory and other factors play cannot be understood without additional research.

An important element of social research is the ethical treatment of research participants. This paper outlines the ethical issues pertaining to a study (MIRRA: Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access) that developed a ‘participatory recordkeeping system specification’ for young people in care. The research team worked with members of the cohort themselves (aged 13–17 years) and care-experienced adults. It discusses in general terms the various elements that require ethical consideration, such as informed consent, anonymity, avoiding harm, and needing to benefit the participants and their peers. It goes on to describe how such issues were approached by the team. The particular ethical measures required for the young and ‘cared-for’ participants are explored. These included the need to work through, first, an adult gatekeeper—a representative of each care organisation approached—and then, within the organisation, a social worker or care-giver. This greatly limited recruitment, as these adults often vetoed contact with the young people themselves. A checklist is outlined, derived from the ‘Gillick Test of Competence’ to assess capacity to give ‘informed consent’, for willing gatekeepers/carers to consider. The article then addresses how the Participant Information Sheets were developed for the young cohort, emphasising the need to do this by consulting appropriate professionals, published guidelines and the potential participants themselves. After considering the possible risks and benefits to participants, the paper concludes by suggesting that ethical issues around recruitment and participation of this cohort are complex and require much additional bureaucracy, patience and flexibility—but can be immensely rewarding.

The article is devoted to the historical archives of the city of Szczecin (Stettin), lost at the end of World War II. The authors try to recreate the circumstances of the disappearance of the Szczecin records, their internal structure, as well as indicate the limitations that the loss of these materials poses for contemporary historians. The paper also shows the process of shaping the municipal archives in Szczecin, as well as the reasons and conditions in which the municipal authorities transferred their historical records to the State Archives in Szczecin. The issue is considered against the background of changes taking place in Prussian archival science in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and taking into account the history of other selected municipal archives in Germany. The most important achievement of the presented material is the description of the lost historical archive of Szczecin.

The critical question of how sustainability and resilience can inform archival practice in regional communities is motivated by the experience of flooding in Lismore, Australia, which exposed the vulnerability of local archives to the effects of climate change and the limitations of local infrastructure. Regional historical societies and community organisations serve as a repository for the history of particular communities, preserving records, artefacts and other materials that document the unique stories and experiences of that place. Collections are independently curated and generally run by volunteers but poorly resourced with insufficient space. They are more likely to be subject to extreme weather events that disproportionately impact regional Australia compared to its cities. Regional collections fall outside national strategies for sustainability, digitisation or investment. Without urgent attention to the fate of regional archives, local heritage is under threat, and with it, an understanding of how that history contributes to the national past and the connection to place and community. This paper explores regional archives from the perspective of the local historical records of Lismore, Northern New South Wales, where flooding is a familiar experience that has reached a new intensity in recent years.

The advent of the information paradigm has shaken many of the principles of archival theory and practice. One key issue is knowing to which extent can digital information be trusted. Digital resources are represented by metadata, and trust consists in demonstrating their authenticity. Since the traditional elements used to verify the authenticity of analog records are not suitable in the digital world, the field faces a major challenge. The use of abundant, pertinent and constantly captured metadata seems to one of the most relevant solutions. This article aims to contribute to tackle this issue by setting the goal of proposing a model that attempts to include the most relevant metadata elements to capture the information that contributes for ascertaining the authenticity of digital archival descriptions. To that end, mixed methods methodology are employed. A qualitative documentary research is used to collect, analyze and interpret a corpus of scientific literature. As a complement, the quantitative technique requirements engineering is used to extract from international description standards the metadata requirements that can assist in the presumption of authenticity. Both approaches are then combined through a critical lens into a single unifying model for authenticity that is deemed as complete as necessary but as simple as possible. The model can be used by organizations or as a contribution to the discussion of authenticity and trustworthiness in digital archival descriptions.

In 2005, a Swedish television documentary that revealed gross misconduct and abuse in Swedish children’s homes led to a number of inquiries that culminated with the passing of the Redress Act. This act entitled everyone that had suffered from abuse in out-of-home care to 250,000 Swedish crowns (close to 25,000 Euros). However, only 42 percent of the Swedish claimants were granted the compensation, a very low number in international comparison. The starting point of this study is this—in many accounts failed—redress process. Why did Sweden, self-appointed moral superpower, produce such deviating results? This question is addressed by an inquiry into the Swedish scheme of redress, focusing on the role of archives and recordkeeping with particular focus on the concepts of total archives and politics of regret. This paper argues that it was impossible for the Swedish Board of Redress to make satisfactory assessments of redress claims, given the set criteria and the archival material on which they were required to base their decisions, and that it is a futile task to base the writing of individual life stories on official documentation.

The purpose of this article is to offer an overview of Norwegian archival history in the early modern period (1537–1800). European archival history has been characterized by the experience of large and influential countries and little notice has generally been taken of the small nations on the continent’s periphery. This article focuses on the development of archival repositories, archival thinking and user groups in Norway from 1537 to 1800. Norwegian archival history has much in common with the rest of Europe, but also some important distinctive features. The archives were primarily created and preserved out of consideration for legal and administrative need. In Norway, access rights were early and clearly formulated. Extensive appraisals were carried out in the early eighteenth century. Archival records were being explored for historical and cultural purposes from the early sixteenth century and onwards. However, we do not find traces of this within the archival institutions and archival management until the very end of the eighteenth century. The writings of historians and antiquarians, dating from 1500 to 1800, documents the historical and cultural use of archival records and see the archival repositories and institutions from the user perspective.

Building on previous work investigating the impact of exposure to (a) records with traumatic potentialities and (b) interactions with donors and community researchers whose suffering is documented in the archives, this study sought to better understand emotional aspects of archival work. Using a diary research methodology, 15 archivists engaged in diary keeping for approximately four months. What emerged was a broad set of events and experiences that triggered a wide range of emotional responses arising from archival work. This included: pre-existing emotional states and characterological traits; emotional exchanges in the workplace with colleagues and others; emotional demands of the work (including emotion work and emotional labour); team and leader interactions arising from group tasks and leader behaviour; and organizational policies, climate, resources and demands. This broader set of interactional factors forms the foundation on which traumatic and other troubling events are encountered. Future research must consider the nature of archival organizations and interactions within them that contribute to the overall working experience. In addition, archival organizations need to take responsibility for creating a culture that demonstrates respect and appreciation for workers, acknowledges the interpersonal challenges of the work, and provides supports for archivists who are shouldering the challenges.

The increasing volume and importance of digital communication has prompted a major development in digital infrastructure for its storage and overall management—the cloud infrastructure owned for the most part by giant tech companies such as Amazon. Many governments have chosen to store their records in the cloud rather than invest in the increased digital infrastructure now required to manage them. Non-governmental institutions and private individuals are also using the cloud instead of their own infrastructure. The implications for public archives of this historic shift away from the publicly owned infrastructure long employed by them are profound. Yet, archivists and archival perspectives have not been much involved in public discussion of this change. They are largely absent from the public square. The shape of the emerging infrastructure underpinning the management of digital communication may well be the most significant lasting feature of the digital environment for societies and their archives. This article discusses why that development requires archival voices in the public square to address it.