Interaction and Expertise in an Appalachian Music Archive

Abstract

In the world of archives, Web 2.0 means more than wider and easier access to digital surrogates of archival objects. Newly developing Web 2.0 applications provide multiple possibilities for contextualizing archival objects through the contributions of many users, rather than a few established experts, marking a shift in archival practice and the role of the expert archivist. For many archival objects with origins in collaborative and popular cultural traditions, a context for online access that invites collaboration and challenges the authority of the expert is particularly conducive to helping users make sense of the archival objects. While this may lead to tensions between innovation and tradition in archival practice, user-contributed knowledge and multiple interpretations of documents can be incorporated as a complement to institutional records, rather than a replacement for traditional methods of description and classification. The purpose of this chapter is to describe recent developments in interactive and collaborative online archives that challenge and enhance traditional ideas about archival expertise. For one Appalachian folk song collection in particular, a community of expertise, ownership, and collaboration may help to keep unique recordings in continued use as part of a living, and still-evolving, musical tradition.