Access To Archives Research Articles

Developing smart archives in society 5.0: Leveraging artificial intelligence for managing audiovisual archives in Africa

In the age of Society 5.0, marked by the profound integration of digital technologies and human society, the preservation and management of audiovisual archives in Africa face substantial challenges. The application of artificial intelligence plays a pivotal role in the establishment of digital archives in the society 5.0. The exponential growth of digital content, combined with the continent's diverse cultural landscape, presents complex obstacles to conventional archival practices. Without the effective implementation of artificial intelligence technologies, crucial aspects such as curation, accessibility and sustainable management of audiovisual archives in Africa remain hindered. Thus, the overarching problem under scrutiny pertains to how the establishment of intelligent archives, facilitated by AI, can offer innovative solutions for preserving and managing audiovisual archives in Africa, within the overarching framework of Society 5.0. This approach has the potential to significantly contribute to safeguarding Africa's rich cultural heritage and advancing research, education and cultural exchange. The purpose of this paper will be to focus on the challenges encountered by selected African countries, such as the ESARBICA countries and those that undertake environmental conservation projects, in managing their audiovisual collections and what can be done to facilitate AI. It resulted in the formulation of a framework for implementing smart archives using AI in African contexts, emphasizing practical strategies and best practices. A qualitative approach enabled a nuanced understanding of complex dynamics at play. Through the observation of AI integration processes, by means of desktop analyses of websites of African national archives and online interest groups showcasing nature conservation projects and initiatives, this article aims to capture a comprehensive picture of the current landscape and future possibilities.

The establishment and potential spread of Osmia cornuta (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in North America.

Mason bees, subgenus Osmia Panzer (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), are economically and ecologically significant pollinators. In eastern North America, the rapid spread of 2 non-native species from Asia, Osmia cornifrons Radoszkowski and Osmia taurus Smith, has coincided with declines in native Osmia populations, raising concern about the effects of further exotic arrivals. Here we investigate the recent establishment in British Columbia, Canada of the European orchard bee, Osmia cornuta Latreille, previously thought to be limited to Europe and its periphery. We document O. cornuta records ranging more than 170 km, including sightings of live adults and the discovery of a multigenerational nest with hundreds of cocoons. We tested whether these cocoons could be discriminated from other Osmia species by training a machine learning classifier on features extracted from images. The best performing model could not reliably discriminate cocoons by species, raising the possibility O. cornuta could be inadvertently intermingled in future commercial shipments. Recent occurrence records of O. cornifrons and O. taurus were spatially isolated, suggesting ongoing anthropogenic dispersal of these species. We predicted the suitability of North American habitats for O. cornuta by estimating its native climate niche. This analysis indicated broad regions of the Pacific Northwest and eastern North America contain potentially suitable habitat. Our findings document the establishment of O. cornuta in North America and the potential for its expansion. Our study demonstrates the utility of accessible biodiversity data archives and public observation programs in tracking non-native species spread and highlights the need for future monitoring of exotic Osmia.

From Arab-Israeli Conflict to Arab-Israeli Integration: A New Curriculum for Understanding the Contemporary Middle East

ABSTRACT This proposition paper introduces a novel curriculum designed to explore the trends of normalization and integration transforming the Middle East. The curriculum includes a comprehensive textbook and an accessible digital archive for scholars, students, and individuals seeking to deepen their understanding of this subject. The study investigates how academic politicization, biased content, and limited accessibility have contributed to a significant gap in comprehending Israel’s integration in the Middle East, particularly within US Middle East Studies. Our methodology involves a comparative analysis of the academic approaches of the Edward Said and Bernard Lewis “camps,” representing contrasting perspectives within US academia. Additionally, we assess the divergence between academic and state-led approaches to Middle Eastern integration in the United States. By identifying and analyzing six critical factors – impact on the field of Middle East Studies, impact on academic freedom, impact on religious tolerance, impact on regional stability, fresh research on the US Peace to Prosperity Plan and Arab Peace Initiative, and Israeli-Palestinian peace – this research underscores the necessity for the proposed curriculum and its resources. This curriculum aims to bridge the existing knowledge gap and provide a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of Middle Eastern dynamics.

Has VAT Become Complex because of Its Methods of Interpretation?

The guiding framework and the methods of interpretation of the VAT provisions at national and European levels are different depending on who is applying them and on the type of rule. The ECJ should apply a strict methodology when interpreting EU VAT rules based on their wording, context, purpose and origin, with the objective to not encroach upon the prerogatives of the legislator and to guarantee the coherence of the legal system. In this article the author argues that a fading memory of the European Treaties’ objectives and a limited use of accessible online historical archives contribute to the complexity of the understanding and application of the EU VAT system.

An archive‐based method for efficiently handling small file problems in HDFS

SummaryHadoop distributed file system (HDFS) performs well when storing and managing large files. However, its performance significantly decreases when dealing with massive small files. In response to this problem, a novel archive‐based solution is proposed. The archive refers to merging multiple small files into larger data files, which can effectively reduce the memory usage of the NameNode. The current archive‐based solutions have the disadvantages of long access time, long archive construction time, and no support for storage, updating and deleting small files in the archive system. Our method utilizes a dynamic hash function to distribute the metadata of small files across multiple metadata files. We construct a primary index that combines dynamic and static indexes for these metadata files. Regarding data files, include some read‐only files and one readable–writable file. A small file's contents are written into a readable and writable file. Upon reaching a predetermined threshold, the readable–writable file transitions into read‐only status, with a fresh readable–writable file replacing it. Experimental results show that the scheme improves the efficiency of archive access and archive creation and is more efficient than the original HDFS storage and update efficiency.

Controlled Rummage Approaches for Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre

'Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre' is an artistic research project involving three artistic researchers: Andrew Bracey, Danica Maier and Sarah Bennett. A bummock is the unseen — submerged — part of an iceberg, and comprises the largest volume of ice, compared with the tip — which is visible above the surface of the water. Likewise, archives hold more items than are commonly viewed or accessed. In Bummock, we choose to bypass the catalogue to engage with materials directly, establishing a 'controlled rummage' method as an alternative approach to standard archive access practice. This iteration of the Bummock project explores, examines, and creates new artistic research from five years of working with the Tennyson Research Centre (TRC), Lincoln, UK. This exposition has been collaboratively authored by the three artistic researchers and is structured into two sections. The first, labelled the 'controlled section', serves to introduce the project and its core concerns. The second, referred to as the 'rummage section', provides visitors with the opportunity to navigate their own path through the archival objects from the TRC and the artworks created. Within this section, individual reflections and critical discussions on three themes are presented: our past experiences working with archives, the research journey of the project, and potential future directions stemming from our research. The exposition concludes with a collective summary of findings and a film documenting the project. The contribution of this exposition is twofold: first, to unveil and disseminate the artistic research associated with the project, and second, to identify the key benefits that artists can bring to the archive by employing the 'controlled rummage' approach. The intention is to establish a framework that facilitates future use by other archive users. <style> /* rules to make button only show up in META */ .download-accessible { display:none; } .meta-right-col .download-accessible { display: inline-block; padding: 9px; margin-bottom:25px; border: 1px solid black; background-color:white; } </style> <a class="download-accessible" href="/profile/download-media?work=2936353&file=2936358" title="This accessible PDF is a derivative of the original which it is meant to support and not replace.">Download Accessible PDF</a>

Redefining Archival Reference: Relationship-based Reference

ABSTRACT This article argues that archival access systems require a new archival ecosystem (physical infrastructure, access tools, e.g., catalogs, findings aids, indexes, rules policies procedures, and institutional supports) and a broader conceptual framing. Based on the findings from sixteen interviews with archivists, this article proposes a multifaceted, relationship-based access framework. The framework focuses on supporting users studying difficult histories or members of oppressed communities in a physical archives but also highlights elements that all users might appreciate.

Cultural Communication Models and Strategies of Red Archives in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of Digital Empowerment

This study explores the significant impact of digital technology on the dissemination and accessibility of red archives within colleges and universities, highlighting it as a crucial evolution in these institutions' cultural endeavours. By applying Maletzke's communication model, the research thoroughly investigates the factors influencing red archive culture communication in the digital context within colleges and universities. It develops a specific communication model for these educational institutions. It outlines five strategic approaches to enhance digital empowerment: improving the quality of content, building and enhancing collaborative team structures, upgrading functional features for personalized service offerings, effectively identifying and engaging the target audience, and utilizing policy, culture, and technology as fundamental elements for the sustainable development of red archive resources. This strategic proposal aims to facilitate the effective promotion and use of red archive resources in colleges and universities amidst the ongoing digital transformation.

Platforms for Integration of Open Access Resources of Research and Educational Institutions

In order to study the involvement of Russian academic and educational institutions in joint projects to create open access (OA) archives, we have researched the websites of 106 Russian HEIs participating in the program “Priority 2030” and 453 research institutes (RIs) of the first three categories. As a result of the work carried out, it has been found out that 38% of educational institutions’ websites contain institutional repositories (IRs), but half of them are remotely inaccessible. 20% of repositories of educational organizations participate in joint projects to ensure OA. Only 6% of the research organizations’ websites contain IRs that are presented mainly as part of an electronic library (EL), but not as independent repositories. In addition, 10.5% of the total number of RIs do not maintain their own repositories or ELs, but provide information about research results of their employees, the most important academic achievements of researchers as well as give access to digitized texts of the most significant works published within the framework of joint projects. At the same time, information about participation in these projects is missing on the websites of academic institutions. The examination of the websites of Russian educational and research institutions has shown that their participation in projects to develop cooperative OA archives is not uniform: while some institutions are indifferent, others take an active part in several projects at once and provide information about themselves in foreign aggregators. As a result of the research, we have found 7 projects aimed at integrating OA information resources on a single platform. These resources are implemented mainly in ELs. They are different in number of participants, quantity and chronological depth of the content offered. The identified projects can be conditionally divided into multidisciplinary and thematic, national and regional. It has been found out that some ELs provide open access to all content only for project participants, i.e. remote users have the opportunity to familiarize themselves only with public pages or only a small part of the content is available to them.

Perancangan Sistem Informasi Pengumuman dan Broadcasting (NotifyCasting)

Managing announcements and communication within a company often faces challenges in ensuring the effective and timely dissemination of information. This study aims to design and develop a web-based Announcement and Broadcasting Information System (NotifyCasting) to improve efficiency in information distribution within the company environment. The method used is the waterfall software development model, which includes the stages of requirement analysis, design, implementation, testing, and system maintenance. The results of the study show that the system successfully meets the functional and non-functional needs of the company by providing features such as real-time messaging and announcement delivery, audience filtering, and an accessible announcement archive. Testing with black box and white box methods indicates that the system functions according to the specified requirements, and the user interface is intuitive and easy to use. In conclusion, the NotifyCasting system can significantly enhance communication effectiveness within the company and can be adapted by other organizations for similar purposes.

Debunking the Myth of Obsolescence: Strategies for Digital Heritage Conservation

This essay extensively explores the multifaceted challenges and complexities associated with preserving digital cultural heritage, using the BBC Domesday Project as a case study. It underscores the critical importance of meticulous planning, future-proofing, and proactive strategies in digital archival endeavors. Emphasizing the significance of adopting open standards and establishing clear data ownership provisions, the essay aims to mitigate risks of obsolescence and safeguard digital cultural heritage for future generations. Furthermore, it addresses the concept of obsolescence in digital preservation and proposes strategic recommendations to prevent potential catastrophic issues, ensuring sustained access and relevance over time. In addition, the document delves into the criteria for selecting materials for digitization, highlighting the importance of metadata infrastructure in digital archiving. It discusses the challenges associated with constructing digital cultural repositories and emphasizes the necessity of balancing various priorities, including cultural significance, rarity, fragility, research potential, accessibility, user-friendliness, and institutional objectives during the selection process. Moreover, the essay underscores the pivotal role of metadata in ensuring the longevity and accessibility of digital resources and archives. Overall, this essay serves as a comprehensive guide for cultural heritage institutions, offering valuable insights and recommendations for the preservation and interpretation of digital heritage objects.

Beyond access: (re)designing archival guides for changing landscapes

In 2013, the authors of this article and their colleague Gavan McCarthy published Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections of Ernest Westlake (1855–1922). The guide provided contextual information and digital access to the entire paper archives relating to the three large stone collections formed by Westlake during his lifetime: French and English geological specimens housed in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History from 1924, and a collection of Tasmanian Aboriginal stone tools stored in the Pitt Rivers Museum since 1923. The Tasmanian collections, formed by Westlake from 1908 to 1910, are highly significant to the Palawa (or Pakana or Tasmanian Aboriginal) community because they include objects made by ancestors, and words spoken by ancestors to Westlake and recorded in his field notebooks. Stories in Stone was created to improve access to Westlake’s Tasmanian collections for the Palawa community with whom author Rebe Taylor had worked closely since 1999. Nonetheless, the structural and technical design of Stories in Stone was not Palawa-led. It was driven by Australian and international archiving standards; by stipulations set out by the collecting institutions; and by the stories of collecting and subsequent scholarship on the collections. In 2023, Stories in Stone is offline, and the authors are planning a relaunch. This time they aim to reach beyond their original aim of providing archival access to the Palawa community, and work with Palawa community to co-design how that access is delivered. This consultative work will be done at the University of Tasmania, where Palawa advisors and other Indigenous scholars have been integral to developing international Indigenous data sovereignty principals. This article precedes those formal discussions and thus offers a timely reflection on the original aims and design of Stories in Stone as well as an extensive analysis of broader changes in the management and dissemination of First Nations collections and culture. Such changes include: international human rights frameworks; movements supporting data and archival sovereignty; co-designed archival technologies; and increased focus on archives as process not merely product. These developments will lay the foundations for the next version of Stories in Stone, which aims to go beyond access, scholarship, and standards by helping to facilitate First Nations’ aspirations for dignity, sovereignty, and self-determination.

"The inalienable right to know"

In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the government of Canada compelled Library and Archives Canada to better facilitate Indigenous archival access. Yet, Indigenous peoples continue to face a variety of barriers to archival access and document retrieval. This paper argues that there are still many problems of Indigenous access to the archive and that the best remedy to these problems is to fundamentally change long-standing colonial ideas of record keeping. For true access and collaboration to begin, archivists must be enabled to act beyond traditional archival structures and policies. The paper begins by outlining the archival responses to the TRC’s report, addressing Indigenous rights to knowledge and continuing barriers to archival access, and offering suggestions to mitigate issues of access. In addition, this paper advocates that Indigenous considerations be reworked in existing archives and that Indigenous community archives be better supported.

Trials and Tribulations of Accessing Corporate Archives in Japan

A lack of accessible corporate archival material has long been a challenge for researchers of Japanese business history. This note digs deeper into the key issues associated with accessing company archives in Japan and proposes several research strategies. It does so by documenting and analysing attempts to access company archives as part of my own research into the absorption of foreign knowledge and technology in the Japanese rubber industry between 1900 and 1965. The assumption is that the lessons from this research project are applicable to corporate archive access issues in Japan more broadly.

DIY academic archiving: mischievous disruptions of a new counter-movement

Against increasing injunctions in research governance to create open data, and knee-jerk rejections from qualitative researchers in response to such efforts, we explore a radical counter movement of academics engaged in what we term “DIY Academic Archiving,” the creation of open and accessible archives of their research materials. We turn to interviews with three DIY academic archivists, each drawing on an ethos of community archiving, as opposed to emerging open data schemes: Melissa Munn on The Gaucher/Munn Penal Press Collection,1 Eric Gonzaba’s Wearing Gay History,2 and Michael Goodman’s Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive.3 We see these archives as engaged in a “politics of refusal,” which challenges both conventional methods and ethics in qualitative research as well as new moves toward open data. On the one hand, academics are tasked to “protect” their data by destroying it, under the guise of a supposed mode of “care.” On the other hand, open data makes quite contrary demands, to care for data by making it “open” for further extraction through (re)use. DIY Academic Archiving is a practice of refusal that supports a redirection away from this binary. In this article, we explore how DIY academic archivists play with coding as a form of mischievous disruption, and so are contributing to new data imaginaries. We offer insight into how DIY Academic Archiving supports researchers in their theoretical, methodological and political commitments, and at the same time, how it can enable researchers to take the care-full risk of archiving our research data.

What Were Bulletin Board Systems? Looking Back At Pre-Internet Online Communication in Turkey

As an online communication technology predating the Internet, Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) are considered to be precursors of modern-day social media. Despite being a popular technology of its era both in Türkiye and abroad, BBS technologies tend to be entirely overlooked in historical accounts of online communication.
 
 This article begins with an overview on the history of BBS technologies both in Türkiye and abroad. It then introduces the HitNet archive, currently the only publicly accessible Turkish language BBS archive in the world. Using applied content analysis, the article then explores whether contents of the HitNet archive align with the findings of international academic literature on global BBS usage. The findings of paint a mixed picture wherein certain aspects of the HiTNet archive present a mixed picture that both affirms as well as contradicts academic literature. On one hand there are elements affirming the hyperlocal nature of BBS networks (message contents, unique topics for each server). On the other, there are mutual elements (humour) that complicate the framing of Turkish BBSs as hyperlocal entities. Accordingly one can tentatively argue that HiTNet users, while bound to their local geographical context, belonged to a relatively homogenous demographic (male university students and computing enthusiasts).
 
 Unfortunately, the findings of this article are not generalizable for all HiTNet users due to very limited nature of the sample studied. Furthermore, the lack of accessible archives means that it is increasingly difficult to access BBS content from the period dating from 1990-1997. The article concludes by stressing that archival research needs to be urgently undertaken in Türkiye to catalog what remains from the BBS era. If no action is taken, there is a risk of losing access to all online communication between 1990 and 1997.

Robots still outnumber humans in web archives in 2019, but less than in 2015 and 2012

The significance of the web and the crucial role of web archives in its preservation highlight the necessity of understanding how users, both human and robot, access web archive content, and how best to satisfy this disparate needs of both types of users. To identify robots and humans in web archives and analyze their respective access patterns, we used the Internet Archive’s (IA) Wayback Machine access logs from 2012, 2015, and 2019, as well as Arquivo.pt’s (Portuguese Web Archive) access logs from 2019. We identified user sessions in the access logs and classified those sessions as human or robot based on their browsing behavior. To better understand how users navigate through the web archives, we evaluated these sessions to discover user access patterns. Based on the two archives and between the three years of IA access logs (2012 vs. 2015 vs. 2019), we present a comparison of detected robots vs. humans and their user access patterns and temporal preferences. The total number of robots detected in IA 2012 (91% of requests) and IA 2015 (88% of requests) is greater than in IA 2019 (70% of requests). Robots account for 98% of requests in Arquivo.pt (2019). We found that the robots are almost entirely limited to “Dip” and “Skim” access patterns in IA 2012 and 2015, but exhibit all the patterns and their combinations in IA 2019. Both humans and robots show a preference for web pages archived in the near past.

Peripheral Visiting

Decolonial perspectives on art history have elaborated on the ways visual representations and documentary media are intertwined with the colonial project. The visual regime is associated with the coloniser's Eurocentric, objectifying and territorialising gaze. Can the visual still play a part in healing colonial wounds? The Karrabing Collective, a majority Indigenous group based in the Northern Territories of Australia, seems to engage with this question. Studying their video art as a form of invitation, I question how these works address inhospitable zones in the imaginations of the modern world and settler-colonial legacies. Extending Donna Haraway's metaphor of visiting as a mode of ethical attention, I posit that these works destabilise Western understandings of hospitality, memory, and image-making. I argue that their re-visiting of settler-colonial encounters rejects the primacy of archival integration and access, inviting the viewer to visit the lived space of peripheral vision that shifts between remembering and re-imagining.

Cognitive, behavioral, and affective mechanisms underlying the efficacy of Applied Relaxation in reducing psychopathological symptoms: A randomized controlled trial

BackgroundThis study examined the cognitive, behavioral, and affective mechanisms underlying the efficacy of Applied Relaxation (AR) in reducing psychopathological symptoms. AR is a cognitive-behavioral technique that allows for rapid relaxation at the first sign of stress or tension in daily life. MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted in 277 adults (18–55 years) with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, or stress but without a 12-month DSM-5 mental disorder at study entry. Participants were randomized to an intervention group receiving AR training (10 weeks, N = 139) and an assessment-only control group (N = 138). Mental health outcomes (depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms) and potential cognitive (self-efficacy, perceived control), behavioral (coping behaviors) and affective (positive and negative affect) mediators of the intervention efficacy were assessed at baseline and post-assessment in both groups. ResultsStructural equation models indicated that baseline to post reductions in psychopathological symptoms due to AR partially passed through less avoidance-oriented and less other dysfunctional coping (proportion of total effect mediated; ratio of indirect to total effect: resignation: 55.0%, rumination: 27.9%, escape: 27.4%, aggression: 21.3%), less negative affect (46.3%), more positive affect (41.8%), lower external control beliefs (14.5%), and higher self-efficacy (13.3%). ConclusionsOur results suggest that improvements in cognitive, behavioral, and affective mediator variables partially explain the intervention efficacy of AR in improving mental health. Trial registration and data statementThe study protocol has been pre-registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03311529). The study protocol, minimum dataset, and analysis codes are available at OpARA - Open Access Repository and Archive. Supplementary materials (e.g., the course manual and additional training materials) are available on request from the last author (katja.beesdo-baum@tu-dresden.de).

Electronic Archive Management in an Effort to Improve Service Quality at IAIN Palangka Raya

<p>The development of internet technology in Indonesia is entering the digital era which greatly affects the community to fulfill information needs through archives in electronic form. This study aims to review the management of electronic archives in improving the quality of service at IAIN Palangka Raya as one of the best archive units in Central Kalimantan. The analysis of electronic archive management in improving service quality is reviewed through the dimensions of tangible, responsive, assurance, reliability, and empathy. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method with data collection techniques carried out by triangulation with primary and secondary data sources. Data collection methods were obtained through questionnaires, interviews, and documentation by testing data sources through checking data from sources that were obtained repeatedly. In analyzing the data, the researcher used data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results of the study as a whole explain that the application of electronic archive management has been proven to improve service quality through tangible, responsive, assurance, reliability, and empathy dimensions at the archives unit of IAIN Palangka Raya. This condition is due to the quality of user services to the archive access service management system at IAIN Palangka Raya based on the percentage shown is satisfied. However, the electronic archive service quality management system at IAIN Palangka Raya still needs to be completed and improved because some services are still manual and not standardized for archive management from ANRI.</p>