Archival Arrangement Research Articles

Snail trails and alternative momentum: the Fine Art Critical Practice Archive

ABSTRACT Interest in art school histories and the archives that support them has grown over the past decade, yet institutional recordkeeping practices and collecting, where they exist, do not tend to capture the kind of records that are most useful for research into art school pedagogies or their relationship with contemporary art discourse. This article gives an archive studies perspective on the Fine Art Critical Practice (FACP) Archive, a collaborative project to collect archival sources documenting the history of the FACP degree programme at the University of Brighton, UK, to be held at the University of Brighton Design Archives and activated through involvement of the FACP community of staff and students. It considers the records of interest to that community may lie in the context of an art school archive within an institution. It goes on to consider the example of a body of papers received from a former member of FACP staff, Mick Hartney, reflecting on some of the questions raised by this mode of collecting in terms of archival arrangement and knowledge production for the project’s future phases.

An Instituting Archive for Memory Activism: The Archivo de la Memoria Trans de Argentina

This article introduces the concept of the instituting force of activist archives. It does so by analyzing the epistemological and ontological implications of describing and arranging archival materials, and narrativizing them in curatorial work, in the case of the Archivo de la Memoria Trans de Argentina—Trans Memory Archive of Argentina. On the one hand, the archival arrangement provides trans people with a frame of recognition for trans lives and transforms individual memories into collectable and usable cultural memories for activism. On the other hand, the appropriation of the language of the family in curatorial works incorporates trans memories into the framework of Argentinian post-dictatorship transition. This allows activists to gain access to, and adapt, an entire repertoire for trans causes and activist kinship. The article supports the analytical work and the presented theoretical hypothesis by creating a dialogue between cultural memory studies and critical archival studies, for the exploration of memory activism.

The Archives at the Tip of Their Fingers: Exploring User Reactions to Large-Scale Digitization

Advances in digital image capture technology and the adoption of More Product, Less Process methods have resulted in special collections and archives large-scale digitization that creates a new kind of digital surrogate. Mirroring and reusing aggregate archival arrangement and description, these digital surrogates represent multiple items and are minimally described as a whole. The authors conducted interviews to explore user reactions to this digitization method at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This study found that large-scale digitization does have a positive impact for users, although additional strategies may be required to maximize the usefulness of the resulting digital objects.

Forensic approaches to evaluating primary sources in internet history research: reconstructing early Web-based archival work (1989–1996)

This article examines early digital archival practices, especially those related to historical sources digitised and published to the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Without well-documented professional standards for the digitisation and publication of archival materials online during this period, many archival workers developed innovative, yet idiosyncratic methods of arranging and presenting archival material. Using historical methods informed by digital forensics, this article reconstructs the development practices of one such group of archival workers. The article is structured around a case study examining digitised archival materials pulled from the personal records of American psychologist Timothy Leary, published to Leary.com in the mid-1990s. Forensic analysis of the interface and contents of Leary.com is used to ascertain the dates of development, as well as the specific techniques employed. Next, analysis of the archival arrangement bestowed upon the Web site contents is compared against the professional guidelines generally followed by American archivists, highlighting key differences between the ad-hoc practices of non-institutional archivists and the more formalized procedures followed by peers at established institutions. In conclusion, the article argues that this case study is valuable insofar as it establishes both methodological and historical precedents for deeper engagement with primary sources in Internet history research.

“Le ordinarono in serie a proprio ed altrui vantaggio”. Collections of autographs and archival science

The purpose of this article is to reflect on production, organization and tradition of autograph collections since the beginning until the end of the nineteenth century. In particulary, these collections, considered by the classical archival science only such one of the principle causes of destruction of the archives and as the result of the collectors’ craze that pervaded Europe in that turn of years, were used as a kind of archives, where historians could find all sorts of records, performing a para-archivistical function in absence of the availability of public archives, also influencing the methods of the archival arrangement.

Knowledge Organization as Knowledge Creation: Surfacing Community Participation in Archival Arrangement and Description

Remix or bricolage is recognized as a primary mode of knowledge creation in contemporary digital culture. Archival arrangement represents a form of bricolage that archivists have been practicing for years. By organizing records according to provenance, archivists engage in knowledge creation. Archival theory holds that records are created as an output from social and bureaucratic processes. Archival description, then, could serve as a form of archival record, bearing evidence of the processes of archival arrangement. Current participatory and community-based approaches to archival description urgently require an evidential record of their processes of community consultation and professional mediation. This paper examines two Canadian community-based, participatory archival projects. Project Naming, at Library and Archives Canada, draws upon Inuit community contributions to augment the often sparse and sometimes offensive descriptions of historic photos of arctic peoples. The Sex Work Database at the University of Manitoba, works with sex work activists to create and apply a tagging folksonomy to a collection of websites, organizational records and news media. Analysis of these diverse, community-based projects reveals how current approaches to description make it difficult to distinguish between professional and community contributions to arrangement and description, and proposes ways to make such contributions more apparent.

Значение термина «реконструкция архивного фонда» в отечественной историографии

The article reviews Russian scholarship on reconstruction of documentary complexes. The author traces changes in the conception of ‘reconstruction of the archival fond’ and identifies its basic characteristics. The term ‘reconstruction of the archival fond’ first appeared in 1950s in two meanings: (1) scientific study in order to establish documents composition of lost medieval archives; (2) reunification of segmented fonds in a single archive. In the late 1990s – early 2000s, the term ‘reconstruction’ was redefined as document description of fragmented documentary complexes without the purpose of their reunification. The documentary complexes may have been fragmented both before and after the formation of the archival fond. The object of the reconstruction is not in the documents, but in the information they contained. Documents are selected according to fond provenance (they were to proceed from the same creator) or office of origin. Thus, the term ‘reconstruction’ grows closer to the concept of archival fond arrangement in the sense of linking documents to creators or offices of origin and also defining chronology of the fond. Practical significance of the reconstruction consists in addressing problems of archival heuristics. The reconstruction includes studying of history of the fond creator, ascertaining places of storage of all fond parts, establishing links between its documents, identifying the nature of the document flow, correcting errors in description, detecting duplicate and absorbed information. Product of the reconstruction of an institution archival fond is called ‘documentary fond,’ while product of the reconstruction of a personal provenance fond is called ‘archive of a person.’ The reconstruction produces a representation of a documents complex, as if it was complete and undivided; the representation itself may be a scientific text (a fond description) or a catalog (a series). Currently, the concept of the reconstruction of the fond is regarded in the context of the development of the archives’ digital resources and implies a reunification of fragmented archival fonds or creation of new ones by posting digital copies of documents on the same Internet site.

The value and complexity of collection arrangement for evidentiary work

Archives are invaluable resources for those interested in understanding past activities and events. What makes archival collections valuable as evidence is that they are organized in a way that connects the materials to their creator(s), their associated activities, and recordkeeping systems. In order to create this organization archivists engage in a complex process that involves arranging materials physically and intellectually. This arrangement focuses on documenting the original order of the materials and making them evident to secondary users. The time‐consuming nature of this process has resulted in a massive backlog of unprocessed (and thus unavailable) collections, which represents an impediment to the investigative activities of scholars and researchers. To help alleviate such a situation, this article presents a novel approach to archival arrangement, using tabletop computers and digitized images. The article explains the project design and implementation and discusses the evaluation results. This work provides several major contributions to the field, including: a new system that allows archival collections to be arranged digitally, new methods and metrics for evaluating archival arrangements, a detailed analysis of the steps involved in archival arrangement and how they correlate with the final outcomes of the process, and a method for analyzing arrangements based on the topologies created by processing archivists.

Metadata Best Practices for University Archives Images

Academic librarians and archivists have long partnered on the development and implementation of cataloging best practices for archival materials. Much of this shared history involves cataloging in traditional integrated library systems, using metadata, descriptive standards, and software originating in bibliographic cataloging to create records in artisanal detail. The University of Denver cataloged and digitized the whole of an archival collection in two years by taking advantage of patterns inherent in archival arrangement to batch-create metadata using archival collection management software. Using this approach, the University of Denver scaled up the production of records, while keeping costs down and maintaining quality, and developed a set of best practices that has extended to other shared cataloging and digitization projects.

Digi Days: Using the Rey Papers to Teach Digitization to Library Science and Archival Students

Digi Days: Using the Rey Papers to Teach Digitization to Library Science and Archival Students

Visual analytics, cognition and archival arrangement and description: studying archivists’ cognitive tasks to leverage visual thinking for a sustainable archival future

This paper explores the possibility of using visual analysis to support archival functions. It first reviews the current state of experimentation with the use of interactive visual interfaces in the archival domain, noting several gaps including the absence of formal studies of cognitive and perceptual tasks. The paper then reports on preliminary results from a cognitive task analysis of archival arrangement and description, providing a broad brush description of archival analysis during arrangement and description as an example of archival sense-making. It then suggests some possible leverage points where visual analytics technology might be applied to support archival arrangement and description and concludes by reflecting on some theoretical and practical aspects of visualization technologies.

Whatever Happened to Art and Design?: Using Archival Practice to Manage the Impact of Academic Restructuring on Institutional Repositories

ABSTRACT. In the interest of providing access to and preserving scholarship produced by faculty, students and staff, many universities have developed and implemented institutional repositories. Repositories are often organized into communities that correspond to campus units, including departments, research centers and institutes, and administrative offices. Universities, however, frequently undergo academic restructuring, which can make repository organization out of sync with university organization. This article addresses the impact of academic restructuring on repositories and looks to practices from archival arrangement and description to create repository organizational structures and community descriptions flexible enough to reflect university organization, despite changes arising from academic restructuring.

Collaborative Education between Classroom and Workplace for Archival Arrangement and Description: Aiming for Sustainable Professional Education

The literature on archival education contains few empirical studies about how future professionals are educated in practice. Practical components in archival education can provide students not only with training opportunities for entry-level qualification but also (and more importantly) with different types of learning experiences that may last throughout their professional lives. This article looks at the practical component in the archival curriculum based upon a case study of the Archival Representation course at the University at Albany (State University of New York). This course uses actual collections from nearby archives in semester-long projects. The collaboration between classroom and workplace was initiated to enhance the students' learning experience. This study explores how professional knowledge is materialized and applied through practical archival processing projects. Specifically, it investigates (1) the major effects of project-based learning and how students and archivists perceive them;...

Balancing Boutique-Level Quality and Large-Scale Production: The Impact of “More Product, Less Process” on Digitization in Archives and Special Collections

Introduction Few writings within the realms of archives and special collections have reverberated throughout the field to the degree of Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner’s 2005 article “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing.”1 Its clarion call to shift archival arrangement and description away from time-consuming, detailed processes toward rapid, minimalist strategies was met with both cheers and groans that continue unabated. In a sign of its ubiquity, the approach advocated by Greene and Meissner is now simply referred to as “MPLP,” and its implementation is the subject of ongoing discussion in numerous venues, including professional journals, conference . . .

Research Trends and Issues of Records and Archives Classification in Korea

The study aims at reviewing research trends of records classification and archival arrangement, analysing issues, and suggesting futures tasks in related research area. It starts with defining research categories of records and archives classification through analysing the term of ‘classification' being found in the Public Records Management Act. Thirty five research papers which are covering classification of records and archives and published in 1980's are selected for contents analysis. Considering the analysis of domestic and foreign research, and the practical needs, it makes clear the issues and tasks for future research. The study concludes with emphasizing more empirical research for guiding records and archives management and reformulating archival theories in electronic environments.

A Study on Classification and Arrangement of Art Archives

Archival arrangement is essential process to preserve the context of art archives creation and accumulation while classification is important to search archival collections by their topic, type or business process. But archival arrangement is not being taken s eriously in most art archives in Korea. The purpose of this study is to analyse the arrangement and classification issues of art archives in Korea, and to suggest some principles and strategies for organizing art archives more systematically. This paper begins with identifying the difference between arrangement and classification and analyses some cases of visual and performing art archives in Korea and United States in terms of archival organization. Based on these analyses, it gives some suggestions for improving the quality of arrangement and classification in Korean art archives. Keywords: art archives, performing art archives, visual art archives, archival arrangement, classification

Making the Leap from Parts to Whole: Evidence and Inference in Archival Arrangement and Description

This article examines the analytical process in arrangement and description, and considers how the archivist arrives at an understanding of the records sufficient for contextualizing and providing intellectual access to them. The discussion characterizes the process of intellectual arrangement as one of identifying and/or creating the contextual relationships of a body of records, and it highlights certain common factors in the process, such as the historical standpoint of the archivist, the use of evidence, and the role of inference. Underscoring the speculative nature of the analytical process and the active role of the archivist in shaping the records, this article suggests ways for archivists to account for these aspects of practice on an individual, departmental or institutional, and professional level.

Arrangement and description of architectural records: time-honored principles and new technologies

The basic archival practices for arrangement and description of architectural records evolved prior to the electronic era. Now as more is being learned about digital documentation of architecture, the underlying principles of arrangement and description continue to be validated even as archival practices evolve. In archival arrangement the principles of provenance or respect des fonds and original order are now being understood as a way to capture and retain information on the source and organization of groups of documents. In archival description, computer-based information tools have become widely adopted and the power of the internet and the world wide web are improving delivery of information. As technological solutions continue to evolve, the underlying principles and goals of archival arrangement and description will remain unchanged even as they continue to be adapted to the changing information environment.

You Want Me to Do What?

ABSTRACT This article is intended as a basic guide to the Medical Librarian given the responsibility for creating and/or managing archival collections. It is meant to introduce briefly some concepts of archival management and ways for non-specialists to implement and manage an archival program in a healthcare setting. Subjects discussed include archival education, selection of materials, arrangement and description, preservation, and access to archival collections. Also included are three appendices offering: (A) a short list of reference works; (B) a sample archival arrangement scheme; and (C) a list of archival suppliers.

아카이브의 효율적인 운영과 정리에 관한 연구

보다 효율적인 아카이브가 운영되기 위한 방안에 대해 아카이브를 처음으로 명명하고 지금도 ENC(파리국립고문서학교)에서 국가적으로 인정하는 최고 수준의 아키비스트를 지속적으로 배출하고 있는 프랑스의 방법론을 통해, 가장 기본적으로 언급되어져야 할 용어의 정립문제, 아카이브의 성립과 역사, 시대적 측면, 내용적 측면, 형태적 측면으로서의 종류와 특성을 개괄적으로 살핀 후, 핵심적으로 아카이브의 효율적인 운영 및 정리에 대해 살피되 교육의 교과과정을 통한 연구적 측면과 평가, 선정 및 수집, 정리, 열람 및 가치의 유지를 위한 실제적 측면으로 나누어 살펴보았다. To develope a scheme of an efficient archival arrangement and management, this study, through the methodology in France which named 'archives' for the first time and produce the best qualified archivistes every year from ENC(Ecole Nationales des Charles) , has started the problem of the adjustment of terminology which must be basically established, the foundation and history of archives, and their kinds and characteristics in the view of periods, contents and materials. After, for the core of an efficient archival arrangement and management, the study goes on theoretical and practical sides : educational courses for archival studies in part, appraisal, selection and collection, arrangement, communication and valorization of archives in other part.