Archival Value Research Articles

A celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG)

The Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG) was founded in 1996 to bring together researchers looking at the development of fluvial systems over multiple timescales and global spatial scales. Fluvial archives of various types are important not just because they provide insights into past landscape dynamics, e.g., driven by climate or crustal processes, but also because they frequently contain fossil or archaeological material for which they provide stratigraphic control. Since 1996, FLAG has evolved from a research group of the British Quaternary Research Association into an organisation with around 500 members in over 20 countries. The research group held 12 biennial meetings, comprising both presentations and field excursions, as well as multiple themed sessions at international conferences. These had resulted by 2017 in 19 journal special issues, all fully detailed by Cordier et al. (2017). The goals of FLAG are: provision of a community for discussion of key issues concerning fluvial archives, including organising the aforementioned biennial discussion/field meetings, sessions at relevant international conferences, and special issues of journals; continued promotion of the value of fluvial archives by means of readily accessible published information; and coordination of activity with other research groupings with overlapping interests, e.g., by co-convening sessions and collaborating on publications.

Theory, regulation and practice in Swedish digital records appraisal

PurposeDigital records appraisal and aspects of archival values in theory, regularization and practice are explored. This paper aims to reflect upon the appraisal process, responsibility and norms for value creation in a digitalized environment. The research question was how do appraisal theory, normative rules and appraisal practice meet the aims of values in digital archives?Design/methodology/approachThe study triangulated appraisal theory, normative values and participants’ views about archival values in appraisal practice in a Swedish setting. Content analysis were used to explore normative documents and interviews. Appraisal theories of the Swedish Nils Nilsson and the Canadian Terry Cook were interpreted. The result was related to theories on public values, the nature of responsibility and relations between the state and citizens.FindingsThe results show influences between theory, norms and practice. Changes in norms and practice do not follow the development of digitalization. Responsibility is focused on tasks, which exposes risks of accountability control and knowledge of appraisal grounds. The paper concludes that access requirements and user needs may prompt change in appraisal processes. In the light of digitalization, “primary and secondary value” are merely a matter of use and usability in a time and space (continuum) perspective.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based in Sweden where extensive right of access to public records and default preservation are norm.Originality/valueThe result shows how allocated responsibilities impinge on a re-active digital appraisal process.

Towards a toolkit for estate records

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to report on a collaborative project that investigated the value and use of the contents of estate archives. Context is provided by outlining the type of information often found within estate records, its potential value to a wide range of users, indicating some of the initiatives which have helped to open up estate archives, before exploring some of the difficulties associated with accessing these records and making optimal use of them. This is followed by a description and evaluation of the initial stage of the project, which collected data about the significance, discoverability, accessibility and use of estate archives. This was achieved by inviting a purposive sample of archive users to attend one of the three knowledge exchange workshops in different parts of Wales. Participants were asked for their views on the value of estate archives, current and potential uses of estate records, and they were asked to suggest ways in which these records could be promoted more widely and used more effectively. Finally, opinions were gathered about the desirability of creating an online toolkit for estate records. Data gathered at these events was used to create a detailed blueprint of the proposed toolkit.

The photo archive as laboratory. Art history, photography, and materiality

Librarians, archivists, and curators today meet unique challenges when facing huge numbers of photographs accumulated in their institutions. Coming to terms with these masses in a responsible way means to reflect on cataloguing and digitization standards able to record their (material) complexity. It also means to constantly justify a series of investments: in cataloguing and digitization projects, but also in storage space, restoration, archival and conservation materials, not to speak of human resources. It means, ultimately, to reflect on the systems of value that one decides to apply while dealing with these holdings: the dematerialization rhetoric that often goes hand-in-hand with digitization campaigns tends to increase their fragility, on the other side we are confronted more and more often with the ‘contemporary repackaging of erstwhile ephemeral and disposable photographic prints' that acquire a new ‘archival value’.1In this short essay I will focus on these systems of value. My aim is to offer some methodological tools to deal with documentary photographs in art historical institutions. These instruments derive from the intersection of photographic and archival theories and practices that shaped my experience as Head of the Photothek at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max Planck Institute, for more than a decade.

Çocuk hekimliği tarihine ilişkin eski bir kitap incelemesi ve Dr. Sezai Bedrettin Tümay

The historical sources of medicine involve medical documents, printed books, biographies, memoirs or diary writing, and prescriptions. In addition to these, sources that have archival value should be brought to the present and interpreted in research on a subject related to the history of medicine. The value of historical data depends on the preservation of the original and being open to interpretation without changing the information included. In this study, we discuss the original form of the book named A General Outlook on the History of Pediatrics, which is a work about the history of pediatrics written by a pediatrician. Sezai Bedrettin Tümay, the writer of the book, is also a doctor who has contributed to the development of pediatrics in our country. The book, which addresses the developmental challenges of pediatrics in the study disciplines of medicine and presents its journey from past to present by using different sources of literature, contributes to the literature on the history of pediatric medicine. When evaluated in the context of the conditions of the period when it was written, bringing the book including unique information on the history of pediatrics in the Western and Eastern worlds and Turkey to the present, is important to fill a gap in literature. In the study, we aim to share a brief summary of the book with the science world after a short biography of Dr. Sezai Bedrettin Tümay.

Not Just Curious Objects: The China Visual Arts Project Archive

The University of Westminster’s China Visual Arts Project was founded in the 1970s as a teaching aid for its classes in Chinese language and politics. It comprises 843 posters acquired from Hong Kong and mainland China, dating from the 1940s to the 1980s, alongside a wealth of books, objects and ephemera. While the posters have been exhibited and studied, the rest of the collection has received little attention, and the story of the collection itself has not been considered. The recent transfer of the collection to the University Archive has led to a reassessment of its origins, acquisition and use within the framework of archival values. Building on new interviews with the collection’s founder, this article examines how the collection was created, catalogued and managed, and discusses how this information can be used to create a new context for viewing the collection. This article discusses how managing the collection as an archive, as opposed to a ‘special collection’, can enable it to reflect the history of the University as much as it does the society which created the objects themselves.

Reclaiming history: Arthur Schomburg

ABSTRACTFocusing on the inter-war period, this article examines the context of the publication of Sir Hilary Jenkinson’s Manual of Archive Administration alongside the less well-known contemporary publication of Arthur Schomburg’s ‘The Negro Digs up his Past’. By placing these publications together, this article raises questions about the production and reproduction of the professional canon, as well as highlighting Schomburg’s contribution to key archival questions on the nature of collecting. This work discusses Schomburg’s articulation of the purpose of archival collecting which offers a radically different conception of the value and use of archives, one that focuses on the concepts of recovery and transformation. This article also places Schomburg within the wider emergence of the Pan-African movement and situates his work within the developing Pan-African ideologies and the networks in which he operated, and argues that Schomburg’s legacy can be found in the development of Black-led archives in London.

Developing IBVM (Loreto) Archives Across the Globe

Developing IBVM (Loreto) Archives Across the Globe Áine Mc Hugh The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM), more commonly known as Loreto, ‘recognises its origins in the religious community founded by Mary Ward at the beginning of the seventeenth century’.1 IBVM, Loreto, as a branch of Mary Ward’s original foundation, owes its existence to a Dublin woman, Frances Teresa Ball, who in 1814 entered religious life with the Institute at the Mickelgate Bar, York, England.2 Frances returned to Dublin in 1821, with the intention of establishing a house of the ‘same’ institute in Ireland, which evolved into IBVM, Loreto.3 Under her direction, the institute began its missionary thrust, expanding across the globe. Mary Ward’s foundation exists worldwide today under the names Congregation Jesu and IBVM, Loreto, and her followers collectively minister in forty-four countries across five continents. The value of archives, as records of enduring value, or ‘significant material concerning the history of the institute, its members and ministries’, is formally recognised as one of the traditions of Mary Ward’s institute.4 IBVM’s mission statement for its global archives policy identifies their purpose as ‘to identify, collect, protect, preserve and make available’ the records of enduring value of the institute.5 The preamble to the IBVM Archives Handbook states that the archives contain the ‘story of the institute and its members, and are a vital part of institute, community and individual memory’. They are ‘unique and irreplaceable’ and record Loreto/Loretto’s unique spirit and common mission and spirituality that binds all Loreto/Loretto Sisters ... [They are] a unique witness to the faithful response of each Sister to her call and are evidence of lives lived in faith and courage. They are a source of inspiration and should be celebrated. However they require protection to ensure their preservation, so that Loreto/Loretto’s vibrant heritage and ongoing story may be shared.6 The policy further states that the archival collection (or IBVM Archives) Áine Mc Hugh Studies • volume 107 • number 427 326 consists of the institute archives (Central Archives) and ten province archives, each administered by a province archivist, who is responsible for the collection, protection, preservation and making available of the records of the administration, governance, membership and activities of the institute.7 The purpose and function of the archives is clearly defined in the IBVM directory and the archives policy document. However, as a global collection, there are variations in the resources available for the management of the archives within each province, differing emphasis placed on their value and discrepancies in the access to education and training for the appointed archivists. The institute archivist has a responsibility to guide and advise the provincial archivists in their work, but until relatively recently there was no official framework to support this. In 2010, the first professional (and lay) archivist was employed and in 2012 she was subsequently appointed institute and Irish province archivist. This reflected an increasing awareness amongst those in leadership of the importance of the archives as a repository of institute history and identity. It facilitated the expansion of the role of archivist, as well as engagement by the institute archivists with their wider remit in guiding and supporting colleagues at provincial level. Former institute archivists, Sr Paula Doolin IBVM and Sr Kathleen Fitzgerald IBVM, had recognised the need for a qualified archivist and improved relationships between provincial archivists. In spite of their best efforts, by 2010 the relationship between the provincial archivists, who generally did not know one another and had never met, was distant and characterised by a certain wariness. Sr Kathleen was passionate about connecting with this global network of colleagues, recognising the importance of support and encouragement in enabling and assisting others to engage with their responsibilities.8 In 2011 the first tentative steps towards a warmer relationship and a network of provincial archivists were undertaken with the production of a Directory of Province and Regional Archivists. Each archivist was invited to contribute a brief biography and photograph for the directory, which was then circulated amongst the archivists. It was a small starting point, but an important one. The ice was broken, and there followed...

The University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) corporate memory in the spotlight: retracing the institution’s centenary history through visual documentation

University records constitute an integral element of an academic institution’s corporate memory. This business information needs to be well managed throughout its life cycle for the purpose of accountability, transparency, good governance and for reference purposes. This paper reports on a qualitative study that was undertaken at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa by examining an exhibition developed to mark the institution’s centenary. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and trace the provenance of the collections on display to gain an overall assessment of the extent of archival development at the UFH. It cannot be over-emphasized that organizations often struggle to write their centenary history due to lack of supporting documentation as the information is either incomplete, missing or misfiled, rendering it unusable. One of the key findings emanating from this study was that much of the material used for the displays is copyrighted to sister heritage institutions and private individuals, demonstrating the consequences of lack of development and preservation by the UFH of its own archives. Consequently, the need to revamp the institution’s records and archives management systems is mandatory. An encouraging development is that in 2018 there are plans to appoint a records manager, an institutional archivist and a manager of student records. The centenary exhibition has therefore been an opportunity to demonstrate the value of archives to the University of Fort Hare.

Reversals in the Direction of Polarization Rotation in OJ 287

Abstract We have obtained a smooth time series for the electric vector position angle (EVPA) of the blazar OJ 287 at centimeter wavelengths, by making ±nπ adjustments to archival values from 1974 to 2016. The data display rotation reversals in which the EVPA rotates counterclockwise for ∼180° and then rotates clockwise by a similar amount. The timescale of the rotations is a few weeks to a year, and the scale for a double rotation, including the reversal, is 1–3 yr. We have seen four of these events in 40 yr. A model consisting of two successive outbursts in polarized flux density, with EVPAs counterrotating, superposed on a steady polarized jet, can explain many of the details of the observations. Polarization images support this interpretation. The model can also help to explain similar events seen at optical wavelengths. The outbursts needed for the model can be generated by the supermagnetosonic jet model of Nakamura et al. and Nakamura & Meier, which requires a strong helical magnetic field. This model produces forward and reverse pairs of fast and slow MHD waves, and the plasma inside the two fast/slow pairs rotates around the jet axis, but in opposite directions.

Separating the wheat from the chaff with the winnowing fork

PurposeAppraisal of records to separate the wheat (records of enduring value) from the chaff (ephemeral records) is one of the most important functions of the archives. In terms of the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA) Act (No. 43 of 1996) (the Act), “no public records may be transferred to an archives repository, destroyed, erased or otherwise disposed of without the written authorisation of the national archivist”. In implementing this section of the Act, the NARSSA issues a disposal authority, which emanates from the appraisal process explained in the policy guidelines of 2002. The purpose of the study is to analyse the appraisal policy guidelines on the approach of NARSSA in relation to preservation of digital records.Design/methodology/approachThis study has used qualitative data obtained through content analysis and literature to review the appraisal policy guidelines and approach of NARSSA in relation to preservation of digital records. The 2002 approved appraisal policy, as well as the directives issued by NARSSA in terms of Section 13(4) of the Act, is examined to determine the criteria, the process and the methodology adopted in the appraisal of records. Content analysis data are augmented through interviews conducted in person with the head of the records management unit at NARSSA and the archivist responsible for appraisal of government records.FindingsThe study has established that, in terms of the approach, records are appraised two years after the implementation of records classification systems in governmental bodies and those of archival value are then transferred to an archives repository after a period of 20 years. Twenty years is a long period as records might be lost, especially in digital environments. Furthermore, the appraisal policy guidelines limit the powers of records managers in governmental bodies in deciding on records of enduring value, as this responsibility is assigned to archivists at NARSSA. It is clear that the policy was written with paper records in mind.Research limitations/implicationsThis study may go a long way in influencing policy review to embrace appraisal of digital records in South Africa. This in turn will help in determining the feasibility of preservation technology for digital records.Originality/valueThis study is useful to ensure participation of the public in the appraisal process. This study has triangulated content analysis data with interviews to examine appraisal criteria, process and methodology, followed by NARSSA.

‘Does it threaten the status quo?’ Elite responses to British punk, 1976–1978

AbstractThe emergence of punk in Britain (1976–1978) is recalled and documented as a moment of rebellion, one in which youth culture was seen to challenge accepted values and forms of behaviour, and to set in motion a new kind of cultural politics. In this article we do two things. First, we ask how far punk's challenge extended. Did it penetrate those political, cultural and social elites against which it set itself? And second, we reflect on the problem of recovering the history and politics of moments such as punk, and on the value of archives to such exercises in recuperation. In pursuit of both tasks, we make use of a wide range of historical sources, relying on these rather than on retrospective oral or autobiographical accounts. We set our findings against the narratives offered by both subcultural and mainstream histories of punk. We show how punk's impact on elites can be detected in the rhetoric of the popular media, and in aspects of the practice of local government and the police. Its impact on other elites (e.g. central government or the monarchy) is much harder to discern. These insights are important both for enriching our understanding of the political significance of punk and for how we approach the historical record left by popular music.

In‐use emissions testing of diesel‐driven buses in Southampton: is selective catalytic reduction as effective as fleet operators think?

Despite the continuously tightening emissions legislation, urban concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) remain at harmful levels. Road transport is responsible for a large fraction, wherein diesel engines are the principal culprits. Turbocharged diesel engines have long been preferred in heavy duty applications, due to their torque delivery and low fuel consumption. Fleet operators are under pressure to understand and control the emissions of their vehicles, yet the performance of emissions abatement technology in real-world driving is largely unquantified. The most popular NO x abatement technology for heavy duty diesel vehicles is selective catalytic reduction. In this work, the authors empirically determine the efficiency of a factory-fitted selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system in real-world driving by instrumenting passenger buses with both a portable emissions measurement system and a custom-built telematics unit to record key parameters from the vehicle diagnostics systems. They find that even in relatively favourable conditions, while there is some improvement due to the use of SCR, the vehicles operate far from the design emissions targets. The archival value of this study is in quantification of real world emissions versus design levels and the factors responsible for the discrepancy, as well as in examination of technologies to reduce this difference.

Evolving chaos: Identifying new attractors of the generalised Lorenz family

In a recent paper, we presented an intelligent evolutionary search technique through genetic programming (GP) for finding new analytical expressions of nonlinear dynamical systems, similar to the classical Lorenz attractor's which also exhibit chaotic behaviour in the phase space. In this paper, we extend our previous finding to explore yet another gallery of new chaotic attractors which are derived from the original Lorenz system of equations. Compared to the previous exploration with sinusoidal type transcendental nonlinearity, here we focus on only cross-product and higher-power type nonlinearities in the three state equations. We here report over 150 different structures of chaotic attractors along with their one set of parameter values, phase space dynamics and the Largest Lyapunov Exponents (LLE). The expressions of these new Lorenz-like nonlinear dynamical systems have been automatically evolved through multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP). In the past two decades, there have been many claims of designing new chaotic attractors as an incremental extension of the Lorenz family. We provide here a large family of chaotic systems whose structure closely resemble the original Lorenz system but with drastically different phase space dynamics. This advances the state of the art knowledge of discovering new chaotic systems which can find application in many real-world problems. This work may also find its archival value in future in the domain of new chaotic system discovery.

The Archival Value of Television in the “Golden Age” of Media Collecting

The Archival Value of Television in the “Golden Age” of Media Collecting Lauren Bratslavsky Television’s Golden Age ended almost as quickly as it began, with writers, directors, programmers, and critics pining over the “quality” days of certain live programs. The Golden Age for American television refers to “the medium’s first decade, from 1948–1958, when (or so the myth goes) program forms and norms were not yet entrenched, and the level of ingenuity and sheer talent on display was unparalleled.”1 The live drama anthology was at the heart of this myth, giving “the new medium respectability and prestige,” especially when stage plays and movies were adapted from the television scripts as a “new body of literature.”2 Complicating television historians’ critical assessment of the Golden Age myth is the lack of moving-image records (e.g., films and tapes).3 Yet numerous archives hold manuscript collections documenting the creative and industrial processes behind Golden Age drama anthologies and a larger swath of television from that era and later. These materials began to be collected in the 1960s during what we might call a golden age of (media) collecting—a window of time with favorable conditions for building collections. Although many major archives devoted to television had yet to be fully established, the “Golden Age” label helped launch the acquisition and preservation of television in existing institutions.4 This article contributes to television historiography by tracing the entry of television materials into one particular media archive with attention to discourses about the preservation of television (or lack thereof) and factors that influenced the archival process in the 1960s. Click for larger view View full resolution Examining the formation of an archive devoted to the performing arts—how archivists and scholars tasked with archival duties decided which materials merited preservation—explains how parts of television came to be thought of as a subject worthy of academic study. Curated repositories preserve important cultural memories and their [End Page 12] associated artifacts, generally connoting “notions of sanctioned cultural value, protection, ownership, and power.”5 As one film historian explains, “If we understand the archive as a site with its own histories, we can better know the histories of which the archive is a custodian.”6 Using the Wisconsin Center for Theater Research (an affiliate of the International Federation of Film Archives) and the Wisconsin Historical Society’s documentation of the relevant archival processes, including solicitation letters, donor correspondence, and internal reports and its first decade of operation in the 1960s, I want to show how a case study of an archival process can reveal the way archivists and academics conceptualized the worth of television as they crisscrossed cultural and economic systems of value. Although television was not identified explicitly in the Center’s scope, television materials make up a considerable portion of its holdings. Television studies ascended into the academy alongside critiques of literary canons and critical appreciation for popular culture and cultural histories.7 To be accepted as a legitimate field, however, television studies required that, one, scholars recognize television as a distinct medium with its own contexts of production and reception and, two, scholars take television as seriously as other cultural forms such as the literary, visual, and established performing arts.8 In the early days of archiving television, archivists and academics used relationships between television and already-valued art forms as a means to justify the medium’s entry into archival spaces. Indeed, the scholars in charge of the Center approached television as part of the field of theater rather than evaluating television as its own entity. By the end of the decade, however, new leadership led to new acquisition priorities and a more expansive conception of television’s archival and scholarly worth, welcoming television as a unique medium with its own artistic and industrial properties, albeit limited by markers of taste and quality. Later, though, changes in the federal tax codes effectively closed the golden age of media collecting. As a result, the Center forged a more explicit case for television’s distinct cultural value. Television in the Theatrical Tradition The way archivists and academics defined television (and the rigidity or flexibility of those definitions) influenced the...

Comprehensive Modeling to Allow Informed Calculation of DC Traction Systems’ Stray Current Levels

This study is directed toward furnishing stray current modeling on dc traction systems to cope with the variability of a number of influencing parameters. To this end, the archival value of this study is gained by virtue of two new modeling techniques. These new techniques, first, include a Monte—Carlo-based approach to take into account the variability of the dominant factors influencing the conductance per unit length between the track and the earth. Second, a simulation technique that can provide a more robust representation of the conductance per unit length between the track and the earth coupled with uniform and non-uniform soil models is presented in an attempt to comprehensively assess the levels of stray currents leaving a floating dc traction system.

Surveying Archivists and Their Work toward Advocacy and Management, or “Enterprise Archiving”

ABSTRACT Archivists ensure preservation of and access to permanently valuable records in the course of their everyday work. We present results from a spring 2014 survey that sought to gather data on the work archivists do, competencies required for this work, and archivists' recommendations for graduate curricula in archival studies. Our research questions sought to measure or describe a) the nature of everyday archival work, b) the frequency of specific interactive and materials-based tasks, c) the greatest challenges of the archivist's work, and d) recommendations for further emphasis in graduate archival education. We targeted the survey strategically to professional archivists as well as to graduates of a master's program in information studies and obtained 490 responses. Much of the communication that archivists must do is “enterprise archiving,” which centers around advocating for the value of well-managed archives. Recognizing prior efforts to raise awareness of professional demographics and skills...

Developing Electrolyte for a Soluble Lead Redox Flow Battery by Reprocessing Spent Lead Acid Battery Electrodes

The archival value of this paper is the investigation of novel methods to recover lead (II) ions from spent lead acid battery electrodes to be used directly as electrolyte for a soluble lead flow battery. The methods involved heating electrodes of spent lead acid batteries in methanesulfonic acid and hydrogen peroxide to dissolve solid lead and lead dioxide out of the electrode material. The processes yielded lead methanesulfonate, which is an electrolyte for the soluble lead acid battery. The lead (II) ions in the electrolyte were identified using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy and their electrochemistry confirmed using cyclic voltammetry. The concentration of lead (II) ions was determined and it was found that using the higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide yielded the highest concentration of lead (II) ions. The method was therefore found to be sufficient to make electrolyte for a soluble lead cell.

Witkacy, Cocteau i inni. Amatorskie filmy Augusta Zamoyskiego

The article analyses the contents of a collection of more than one hundred amateur films made by the famed Polish sculptor August Zamoyski. This unique collection of 9.5 mm films of great archival value was recently transferred to Poland and is now held by the National Audiovisual Institute.

Public Records in War: Toward an Archival History of the American Civil War

ABSTRACT The preservation of public archives and records is an important and untold chapter in the history of the Civil War. The war exposed public records and archives across the eastern United States to extreme dangers, including enemy fire, seizure, looting, and arson. While elected officials and newspaper editors proclaimed the political and legal value of archives, and took concerted actions to preserve the national and state archives within the Union and the Confederacy, county and city archives suffered great damage. Raising the specter of archival loss, politicians and editors wove narratives in which public archives figured as symbols of nationalism.