Archival Content Research Articles

Web archives after platformization: reading social media collections along the archival grain

ABSTRACT This article draws on ethnographic and historical research at two Australian libraries to explore how the platformization of the web has altered the content, character, and potential future utility of web archives. I argue that, in attempting to collect social media, these libraries face a double bind: while web crawling undertaken at the National Library of Australia allows for immediate but often incomplete or inconsistent access, the API-based approach taken by the State Library of New South Wales constrains both the data collected and how it can be made accessible due to a shifting set of rules that are established and enforced by platforms. By examining the constraints of current strategies to collect, preserve, and make available social media content, I illustrate how changes to platform design and policies significantly influence what is included in web archives and how they are made available. As the ruptures and inconsistencies of collections of social media in web archives are often opaque to both creators of web archives and those using them, I argue that web archives can be read ‘along the archival grain’ for evidence of the platformization of the web. This approach, which draws on anthropologist Ann Stoler’s critical readings on the form and placement of colonial archives (rather than just their contents), allows an assessment of how the gaps, silences, densities, and distributions of web archives are shaped by the shifting power dynamics between different actors involved in the production, circulation, distribution, and use of information on the web.

Wave blockers: When governments use foreign military interventions to offset transnational political currents

ABSTRACT Why do governments use interventions to shape the internal political composition of other states? Many explanations focus on intervention’s strategic utility, which can include a wider sphere of influence and enhanced state security. Alternatively, this article argues that how regimes view the internal political conditions of other states in relation to their own political spheres dictates the utility that they assign to intervention. Drawing on archival content related to Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the North Yemen Civil War (1962–1967), the article tests this political-threat explanation of intervention against the strategic-threat alternative.

Research and Analysis of Woodblock Printing Ink from the Qing Dynasty Used in the Shuyede Press of Shandong

Archival writing material is an important carrier to record and reflect archival content, and its material and durability are closely related to the life of archives. The “Shuyede” press in Shandong Province, which originated in the reign of Kangxi (1662 AD–1722 AD) in the Qing dynasty, printed many important archives and ancient books of the Qing dynasty (1644 AD–1911 AD). In order to explore the material composition of woodblock printing ink from the Shuyede press, modern analytical and detection techniques such as scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and pyrolysis gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) were applied for the analysis and identification of the ink on woodblock plates from the Shuyede press. The results showed that two kinds of printing ink—pine soot ink and oil soot ink—used were in these woodblocks from the Shuyede press in the Qing dynasty in the collection of Shandong Museum, and the binding material in the ink was animal glue, indicating that both pine and oil soot inks were used as printing ink in the Qing dynasty.

Batik and Tenun Endek Diplomacy as a Cultural Legacy from Soeharto’s to Jokowi’s Administration

The research explored an interesting relationship between Indonesian cultural heritage and international relations. It focused on Batik Indonesia and Tenun Endek Bali as strategic tools for cultural diplomacy efforts across different presidential administrations. Starting with President Soeharto’s use of Batik as a gift at the United Nations in the 1980s, these textiles have appeared at six major ASEAN and APEC Summits. The key research question was whether these gorgeous textiles had been effective in promoting Indonesian culture on a global stage. The research aimed to analyze the evolution of Batik Indonesia and Tenun Endek Bali, emphasizing significant international events where they gained recognition, such as the ASEAN and APEC Summits. The research applied a qualitative method and archival content to analyze the journey of batik and Tenun Endek Bali in Indonesian diplomacy. The findings present a compelling narrative. The research suggests a potential link between the use of batik and Tenun Endek and positive outcomes at global meetings, including free trade (APEC 1994), regional cooperation (ASEAN Summit 2011), and consensus building (G20 2023). This highlights Indonesia’s evolving role on the international stage. The research offers a fresh perspective by examining the long-term use of batik and Tenun Endek Bali by Indonesian presidents as cultural diplomacy tools at global events, proposing a novel link to positive outcomes, and highlighting cultural heritage’s potential as a ‘soft power’ diplomatic strategy.

The dilemmas of sharing: Five dilemmas when presenting the past to the present

In April 2022, a new rights agreement was signed between the Norwegian broadcaster, NRK, and Norwaco, an organisation for rights holders. This gave NRK the opportunity to publish on its digital platforms any self-produced radio and television content broadcast before 1st January, 2015. As a result, the NRK Archive is now attracting greater interest from across the organisation, and archive content has been given a more active role in NRK’s publishing strategy. Finally, in-demand drama and classic comedy may be shared with the public again — but should it? The agreement has initiated new conversations within NRK, between functional areas that strive to meet the demands of the present, and the archive, whose task is to promote history and join the dots. Is the quality of the storytelling, humour and terminology good enough for today? What about the ethics? This paper addresses all these questions and the different challenges during different periods of the publishing process, both the practical workflows and the ethical discussions. We have boiled them down to five dilemmas that contain useful lessons learned — lessons we wished we had known from the start.

Research note: Virtual historical archive of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This article describes the organization, operation, and contents of the Virtual Historical Archive of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The organization of this archive started in 2008, as part of the activities planned by the Chair II of History of Psychology, and gained the support of the Faculty of Psychology. From its beginnings to the present, several documentary sources and materials related to the history of psychology in Argentina have been incorporated. It currently contains six thematic sections and three special collections, and it is expected that in the future it will be extended to other thematic areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Archives, prisons and person-centred historical praxis: doing social history research on incarceration in colonial Africa

Bringing together methods and perspectives from critical archive studies, African history, social history and critical prison studies, this article considers the opportunities, challenges and ethical considerations that arise when doing social history research on colonial African prisons using official archives. We argue that while such records can provide valuable information, engagement with these documents needs to be grounded in recognition of their ‘person-ness’. This involves acknowledging the power dynamics and coercion that shaped the creation and content of official archives, prioritising the experiences of incarcerated people, and using the records in a way that recognises the limits of consent in terms of their origins and use. By turning to a person-centred historical praxis, researchers can not only play a key role in furthering our knowledge of colonial carceral systems but can also help to challenge these systems and their afterlives.

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.

Temporalities and Values in an Epistemic Culture: Citizen Humanities, Local Knowledge, and AI-supported Transcription of Archives

An enormous amount of handwritten documents in archives can only be accessed by experts trained in reading older handwriting. Through artificial intelligence (AI)-supported technology, they can now be transcribed and made available for wider audiences. To produce transcriptions an AI needs training and a feasible way is to invite citizens to fulfil such tasks. To understand how an epistemic culture develops in such work, this study conducted interviews with participants on how they associate value, meaning and recognise themselves as active epistemic subjects in relation to the project. Despite that the formation of an epistemic culture are beyond the influence and control of project owners, findings show a strong relation between participants’ knowledge of local history, and personal and emotional ties to archival content, for achieving high quality in AI-transcriptions.

Implementation of Archives Digitalization through Belajar.id Account in Improving Data Organization

The purpose writing this article is to understand the process of structuring digitized data at SDN 8 Rambang, due to archive services conventional which is ineffective and we are trying to change to a digital archive service. Due to the preservation of archives in the current era of Society 5.0 leads to how the public can access archival information that is capable of implementing technology in it. Archive arrangement includes several types of archives including textual, audio and audio-visual archives. The process of moving current archive contents saving it in different media, takes place continuously from old media to new media. Both documents and archives that are in digital format or still analog. Document digitization/archives are a process of change from conventional ones in various styles and forms to electronic archives.

Finding the American Revolution in France: François-Jean de Chastellux's Private Papers and Beyond

Abstract: With the exception of the renowned Marquis de Lafayette and, to a lesser extent, General Rochambeau and Admiral de Grasse, French soldiers and officers have historically received little attention in the literary of the American War for Independence. This is due to a number of factors, including restricted or closed access to private archival collections in France. This essay will demonstrate that it is possible, under certain conditions, to study personal, unpublished source material of "forgotten" French officers who participated in the American Revolutionary War, thereby providing new opportunities for research into early American history. To demonstrate the historical significance of such materials, this paper will concentrate on the (mainly) unpublished papers of François-Jean de Chastellux (1734-1788), an influential major general who served directly under Rochambeau. The Chastellux family has preserved his private papers for more than 240 years in their Château de Chastellux. This article details the contents of this private archive as well as the history of its creation and preservation. Additionally, the existence of Chastellux's archive raises questions about the possible existence of similar unpublished French archival collections, which may also offer new perspectives on the American Revolutionary War. Furthermore, in the contemporary digital era, families that choose to preserve their records in private archives may now make them digitally accessible to the academic community. This introduces new circumstances and opportunities for the access and translation of previously inaccessible information.

Media Online Archives Require More Attention from Sociologists

Based on pioneering media online archives research, the International Sociological Association’s Code of Ethics, current debates on the right to be forgotten and some anecdotal evidence from Kultura i Społeczeństwo, the article’s author suggests several areas of interest for sociologists as public intellectuals and members of joint industry committees. The role of sociologists and scholars of related disciplines is important from the viewpoint of designing the future of media archives. In a world where unequal online reputation management brings forward the issue of digital and social inequalities, the role of social researchers in designing policies and best practices, and standards of contextualising archival content, may be crucial. They could mediate between the interests of publishers, audiences and regulators in regard to social values and the progress of civilisation.

DAYS AT DUNROVIN: ANALYSIS OF FIELD NOTES FROM AN ONLINE NATURE-BASED INTERVENTION FOR OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Implementing novel interventions for older adults is often challenging, and understanding processes is as important as evaluating outcomes. Days at Dunrovin (D@D) is an online program providing virtual access to a Montana ranch. While originally designed as an individual activity, researchers converted D@D into a group activity for older adults. In this presentation, researchers present an analysis of field notes from 65 group sessions (n = 65) in an assisted living community. Results are organized using the first four elements of the RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance). Reach (i.e., participation) depended on encouraging participation and transporting residents to activity areas – often time-consuming, and diminished by limited resources. Effectiveness (preliminary) was evidenced by participant engagement with the activity, and by staff and family observations of participants’ affect and behavior. Laugher, conversations, and reminiscence were consistently observed. Adoption, the level of facility acceptance, was mixed as some staff welcomed the new activity while others found it difficult to support while attending to regular work. Implementation depended on many factors, including the environment (e.g., room arrangement), time of day, fluctuations in participant well-being, and technological capacities such as broadband width. Most notable was a lightning strike on the D@D cameras that resulted in the temporary use of archival content rather than viewing livestreams. Results suggest the feasibility and potential effectiveness of using nature-based livestream broadcasts as a group activity in assisted living and reveal the invaluable role field notes play in understanding implementation and evaluating interventions in applied research.

Diplomatic archives: the Polish segment (1918–1991) in the Ukrainian archives

The purpose of the article is to comprehend the essence of the concept of “diplomatic archive” and to review documents, which were created in the activities of Polish diplomatic and consular institutions and/or are related to the development of Polish-Ukrainian interstate relations, preserved in state archives in Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, determinism, and special scientific methods of scientific heuristics, information analysis, and source criticism. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by a comprehensive analysis of the composition and content of the Polish segment in “the Ukrainian diplomatic archive” – documents generated in the activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates in UNR/UkrSSR and materials on surveillance of Polish diplomats in the UkrSSR during 1918–1991. Conclusions. The Polish segment in the Ukrainian diplomatic archive is not a complete set. These are documents related to contacts of the Polish mission with the authorities and institutions of the host country: drafts and texts of treaties and conventions; authorization documents of the heads of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates; official correspondence of the highest state level; documents generated in the course of activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates in the host country; documents related to the implementation of consular functions; audiovisual documents; materials of special services’ supervision and materials of party control over the activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates. It seems important to create a common archival and information base on the composition and content of Polish and Ukrainian diplomatic archives.

Diplomatic archives: the Polish segment (1918–1991) in the Ukrainian archives

The purpose of the article is to comprehend the essence of the concept of “diplomatic archive” and to review documents, which were created in the activities of Polish diplomatic and consular institutions and/or are related to the development of Polish-Ukrainian interstate relations, preserved in state archives in Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, determinism, and special scientific methods of scientific heuristics, information analysis, and source criticism. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by a comprehensive analysis of the composition and content of the Polish segment in “the Ukrainian diplomatic archive” – documents generated in the activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates in UNR/UkrSSR and materials on surveillance of Polish diplomats in the UkrSSR during 1918–1991. Conclusions. The Polish segment in the Ukrainian diplomatic archive is not a complete set. These are documents related to contacts of the Polish mission with the authorities and institutions of the host country: drafts and texts of treaties and conventions; authorization documents of the heads of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates; official correspondence of the highest state level; documents generated in the course of activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates in the host country; documents related to the implementation of consular functions; audiovisual documents; materials of special services’ supervision and materials of party control over the activities of Polish diplomatic missions and consulates. It seems important to create a common archival and information base on the composition and content of Polish and Ukrainian diplomatic archives.

Performing an Archive: Aims, Interests, Ideologies and Expectations

Public archives are repositories of human memory and history, which collect, preserve, and provide access to the records and documents creating a bridge between the past, present, and future. Archives are dynamic structures that can be interpreted as knowledge hubs, with channels of information flowing in them, activities performed within the “black box” of the institution invisible for outsiders, and channels to disseminate information for groups that they serve. These channels develop and are designed under the impact of several factors. In this article we present six factors that have shaped the development and functioning of the Estonian Folklore Archives. We first illustrate the impact of these factors, browsing through the historical periods of Estonian folkloristics. Successively, the articles of the current volume on various aspects of tradition archives are introduced and presented within the framework of the hub conception, and the relevant impact factors are highlighted. The article demonstrates that ideological framework, public expectations, institutional status, research paradigms, individual incentives of the people in charge, and (developments in) technological equipment constantly shape the content and operation of tradition archives in various time periods and circumstances.

APPRAISAL OF POTENTIAL DIGITAL ARCHIVAL CONTENT

The appraisal is a set of critical processes and skills in records management and archival practice. It is not an elementary operation; thus, to some archival writers, it belongs to the background of archivists' work. On the other hand, other archivists consider appraisal a critical archival process. This paper thematises the value of digital archival materials. The author starts with a reflection of value and appraisal and a literature review. Then, the author examines various digital archival content and their value in archives and repositories with distinctive missions. After that, the author reduces the catalogue of values that governs appraisal operations and analyses the notion of the value of digital content. Finally, the paper provides essential guidance for applying consistent appraisal criteria on potential digital archival content.

Identification of social scientifically relevant topics in an interview repository: a natural language processing experiment

PurposeThe present study is about generating metadata to enhance thematic transparency and facilitate research on interview collections at the Research Documentation Centre, Centre for Social Sciences (TK KDK) in Budapest. It explores the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in producing, managing and processing social science data and its potential to generate useful metadata to describe the contents of such archives on a large scale.Design/methodology/approachThe authors combined manual and automated/semi-automated methods of metadata development and curation. The authors developed a suitable domain-oriented taxonomy to classify a large text corpus of semi-structured interviews. To this end, the authors adapted the European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST) to produce a concise, hierarchical structure of topics relevant in social sciences. The authors identified and tested the most promising natural language processing (NLP) tools supporting the Hungarian language. The results of manual and machine coding will be presented in a user interface.FindingsThe study describes how an international social scientific taxonomy can be adapted to a specific local setting and tailored to be used by automated NLP tools. The authors show the potential and limitations of existing and new NLP methods for thematic assignment. The current possibilities of multi-label classification in social scientific metadata assignment are discussed, i.e. the problem of automated selection of relevant labels from a large pool.Originality/valueInterview materials have not yet been used for building manually annotated training datasets for automated indexing of scientifically relevant topics in a data repository. Comparing various automated-indexing methods, this study shows a possible implementation of a researcher tool supporting custom visualizations and the faceted search of interview collections.

Western Sudanese marginalization, coups in Khartoum and the structural legacies of colonial military divide and rule, 1924-present

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the long-term history underpinning the tension between the “national” army and provincial “militias” that led to the outbreak of conflict in Sudan in April 2023. Sudan’s British colonizers created the distinction between what would later become a professional military in the northern region of the country, and what were deemed as “tribal”, irregular and ethnically defined forces elsewhere. The aspiring revolutionaries of the post-independence era hoped they could use the military as a short-cut to social change and modernization that would sweep away the neo-tribal system of “Native Administration” imposed by the British, but by aligning themselves to an unreformed colonial army and economic system, found that they forced violent reactions in marginalized regions. The reactions included Western Sudanese involvement in attempts to change the regime in Khartoum by force in 1971, 1975, 1976, and 2008, which this paper documents. These crises exposed the broader tensions within Sudanese nationalism, based as it was on the ideal of synergy between military and people. The paper draws on a wide range of Arabic and English sources, including newspapers and archival content.

Power in University Archives: Imperialism and Disparities in Nigeria and the United States

This article examines the structural disparities between the archives at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and Michigan State University (MSU). While Nigerian archivists work to preserve their institutions’ local content, they must contend with cultural and infrastructural constraints foreign to their American counterparts. To elucidate these differences, this analysis builds upon Stoler’s ‘archival turn’ framework which shifts the gaze on archives to consider them as subjects of inquiry rather than mere sources of data. Reflecting on my own experience working with physical archives at UNN and MSU, along with digital artifacts from these institutions’ websites, I analyze the contents and accessibility of hardcopy and digital collections at both universities. In conclusion, I argue that the ongoing and uneven footprint of imperialism, both socio-cultural and infrastructural, results in an unequal distribution of Trouillot's ‘archival power’ amongst global institutions like UNN and MSU. Additionally, I highlight means by which some Nigerian scholars have contested imperialism to reclaim ownership over their own archival contents and narratives.