Custodial History Research Articles

Pioneers in Maltese archives and libraries: people, contexts and institutions in 20th-century Malta

ABSTRACT This contribution shares the first findings and methodological approaches emerging from a research project aiming at exploring how 20th-century archives and libraries in Malta were perceived and in turn shaped by people who engaged and dedicated their lives to their mission. The project also intends to reconstruct the early embryonic development of the profession in Malta, provide a better understanding of the custodial history of archival and library collections on the island, and contribute to the recent local development of university-level archival and library education. To retrace the steps of this pathway through the lens of the changes that are currently happening in Maltese holding institutions, extensive archival research and semi-structured interviews are held in collaboration with the community archive project Memorja (National Archives of Malta). The project will also lay the foundations to trace back the history of Maltese archives and libraries through the 19th century.

On the trail of the Willmott and Braikenridge manuscripts

Abstract The Willmott and Braikenridge manuscripts, once owned by the Norwich merchant John Sadler (d.1592), are all that is known to survive from his second partbook set, dated 1591. This article explores the custodial history of those volumes, tracing their various later owners and the marks they left. It finds that the two surviving volumes may have been apart since 1709—a separation that persisted until they were reunited in 2022—and also that the set’s three missing partbooks may have been lost only since 1885, raising hopes that they may one day be found.

Historical Collections and Library Catalogs: Provenance Metadata, Bibliographic Standards and Frameworks, and Catalog Functionalities

ABSTRACT The article discusses the importance of custodial history metadata in bibliographic standards, formats and frameworks, and in library catalogs. It analyzes the present situation and proposes some basic solutions that would make it possible for the custodial history metadata to be entered in a standardized way and to be functionally linked to the holdings metadata so that catalog users would be able to search and retrieve information on the most relevant copies in terms of their provenance. Visual simulations of various functionalities based on the search and results display interface of the Slovenian National Library’s catalog are also included.

The Custodial History of the Sadler Partbooks (Oxford, Bodleian Library MSS Mus. e. 1–5)

ABSTRACT The Sadler partbooks (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Mus. e. 1–5), one of the most important English polyphonic sources to survive from the sixteenth century, reflect the interventions of several generations of later owners. Today the volumes bear a number of marks that were clearly not coeval with their copying in the sixteenth century; they have also been subjected to at least one rebinding, and some leaves are in a disrupted position, hitherto unobserved (and still misplaced). This article seeks to account for the custodial history of the Sadler partbooks, and to chart the bearing that their later owners have had on the partbooks’ present state. Apart from showing that the books travelled widely—they can be traced in Norwich, London, Bath, Bristol, Manchester, and eventually Oxford—it also shows that the partbooks came to the brink of destruction in the hands of one former owner, surviving fire, flood, and theft.

Inscripts and Ownership Stamps in A. I. Klibanov’s Book Collection of SPSTL SB RAS

The article investigates insufficiently researched issues related to A. I. Klibanov’s book collection. The review of the detected autographs, exlibris and ownership stamps provides an opportunity to determine custodial history of books from both state libraries and personal collections, as well as to reveal unique information about relationships and cooperation between medieval scholars in the second half of the 20th century. The dedicatory inscriptions on the books differ in their length and originality; therefore, their significance as a source is directly proportional to how close a sender and a receiver were. Identification and description of bookplates and stamps in the study of the “Klibanovskaya” collection, still unknown from available reference books, will help in the study of other memorial book collections where such provenance marks can be found. The article also details the features of the formation of the foreign part of the A. I. Klibanov’s book collection. The foreign part of the memorial book collection, which is relatively small compared with the entire collection, can be divided into several thematic blocks: books with autographs donated by researchers dealing with similar scientific problems as the owner of the collection; multi-temporal books on historical and religious subjects, acquired by the owner; instances not related to the previous two blocks. The article identifies, systematizes and describes the inscriptions and ownership marks on the books of the collection of A. I. Klibanov.

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Darkness, Datafication, and Provenance as an Illuminating Methodology

Darkness, Datafication, and Provenance as an Illuminating Methodology

A prospective cohort study of risk behaviours, retention and loss to follow-up over 5 years among women and men in a needle exchange program in Stockholm, Sweden

BackgroundNeedle exchange programs (NEP) are important in reducing risk behaviours among people who inject drugs (PWID), also exposed to HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) through injecting drug use (IDU). Women (WWID) compared to men who inject drugs (MWID), are particularly vulnerable with complex needs, however less is known about their risk determinants and NEP outcomes. MethodsIn an open prospective NEP cohort, 697 WWID and 2122 MWID were followed, 2013–2018. Self-reported socio/drug-related determinants for receptive injection (needle/syringe and paraphernalia) and sexual risk behaviours at enrolment, lost to follow-up (LTFU) and probability of retention, were assessed for both groups. Multivariable logistic regression (adjusted odds ratios, aOR) for enrolment and Poisson regression (adjusted incidence rate ratios, aIRR) for LTFU, were used. Cumulative NEP-retention probability was analysed using a six- and 12-month scenario. ResultsAt NEP enrolment, injection risk behaviours among WWID were associated with: younger age; homelessness; amphetamine-IDU; non-participation in opioid substitution therapy (OST); history of custody and among MWID: lower education level; cohabitation; homelessness, being a tenant; amphetamine-IDU; non-participation in OST; history of being sectioned, HIV-negative and HCV-positive. Condomless sex among WWID was associated with: younger age; lower education-level; cohabitation; having a partner; amphetamine-IDU; non-participation in OST; being HIV-negative and HCV-positive and among MWID: younger age; married; cohabitation; having a partner; amphetamine-IDU; non-participation in OST; history of custody, prison and being HIV-negative. WWID had higher NEP-retention levels compared to MWID over time. Being LTFU among WWID was associated with being HIV-negative and reporting injection risk behaviours and among MWID, younger age, non-participation in OST, being HIV-negative and having protected sex. ConclusionsDespite better NEP compliance among WWID, high injection and sexual risk behaviours in both gender-subgroups, especially in intimate relationships, suggests ongoing HCV and HIV-infection risks. Subgroup-variation in the NEP continuum of care warrants more gender-disaggregated research and tailoring gender-sensitive services may improve prevention, health and retention outcomes.

Resurrecting Images from the Morgue: A Case Study of the London Free Press Collection of Photographic Negatives

This paper is a case study of the ongoing transformation of the London Free Press Collection of Photographic Negatives from a physical archive to a digital one. This Collection is a typical medium-sized newspaper photographic negative morgue dating between 1938 and 1992. These morgues possess enormous value as visual evidence of the development of communities, and society in general. The London Free Press serves a market of around a million people in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The Collection’s current custodian, the University of Western Ontario Archives and Special Collections, is in the process of transforming it from a purely physical entity to a digital resource of great research potential. To place the case study in a broader context, the author reviews some of the recent literature on the topic of newspaper photograph morgues. He then delves into a detailed description of the custodial history of the Collection as well as details about current collection management issues, including metadata and digitization. The author concludes that the digitized body of tens of thousands of unique images will be more than enough to satisfy many visual researchers and could form part of a North American digital photojournalism archive of immense historical value.

Coexisting violence and self‐harm: Dual harm in an early‐stage male prison population

PurposeThis study examined the characteristics of men in prison who have a history of both self‐harm and violence (known as dual harm) and the extent to which demographic and criminogenic factors, in‐prison incidents, and self‐harm method could differentiate men who dual harm.MethodsOfficial prison sample data were examined for the period April 2010 to November 2017 (n = 965). Regression analysis of all custodial incidents, demographic and offending information, and imprisonment experience, was undertaken.ResultsSelf‐harm was associated with violence in prison, representing a 3.5‐fold risk of violence compared with men who did not self‐harm, after controlling for time in prison, age, and index offence. 60% of men who harmed themselves also engaged in custodial violence, while 32% who were violent also had a self‐harm event. After controlling for age at first incident, 11% of the sample had custodial history of dual harm and they accounted for 56% of all recorded custodial incidents. They had a high probability of property damage and fire setting in prison and spent 40% longer in custody. Men who dual harmed used a greater variety of self‐harm methods, with increased use of lethal methods.ConclusionDual harm is prevalent, particularly among those who harm themselves in prison. Men who dual harm contribute excessively to the overall incident burden in prison and demonstrate behavioural variability and risk regarding both violence and self‐harm. The findings challenge the usual distinctive management responses or that self‐harm or violence is solely the responsibility of health or justice, with greater integration required.

O Arquivo Almada e Lencastre Bastos: um arquivo de família(s)

O artigo apresenta o arquivo Almada e Lencastre Bastos, hoje à guarda da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, o qual foi objeto de uma primeira apresentação e inventariação em artigo publicado em 2012. Após um exaustivo trabalho de inventariação, reescreve-se a sua história custodial e apresentam-se alguns documentos que mostram a riqueza do acervo e a sua importância para o estudo da história medieval e moderna portuguesa.

FROM ARCHAE TO ARCHIVES

Acknowledgments of debt, made to the Jews of England between 1194 and 1290, have long been known to historians. The two largest collections of acknowledgements, stored in the Westminster Abbey Muniments and The National Archives, have been utilised in very different ways. There is no substantive difference in the nature of the records themselves and, as such, it is to the archival history of these documents that one must look in order to account for that discrepancy. Thus, this paper is concerned with establishing the custodial history of the acknowledgements and determining the impact that this has had upon their use. Equally, it uses this later history in order to cast new light upon the origins of the documents.

A Field of Care: The National Vimy Memorial and the Commemoration of Missing Canadian Great War Servicemen in France

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, designed by Walter Allward and erected through the auspices of the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission, was unveiled in 1936. The memorial, in addition, stands as the commemorative register of the 11 285 Canadian Great War servicemen in France with unknown graves, commonly called the missing. This article, drawing upon the insights of cultural geographer Kenneth E. Foote, posits that the memorial and its surrounds, post-unveiling, exists as a so-called field of care, namely, a sanctified site that has been ceremonially consecrated, boasts a steady custodial history, and remains an active venue for commemorative events, amongst other considerations. It equally traces the trajectory of the memorial's creation from conception to completion, emphasizing the processes — political, procedural, and practical — that abounded in compiling and engraving the names of the missing servicemen upon the memorial.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Papers of the Harmony Society:

ABSTRACT Among archivists and manuscript collectors, the term “replevin” commonly describes efforts by government archives to recover public records that are in private hands. At times, such efforts can provoke friction, raising questions about the line between public and private property rights. This article chronicles an atypical replevin case in Pennsylvania, one that focuses on the struggles over the ownership of papers of a private origin, but which became government property with their transfer to the Commonwealth in 1937. This is a custodial history of a collection of papers documenting the Harmony Society, a religious separatist society once located in western Pennsylvania and in southwest Indiana. It is a story that involves a former Harmonist, a scholar, misplaced trust, and recovery that highlights the complex psychology of ownership.

Where Narratives Meet: Archival Description, Provenance, and Women's Diaries

Women’s diaries have been a rich source of information for historians and other scholars because they contain details of everyday life in different times and places that may otherwise have gone unrecorded. This article addresses the common archival description of diaries and discusses the richer portrayals frequently provided by academics in other disciplines. Aspects of a diary’s provenance that non-archival writers often address but that are rarely mentioned in archival descriptions are the diarist’s motivation for writing, the intended audience, and the implications of the diary’s custodial history and representation. The article concludes with suggestions for improving archival description of diaries and other personal records. In archival description archivists tell stories about stories; they tell stories with stories. —Wendy M. Duff and Verne Harris, “Stories and Names” 1 Diaries are a particularly valuable and intriguing if troublesome genre of personal record. Traditional archival description forms a very narrow basis for understanding these records because of the myriad forms diaries can take and roles they can play in their creators’ lives. An examination of how diaries are described by academics in other disciplines, where they have been the subject of much more extensive theorizing, reveals a number of characteristics that are considered crucial to understanding and interpreting these records, characteristics upon which archivists rarely touch. The diarist’s motivation for writing, the intended audience, the implications of the diary’s custodial history, and the role of the archivist in the diary’s representation all form part of its provenance as it has been reconceptualized by postmodern archival theorists. To illustrate the importance of a fuller understanding of a diary’s provenance, this article refers to three women’s diaries held by the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA) and the Archives of Manitoba that were written in very different places and times and differ greatly

A Holistic Approach for Establishing Content Authenticity and Maintaining Content Integrity in a Large OAIS Repository

This paper describes a holistic approach for establishing content authenticity and maintaining content integrity in a large OAIS repository. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is developing the Federal Digital System (FDsys), a digital archive to provide permanent public access to United States federal government publications. FDsys is being designed based on the OAIS reference model, which incorporates many archiving best practices and increases the chance for developing a successful archive that will protect and preserve content over time.A cornerstone of any successful preservation system is a solid authentication strategy. GPO disseminates official United States federal government publications across the nation and around the world. Since 1861 users have looked to GPO as a trusted source for federal legal and regulatory information. This historic trust relationship increases the importance for GPO to establish content authenticity and maintain content integrity as it transitions from a publication-based print environment to a content-centric digital environment.Defining, evaluating, and expressing content authenticity is essential for a successful authentication strategy. GPO defines authentic content as content that is verified by GPO to be complete and unaltered when compared to the version approved or published by a content originator such as Congress or a federal agency. Content will flow into FDsys in three distinct streams: deposited in digital format, converted from tangible media, and harvested from digital sources. Each avenue presents a unique challenge to evaluating authenticity and expressing chain of custody information (i.e., custodial history) for that content. Deposited content is submitted by a federal agency. In order to establish content authenticity at the time of submission GPO requires authentication of users including personal identity, corporate identity, and authorization to publish official federal government publications on behalf of their agency. Converted content presents a unique situation in that information must be recorded about the original hard copy publication and associated digitization processes. Establishing content authenticity for harvested content is often challenging because little information is available about the content creation process, and an expression of authenticity information may only indicate that the content was harvested from an official source.Once content has been ingested into FDsys, the system maintains content integrity by providing assurance that content has not been changed in an unauthorized manner. GPO will use a multi-faceted strategy to provide this assurance including deploying a robust content management system, interrogating hashed content on a regular basis in order to detect changes, and applying digital signatures to PDF files that are delivered to public users.

Custodial History, Provenance, and the Description of Personal Records

This article takes as its main case study the custodial and archival history of the papers of Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608–66). Like many personal papers, they have had many adventures, and it is difficult to give an adequate account of their complex provenance using conventional approaches to archival description. In describing such papers archivists need to reinterpret traditional distinctions between fonds and collections. Instead of envisaging a simple binary division between "organic" fonds and "artificial" collections, they should interpret the fonds as a grouping determined by context of creation and the collection as a grouping determined by custodianship. A fonds may sometimes be reified as a single collection but is often distributed across multiple collections. Both creation contexts and collection histories inform knowledge and understanding of archives.

Passive keepers or active shapers: a comparative case study of four archival practitioners at the end of the nineteenth century

This paper takes up Terry Cook’s idea that through their work, archivists are active shapers rather than passive keepers. In taking this idea further, this paper discusses a case study comparing the custodial history of two archival groups of East India Companies’ archives, the VOC and EIC Archives, during the second half of the nineteenth century, and how archival practitioners influenced their arrangement and description. Consideration is given on how archival practice (good and bad) and professional discussion contributed to the understanding of the importance of provenance and original order and the need for sound methodology for analysis of the records to precede arrangement and descriptions. The work undertaken by the archivists on the VOC Archives in the Netherlands in particular, took place at a time during the development of the landmark archival standard (The 1898 Dutch Manual). This study looks at how the arrangement of the VOC and EIC Archives reflects these contemporary theoretical discussions. The VOC Archives in the Netherlands were one of the first archival groups of business records to be arranged using the 1898 Dutch Manual’s advice. At the same time, in England, those working on the EIC Archives in London understood the importance of custodial history and its influence on the arrangement of the EIC Archives. Through an analysis of the work of those involved in the arrangement and description of the VOC and EIC Archives, this paper argues that it is possible to see the emergence of fundamental archival principles such as the difference between physical arrangement and intellectual control, and the development of these ideas derived from discussions during the writing of the 1898 Dutch Manual and their translation into archival practice.

‘Motheaten, Mouldye, and Rotten’: The Early Custodial History and Dissemination of John Leland’s Manuscript Remains

‘Motheaten, Mouldye, and Rotten’: The Early Custodial History and Dissemination of John Leland’s Manuscript Remains

Homicídios entre adolescentes no Sul do Brasil: situações de vulnerabilidade segundo seus familiares

This study focused on homicide deaths of adolescents (ages 10 to 19 years) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 1997. Data were obtained from the Mortality Information System (SIM) of the Municipal Health Department. Families were visited at the addresses found on death certificates and were interviewed by two researchers. Of the 68 cases selected, 57 families were visited; eight families refused to be interviewed, and three addresses were not found. Most of the adolescents were socially vulnerable, as indicated by low per capita income and parental educational level; 78.9% had dropped out of school. Males were the predominant victims of adolescent homicide deaths (91.2%). Behavioral vulnerability was demonstrated as follows: 40.4% of the adolescents consumed alcoholic beverages and 45.6% illicit drugs, and 58.6% had criminal records or a history of custody at FEBEM (the State Juvenile Custody Facilities) or police arrests. The study highlights the importance of coordinating actions among different sectors to reach adolescents both at home and in the schools and communities.