The Questing Archivist

ARA Conference 2011 missed

2011-12-07T11:28:00.001-08:00

I missed the conference this year (it's hard to justify training when your employer is firing people and the general mood at the office is low). From the reports of colleagues and friends, and the predictably favourable write up it got in the ARA magazine, it was a good event. I could probably have done with attending - I admit I have a problem with advocacy. Mainly, I just can't understand why everyone doesn't instantly grasp the importance of what we do and throw resources and money at us while simultaneously shaking our hands and buying us drinks. It's mind boggling. Clearly I live in a place far from reality.

When I look at the current frustrations in my job (or, from a different perspective, the frustrations in my current job), advocacy could help. How to convince other departments in the organisation that they should support the archival endeavour? Particularly when: a) the budget is tight and we do not tick any boxes in the company strategy (and I work in a library!); and b) I am low down the hierarchy of power and my voice is correspondingly heard only as a slight murmur on the breeze.

I like to moan as much as anyone. Perhaps more. I'm developing a pessimistic streak. Unfortunately, experience has taught me that this produces zero positive outcomes (unless I do the moaning over several pints of beer and count inebriation as an outcome). Perhaps the conference would have provided a space for me to moan, drink and be encouraged by fellow archivists and conservators. I am sorry I missed it.

Experiencing history on-line

2011-08-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Over a month ago the Guardian published this piece by Tristram Hunt on using on-line sources for historical research. The author seems to conflate access and interpretation, and to be in thrall to a concept of history as a truth that can be comprehended only through physical contact with the documentary evidence. What tosh. At the time I rolled my eyes and got on with life.

But Hunt’s article highlights assumptions about, and attitudes to, on-line resources that impact my everyday working life. Digital collections, catalogues and other on-line resources (such as transcriptions and translations) often suffer unfavourable comparison with their original counterparts. This is unfair. Worse, it is proof that those of us involved in creating and providing access to digital resources are failing to communicate with our users. Worse still, it shows that misconceptions regarding research and resources persist, in defiance of common sense and the positive attitude that should develop from actual use of these resources.

Here are some of them:

1. That digital resources offer a short-cut, and that this is a bad thing

Digital resources do offer short-cuts. On-line catalogues, digital collections, transcriptions/translations, OCR, etc all help reduce the time needed to identify and access useful material. I cannot really conceive of the argument that says this is a bad thing. Perhaps I am misinterpreting the issue. Hunt writes: “…historians are very keen on short cuts for interpreting the past” (my italics). This brings me to a second misconception….

2. That in the past historians did proper research but today’s generation don’t put in the effort

Accessing historical sources is not the same as interpreting them. This holds true for hard copy originals and their surrogate digital versions. Lazy or inadequate research is not caused, or encouraged, by new technologies. It is caused by lazy and inadequate researchers.

3. That digitisation eliminates impenetrable prose

Digitisation does not alter the content of a record. Granted that transcripts help with deciphering difficult hand writing, but if the meaning of the text being studied is hard to penetrate, this characteristic of the author’s style does not disappear by being rendered into digital form.

4. That those responsible for creating digital surrogates of original material do not understand about the integrity of the record

There is a belief that digital surrogates can never really stand in for the originals because something inherent in the physical object and essential for it’s proper understanding will be lost. This attitude is disturbing; see points five and six below. I think it is fuelled by an assumption that those creating digital copies do not understand records and will somehow ‘get it wrong’ – that we will not copy the covers or miss out the detail in the binding or not display the pages the right way up. This is crazy and insulting.

5. That history is a magical place and that this can be lost

Hunt writes that “when everything is downloadable, the mystery of history can be lost”. This is a lunatic statement. History can be unknown, open to interpretation, debated and discussed. It can be thrilling, exciting, sad, confusing and amusing. Above all, it can be discovered. But I think what Hunt is actually advocating here is a concept of history as something hard to attain. If anyone can just download copies of original documents, what happens to the excitement and adventure of discovery? It is no longer a quest. When history, and the raw ingredients of it, are experienced without the dust, is it really worthwhile? This question is irrational. Although the “wow” factor of holding original items exists, the excitement of discovery is not less when it happens online.

6. That the mystery of history is found only in objects and not text/meaning

Hunt writes: “it is only with MS in hand that the real meaning of the text becomes apparent”. There is something special about holding original documents but the meaning of the words is no different whether you read the original or a copy. This assumption implies a miraculous transference of meaning from the object to the holder not available outside of the sanctum of the holding repository.

7. That serendipity does not exist in the digital world

Proponents of this argument say that, in the physical world fortunate discoveries are found either through a reference in a catalogue (usually a card index) or hidden in a bundle of papers. Neither of these opportunities for discovery disappears simply because the catalogue is in a database and the bundle has been turned into a pdf document.

UK Archives Discovery Forum 2011

2011-03-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I attended the UK Archives Discovery Forum 2011, held at The National Archives. What can I say? The presentations were interesting and relevant, if not strictly to my current position then to how I'm thinking about archival work in general; and the atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. I caught up with friends and former colleagues, which is always a bonus at these events, even though it's kind of to be expected. My compliments to the organisers.

Learning for the heck of it

2010-11-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

Holly Fairhall posted a link to a youtube video of Stewart Lee eloquently explaining why university places and the arts should be government funded and the narrow minded thinking that motivates the decision makers. I haven't re-posted the link. You can access it on Holly's blog.

Lee's main point revolves around the belief that knowledge, learning and creativity are valuable for their own sake. He fears that the prospect of massive student debt will create a generation of people who appreciate education only for its money-making potential. Whether this is being done deliberately to rid most of Britain (all except Scotland) of independent thought or not, this is a chilling prospect. Personally, I love learning. Professionally, I need people who love to learn adn who appreciate the value of archives and of archivists. What will we do if people aren't encouraged to be interested in the world they live in?

Access and Accessibility

2010-11-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

As a digital archivist I'm responsible for a lot of digital stuff. Records that I need to make available to the public. Preferably, this will happen in an on-line situation where multiple users can view the material from anywhere in the world. But “access”, it seems, is an ambiguous term. What do we aim to achieve when we set out to provide access? Are providing access and making our material accessible the same thing? I don't think so.

It's clear that access can be narrowly defined as "getting the stuff", whereas accessibility incorporates so much more. In order to make our collections accessible, we need to provide archival descriptions. That is, we must supply the means by which the records can be understood and appreciated in ways that allow users to make meaningful use of them. This is kind of a “well, duh” statement, and I was pleased to note that ISAD(G) clearly states that: “The purpose of archival description is to identify and explain the context and content of archival material in order to promote its accessibility.” Making records easily available (physically or electronically) is not the same as making them accessible.

RAD unpacks this a little by stating that archival description serves three specific aims: to provide access via retrievable descriptions; to promote understanding by documenting the content, context and structure of records; and to provide information relevant to establishing the authenticity of the records. I like these very much. Further on, RAD states that: “to ensure effective access to archival material, decisions related to description and the choice of access points should reflect the archivist’s obligation to all users.” This is great. An “all-user” focus demands that we think of different users – in-house, academic, genies, etc – and how we can meet all of their information needs.

DACS has a slightly different approach. For DACS the main purpose of archival description is “the creation of access tools that assist users in discovering desired records.” The foremost access tools DACS refers to are catalogues and inventories. So for DACS, archival descriptions lead to the creation of finding aids. This explanation of A&D emphasises discoverability and does not mention making the records understandable or meaningful to users. The rest of this section discusses different access points and how to incorporate them into your descriptions.

And what does all of this mean? It explains why providing access to the digital material is not enough. It also emphasises the importance of archival descriptions to the concept of access. Without context there is no understanding, and without understanding there is no meanngful use.

Busy doing this

2010-10-22T10:38:00.001-07:00

This afternoon was Friday afternoon. As a treat to myself I put aside the pressures of work and challenges of being an archivist and went to Holly Fairhall's blog. After appearing so suddenly, and attracting so much interest, My Archiving Hell deserves to be read, followed and admired. It's also nice that the discussion regarding the current job market is taking place not only on the listserv, but also on the Society of New Archivists facebook page and people's personal blogs.

I also found, through the 'comments', other blogs that I can explore. We need more Friday afternoons!

Commenting on the Conference

2010-09-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Doh, the link provided in my last post to the Conference blog doesn't work. Thanks Carrie Schmidt for pointing this out. Here's another attempt: Conference blog.

Thanks also to John Chambers for noting that the conference pages on the SoA site are no longer restricted. They're here. It did seem un-like the Society/Association to shut off these pages.

Archives and Records Association Conference 2010

2010-09-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

I am somewhat ambivalent in my response to the Conference this year. Some of the talks were worthy of note, namely Terry Cook’s Keynote Address and Sarah Wickham’s paper. Most of the other presentations I found, in general, to be interesting. It was good to hear the “this is what I do and how I do it” sort of paper. But I was not particularly challenged or inspired or encouraged, nor did I learn anything.

My notes are few. For what it’s worth, here are five thoughts:

In his opening address “Missing Piece or First Responsibility: Archival Appraisal Past, Present and Future” Terry Cook noted that appraisal is the first and most important archival task from which all others flow. We can debate this, but in the end I think it’s a pretty valid truth.

Chris Pickford, in his presentation on “Appraisal Issues: Local Authority deposited building plans” noted that appraisal is one area of our work where we truly are a profession because it involves a professional opinion.

Karl Magee’s presentation on “Embracing the archival muse: finding art in the archives” was really great. Very interesting.

Louise Ray tried to challenge us with finding a definition, or definitions, of a ‘Living Archive’. Her presentation “The ‘Living Archive’: myth, reality or aspiration?” was the only truly thought-provoking part of the conference and did gain some thoughtful points from the audience (although I suspect not as many as Ms Ray had hoped for).

Martin Astell from the Essex Record Office played some audio material as part of his presentation “’Not Just Oral History, in Fact Not Just History’: The Acquisition of Sound Archives in Specialist and Non-Specialist Repositories”. It is always a pleasure to hear Mr Astell talk about his work and the sound collections in Essex.

On a final note, I was disheartened to see that the Conference Pages on the Society/ARA webpages are restricted to members only. I understand why presenter’s papers and PowerPoint slides may be restricted, for a short period, but surely some of this information can be opened to the public. The Programme? How do we encourage debate and inspire/attract others if we’re precious with our information?

The Conference blog is, as it was last year, a disappointment. Only four posts! And these didn’t make it past the Keynote Address. Sometimes it appears that, as a profession, we’re not engaging with this new social media technology at all.

Archives conference 2010

2010-08-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Next week I’m going to the Archives conference in Manchester. The theme- we are what we keep - is somewhat provocative. The schedule has some interesting topics and I’m pleased to see there’s a heavy dose of digitally-themed talks. As with last year, it should be a welcome chance to stay in nice accommodation.

Launch of the Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland

2010-07-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Although I'm almost a week late, I'd like to join others in celebrating the launch of the newly formed Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland, which came into existence on 1 July 2010. With a remit to promote archives and records, archive and record users and record keeping professionals, I hope they are spectacularly successful.

Wikipedia dosses at the British Museum

2010-07-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

This guy, Liam Wyatt, from Australia is camping out at the British Museum as a Wikipedian in Residence. As a volunteer. What an amazingly good idea this is. Apparenlty lots of good wikipedia articles have already sprung into being as a result.

A toast to archives

2010-06-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

It's International Archives Day 2010. Again we in the profession have an opportunity to promote the use and appreciation of archives within our own countries. The ICA hopes that local celebrations will foster international solidarity among those responsible for the care of archives and their users. I also hope this happens. Archives are one area where the similarities between people of all nations anywhere, and anytime, can be highlighted. At a time when economic troubles are causing us to look internally it's important to remember the wider world stage upon which we live and work and to which our profession contributes.

If the Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) is planning anything I've missed it.

The time shortage continues

2010-04-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

It is so frustrating not having the time to blog. This brief post is just to note that I’m as upset as everyone else that Kings College has axed the palaeography chair, and with it the talented, irreplaceable, David Ganz. What were they thinking? Crazy thoughts. I’m also interested in the recent passing of the Digital Economy Bill. The fact that it was rushed through Parliament, with minimal debate in the Commons, makes me suspicious of just what it contains. I should read it of course. There’s that lack of time thing again.

What am I doing with time?

2010-04-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well it’s a good thing my new years resolutions didn’t include more blogging. What a huge amount of time has passed since January! And why haven’t I posted anything? Because I’ve been busy at work, mainly.

I’ve got a new staff member and it looks like something may actually happen with our digital store. We’ve been counting in terabytes for some time now, so this is good news. It’ll be a relief to move everything off hand held media and onto a backed up system. This will also help with our cataloguing, I hope, as we’ll have to get a handle on everything before it can be uploaded.

Even though I haven’t been posting, I really should check my own site more often. Two people left comments! And here I thought nobody read this site. Yay!

The Kindle comes to the UK

2010-01-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Amazon is going to release the Kindle into the UK. I want one, but they’re a bit pricey. According to the article in printweek.com, the UK version is aimed at “students and newspaper readers [and]…magazine readers” (or are the magazine readers the same people as the students?). Anyway, this is odd.

Surely: (a) students will be reading textbooks not available on their Kindle; (b) students won't have the c. £400 to spend on something they can’t eat or wear; (c) people defined by their magazine and newspaper reading proclivities might feel they wouldn’t get enough use out of such a device, particularly as it won’t include any images, a large and integral part of magazines and newspapers.

More interestingly, there’s an assumption here that the British read periodicals while the Americans are a nation of book lovers. Is this really true?

Did I mention that I want one?

New Year Resolutions 2010

2010-01-05T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm back in London and tomorrow I'm back at work. I spent the past week with friends. We went to north Yorkshire, which was shut due to the bad weather. S0, not a lot of sightseeing done, although we did look at Whitby Abbey over it's high stone wall and walk past the Newcastle Library.

The purpose of this post is to record my NY resolutions. Usually, I have a few of these because I believe in finding ways to improve my experience of life. But this year I haven't found anything that's achievable or realistic. Instead I have these:

1. Do more cataloguing

2. Teach world to sing

3. Become femme fatale

4. Read >50 books (for the LibraryThing Challenge)

5. Campaign for more vegetarian beer and cider in the pubs I visit

6. Try to remember to occasionally use the Twitter account set up many months ago

Cataloguing for Xmas

2009-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

It’s been so long since my last post. This is partly because I have nothing interesting to say, archival or otherwise, and partly because I’ve been busy. Xmas is almost here and my plans for this week have gone awry. I wanted to be cataloguing and instead I’m checking digital files.

Why is there never time to catalogue?

For me, Xmas itself should be quiet and full of food, wine and TV. New Years will be louder. I’m travelling up north where I hope to visit ruined medieval monasteries, read many books and drink much. It's gonna be really cold.

NY resolution #1: do more cataloguing

Ain't technology amazing?

2009-12-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

I have taken a toddling step closer towards the 21st Century. I have used bluetooth technology to move images from my phone into the computer. So, here they are. Images from around London taken over the past year:

Eric Ketelaar giving the 2nd Jenkinsonian Lecture

"authentic Japanese tapas" sign

the amazing Park Chan-wook talking at the London Korean Film Festival

Planned regional closures at the National Archives of Australia

2009-11-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

When TNA announced budget problems earlier this year their coping strategy included limiting opening hours and having dirtier windows (as well as firing people – I don’t want to suggest bad things aren’t happening). The Australians, being on a much larger geographical scale, are responding to budget difficulties by planning to close 3 of their regional offices: Darwin, Adelaide and Hobart. The NAA’s Director-General, Ross Gibbs, put up a statement today on their webpages. In it, he notes that: “The decision to close the Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart offices was based on the knowledge that they could not endure any more budget cuts while still maintaining the high level of service that they are known for.”

This is kind of outrageous. How is no service at all better than one that includes, for example, fewer opening hours and more grime on the glass. It doesn't seem right, in a democratic society, to hinder people's access to government records.

Stories straight to your mobile

2009-11-09T08:54:00.001-08:00

From an article in the Times on the possible demise of storytelling (put up by the American listserv – thanks guys) I discovered Keitai Shosetsu, novels written for, and sent to, the mobile phones of Japanese mobile phone owners, and the Centre for Future Storytelling.

These need further investigation.

Old diaries in blog form

2009-10-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been paying much attention for the past couple of weeks. In general that is. But, I have been avidly reading these two blogs: Voyage of the Vampire and My Diary and my secret.

Quite a few archives are doing this sort of thing, posting old diary entries in real time in blog format. It’s brilliant.

Blog Action Day 2009 - climate change

2009-10-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

The topic for blog action day 2009 is “climate change”. I’ve been thinking about what to write for most of the week and I’m surprised to find that climate change doesn’t strike me as particularly relevant to the archival world. Extreme weather will obviously threaten our buildings and infrastructure. Worst case scenario sees the archive slide away in an earthquake induced mud-slide. Lest worst case sees our air-conditioning bills rise.

Archives will become more important, I think, once the damage is done. After the world has frozen over and then thawed out, or been swallowed by the sea and then re-emerged, whoever remains will be able to trace the growth and effect of climate change on the earth and on human society. Provided we have our collecting policies in order. Post-end-of-the-world researchers will certainly have an advantage over current day climate change researchers. For starters they’ll have a much larger body of documentary records to consult such as science reports on fossil and rock samples, adverts for green light bulbs and washing machines, debates on the causes of climate change, campaign material aimed at limiting the devastating effects on poorer countries, etc. Let’s hope the surviving people can read and that the computer servers etc still work.

Perhaps climate change won't be apocalyptic. In either case, archives and libraries should be accumulating a wide diverstiy of resources related to climate change and to the debate, reaction, controversy, etc that surrounds it.

Visit to Birmingham

2009-10-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday I took annual leave and travelled up to Birmingham to look at the Staffordshire Hoard. We took the coach and then waited in line for almost 3 hours to see the display. Was it worth is? Yes. The items were lovely; such amazingly intricate patterns.

But, we thought Birmingham Museum could’ve stepped up to the plate in better form. Two criticisms: firstly, finances and secondly, crowd movement.

In order to keep the hoard local a lot of money needs to be raised. Yet the museum shop had no Anglo-Saxon themed merchandise. Considering the crowds of people willing to travel long distances and queue for hours it should follow that we’d want to buy a souvenir of this “one off, must do thing to tell your kids about”. I wanted to buy a book and look at the usual Celtic jewellery. My companion expected to take home a cheap mug. What a wasted opportunity to raise funds.

Crowd movement within the display room was also a problem. The items were in a largish room, in short rectangular cases. We thought they let too many of us in at a time. This meant we were 3 or 4 deep around each case and had to wait ages to get near enough to see. We thought the use of long cases would’ve spread us out. Also, if there had been information provided (about the find, about Anglo-Saxon life, etc) say on the walls between the cases, this would also have spread us out, or at least distracted us from the frustration of not being able to see. Arguably this would also have encouraged us to linger, rather than keep moving, but we couldn’t move anyway. Another idea we had was if they provided a staff member at each case to tell us about one or more of the items, after their short speech we’d’ve felt that we’d done that case and there would’ve been a natural progression around to the next case.

After seeing the Hoard a trip to the British Museum was in order, to once more look at the Sutton Hoo exhibit. The sword hilts and bosses are identical to those from Staffordshire. It will be interesting to see what the experts make of this new find.

AfL 2009 conference

2009-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I went to the annual Archives for London conference to hear about London’s history of riots and rebellions. As usual, it was excellent. The speakers were all knowledgeable and engaging. It was the perfect way to spend a miserable, cold English October day.

Mashup mania

2009-10-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Something that came out strongly at the SoA conference this year was the fear and caution with which archivists usually approach digital access of their material via the web. And then the Australians do this – a Mashup competition held by the Government 2.0 taskforce. Unsurprisingly, seeing as Adrian Cunningham is on the taskforce, the National Archives of Australia is participating by making some of their material available. But what? Catalogues? Actual images of historical government records? Other participating archive repositories include the Australian War Memorial, Powerhouse Museum (who also have a member on the taskforce) and State Libraries of both Queensland and New South Wales.

Mashup Australia aims to be a practical demonstration of the benefits of providing easily accessible information created by the Australian government. The ‘About’ section of the site reveals that similar contests have been held in America and the UK. The UK Power of Information Taskforce ran a competition last year called “Show us a better way”. The Taskforce was looking for better ways for public information to be communicated.

US banned book week 2009

2009-10-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

America is currently observing its annual Banned Book Week. As organiser, the ALA has lots of well organised information and links on its website (including the titbit that Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls was declared non-mailable by the U.S. Post Office in 1940). The week allows people the opportunity to reflect on their current freedoms, especially the freedom of expression. I think everybody should do this and feel a little upset that the UK doesn’t have a similar occasion.

While looking through the ALA site I discovered that fighting censorship is part of the US Library Bill of Rights. Two of the six articles in the Bill are directed toward ensuring freedom from censorship:

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfilment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas

Kudos to that.

So I checked out the “10 most frequently challenged books of 2008”. Top of the list (consecutively since 2006) is And Tango Makes Three, a cute looking book about gay penguins. According to the BBC this is based on a true story. Number 2 is the His Dark Materials Trilogy, and the only entry on the list that I’ve actually read.

Anglo-Saxon treasure

2009-09-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

What an amazing thing! Anglo-Saxon treasure has been found in Staffordshire. Samples from the hoard will be on display at the Birmingham Museum from tomorrow until October 13. Not a very large window of opportunity for people to organise a trip, but great that the chance is there. Pictures are available on flickr. Some of the items look a bit squished. All of them look amazing.

Review of the conference 2

2009-09-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, I felt that the conference favoured access over preservation. This actually mirrors a trend I’ve noticed in UK archivists – an inclination toward access as the sole, or most important, aim of archives. Without access, it’s asked, what is the point of saving anything at all? Thus outreach activities are seen as the most vital thing, overshadowing the other core archival functions of collecting, appraising, cataloguing/describing and preserving.

OK, it would be sacrilegious of me to deny the importance of access. But I think we need to put this back into context, especially in relation to digital material. It seems to me that we’re constantly informing people that digitisation should form part of a comprehensive preservation strategy. Yet, we don’t seem as proud of our preservation work as we do of the access that comes from it. But mainly, preservation allows access to happen and we should allocate it the bulk of our efforts.

If I can use this to lead onto another point, this fixation with access also limits the ways in which we define our profession. It was pointed out several times during the conference that archivists have a difficult time articulating the value of archival work. Peter Emmerson noted this in his opening speech, urging us to re-think why archives are important and to extend our concept of who benefits. I think that by focusing on access as our reason for being we limit the ways we can express our value to benefiting the small number of people who consciously use us. As Professor Jimerson pointed out, almost nobody will make a connection between archives and records managers and the document trail behind current events such as the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Yet our profession is responsible for good government records management, via TNA.

These are my preliminary thoughts.

Review of the conference 1

2009-09-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

So to continue with my impressions of the conference….

As already mentioned, I thought the three keynote speakers were very good. Peter Emmerson opened the proceedings with a clear message that the profession needs to re-think, well, how we think about the profession and come up with a new framework to support our work. He suggested that, here in the UK, archivists are interested in what we were doing, how we are doing it and who it is that does it, rather than why we are doing it and for whose benefit. He thinks we need to be more attuned to the outcomes and consequences of our jobs. He noted that his experience working in commonwealth countries highlighted a difference, internationally, in professional approaches. In Commonwealth countries they felt the need to explain the why in terms of the benefits offered to the organisation/government and benefits to the wider society. [I think this is why projects like Interpares are based in Canada, why the Australians came up with such a good RM Standard and function-based appraisal, and why more attention seems to be paid to records as evidence in other countries].

I hope I’ve summarised Peter’s talk correctly as I thought it a good one.

Randall Jimerson also gave an excellent talk. He spoke about the need for Archivists to realise that objectivity is a myth. From this realisation should come greater appreciation of our role (and power) as shapers of history and truth, and greater awareness that our activities should be carried out in an ethical way that supports social justice. It’s impossible to disagree with this. In fact, I hope this is something we’ve all already thought about. Although we’re all brought up on Jenkinson and Schellenberg, I think we’re equally influenced by the post-modernism that I would say has characterised most recent archival theory. And although I rarely feel very powerful, he’s right that we do have this power. It’s a pity that our funding and staffing resources don’t always allow us to fulfil our world-saving potential.

That’s all for now. I got other things to do.

SoA Conference cont.

2009-09-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm alone in criticising the SoA conference this year. Anna Towlson from the LSE attended the first day. Her report is here. Chris Prom and Caroline Brown from the University of Dundee both thought the conference had a lot to impart. Their notes are here.

Chris Prom is visiting Briton from the University of Illinois. His personal blog has posts on sessions, and a lovely photo of Bath Abbey. His post on the Archives, Records and Artefacts blog indicates that much of the discussion around e-records (and the continuing preservation of these records??) took place in the RM themed talks. I admit I didn't go to any of these as they looked to be mostly theory and strategy rather than action (my reasoning being that I can get theory and strategy from the web). Maybe I was wrong about their content.

Caroline Brown was one of the speakers at the conference. She gave one of the round-ups at the end. I found her talk engaging and agreed with most of it, but was alarmed and dispirited by her use of a quote from Hugh Taylor identifying electronic media and records as a paradigm shift. What was dispiriting about this is that Hugh Taylor wrote it in 1987. Why, 22 years later, are we still seeing electronic records as something we need to get our heads around?

And where has the conference blog gone? The link on the SoA website disappeared immediately after the conference.

Conference report

2009-09-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

What can I say about the SoA conference? It was a disappointment really. Too much emphasis on access and not enough attention paid to preservation. Too many indications that we're still not coping with, let alone embracing, many of the challenges and opportunities offered by digital records. The most striking thread running through the week was that archivists are cautious and fearful; that we lack confidence when dealing wiht new technology and researcher behaviour. I find this depressing.

But, there were some good bits:

the opening speeches were all excellent and thought provoking;
the Planets project, based at the British Library, looks like it's doing positive and useful stuff;
Tim Padfield;
the Southampton University's Non-Contact Surface Scanning Systems for the Retrieval and Protection of Archives Sound Recordings - brilliant; and
the Victorian lantern show.

The conference gave me stuff to think about which I hope to make the subject of future posts.

SoA Conference 2009

2009-08-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here is it, the eve of another SoA Conference. I’m off to Bristol tomorrow so as not to waste the long weekend worrying about what to pack. I’ve briefly looked over the programme and there appears to be a lot of “what we should be thinking about”. Thankfully there also appears to be some “we did this and here’s what happened”.

I’m hoping for real life examples and experiences. I feel I’m done thinking about digital preservation. I’ve been doing it for years. Years! Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to act and so must live vicariously through others.

The thing I’m looking forward to the most is staying in a swanky hotel.

Pictures for LibraryThing Pillars group read

2009-08-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from Coventry.

The old Cathedral of St Michael's, bombed during the war:

Holy Trinity Church:

Bristol via Rome

2009-08-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

Only a week until the SOA Conference, which I'll be attending this year. The topic - digital preservation and access - is relevant to all, and especially to me at the moment as I've turned into one of those new-fangled digital archivists.

Archives for the 21st century

2009-07-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday AfL and the Centre for Metropolitan History arranged for 4 representatives from the TNA and some independent voices to discuss the new consultation polity document on Archives for the 21st Century. Seeing as how we’re already in the 21st century this document necessarily looks at where we are and what direction we should take in the coming decades. The key point to remember though, as Nick Kingsley says: “there is no new money”. Recent developments at the TNA re closures and staff reductions are evidence of this.

The discussion took place at the Institute for Historical Research at Senate House. It wasn’t particularly well attended I thought. The panel almost outnumbered the audience. But, this didn’t impede the discussion or Q&A session at the end.

Nick Kingsley opened the consultation with some background to the document, pointing out the joint involvement of the TNA and the MLA and pulling out the 5 key priorities it espouses. Then the 3 external panellists stated their take on the document, what they thought was strong about it and where it fell down. Unfortunately I’m a rubbish reporter and failed to note anybody’s name.

The first speaker was a user of community archives. She had concerns about archive services staying local, rather than having them merged and moved. She feared that in-depth knowledge of the collections and the local area would be lost. She also expressed fears about too much emphasis being put on digital access as this is not always an equitable solution. Some people don’t have computer access at home or are unable to use them because of disabilities. Moreover, electronic access is removed from archival assistance, should it be needed. There is also a risk that the quality of archival research will suffer if people are only able to, or bother to, access material that has been digitised and made available over the web.

I agree with her first point. It’s a strong contention among archivists, expressed in the document, that archives shape and inform people’s sense of identity at national, local and personal levels. We should therefore support community archives and aim to keep the knowledge and expertise of local staff. The TNA and the government should promote local archives.

Her other two points are bound up with the issue of electronic access to digitised material: the not-quite-so-equal access promised by digitisation programmes and the risk to quality archival research. For the first, although I agree that electronic access isn’t a perfectly equitable solution, it does allow greater access to material while supporting the preservation function of the archive (if, of course, done with appropriate and adequate planning and funding). So although it’s not a major thread in the document, I applaud the increased interest in digitisation and the inclusion of both catalogues and content in the TNA’s outlook. With regards to the quality of archival research, I argue that the risk of poor and incomplete research isn’t limited to the digital world. Where exactly does the responsibility of the archives and the archivist lie here? Archival finding aids should alert researchers to the existence of other sources and there should always be a way of asking staff. Lazy or incompetent researchers are not our responsibility.

The second panellist had an interest in national research. She pointed out that people want evidence and don’t care if it’s called archival, or local history, or library etc. Focusing on archival material loses the importance of other, non-archival, material. (from my notes I’m not sure what her point is here unless it’s to argue for a more encompassing view of research sources and a more realistic view of the actual make-up of library, local history and local archive services). She was also worried about people in the future wanting different things than present day researchers. She thought the draft document is missing the desperate need for leadership to raise awareness amongst the public, especially in the face of politicians. This can’t be done at the local level. She thought there is a good need for enforceable minimum requirements for an archival service in terms of staffing etc that the government should be made to provide.

I agree with all of that.

The third panellist works for a university. She thought the consultation document didn’t fulfil on the university involvement and their existence as both in-house repository and centres for research. She pointed out the lack of references to partnership opportunities in the area of digitisation and other research areas between libraries and IT. Overall she thought the document didn’t carry through on it’s exciting possibilities and made it look like the archive sector is in catch-up mode.

A Q&A session followed during which the following issues came up:

Possible need for new legislation
The fact that getting councils to work together is tricky
Deals with commercial digitisaiton firms can be tricky, particularly in the area of access
The vulnerability of smaller services/offices
The problem that local authorities don’t acknowledging the importance of records management
The problem of getting funding from local and national government
The question re how much support from the TNA can local authority archives expect? 4 advocacy? Nick Kingsley responded to this that the TNA is re-sorting its staff in this area to focus on areas highlighted in the draft.
That the document doesn’t really address the issue of diversityThe importance of training for the future of the profession

Changes to The National Archives

2009-07-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Last week TNA announced a set of proposed changes to their operations and public services. They need to cut costs and save money. Specifically, they want to save £4.2 million by the end of March 2010. A consultation period will last until September, followed by a detailed planning process to be finished by January 2010, allowing the plans to be implemented until March 2010.

Does TNA expect to save £4.2 million in three months? I’m not sure how reasonable or otherwise that is, but what happens after that? Presumably, staff now on reduced hours or in unemployment will be left where they are. The lawns will continue to grow a little longer and the windows to remain a little grubby. Money will still be saved.

The change most likely to generate public debate is the proposed closures to the reading rooms and the reduction of staff. A letter to The Times from Dr Nick Barratt on 4 July is evidence of this. As the comments show, the other hot topic, unsurprisingly, is that of digital versus tangible access. There's nothing like holding an original record but while open reading rooms at Kew allow access for Londoners and those who can visit, electronic access allows records to be used by a much wider audience.

The other striking question seems to be: how necessary is the knowledge of “expert staff” to the public’s understanding of public records? Dr Barrett’s letter states: “Specialist knowledge is gained over years of experience, not delivered through search engines and digital images, and the scandalous treatment of such important staff is nothing short of dumbing down.” I don’t disagree. I do, however, hope TNA’s finding aids are sufficiently well-written to provide the advice and information necessary for most of TNA’s visitors to access, interpret and use the records they’re interested in.

I hope the money saved will go toward such things as wages that stay in line with inflation and the writing down of specialist knowledge into sufficiently detailed finding aids.

No news

2009-07-07T09:21:00.001-07:00

I've found nothing to blog about recently. Sigh. The "Archives for the 21st century consultation draft" is waiting to be read, and I'm all signed up for the Society Conference in Bristol next month. Maybe these will provide some fodder for thought and comment.

International Archives Day 2009

2009-06-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

What did you do to celebrate International Archives Day? It almost passed me by. But then I read the ICA’s announcement and was intrigued to learn that the Day presented archivists with “a tremendous opportunity to promote the cause of records and archives in their country”. Not for the first time, this made me ponder a number of questions: just what is the "cause" of records and archives? why do they/we need a cause anyway? that is, why describe our profession within a framework of struggle? do I have a cause and, if so, what am I willing to sacrifice for it?

A healthy democracy, the protection of human rights and the guardianship of memory and identity - these are the obvious contenters for an archival cause. They are good causes. But, are they the real end goal? I think the answer to that is yes, to the majority of us and at the moment at least.

If we adopt these causes we can boldly proclaim, along with a slightly mis-quoted George Washington: “Our cause is noble; it is the cause of humankind!”

As long as these things are seen as desirable, they will be worth fighting for. Because having a cause implies having something to struggle against. This is a depressing thought. My career, seen from this view, is dedicated to resisting human selfishness and stupidity. And, in part, to documenting and preserving the evidence of its effects.

The dibrary

2009-05-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

This article from The Korea Times introduces Seoul’s new National Digital Library. Claiming to be the first such repository in the world, the new 8-story building will offer only digital content to users via a stunning number of computer terminals, laptops and televisions. Patrons can access existing digital information, or use the video and audio recording studios available at the library to create and edit their own digital content and add it to the internet. The building has special facilities to welcome people with disabilities and a zone specifically designed to allow foreign visitors a favourable experience.

This all sounds amazing and I would love to go see it. But, I think I’m missing something. Isn’t the point of digital content that you can access it anywhere? At home for example, in your pyjamas, at midnight? Doesn’t digital access free you from the physical space of the library? Isn’t this a good thing? Why build, or visit, a library whose main holdings can be accessed from the comfort of your own home? (And yes, I know that some material can’t be made available over the web due to IPR and other reasons, but my line of reasoning remains).

More to the point, why spend what must amount to huge amounts of money to do this? My experience of libraries is that there's never enough money to pay for new acquisitions, decent pay, enough staff to retrieve and re-shelve material, extra opening hours, cataloguing backlogs, etc. Not to mention the expanding costs of creating and preserving digital material itself. Running a national library is an expensive undertaking.

Surely there are better areas where this money could be directed? And if you have the space to build a new building, why devote it entirely to digital stuff?

I believe The British Library has plans for a dilibrary (as the article in the Korea Times labelled it). According to the minutes, available on the BL webpages, a proposal was considered by the Library Board when it met in May.

I’m interested to see how successful the Seoul library is. Although sceptical about its use value, and suspecting the money could’ve been directed toward other, more deserving areas, I do hope it encourages people to visit the, or a, library, whether in person or on-line.

National something week

2009-04-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

It's National Library Week in the US. This made me ask: does the UK have a similar thing? A Google search led me to the National Literacy Trust and their reading events calendar. Every month is covered. No National Library Week but some good looking events. I've missed the Day for April - International Children's Book Day - but all of May is National Share a Story Month. This sounds great. I love stories. I was thus disappointed to see that this seems solely aimed at children. Surely the "power of story" is something that can be appreciated by people of all ages. In fact, earlier this year I went to a performance put on by the Crick Crack Club, who carry on the tradition of storytelling for audiences of different ages. (Think I must have unknowingly participated in National Storytelling Week, which is in February).

The UK may not have a National Library Week, or at best a badly publicised one, but storytelling is alive and well here. The aforementioned National Storytelling Week is connected with the Society for Story Telling. If you're in London there's the London Centre for International Storytelling. These people currently have an HLF grant "to archive and document live recordings of public storytelling by professional performers". The on-line search they've set up is easy to use and gives lots of information. The Archive includes stories from all over the world and on many different subjects.

I'm convinced other countries have events similar to National Library Week. Finding out would involve a more dedicated search than I'm willing to do.

Dreaming in colour

2009-04-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've been watching Japanese movies lately and as a consequence have been dreaming in anime. Disturbing? Yes, I think so. It's much nicer though then dreaming of numbering boxes or counting files, which it's not uncommon for me to do.

2nd Jenkinson Lecture

2009-03-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I attended the 2nd Jenkinson Lecture organised by UCL. Professor Eric Ketelaar gave a paper entitled Archival Identities which addressed this topic using the records of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as a reference point, or case study.

It was a pleasure to hear Dr Ketelaar talk. His paper was well presented, easy to listen to and follow, and interesting. It looked, in turn, at meaning, truth, memories, histories, identities, and the proposition of a living archive. Throughout I had the impression of dynamic relationships between records, the reason(s) for their creation or gathering, and their use and re-use.

Dr Ketelaar’s approach allows that records are subject to active re-interpretation. The meaning of a record can be different for individuals and groups depending upon the purpose and context of its creation and re-examination. Different types of truth and different ownerships of truth can be attached to records and can influence memory and identity. Records shape the memories of individuals and collective groups through shared communication. Archives present the evidence of the past but also allow histories to be constructed by people with different interpretations, experiences and purposes. Dr Ketelaar finished with the concept of a living archive - an archive that is used and examined, re-used, re-interpreted, discussed, pondered upon and has meaning(s) added to it through this activity.

The sorry case of the Guantanamo case files

2009-02-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

It’s all about government records over there in North America. New President Obama’s blackberry and tech-savvy white house staff are filling the news. So too is his prompt executive order on Presidential Records, a thumbs up to the public’s right to know and a warning for future wannabe megalomaniacal, secretive, vice presidents. Obama also announced that Guantanamo will be closed. Here too, government records are of primary interest, as an article from the Washington Post shows.

The article, Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray, describes a confused state of affairs as to the discoverability of comprehensive case files on individuals detained at Guantanamo. Officials have reportedly found that files are incomplete, physically and virtually spread between offices, don't contain the right sort of information, and that the responsibility for creating and maintaining them is shared by several departments who, by the way, don’t talk to each other. This is only sort of denied by members of the CIA and Defence Department. To me this raises the question: what role did Guantanamo Officials perceive for the case files they were creating?

This is a very serious concern. Was Guantanamo set up to collect evidence from suspected terrorists so that these individuals could be brought to trial? In this scenario the case files they compiled would be of the utmost importance. They would hold the data that would allow the US government, presumably, to thwart future terrorist acts and (leaving aside for the moment the problematic (non-)reliability of evidence obtained under duress) to legally prosecute those responsible.

The WP’s article reports that “former Bush administration officials…said that…the Bush administration’s focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority”. Detention and interrogation for their own sake overshadowed the creation and accumulation of documentary evidence that could be used to safeguard the country? What went wrong here? I’m alarmed that the US government not only felt able to have such a poor attitude toward the creation of these case files, but also that they’ve gotten away with it.

Runaway time

2008-12-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

It’s difficult to find time to blog. I really wanted to write about the decision of the Irish Government to merge their National Archives, Irish Manuscripts Commission and National Library. This seems a blatantly bad move, one that reveals a genuine lack of understanding of how these institutions work and the services they provide. I also wanted to write about the decision in Japan to demolish their Kabuki-za, a truly beautiful and historic building in Tokyo, a city that has almost run out of architectural evidence of it’s past. Unfortunately, it’s a busy time at home and work and blogging on these and other important issues hasn’t happened.

Bulgaria does the best bread

2008-11-17T08:13:00.000-08:00

Recently I went to Sofia. While there I was shown the national archives and took these photos:

Blog Action Day

2008-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

This post is participating in Blog Action Day. The idea is that bloggers all over the world use one day a year to discuss a common topic. This year that topic is Poverty. The idea is to raise awareness, generate discussion, raise money (through the donation of blog ad revenue), and instigate change. I’m in favour of all these things, although to be honest I’m sceptical of how much real change will ever be made in the area of poverty. There has always been an imbalance between the rich and poor. Why should this change? Why does it exist in the first place? It seems to me that people living in poverty are there through the greed and selfishness of others, namely those who make the rules, wield the power, have the wealth, own the land and property, dictate how the money flows, have access to education, and generally are in a position to choose their own life-styles and life-views and to not give a damn about their fellow human beings. Sometimes poverty leads to death. Sometimes it leads to revolution.

I’m supposed to post about poverty as it relates to the theme of my blog. So, poverty and archives….

There has been a dedicated movement during the last couple of years to get world governments to seriously tackle the problem of poverty, both in their own countries and on an international scale. This will be documented in newspapers, government policy papers, live aid videos, etc. But a lot of material will be lost because it originates from small, grass level movements that are run by volunteers, that exist for a couple of years (or less) and then disappear. Many of these groups operate in electronic environments, relying on the internet and email to get their messages across and to communicate with their membership and the wider public. As archivists, how can we identify, collect and preserve the records of these groups? Should we even try? Is this our role?

Well I could write a bit more about that, but there are other angles to poverty and archives. People living in poverty have to worry about food, shelter, fresh water, education, heating, access to medicine, and other basics of survival. How many of the truly impoverished visit our institutions? How do our outreach programmes tackle this? The Archives Awareness Campaign for 2008 is “Take your place in history”. How does the position of the poverty-stricken fit into this? (I don’t mean to critique the Awareness Campaign, which, by the way, I think is brilliant.) But, poor people exist in history and always have and many of them make it into archives only via government statistics, or studies on social and health conditions. I suspect not many institutions contain the personal collections of families or individuals living in poverty. What records are they creating anyway?

This last thought really is my way of getting to the point that poverty excludes people from a full engagement with archival collections, both as creators and as readers. This lack of engagement denies them a connection with their history, their culture, their identity, the memories of their communities and ancestors, and all the other wonderful ways that archives enrich our lives and our feelings of personal identity and belonging.

Poverty sucks. It should be done away with.

Librarians make it in the movies

2008-09-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ann Seidl’s The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians through Film is a new documentary looking at librarians working in America today. The film takes the form of interviews with real librarians, interspersed with film clips from movies showing some of the more stereotyped and humorous views of librarians, libraries and library work. The clips comment on library settings, the public, books, the value of reading and younger patrons of libraries. The documentary part of the film portrays the wide variety of work done by librarians in their jobs, mainly through interviews with different types of librarians working in different kinds of libraries.

The second half of the film is taken over by the documentary side. The script focuses on aspects of the political milieu in which American librarians work. The Patriot Act, and its freedom-threatening laws, is criticised and put into perspective of history’s witch hunts of the past – the American government feared communists in the 1950’s, free radicals in the 1970’s and now terrorists in the 21st Century. Attention then turns to the plight of the libraries in Salinas, John Steinbeck’s home town, which were threatened with closure due to Council budget cuts.

We thought there were really two movies/documentaries here – one on portrayals of librarians in Hollywood versus the reality, and one on the real working conditions of librarians and libraries in the US. I went expecting to see some of the movie librarians I remembered from my own movie-watching experience, but only a handful of movies were clipped. The wealth of suitable material out there must be huge and it seems a lost opportunity not to have explored this idea in more depth. Also, the situation of American librarians working under the Patriot Act, as shown in the movie, yields a lot of interesting dilemmas that are linked to American society as a whole, and the nation’s view of itself as a land of freedom and opportunity. The inclusion of a San Quentin literacy group that campaigned on behalf of the Salinas libraries was interesting. The inmates recognised the value of a decent education and of having somewhere to go that encourages kids to learn. Their campaign pointed out that “if you take away the libraries and recreation centres, the only place kids have to end up is a place like this”. Coupled with the statistic that the yearly library budget for the US is about the same amount as is spent each day on the war in Iraq, clearly there’s a lot more to be explored re America’s view of libraries and their role in society.

I saw the movie last night thanks to Sue Hill. Most of the audience were librarians, or at least they appeared to be. I laughed in the same places they did. Librarians and archivists suffer from the same (sometimes true, sometimes laughable) stereotypes. I did however feel somewhat marginalised when Ann Seidl referred to the looting of the “Iraq National Library and Museum”, getting the name of the institution wrong and thereby cutting us out of the picture.

And now I have to go feed my cat.

A strategy for national collections

2008-09-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

TNA has launched The National Collections Strategy with a draft document for consultation, available from TNA website. The aim behind this initiative is to locate areas of weak representation in archival collections and collecting institutions in England and Wales, and make them stronger. Potentially, this is big news. But before offering too much praise, here are my negative points: I’m sceptical of these types of all-encompassing endeavours that aim to achieve broad overviews and wide reaching changes/improvements. My first questions would be: where is the money coming from? Who will pay the staff to carry out the research, and how much? How long will these posts be funded for? Once gaps are identified, who will pay for the community engagement, transfer, storage, processing, cataloguing, access-related-costs, etc of all the new material? My concerns are mostly economic, but human too. Will staff in local record offices, libraries and charities be given even greater backlogs plus added responsibility for public and internal outreach? Will support be given to libraries or record offices threatened with closure or funding cuts?

These concerns aside, I'm in favour of a national collections strategy. Active engagement with potential donors and sources of deposit-able material is important work. Likewise, cooperation and coordination of collecting activities is important. And I believe it’s crucial that gaps in collections and collecting missions are identified and addressed. This is particularly true, obviously, because a lot of material will be electronic. Fuller histories and better understanding come from fuller archives.

Archives the raw material of history

2008-09-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

An article from the Daily Yomiuri Online reports on the need in Japan for greater control over National Government records.

The Japanese government has set up a panel to explore the situation. The panel's interim report recommends a more integrated and authoritative approach to the identification, appraisal and transfer or disposal of government records. It calls for better awareness of public (versus private) ownership of government records and better control over their fate to avoid deliberate, accidental or unintentional loss. The journalist, Yuko Mukai, notes that extra government funding directed towards understanding and improving the “administration of official documents and important records” will only be worthwhile if Japanese bureaucrats are educated about their importance and status as public records, and hence the property of the Japanese government and its people. Trust in the government is highlighted as a major issue. The article points to records on people who contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of state-sanctioned medical treatment, denied by the health ministry but located after an enquiry was ordered.

The article gives some alarming figures: the Japanese National Archives employs only 42 people, compared to the 300 employed at the South Korean National Archives. Can this be true? Such as small number. The article also notes the smallish size of the building of the Japanese National Archives (which I took a photo of and posted earlier this year). If this is their main storage building, then it is indeed small for a national repository.

I found this article interesting because of my recent visit to Japan and also because of the ongoing controversy re how, and what, history is taught in Japan. The keeping of government records is not only important for democracy, as the Japanese Prime Minister is quoted as saying, but also for education and those things that are supposed to flow from it such as understanding and tolerance. It is perhaps unfair to single out the Japanese for its censorship of educational textbooks. Other countries have been guilty of editing history to present a favoured view of the past. This is why it’s important that the archives, the raw material of future textbooks, be kept and made available so that histories can be written based on the original documentary evidence, and so that these histories can be questioned and re-written by future historians.

Apart from comparisons with South Korea, the article compares the size and staff of the Japanese National Archives with the United States’ NARA. I hope the panel also take note of the current lawsuit against Dick Cheney and his refusal to treat the records of his vice-presidency as part of the public record when trying to convince government officials that the records they create as part of their jobs are not their own private property.

Free text versus chance

2008-09-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended the monthly Archives for London seminar. It was entitled “Serendipity in the Archives”. Advertised as an “indulgent evening”, it promised to amuse or even shock. I’m happy to say it was an evening of fun presentations and accomplished all it set out to do.

The idea for the seminar grew from the experience we’ve all had of finding weird or unexpected things in the archives. Usually this is a pleasant experience, made more so when the items found can be shared with others. The speakers gave a lot of thought to the meaning of the term “serendipity”. Several ideas emerged.

One speaker looked at what serendipity means to cataloguing practices and theory. Does free text searching remove the possibility of ‘chance finds’? Does free text searching render hierarchy and sequential referencing obsolete? I think the answer to both these questions is ‘no’.

Free text searches are usually carried out on the catalogues, not the records themselves, whereas items found by chance are usually found in the records, not the catalogue description. Words within an electronic or hard copy catalogue are findable, free text searching just makes this easier. If you’re able to do a free text search of the actual records (isn’t OCR great?), then you will only retrieve the words you look for. If this provides you with something unexpected, then isn’t that ‘chance’?

Perhaps the speaker didn’t take her argument far enough. From a cataloguer’s point of view, does free text searching negate the need for indexing? Does it limit the importance of the title / scope and content division? Indexing archival material is notoriously difficult. A good description will include terms likely to be used as search terms, which arguably makes (subject) indexing obsolete. Many archivists ascribe to this.

What about hierarchy and sequential referencing? Free text searching can liberate researchers from the need to navigate manual findings aids. But, the hierarchy will be more or less important depending on what type of research you’re doing. It’s also important from the perspective of our professional respect for original order. I don’t think we want to get away from hierarchies, although it’s interesting to re-evaluate multi-level descriptions in an electronic environment and to ask questions such as ‘how many levels are too many?’.

Sequential referencing may appear to be made obsolete by free text searching. But its value as a management tool can’t be overlooked. Electronic systems like unique identifiers, which are usually sequential. As human beings, we tend to also like codes that we can make sense of and sequential systems fit the bill.

reCAPTCHA helps libraries and archives take over the world

2008-09-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

The most exciting news I read all last week had to do with the use of reCAPTCHA internet security software in transcribing tricky, hard to read words in on-line copies of newspapers and old books. CAPTCHA is responsible for the squiggly security codes humans are asked to transcribe on websites, authenticating themselves as humans and not machines. Now this idea is being put to a new use, helping out where OCR fails. Those words OCR can’t read, because they’re smudged, weird, cramped, strangely-fonted, badly-spelled, whatever, can be forwarded to reCAPTCHA and it will be transcribed. Here’s their website: http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html

New ISDF

2008-08-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

As I write, the printer next to me is printing out a copy of the new International Standard for Describing Functions (ISDF). This document has been eagerly awaited by me. I think descriptions incorporating this new standard will provide a powerful new access point, and maybe even cause researchers to ponder new ways of approaching and thinking about their research strategies, their use/interpretation of material and their interaction with life in general. Or maybe none of these things will happen.

TNA academic strategy

2008-08-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is slightly old news, but the UK National Archives has announced a new Academic Strategy. According to the June edition of RecordKeeping, “academic users comprise some 12% to 15%” of their total user numbers. This strikes me as a very small percentage, even allowing for the expectation that most of their users will be Genies. Where are the well-researched history books of the future, which I plan to read, going to come from if new and existing academics aren’t visiting the archives?

Ian E. Wilson new ICA president

2008-07-31T03:04:00.001-07:00

The ICA Flying Reporters did this interview: http://www.kualalumpur2008.ica.org/fr/node/39730

I would like to thank the ICA Flying Reporters for their excellent coverage of the 16th ICA Congress. Their interviews and reports have allowed me to experience the event in a way hitherto unimagined.

Training the Archivist

2008-07-18T02:52:00.000-07:00

The American listserv at the moment is revisiting the question of qualifications versus experience. While this is rehashing all the old theories and opinions re accreditation of courses, apprenticeships, etcetera, this is always, to me, an extremely interesting question to ask. I think everyone would agree that the practical side of archive work makes way more sense once you’ve been introduced to the history and theory of archival science. And vice versa. You need the hands-on experience and the theoretical knowledge. But how to get it, and get it in the right combination that allows you to have enough of both to make you attractive to employers…this is the question. Or is it the rub?

My institution is currently reviewing its organisational structure, as institutions have a habit of occasionally doing. Interestingly, they seem to also be reviewing the similarities and differences between professional recordkeeping staff and academics. This hearkens back to the time when archivists were simultaneously historians and were expected to publish scholarly articles on what they were cataloguing. Personally, I think it’s sad we don’t do this so much any more. After all, once you’ve finished cataloguing those 40 odd boxes of papers (or other) you are, at that point, the world’s expert on that material. It’s a shame we’re not given time and encouragement to turn this expert and in-depth knowledge into a paper that helps generate interest in the material and publicity for our institutions. I envy those archivists who still get to do this.

But, maybe this sort of academic reporting can make a come back via institutional blogs.

Wave if you love metadata

2008-07-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Last month I had dinner with some friends. One of them, half way through the meal, declared his animosity for metadata. I was stunned. Who hates metadata? He’s a scientist. Does this explain it? I don’t know. His feeling was that, what with free text searching, metadata is no longer necessary. And besides, he can’t be bothered filling in the elements required by what I took to be his company’s records management attempt to manage the electronic records he creates. Clearly, he was thinking in a narrow arena. The whole conversation was more than mildly upsetting.

The life cycle versus the continuum

2008-06-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

I feel that I could know more about digital preservation. To help erode my ignorance, I take every opportunity to trawl the web in search of what other, more talented and better funded, people are doing in this area. There are many projects out there. In fact, the number is almost overwhelming and certainly confusing.

I've been struck by the number of projects that engage the life-cycle as a model for looking at the challenges of long-term digital preservation. At least, this seems to be the case in Europe and America. I'm a continuum person myself and I'm surprised at the lack of take-up of this alternative approach to the RM/Archive function, particularly in an electronic context.

The life-cycle model is unhelpful. The continuum model provides a more useful way of looking at the problem of digital preservation. Reasons for this include:

it's no longer feasible to divide records creation, use and eventual destruction/retention into time-based stages managed by either records managers or archivists;
as archivists we can't afford to wait until the end of the cycle to become involved, especially when talking about digital records; and
the record keeping systems used to manage digital records needs to be conceived of and designed as part of a continual process by all interested parties.

This isn't a question of semantics, as some people think. It's about recognising that electronic/digital records have changed the way we conceptualise and do archival and records management work.

TQA Blog birthday

2008-06-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

It's a year ago today that I started this blog.

International Archives Day

2008-06-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Some time ago the ICA and the archive world discussed having an International Archives Day. Well apparently today is it! Yes, 9 June 2008 is the first ever International Archives Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the ICA. I had no idea a date had been decided upon until I serendipitously stumbled across the announcement on the ICA webpage. I feel caught unawares. While I’m pleased that there is now such a thing as International Archives Day, I’m disappointed it wasn’t better publicised.

National year of reading 2008

2008-05-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

From April to December of this year it’s National Year of Reading here in England! According to their webpage, the Year “aims to help build a greater national passion for reading in England – for children, families and adult learners alike”. Each month has been given a theme, to help direct our reading activities and ensure we attain measurable benefits from them. The theme for May is “Mind and Body”. This month we’re directed to “celebrate the links between reading and health”. They suggest we do this through the medium of comedy, or more particularly, through the words of comedians. Or, if we’re lucky enough, our local library will have someone read to us while we relax with a massage or workout with a yoga, pilates or aerobics session.

I hope I have the chance to comment on the Year in later blogs.

On holiday

2008-05-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

My recent holiday included a trip to Tokyo. I’d never been to Japan before. Tokyo is lovely to look at. It has very impressive, modern architecture. Everything looks new and the streets are clean. The state of their subway really brings home how inefficient, expensive and unpleasant the London Underground is. One thing Japan’s not so hot on though is vegetarian food. 3 days of eating pizza from Italian restaurants and I was ready to leave. While there though, we unwittingly stumbled on the Japanese National Archives. It was opposite the Imperial Palace compound. Being somewhat of an anorak, I took this photo and then popped inside to look at their exhibition.

The new photography

2008-04-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Over previous months I’ve attended two concerts. This is unusually social for me. I got a band-promoting t-shirt at one of them, and the opportunity of observing my fellow humans at both. I was struck by two things: 1) if bands are going to charge so much for their t-shirts they should make them out of decent quality material; 2) the number of photographs being taken during the performances.

Re #2, this seemed excessive. One person took >10 shots during one song (I stopped counting after that). Assuming that the photos were taken as an aid to future memory, I couldn’t help but wonder how having >10 almost identical photos is better than having 1 or 2. Now multiply that by the number of songs played….. Everyone seemed to be snapping continuously, even incessantly. It was relentless. Flashes exploded in every direction as people snapped images of the stage, their friends, themselves and themselves photographing the stage.

It struck me that my original assumption was wrong. People weren’t taking these photos as, or merely as, an aid to future memory. For a large part of the audience, taking photos was an essential part of the experience itself. Considering that an individual might have snapped close to, or more than, 100 shots, how many of these images would ever be looked at? How many will be discarded, deleted?

It’s difficult for me to interpret this. But it’s interesting to think how technology effects our social behaviour and our expectations of events.

This is one aspect of the new digital culture that I don’t get. For me, photographs capture moments of our lives and provide us with evidence of our past. At the same time I generally find it annoying to stop whatever it is I’m doing in order to create this evidence. It breaks the flow. So I don’t understand photography so intertwined with life that it becomes part of what you’re doing.

The King's March witnessed

2008-02-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

The weather's turned cold again here in London but on the weekend it was glorious sunshine. On Sunday I popped down to Whitehall to see the king’s army from the English Civil War Society perform their annual commemoration of the death of King Charles I in 1649. On the last Sunday in January the king’s army march from St James’ Palace to the Banqueting House where they place a wreath, say some speeches and give out medals. It’s all pretty cool.

Archivists with imagination

2008-01-10T04:08:00.000-08:00

There is a piece in the London Metro today “Careers decided when you are six”. Here it is in full:

"A child’s career can be predicted at the age of six , based on their sex and personality. Primary school girls with less imagination tended toward record-keeping jobs while boys chose construction and agriculture said the Aston University study."

If you wanted to insult female record-keeping professionals, that’s not a bad way to do it. I don’t remember dreaming about files while my contemporaries played at being actresses or Prime Minister. In fact, as I recall, I spent many hours being wonder-woman; sometimes I was the greatest sports-woman that ever lived.

Wales

2008-01-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

I had New Year in Wales with some friends. It was an interesting and relaxing holiday filled with walks, castles, rain and lovely scenery. Here’s a photo of a sheep.

Xmas party

2007-12-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the joint Society of Archivists London Region and Archives for London Christmas Party. It was held on the HMS Belfast. Sue Hill sponsored the event and as I’ve found them helpful in the past for finding work I was pleased that they’re taking such an interest in the archive profession in London. The customary quiz took the form of a hunt for information around the ship, which was excellent fun. Although there was at least one other party on board (an IT department from some firm) we seemed to have the ship to ourselves and got to poke around into the cabins, nooks and other places, run up and down ladders and admire London by moonlight. All up it was a good night.

Christmas traditions

2007-12-11T04:49:00.000-08:00

On the weekend I attended a seminar on the subject of mid-winter pagan traditions. It asked the question: “How much paganism is rooted in European customs and Christian celebrations?” Quite a bit it seems. My interest in early English history ensured that I was in for an enjoyable learning opportunity. What I didn’t expect was to start questioning the value of continuing to perform and sustain rituals and practices that are no longer relevant or meaningful to contemporary life. I found myself suffering a crisis, torn between a recognition of the historical (and evidential and informational) value of these traditions and a realisation that their original function has altered so much as to now be nonsensical. Mummers plays, blessing the plough ceremonies, the tradition of the “first-footers”, all these were ways of celebrating the turning of the season and of ensuring good luck for the coming year. Now we perform them because they’re historical. The reality of contemporary knowledge and contemporary life-styles means that beliefs and superstitions which found expression in these ritualistic forms are no longer relevant or even properly understood. Perhaps these traditional activities should be altered so that they resonate with contemporary life experiences, thereby giving back to the original form it’s original purpose.

whæt þa?

2007-11-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

I saw Beowulf the movie on the weekend, in 3D. It was predictably awful. Hrothgar is a toga-wearing drunkard, Grendel’s mother is a naked Angelina Jolie and I’m not quite sure how to interpret the symbolic self-mutilation of Beowulf, the dragon-turned-golden-boy or the “sins of the father” motif that runs throughout. There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary nudity for a story that’s set in a very cold place. And why did Anthony Hopkins dissolve in sea water? That’s not normal (or explained). I also don’t understand why Neil Gaimon and Roger Avary re-wrote the story to provide an alternative origin/paternity for the monsters, making them half-brothers, for what in the poem are two distinctive types of evil beasts. I suspect this ties in with a modern idea of “evil” that’s different from the concept of “evil” in Anglo-Saxon / Old Norse cultures. I’ve noticed that movies show evil as something that doesn’t get killed at the end of the story. Is this so they can have sequels? Surely they're not thinking of Beowulf 2. It's alreay "personal". I suspect contempory considerations of “what makes a hero” has something to do with the changes. Not sure how I feel about Ray Winstone as Beowulf either. In a way it’s great that they had an English actor play the hero, but at times his cockney accent lacked the gravity needed.

But, I was pleased that the movie kept some of the Old English words and used the oral culture of the time to further the plot (when Hrothgar ordered the scopes to sing of Herot’s misfortune); as a part of the story (when the players in Herot celebrated the anniversary of Beowulf’s victory over Grendel); and even to comment on storytelling itself and how truth and history are formed through oral accounts and boasting (Unferth’s questioning of Beowulf via the swimming competition with Brecca).

First Jenkinson Lecture

2007-10-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the first Jenkinson Lecture held at the UCL: 60 years on: the role of a 21st century archive vs. Jenkinson’s model, given by Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of The National Archives of the UK. As a general comment I thought the lecture lacked depth. Given the audience, there was an opportunity there for a comprehensive or profound examination of the role of the National Archives now as compared to Jenkinson’s conception over half a century ago. Instead the lecture merely pointed out, in broad terms, how selection, preservation and access to archival material have changed through the influence of new technology and changing political agendas. But, I’m pleased the UCL has started this lecture series and hope to attend more.

The cataloguing hole

2007-09-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I am currently in a cataloguing hole. The accession I’m cataloguing is huge: 28 collections and at least 40 series (and counting!). Being in the hole means that I can’t properly concentrate on anything outside of the hole. My existence has been reduced to a stream of metadata fields and forms in endless succession.
I’ve also agreed to give a talk on how I’m applying ISAAR(CPF) to my cataloguing activities. So I need to find a space, within the hole, where I can think about authority records, their purpose and importance.

Beer Glorious Beer

2007-08-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

Went to the Great British Beer Festival last week. On Hat Day, although we didn’t know it until we got there. What a wasted opportunity! My life is lacking in chances to wear a humorous or unusual hat. I vow to be more alert and prepared next year. That aside, the Festival was great. Many beers and one Perry were tried. I was particularly pleased with the interest being shown in vegetarian beers, a bandwagon that needs to be pushed down the hill. In addition to sampling the brews we watched the auction, had a go at some of the games on offer and perused the t-shirt stalls. Turns out I’m rubbish at soccer.

Time spent doing...

2007-07-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks I’ve been studying for an exam. Classical Greek. Now it’s over I can get back to more pleasurable pastimes such as watching tv and having drinks with my friends. I can also concentrate more fully at work where I’ve been reading over the draft of ISIAH, the new international standard for institutions with archival holdings, and trying to rearrange storage space so I can fit more in. What I need is a magical room where space expands at will. My will. That would be cool.

The view from here

2007-07-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

The topic of archivists and related professionals in fiction seems endlessly fascinating. Thanks to French Panic for your comments on a previous post. They highlighted a link between my first two posts, namely how archivists/record keepers are viewed by us and the wider world. David Mattison’s website The Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and Museums is worth plenty of attention.

I wonder whether record keepers are making more frequent appearances in the world of fiction or whether I’m just noticing it more. As an example, not long ago I read Death at Windsor Castle: Her Majesty Investigates by C.C. Benson (published 1998). This is one of a series of 3 Her Majesty Investigates books. It’s a very good read. A person is found dead in the Throne Room at Windsor Castle, with a sword in his chest. This person is none other than an assistant curator in the Print Room of the Royal Library at the Castle! Turns out he was a nasty piece of work who had enemies enough with a motive to kill, but I was kinda pleased to see a fellow professional in the role of murder victim.

Conference Season

2007-06-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

It’s that time of year when I start browsing conference programmes. Actually, I do this on and off during the year, promising myself that I’ll read every last paper from all the really interesting sessions, once the society in question has helpfully published them on their web pages. In reality this never happens. This year my attention’s been grabbed by the title of the joint Association of Canadian Archivists and Archives Association of Ontario Conference: “As Others See Us: Archivists and Society”. You need to be stout of heart to venture near other people’s perceptions. As an example: last month I attended a history weekend where I was introduced to two people who weren’t fazed at all to be meeting an alchemist but who expressed extreme surprise once I’d explained what I actually did.

Back to the conferences, I’m pleased to see that many of the up and coming conferences include a nice spread of topics from digital issues to archives and community groups, including topics such as the relationship between record keeping professionals and democracy, human rights and memory.

The importance of records revealed in the movies

2007-06-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

I love watching scary science fiction films, particularly if you can see the zipper on the swamp-creature’s costume.

As an archivist, it’s gratifying when records play pivotal roles in plot development. Last night I watched a quality film called Mosquito Man. At one point, this poor municipal sewer worker discovered a grisly murder scene. Luckily, he just happened to have brought with him to work that day a blue print of the underground passages beneath the city park. This was good news for the hero, who needed those drawings to track the mutant insect. Without them, he’d’ve been foolish to venture into the maze-like tunnels. The plot would’ve floundered and the ultimate fight against bad guys (or in this case, monsters) would’ve had an unhappy and somewhat gruesome ending.

This got me thinking about how records allow the narrative of our days to move forward. Ephemeral items like bus timetables provide important information to physically get us moving. Pay packets give us our motivation while weighty documents such as job descriptions provide the script. I also like to think of archives, and the archival profession, as contributing to the ongoing fight between goodness and bad things. Archival theory often looks at the imperatives of democracy, human rights, etc, so this is not a difficult framework to maintain