This is the policy and fee schedule for doing research on the McRae Collection at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Museum. There is no research fee for in person research. However, a one time fee of $10 for members and $20 for nonmembers will be charged for all research requests completed by email, phone call, or mail.
Welcome to the first release of Archival Practice, a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal. Archival Practice provides a scholarly forum for discussions of real-world applications of archival theories and practices in the modern archival repository. This may include archival acquisitions, processing, reference, outreach, instruction, preservation, or management in any archival setting (special collections library, government archives, university archives, corporate archives, etc.).
The study investigated access to digitised archival collections in two selected institutions in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This study is significant because it sought to generate insights on adaptability of technology in archives and library operations, and accessibility thereof. This is important for monitoring the accessibility of digitised archival collections at institutions to improve their operations and maximize the global visibility. This study adopted qualitative research methodology. The researcher followed a rigorous methodological path that began with a thorough literature review and the careful and thoughtful posing of research questions and objectives. A purposive sample was chosen from National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS) and International library of African Music (ILAM) (staff members) and interviewed through face-to-face interviews. The collected data was analysed thematically. The study established that, the type of materials digitised at NAHECS and ILAM are bound books, fragile papers, photographic prints, slides, audio-visual materials,artefacts and documents such as personal letters of early travellers,missionary's records,traders writing personal file and political parties documents. Secondly, the study established that end users of digitised materials are researchers, students, archivist, librarians, international and local community, composers, musicians, and historians. It also emerged that awareness programmes used to increase public knowledge about access to digitised content in the two study sites include conferences, social media, and television advertisements. However, there are challenges faced in providing access to digitised materials at NAHECS and ILAM. Some of these challenges include lack of funding, unavailability of resources, lack of awareness, and information insecurity. These challenges have made access to digitised archival materials difficult. Based on these findings, it is recommended that archives facilities should be well resourced and ...
The Swedish government has decided that all research results in the form of research data and scientific publications financed with public funds should be openly accessible as far as possible. The question is whether the responsible actors and if the universities are ready to implement the change. The significance of open access has amplified in Sweden. Earlier research has brought to light that the collection and preservation of research data are often surrounded by ambiguous rules and lack a comprehensive structure. For example, archiving is not given enough consideration in connection to research projects and researchers often tend to save their material on platforms that are not persistent over time. This article is based upon a qualitative research approach where 15 semi-structured interviews have been used as primarily data sources to investigate the implementation of open access of research data and scientific publications. The article investigated how Swedish universities and public authorities were working with archiving and implementation of open research data and their opinions on open access. The results displayed a lack of coordination, resources and infrastructure but also that common agreed nomenclature were missing. The management of research data was not part of an overall recordkeeping strategy. One explanation could be differences in the information culture among researchers and archivists. Social sciences theory has been combined with archival theory in order to explain the reasons to this. These have been put in relation to the principles of the open data directive. ; This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This paper presents the second phase of the project Co-archiving Flight Documentation, aimed at exploring and prototyping co-archiving practices for involving underrepresented voices in sharing stories of our times from their point of view. The prototypes developed can be iterated and put in use, but may also potentially contribute to challenging the role of the archivist. What parallels can be drawn between the practices of a co-designer and an archivist interested in becoming a co-archivist? Building on outcomes from previous design interventions within the co-archiving research theme, we will run a co-design process involving practitioners and newcomers. Since the design process is not yet completed, we cannot present any concrete prototypes. This paper suggests imaginative ways of ReDoing by applying co-design approaches in other disciplines, and contributes to the discussion of how co-designers can step into other domains and be part of developing practices and approaches in other fields.
There has been a widespread shift to electronic ways of conducting business that has transformed existing relationships between governments, governments and citizens, and governments and business. This move to electronic interactions is supported by new busi- ness systems that streamline and automate transactions, enable integration of information and service delivery and enhance collaboration between participants. Such changes in the way government business is carried out have significant implications for how public ad- ministrations document their activities and make that information available to both gov- ernment and citizens to aid future decision making and accountability. Because digital rec- ords are particularly vulnerable to technological obsolescence and media decay, ensuring future access to the information created by government is a challenging issue for all juris- dictions. This paper focus on the E-ARK project, a European endeavour to standardise and create tools for consistently transferring digital records between business systems and digi- tal archives. The E-ARK approach has the potential to simplify and make consistent diverse approaches to solving the issue of how to transfer information between the ICT systems in use in government, and the archives charged with the responsibility for ongoing and man- agement of the information considered to be of long-term significance. ; This work was co-funded by KEEP SOLUTIONS, ...
Information technology and political motives, e.g. e-governance, freedom of information legislation, has recent years lead to an increasing emphasis on users and access to records, but little research based knowledge about those issues exist so far. The main focus of the previous research is the use of non-current records in archival repositories. The aim of this thesis is to make a contribution to the research field, in order to gain a better understanding of the information behaviour of users of records in contemporary organizational settings. The research questions addressed are: § How are records used in contemporary organizations?- In what context and for what purposes are records used?- What user categories can be identified? § How is the search for records mediated?- What intermediaries are used in the search process?- How well do the features of the artefactual intermediaries serve the users' information needs?- What is the role of human intermediaries? An additional purpose of the study is to contribute to theory development, and to provide a conceptual model of the information behaviour of users of records that can form the basis for further research. The thesis is based on explorative case studies undertaken in two contemporary Swedish public organizations, one municipality and one governmental agency. Data was collected through interviews, analysis of documentary sources and complementary observations. The analysis of the findings was guided by a theoretical framework consisting of activity theory informed by concepts from archival theory and models of information behaviour. The results of the cases studies showed that information behaviour of users of records and the search process could be described as a part of an activity system. The search process was a sub-ordinated activity of other activities. The needs for records was generated by a task or accomplishment of anykind with purpose to achieve something. Those needs motivated the purposes of use of records: material, operational, accountability seeking or knowledge enhancing purposes. The subjects, users in collaboration with the registrars and archivists, seeked to obtain records with help of different mediational means, e.g. artifactual intermediaries as the journal and the archives inventory that could be defined as representational systems, in order to reach a certain outcome: fact-finding, re-construction of past actions and events, regaining experience and knowledge, verifying status, or illustrating and exemplifying. A variety of user groups, internal as well as external, could be identified in both organizations. Those could act as direct or indirect users, and indirect use by one part meant direct use by another who acted as a mediator between the records and the end users. The external users could be defined as stakeholders of the organizations or other users. Users showed, with occasional exceptions, a preference for informal means of mediation, particularly personal communication. Certain features of the formal representational systems, journals and inventories, could be identified, which made them less useful as search tool. Those were generated by contradictions and tensions within the organizations: contradictions within the representational systems; contradictions between the tasks of the users and the representational systems; contradictions between user requests and the access points in the representational systems; contradictions between external users and the activities of the organizations; contradictions between exogenous institutional conditions and the the activities of the organizations; and contradictions of a temporal character. These circumstances necessitated an active intervention of human intermediaries. This could be seen as an example of the division of labour in the organizations. Search and retrieval of records were part of the registrars' and the archivists' specific professional knowledge, but were not considered as primary tasks of other employees or, especially not, of the external users. The results of the study contributes to to the knowledge about the use of records, and how records are approached. It provides a model of the search process that can form the basis for further research. The practical implications of the findings could be improved search tools and user services, i.e. enhanced access. The thesis can also contribute to theoretical enrichment of the field by combining a more comprehensive social theory with archival theory and concepts from information science. ; Utveckling av arkiv- och informationsvetenskap
Historical or political science research using primary source evidence faces a major barrier to transparency and replicability: the archival documents used are often difficult to access. The Annotation for Transparent Inquiry Initiative developed a digital overlay tool that enables researchers to create enhanced annotations in articles and link to digital copies of archival sources in trusted repositories. Dr Joseph O'Mahoney was involved in the project to pilot this tool and has published a practical guide based on his experience.
Large-scale digitization is generating extraordinary collections of visual and textual surrogates, potentially endowed with transcendent long-term cultural and research values. Understanding the nature of digital surrogacy is a substantial intellectual opportunity for archival science and the digital humanities, because of the increasing independence of surrogate collections from their archival sources. The paper presents an argument that one of the most significant requirements for the long-term access to collections of digital surrogates is to treat digital surrogates as archival records that embody traces of their fluid lifecycles and therefore are worthy of management and preservation as archives. It advances a theory of the archival nature of surrogacy founded on longstanding notions of archival quality, the traces of their source and the conditions of their creation, and the functional "work of the archive." The paper presents evidence supporting a "secondary provenance" derived from re-digitization, re-ingestion of multiple versions, and de facto replacement of the original sources. The design of the underlying research that motivates the paper and summary findings are reported separately. The research has been supported generously by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The article analyzes the problem of remote access to archival funds of all kinds of ownership in the Russian Federation under conditions of restrictions associated with the pandemic. A viable solution would include unification of legislation and the total digitalization of archival funds. ; В статье анализируется проблема удаленного доступа к архивным фондам всех уровней собственности в Российской Федерации в условиях ограничений, связанных с пандемией. Целесообразным решением являются унификация законодательства и тотальная цифровизация архивных фондов.
Lithuanian culture facing the challenge of globalization carries an actual ambition of integration the Lithuanian emigrants' heritage. The archival foundation is a part of it. The great interest in the culture, history and experiences of Lithuanian emigration emerged when Lithuania gained it's independence in 1990. Now these days are gone. Only narrow circles of academic and public society still concern about the fate of Lithuanian emigration's heritage.This paper deals with the archival foundation of two main Lithuanian ideological movements, which flourished among Lithuanian émigré after World War II. The problems of storage, relevance and access are discussed.Since the end of the 19th century the Lithuanian ideological landscape has been shaped by the movements of Catholic or liberal orientation. The clash between Catholic and liberal ideological trends increased during the period of the first Lithuanian Republic (1918–1940) and especially during the years of anti-Nazi resistAbstractance. The conflict of the ideologically orientated Catholics and liberals reached its peak during the years of emigration.The research points that despite the ideological disagreement the fate of the archival foundation of two Lithuanian emigration ideological movements is similar. During the years of action most of the ideological institutions' didn't pay special attention to the systematic storage of the archival foundation. It should be stated that the archival foundation of two Lithuanian emigration ideological movements is dispersed in the archival institutions in Lithuania and abroad and in the variety of personal archives. The materials kept in the archival institutions are available for the academics and public. The access to the archival documents kept in personal archives could be complicated. However, the fate of the private archives is the question of the ultimate concern. The death of the archive keeper often means the loss of an important and valuable historical and cultural material. ; Straipsnyje aptariamas dviejų DP emigracinės bangos ideologinių srovių – vadinamųjų katalikų ir liberalų – archyvinio paveldo likimas; pristatomos archyvų kaupimo, išsaugojimo, aktualumo ir prieinamumo problemos. Nepaisant ideologijų srovių nesutarimų išeivijoje, daroma išvada, kad požiūris į archyvų kaupimą ir išlaikymą buvo panašus – dažniausiai archyvai nebuvo sistemingai kaupiamai. Panašus išeivijos liberalų ir katalikų srovių archyvų likimas: nemaža jų dalis saugoma oficialiose archyvinėse institucijose Lietuvoje ir užsienyje, tačiau ne mažiau išeivijos ideologinių srovių archyvinio paveldo yra ir privačiuose archyvuose. Oficialiose archyvinėse institucijose saugomi išeivijos katalikų ir liberalų archyviniai fondai yra susiformavę asmeninių archyvų pagrindu. Asmeninių archyvų sudėtis įvairi: juose yra susimaišę asmeniniai laiškai su oficialių organizacijų dokumentais, knygos su rankraščiais, muziejiniai eksponatai, daiktai ir periodiniai leidiniai. Išeivijos katalikų ir liberalų archyvinių fondų likimas įvairius – vieni jų išnyksta mirus archyvo sudarytojui, kiti išlaikomi asmeniniuose archyvuose, treti patenka į Lietuvos ar užsienio archyvines institucijas.
Past analyses of gentrification have largely examined the phenomenon along the consumption-production theory binary; the former contending that the middle-class consumer is to blame for initiating the process, the latter illuminating the contributions of larger political entities. This oversimplifies the complex process of gentrification, boiling its causal factors down to a singular class, policy, event, or point in time. This tendency to homogenize the root cause of gentrification gives a narrow understanding of a city's history and largely ignores the overarching, systemic patterns of class and race-based oppression that have played into a city's development over time. Furthermore, colonizers and gentrifiers alike have claimed that city investments are intended to benefit the community at large, but these same efforts often work against the needs of, and often displace, local community members. Hudson, NY proves useful as a case study to test the hypothesis that the disproportionate means of betterment that gentrification has historically allowed for is largely a result of the gatekeeping of capital that was initiated by the region's colonizers. This hypothesis is assessed through the analysis of various means of financial and social betterment - property ownership, public safety, and public services - that we born during Hudson's colonization in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries. The strength and persistence of these colonial legacies will be evaluated through the comparison of various bodies of legislation and institutions that have been actively functioning during Hudson's more recent period of gentrification - beginning around 1960 and lasting until current day. This study ultimately reveals that the degree to which one possesses the "correct" means of social and financial capital, as determined by Hudson's colonizers, severely affects the extent to which one has access to property ownership, public services, and protection by public safety measures today, which together guarantee one's chances for ...
This article contributes to critical archival studies discourse and builds upon the theoretical and practical work accomplished under the postcustodial rubric in order to propose an archival framework that is explicitly oriented in the service of justice. Global north/south postcustodial collaborations highlight the ethical and practical obligation of adopting an archival framework that accounts for expanded notions of stewardship and narrative agency. As an archivist based in US academic libraries who works primarily on transnational archival collaborations in the global south, I want to introduce the concept of contributive justice to these postcustodial transnational collaborations because it reframes the role of the partner organization in the global south and acknowledges the agency of all partners (Gomberg 2007). By drawing upon my experiences facilitating transnational archival partnerships between US academic libraries and institutions in Cuba, El Salvador, and Rwanda, I build upon Michelle Caswell's (2017) suggested actions for dismantling white supremacy within US archives by offering concrete ways archivists can utilize a contributive justice framework to decolonize archival practices (i.e., appraisal, description, access) within transnational partnerships. By offering these examples, we can begin to both imagine and enact a more just and liberatory archival praxis. As Caswell states, 'through the lens of liberatory archival imaginaries, our work … does not end with the limits of our collection policies, but rather, it is an ongoing process of conceptualizing what we want the future to look like' (2014a: 51). The stakes are high in the shaping of our collective histories, and we all have the responsibility of envisioning and enacting liberatory archival futures.