Revisiting Archive Collections

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Revisiting Archive Collections

• Jon Newman Len Reilly
• For

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Revisiting Archive Collections

• Developing a methodology for capturing and
  incorporating new and hidden information into
  archive catalogues.Context

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User-generated content
Professional cataloguing standards
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National agendas

• Access,
• Inclusion,
• Cultural Diversity,
• Relevance
• Community Engagement
• PIs/Standards
• Current debate over Archive Self-assessment
• Funding

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Customer-focused culture

• An expectation that individual voices are heard
  valued feedback, consultation
• Citizen Journalism/Social Media
• stories told from a position of first hand
  knowledge and partiality
• Reality television
• Public History
• The democratisation of the academy

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ICT developments

• Web 2.0
• Social Networking sites
• blogs, chat rooms wiki sites
• Folksonomies
• Review sites restaurants, hotels, cinema,
  hospitals
• E-petitions
• Crowdsourcing
• The ESP Game

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Professional Cataloguing Standards

• Provider capture?
• Acknowledging the suppressed first-person
  prefixes in catalogue description
• I think that this is
• I think the important features of this are
• Backlogs v. Revisiting
• Comparison with museum standards

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Current Archive Initiatives 1

• Cataloguing projects using a cultural focus
• TNAs Caribbean Heritage project
• Birminghams Connecting Histories
• Cataloguing projects using a community focus
• Tyne Wears Swan Hunter cataloguing project
• ESROs Letter in the Attic project
• Revisiting Archives Collections pilot
• Community Archives and post-custodial
  relationships
• CAAP
• Commanet
• Community Archives portal

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Current Archive Initiatives 2

• Wiki approaches to capturing user input
• TNAs wiki site http//yourarchives.nationalarchiv
  es.gov.uk
• challenging the traditional methods of
  authorship and facilitating the
  democratisation of history.
• University of Michigans Polar Bear Expedition
  project
• current online finding aids merely reproduce
  paper finding aids without taking advantage of
  their electronic environment.

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Current Archive Initiatives 3

• But, they are generally
• Isolated
• Pragmatic
• Project-Based
• Impermanent
• Unsustainable

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Revisiting Archive Collections

• Developing a methodology for capturing and
  incorporating new and hidden information into
  archive catalogues.Theoretical and Practical
  issues

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What are the wider goals?

• Improve description and catalogues
• Make archivists sensitive to collections and
  their users
• Use UGC to engage new audiences
• Present new information
• Improve service to existing users?

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Who are the potential contributors?

• How identify them
• How reach them
• On what terms do they wish to participate how
  deal with IPR, what is their preferred method of
  participation?

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Which materials are most suited to this approach?

• Poorly catalogued material
• Un-catalogued material
• Heavily used material
• Underused material
• Material likely to interest specific groups
• Material likely to hold concealed significances?

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What categories of new data is likely to be
generated and what further problems do these
raise ?

• Un-contentious corrections
• More detail at item level (greater precision)
• Broader representation of research areas the
  material would support
• Associations or observational responses?

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New association or observation

• My tribe is Manyema, this is Waha. This reminds
  me of the cultural tradition where we come from
  (the same region but different tribes) of
  playfully mocking each other. For example at our
  funerals the Waha come and help but try to make
  us laugh by joking about what has happened, which
  is their way of being there for you. At weddings
  you have to pay them their due, acknowledging
  their presence in your life for good fortune.

Tanzanian womans response to a photograph in RGS
collection.
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What are the most appropriate and productive
strategies for effectively generating user
generated content?

• Face-to-face
• with which groups
• with which records?
• On-line
• what technical environment
• how reach contributors
• what interface
• how sustain?

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What are the most effective strategies for
capturing new data?

• Face to face
• forms completed individually
• by partner/interviewer
• audio or video recording?
• On-line
• technical environment
• how reach contributors
• what interface
• how sustain?

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What level of editing will the new data require?

• Accept uncritically
• Mediate
• Authenticate?

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How and where should the new data be incorporated
in descriptions and finding aids?

• What is the relationship between new data and
  descriptive standards
• What is the relationship between the new data and
  offices views n the status of their
  descriptions
• Should the location of data influenced by
  information retrieval strategy of groups
• Do we know enough about information retrieval
  strategies of users and potential users
• How do description page layout, headings etc.
  influence catalogues effectiveness?

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What anxieties is this likely to generate in the
profession and how are they best assuaged?

• Challenges the single, neutral professional
  voice
• Challenges principle of only describing and
  indexing where the material is rich in
  information
• Impact on precision and recall
• Accommodating data, subjects or terminology that
  may age (in terms of language or research
  interest)?

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(How) can this approach be made persistent and
sustainable?

• Can UGC be used universally or must it be
  targeted
• to which collections
• using which focus groups
• to which potential user group
• Is the focus group approach applicable to all
  materials/groups/descriptions that would benefit
  
• How do we sustain the link between new data that
  lives outside ISAD(G) boundaries
• How do we sustain in the face of the changing
  research interests of future generations?

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What are the most effective strategies for
publishing and disseminating new descriptions and
finding aids?

• How publish and distribute new descriptions
• What is the best link between authoritative
  description and UGC
• how does this work in paper and electronic
  contexts
• How do ISAD(G) and EAD support UGC
• How to market and promote new descriptions

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How evaluate the impact of user generated content?

• Against the wider goals
• How do users treat the new data
• Could professional staff (or more of them with
  more time) produce equally effective results?