Documentation

1
Documentation

• A common ground for research for the Cultural
  Heritage sector
• Niels Windfeld Lund
• University of Tromsø, Norway

2
Documentation

• A theoretical approach
• Importance of concepts
• Our task is not to penetrate into the essence
  of things, the meaning of which we don't know
  anyway, but rather to develop concepts which
  allow us to talk in a productive way about
  phenomena in nature (Niels Bohr 1935)

3
Diversity of documents

• Why Documentation Studies in Tromsø
• Act of legal deposit 1989 - all media
• Convergency vs. Diversity

4
What is a document ?

• Document doceo mentum
• Doceo
• - to demonstrate, show
• Mentum
• - means
• - result

5
To document

• To document is to show something by using some
  means in some modes resulting in one or more
  documents
• To document you need a producer, means, modes and
  some results

6
Knitting documents

• A knitting recipe
• A knitten hat
• A book about knitting traditions
• Three different documents produced by different
  people using different means and made in
  different modes, but all documentation of
  knitting

7
What is documentation ?

• Post-document conception
• - document organisation - archives, libraries,
  museums
• Pre-document conception
• - document production - documentation is a
  precondition for communication - you always need
  means - no immediacy

8
Modes - traditions of documentation

• Document production
• Public administration - forms
• Literature - novels
• Music - libretto
• Science - article
• Journalism - documentary
• Politics - speech

9
Modes-tradition of documentation

• Document organisation
• Archives
• Libraries
• Museums
• All are document institutions
• Having different traditions for organizing
  documents for different purposes

10
The digital challenge

• Still new kinds of documents
• Blurring borders between institutions - new
  institutions ?
• Still new instruments
• Still new problems

11
Experimental research

• An instrumental approach
• A complementary perspective
• Critical studies of traditions
• Selection of means
• Document labs for document production as well as
  document organisation

12
A sample of cases

• Telemedicine - EPR
• Arts - performance as a document
• Research - classification of publications
• Trade - Image database of seafood
• Software - content/form
• Etc.

13
Documentation Studies

• Study programs BA-MA-Ph.D.
• Tech.-nat.,social sciences, humanities
• Specialties
• document development
• Document institution (libraries, (archives),
  (museums)
• Problem based work
• Project organised work
• Seminars

14
The Document Academy

• A collaborative project between University of
  Tromsø, Norway and University of California,
  Berkeley open for scholars, professionals,
  artists etc. worldwide interested in exploring
• The possibilities for making documents
• The potentialities of the concept of document
• Annual meeting, DOCAM, at Berkeley
• Workshops
• Planning Document labs
• http//thedocumentacademy.hum.uit.no