The Changing Landscape in Archival Studies

 Notes

The conversation about archives

In discussing the controversies surrounding access to archives detailing the colonial past, Lowry notes changes in how archivists speak of their work.  Another point to be made in relation to the displacement of archives of colonialism is that very often textbooks contain a version of the colonial ethos. That version so often puts the voices of colonial domination into the mouths of children, a trope that, for many, obscures the reality of people's lived experience. 

But, at the same time, these essays demonstrate that the conversation may be changing. Over the several years since the previous volume was published, the archival dialogue has shifted. Archivists have become both angrier and resigned and are searching for different, forward-looking solutions. A new archival vocabulary is shifting the value of disputed archives – terms such as ‘affect’, ‘radical empathy’ and ‘social justice’ throw a different light on the situation for the country, region, territory and individuals denied these archives.

Lowry, J. (2023). Disputed Archival Heritage. library.oapen.org.

According to Lise Jaillant, the conversation about solving the problem of access to digital archives (born-digital, digital, and "dark" archives) needs to be cross disciplinary.   She claims that we need to "set up collaborations across disciplines that seldom talk to each other." 

Jaillant, L. (2022). How can we make born-digital and digitised archives more accessible? Identifying obstacles and solutions. Archival Science, 22(3), 417–436.

The schoolbooks project recognizes the interdisciplinary nature of working with digital archives, and will research and share work done by researchers in a number of academic, organizational and public arenas.  However the schoolbooks approach differs in that the method is to dive deeply into access and engagement issues of two Canadian textbook archives in hopes that lessons so learned can be shared with archivists across disciplines.

The value of archives

Lowry also speaks of the values of archives, which often are undervalued in relation to other kinds of displaced artifacts (such as looted art objects or items with cultural significance).  

Archives have representational potency. They can cause terrible pain (archives wound) or give comfort (archives heal), and, like people, they can do many other things to our psychic states because they come from, describe, can stand in for and are intended for people. Likewise, records can be highly consequential to our bodies, about which they convey data (such as medical data), transmit commands (such as execution or deportation orders) and shape environments (as in design documentation for physical and digital spaces).

As for aesthetics, archives frequently are beautiful, in their formal elements, on screens or other carriers, because of their calligraphic fourishes, bitmaps, forms design, images, patinas, glitches, in their decay. From striking photography to intricate illuminations, archival aesthetics can pique the interest of the collector, whether private or state.3

Textbooks are somewhat like these documentational archives:  they share some of the indirect or not-so-obvious values. But most importantly they are "intended for people."  

Proposed solutions