Table Of ContentWHAT ARE ARCHIVES?
To the Walrus
What are Archives?
Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives: A Reader
Edited by
LOUISE CRAVEN
The National Archives, UK
© Louise Craven 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Louise Craven has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the editor of this work.
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Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
What are archives? : cultural and theoretical perspectives
: a reader
1. Archives
I. Craven, Louise
027
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
What are archives? : cultural and theoretical perspectives : a reader / [edited] by Louise Craven.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-7310-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Archives. 2. Archives--Social
aspects. 3. Archives--Philosophy. 4. Archives--Automation. 5. Archival materials--
Digitization. 6. Archivists. I. Craven, Louise, 1952-
CD971.W48 2008
027--dc22
2008022326
ISBN 978 0 7546 7310 1
Contents
List of Figures vii
About the Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
Preface xvii
Introduction 1
Louise Craven
THEME I CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE ARCHIVAL PARADIGM
1 From the Archivist’s Cardigan to the Very Dead Sheep:
What are Archives? What are Archivists? What do They Do? 7
Louise Craven
2 The Textuality of the Archive 31
Andrew Prescott
3 Personal Papers: Perceptions and Practices 53
Caroline Williams
THEME II THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
4 Opening Pandora’s Box: What is an Archive in the Digital
Environment? 71
Michael Moss
5 The Online Archivist: A Positive Approach to the Digital
Information Age 89
Jane Stevenson
vi What are Archives?
THEME III THE IMPACT OF COMMUNITY ARCHIVES
6 Other Ways of Thinking, Other Ways of Being. Documenting
the Margins and the Transitory: What to Preserve, How to Collect 109
Andrew Flinn
7 Archives of Exile: Exile of Archives 129
Andrew Prescott
THEME IV ARCHIVAL USE AND USERS
8 Users, Use and Context: Supporting Interaction Between Users
and Digital Archives 145
Andrea Johnson
9 Permitted Use and Users: The Fallout Shelter’s Sealed Environment 167
Gerard P. Collis
Index 189
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Homepage for the CASBAH website, by courtesy of the
Institute of Commonwealth Studies 9
Figure 1.2 Homepage for DocumentsOnline, on the website of
The National Archives (by courtesy of The National Archives) 18
Figure 1.3 Homepage for The Southwell (Nottinghamshire)
Experience, on the website of The National Archives
(by courtesy of The National Archives) 20
Figure 3.1 Writ of Summons, 1433. C219/14/3 (by courtesy
of the National Archives) 61
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About the Contributors
Gerard Collis – better known as Paddy – is a librarian. Paddy is data and website editor
for the Archives Hub, a gateway to descriptions of archives held in UK universities
and institutions of higher and further education. The Archives Hub is supported by
JISC, and is a service provided by MIMAS at the University of Manchester. Paddy’s
research interests include subject indexing, science fiction and surrealism.
Louise Craven is Head of Cataloguing at The National Archives of England and
Wales and the UK (TNA). Prior to her post at TNA she worked as an archivist for
the Historical Manuscripts Commission and for the Greater London Record Office
(now London Metropolitan Archives), and as a teacher for the Open University,
the Roehampton Institute and Thames Polytechnic. She has contributed actively to
conferences concerned with archives and society and has published on a variety
of archival and historical topics, most recently in Archives (XXXII (117), October
2007) on the role of epic and heroic narrative in archives and society today.
Andrew Flinn is Programme Director of the Archives and Records Management
M.A. programme at University College London, chair of the Forum for Archives
and Records Management Education and Research (FARMER) and editor of the
Journal of the Society of Archivists. He is principal investigator on the AHRC-
funded ‘Community Archives and Identities’ project which will examine community
archive and heritage initiatives amongst black and minority ethnic groups. Andrew
was previously archivist of the Labour and Communist party archives held at
the National Museum of Labour History at the University of Manchester. Recent
publications include ‘Community histories, community archives: some opportunities
and challenges’ in the Journal of the Society of Archivists (28 (2), 2007) and (with
Morgan and Cohen) Communists and British Society 1920–1991 (London: Rivers
Oram), 2007.
Andrea Johnson is a Ph.D. computer science student at University College Cork,
Ireland. Her research interests include the use of digital archives, the information-
seeking patterns of digital archive users, user modelling, contextual inquiry,
evaluation methodology and discourse analysis. She is a project management
consultant specializing in the areas of project specification and development and
user-centred evaluations. She has recently undertaken several commissions for the
Archives and Records Council of Wales, including ‘Ask the People’, which consulted
the people of Wales regarding 21st-century archive provision.
