Archives Flashcards
How can we label archivists?
Truth-tellers
What did historians/archivists use to stress was most important?
Having a full historical record
What did the main challenge use to be for historians?
To collect and preserve as many historically significant documents as possible?
What was historians’ role in all this?
To examine, fill gaps and correct
Whose study focuses on local archives?
Proctor’s
Who does he argue need to help local archivists?
The client group
List some reasons why archives have been created in the past
To meet legal requirements, to protect rights, to remove rights, to entertain, to create cohesion, to create a communal memory
What was/is the most common role?
A combination of record-keeping and access
What is a key role for archivists?
To manage information from the point of creation to the point of access
Who was a leading archivist in the past?
Jenkinson
What did Jenkinson stress?
Preservation as priority
What is a quote from Jenkinson of an archivist’s task?
Managing, collecting, preserving and enabling access to information in whatever shape and form the time demands
What is the main of the ISA’s main archivist?
Lozowick
What highlights newly digitised material from the ISA?
English language blog
What is the main focus of archival administration?
Preservation and care of unique records of actions
What is the term for respecting the arrangement of sources?
Respect des fonds
On what is the study of history based?
One generation’s ability to understand events, motives, environments of previous generations through the research of information collected or left behind
What is the literal definition of an archive?
In a literal sense it refers to both the body of documentation and the repository housing it
What is the metaphorical definition of an archive?
Oppressive discursive system enforcing official versions of history. Also a liberating embodiment of alternative and subjective forms of lived experience.
Who argues that an archive includes people’s memories?
Burton
What is the quote by Burton of what an archive entails?
Any mode or site wherein knowledge is gathered together
What three types of components does an archive have, exerting a subtle/insidious influence on what constitutes an acceptable / unacceptable form of inquiry?
Physical, organisational and human
List some things which can have a subtle influence on what constitutes an acceptable / unacceptable form of inquiry?
Architecture, finding aids, methods of arrangement, descriptions, referencing service
How does Brown define an archive?
Repository, place or space in which materials of historical interest or social significance are stored and ordered
How can a national archive be defined?
The storing and ordering place of the collective memory of that nation or peoples
What was the impact of the rise of the state?
Gave rise to modern archives, libraries, museums as places of secular, national memory
What was the role of the archive with the rise of the state?
To help store and create imagined communities
What are archives, if not just guardians of memory?
Manufacturers of memory
What have structuralists shown?
That a logical, categorical order easily becomes a social or moral hierarchy
What are examples of subtle hierarchies in archives?
Culture-nature, right-left, black-white
What do archivists argue about the classifications of materials?
That classifications emerge from the inherent order of the material
How does Stoler see archives?
Archives as places of knowledge production, monuments of state and sites of state ethnography
Who has stressed the impact of outward forms of paper records, as influencing the researcher?
Craven
What sources are especially vulnerable?
Born digital sources
Why are ‘born digital’ sources vulnerable?
Their survival is determined by their current use and usefulness for creations, rather than any potential archival value
What has Proctor predicted?
The end of local history
Why are local materials more vulnerable?
The archive sector at a local level is too small to sustain separate preservation strategies
What two things challenge the notion of the longevity and permanence of archives?
Nature and multiplicity of blogs and web communication
What does the explosion of sources require?
A revolution in preservation tactics
What now outdated view did Jenkinson hold?
That archives are not collected, but come together and reach their final arrangements by a natural process
What percentage of the British Library’s material is digitised?
1%
What is increasing faster than archival resources?
Records increasing in quantity and complexity
What is the result of archives being dependent on external funding?
Must stay attuned to the expectations of customers and patrons
Who argued that learning to use a database and scan materials etc. takes up time that could be used to write?
Andersen
Who argued that “it is quite clear that historians will have to grapple with abundance, not scarcity?
Cohen
What was the impact of the linguistic turn?
Texts can no longer be read as confident guides to the past. Undermines confidence in the scientific method.
What is a key quote to reflect the linguistic turn?
All representations of the past are constructed in the present
What are the implications of technological innovations, according to Ridener?
They have created an expectation of democratic-record keeping
What was the impact of the creation of the typewriter?
The ability to quickly create multiple copies. Problems of duplication and authentication
What are the problems with data-migration?
It is expensive and time-consuming
What is the equivalent of data-migration?
Equivalent of photocopying all books in a library every five years
Who is a leading figure in digital archiving?
Hedstrom
What does Hedstrom argue digital archivists must do?
Develop solutions that are appropriate, effective, affordable and acceptable
What did Marshal argue in 1964?
The medium is the message
Who argues that the medium can impact the interpretation and message?
McLuhan
What company is the main authority on digital media?
NIST
What is the range in lifespan of digital media?
20-200 years
What can ruin a CD or DVD?
A stray static charge or magnetic field
50% of what are now unreadable?
Hansard links
Who argues that we are living in the midst of a digital dark age?
Kuny
What makes it difficult to concentrate on a page?
When the position of words are constantly changing
Who stresses the loss of experience and impact on learning on digital sources?
Towheed
What three problems does Towheed highlight with digitisation?
Scanning Chinese characters, optical character recognition, data download restrictions
What electronic database is not aimed at browsing?
British Newspapers 1800-1900
What kind of newspapers are difficult to digitise?
Broadsheets
What is becoming more remote and hard to reconstruct?
The experience of casual browsing
Who declared that America was in danger of losing its memory in 1985?
Committee on Records of Government
What aspects are there to making an online database / what do you need digital tools for?
To receive, process and store submissions
What technical challenges are there to making an online database?
Installing and configuring appropriate software
What is a problem with digital material beyond data corruption?
All digital material needs a special set of eyes, unique hardware, accompanying operating system and application software
What has meant that webpages from the 1990s might be unreadable?
Several versions of HTML
What does Towheed argue there is a loss of familiarity with?
Size, shape, form, smell, texture
What is a problem with mass digitisation?
Presents an unreflective level-playing field
Why are digital materials harder to authenticate?
There is no clear notion of an original
Who sees the internet as dangerous?
Himmelfarb
How many books is Google planning to digitise?
15 million
What area of research is already dominated by electronic books?
Physical sciences
What are practical problems with physical archives?
Shelf space is expensive, stacks must be kept at the right temperature and humidity, and must be lit, cleaned, inspected and insured
What percentage of records are permanently accessioned by the National Archives?
2%
After how many years are records reviewed at TNA?
5 years
What books could be revolutionary in the future?
Multi-layered books
What is a crucial benefit for historians, with the increased amount of digital material?
It allows for longer-term engagement and closer reading
Digitisation marks the end of…
The tyranny of shelf space
Who argues that digitisation allows you to be more adventurous with research?
Towheed
What is a good summary of what is happening in the archive sector (Towheed)?
Change, but not revolution surrounds us
How does Kahle view the internet?
As the people’s medium
Who argues that the quality of web-based historical resources is surprisingly good and improving?
Rosenzweig
How does the British Library justify the use of digitisation?
It opens up new areas of research
Who argues that colonial archives are technologies that bolstered the production of states?
Stoler
What did colonial publishing houses do?
Made sure that documents were selectively duplicated, disseminated and destroyed
What does Guha argue about colonial documents?
Erased the facts of subjugation
How do colonial archives distort past realities?
Petty crime becomes political subversion
Who has studied French archives in Algeria?
Colonna
What did French archives in Algeria do to those who worked in government?
Penalised those with too much or insufficient knowledge
Who helps the ISA with large-scanning scanning of holdings?
Heritage Division of the Prime Minister’s office
Who helped the ISA digitise maps and photos?
Department of Judaism, Harvard
Who helped the Zionist archives?
Holocaust Museum, Washington
What is the slogan used by Lozowick?
“Help us preserve the national memory of the Jewish people”
What letter did the ISA scan this year on 5th May?
Truman’s letter
Who argued that “who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past”?
Orwell
With what motive can archives be reshaped?
To enshrine particular historical narratives
What did McCormick describe archives as?
Colonial weapons of oppression
What were seized in 1974?
Nixon White House tapes
What does the Vatican possess?
The finest collection of sexually explicit art
What is an example of the politics of access?
Arafat’s visit to the American Holocaust Museum
Who argues that there are imposed silences of the Haitian Revolution?
Trouillot
How does Foucault view archives?
Not as an institution, but the law of what can be said
What did Derrida say about archives and political power?
There is no political power without control of the archive
How does Stoler see archives constructing moral narratives?
By ordering evidence, proof, testimonies and witnesses
How does Proctor see the difficulties of over-abundance being countered?
With the increased sophistication of search engines and portals
Who does Craven see as being far ahead of archives?
Museum profession
What should we focus on to help preservation?
Short-term preservation horizons
What well-known solutions are there for preserving digital materials?
Frequent backups in multiple locations, regular data-transferring
What is used by the British Library to simulate a real reading experience?
Turning Pages TM
What reflects backward looking solutions to the problems of digitisation?
Translating digital information into something more familiar and reassuring. To preserve original equipment
How is the ISA trying to work out what is most important to preserve?
Asking the public what to prioritise
How many km of records are kept by the ISA?
40 km
What is a big task facing the ISA? What will this amount to?
Must make a list of each government position and function. 100 000
What has hindered the preservation of digital material in Israel?
No procedure for archiving digital documentation
What company claims to “own the Eighteenth Century”?
Thomson Corporation
How many pages of text and titles does the Thompson Corporation have in its database?
33 million papers, 150 000 titles
What database is the equivalent of an assistant professor’s annual salary?
ProQuest historical newspapers
What is the impact of the high cost of subscribing to electronic databases?
In danger of reproducing the information divide
By what doctrine are books etc. commanded?
First sale doctrine
How does the legal system upholding books contrast with that of digital goods?
Digital goods are licensed, not sold
Why have publishers not assumed preservation responsibility?
No obvious profit to be made
What is on the NY Times’ website?
Robot exclusion file
When did the Internet Archive begin archiving?
1996
What French Revolution decree links to archives?
Article 37 of Messidor Decree. The principle of accessibility to public records
How many emails were sent daily in 2005?
35 billion
Who argues that e-technology should have addressed the problems posed by emails as it evolved?
Friedberg
What basic problem undermines emails as a future source?
Hard-drive space on mail servers means mailboxes must be routinely cleared
What is a main problem with printing emails?
Breaks crucial links between related messages and attachments
What can radically alter a message’s meaning?
Removing a subject heading
How many emails did the Clinton admin send each year?
6 million
When were the PLO’s archives destroyed?
1982 Lebanon invasion
Who designed the building of the CZA in 1987?
Moshe Zahti
What else was created by the architect who designed the CZA building?
Temple of Memory at the Holocaust Memorial, Moscow
When did the ISA replace its “magic software”?
2007
With what did the ISA replace its “magic software”?
New Technologies’ Documentum
What does Lozowick see the purpose of archives as being?
Civic ends
What quote from Lozowick exemplifies his view of an archives’ mission?
The mission of the archive is to transfer documentation of the government to the possession of the governed
What technologies are used by Yad Vashem?
Multilingual search tool and Google maps
What major historical texts have now been digitised?
Dead Sea Scrolls, Codex Sinaticus
What archive was created by Steven Spielberg and where is it?
Jewish Film Archive. Mount Scopus
What kind of material is held at Yad Vashem and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish people?
Microfilm
What new app was released by the ISA’s twitter?
Documenting Camp David Accord on the 35th anniversary
What event was talked about by the ISA’s twitter, showing its political nature/role?
MV Struma 1942
What is kept secret by the ISA?
Location of classified information
What is kept in a thick, leather book and leather-embossed? What is Lozowick’s justification for this?
Israel-Egypt Peace Agreement. “It is a very special document”
What object is kept by the ISA?
Gun used to shoot PM Rabin
At what four stages does Trouillot see silencing happening?
Fact creation, fact assembly, fact retrieval, moment of retrospective significance
What must be remembered about archival documents?
They are never reality in themselves
How many books had been scanned by the Internet Archives by 1 November 2009?
821786
What is the equivalent of the number of records created by the US Federal Government each year?
124 years of records from Washington-Wilson
What legislation was introduced in 2004 in Britain?
Central government bodies had to create a manage electronic records
What must electronic record management systems have now in Britain?
Archival functionality
What does “archive functionality” mean?
The ability to recognise and manage potential archival value
What determined that government bodies must transfer records of archival value to TNA?
Public Records Act
What harvests a selection of government websites at regular intervals?
UK Government Web Archive
To what kind of records does the PRA relate to?
Legal, court, prison, health and military records
What requirements do not extend to local government records?
“Modernising government” requirements
What is there no fixed link between? (Think Proctor)
Between local authority departments and local record offices
How can TNA be described?
In house repository
What are local record offices technically?
Collecting repositories
What percentage of local, electronic records are accessioned in England?
94%
What enforced the concept of the public’s “right of access”?
2000 Freedom of Information act
What is the impact of Uzbekistan’s archives been separated into ‘historical’ and ‘revolutionary’ sections?
Deters efforts to locate continuities
When did Netanyahu extend classification by 20 years?
2010
What was Netanyahu accused of doing by extending Israel’s classification period?
Avoiding less than heroic chapters
How did Goldstein describe the closure of Israel’s archives by 20 years?
Against the spirit of an open society
What documents are off-limits in Israeli archives?
Mossad, Shin Bet, nuclear energy
How many electronic downloads were there from TNA in 2006-07?
66 million
What percentage of historians use digital or electronic reproductions?
21%
What percentage of historians least liked using electronic reproductions?
6%
How many records are digitised by the CZA?
2876000
How many documents, photos, maps, posters are scanned by the CZA?
12 million
What does Lozowick deny his job as being?
Damage control
Who visited the ISA recently?
John Kerry
What is the name of the Palestinian attempting to create a Palestinian Library of Congress?
Sami Batrawi
How many books did Sami Batrawi’s father leave him?
15000
On what topic would Batrawi’s project be useful?
Palestinian National Heritage
What is Batrawi’s role in the PA?
Director General of Intellectual Property Unit of Ministry of Culture
How many Palestinians have a graduate degree in library science?
Less than 12
For how many years has Batrawi tried to create a Library of Congress, hindered by government bureaucracy?
Over two years
What does the PA lack?
A uniform copyright law
How many volumes of ‘abandoned property’ from Palestinians are in Israel’s National Library?
30 000
What do some Palestinians fear might happen if all their records are in one place?
That Israel will destroy it
