Search results

The paper reviews literature on the obstacles that hinder the use of information held in archival institutions. First, it highlights the importance of records and archives as sources of information. Second, the paper examines the problems which hinder archival access, mainly focusing on those that are of a professional and technical nature. Third, it presents the components of a good archival programme to enhance the use of archival information. A summary of the key findings is given and the paper concludes by noting that archival institutions need to take certain measures in order to enhance the exploitation of information in their custody.

The purpose of this study was to examine the strategies for the preservation of archival materials in the International Council on Archives Section on University and Research Institution Archives (ICA SUV) by the members and to make recommendations for the digital archival preservation to continue its accessibility during the national lockdown because of COVID–19.

This study is based on the survey conducted on the ICA SUV members during the national lockdown. The study used a survey research methodology through e-mails as data collection instruments.

The key findings revealed that most of the sections on university and research institution archives lack digitization preservation strategies and most of their records are not accessible online, as most of their collections are still preserved manually through the paper-based system; furthermore, archivists are not fully trained on digital management. The paper recommends universities to develop preservation strategies to migrate records from the paper-based system to electronic records management system.

The population of the study comprised ICA SUV members, who responded to the survey. Therefore, the sample size and geographical spread were inadequate for generalization of the findings. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that accessibility of the archives was dependent on the quality of digitized archives.

This study demonstrates that the development of a preservation strategy enhances access to archival materials during the national lockdown because of COVID–19.

This paper highlights the plight of university archives and reiterates the need for urgent digitization of their archives of universities all over the world.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this paper appears to be the first to review the responsibilities of archivists now and in the future as the result of COVID–19. This study is confirmed to be on the positive side of COVID–19 and change the archive sector by adapting to information communication technology.

The purpose of this chapter is to delineate a number of factors unique to archives that problematize commonly accepted rhetoric in library and information studies (LIS).

This study reports on an analysis of several core concepts in archival studies (evidence, access, and power) and delineates how such concepts differ from dominant conceptions in the study of libraries.

Our research shows how archives call into question three dominant discursive tropes in LIS: the primacy of informational value (as opposed to evidential value in archives); universal access as a professional and ethical obligation; and the assumption that information institutions are universally benevolent. Although such tropes have been increasingly challenged by growing numbers of critical LIS scholars, we argue that they remain dominant discursive formations in LIS and reflect key areas of divergence that differentiate archives from libraries and distinguish the professional ethos of archivists and librarians.

This is the first chapter to delineate how archives differ from libraries in regard to human rights concerns and will spark discussion about such differences between the fields.

In the wake of the fourth industrial revolution, where most information is accessible online, archives should be visible online for them to fulfil their legislated mandate and facilitate access to information resources. The Covid-19 pandemic has further underscored the importance of online platforms in making archives accessible without the public having to visit archival institutions physically. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which public archival institutions of South Africa are visible online with the view to deepen their understanding of how archives promote themselves online.

The study employed content analysis to establish the online content of public archival institutions in South Africa. A google search was conducted using the names of the archival institutions as search terms. The top results obtained after the search were recorded for further analysis.

The findings suggest that public archival institutions in South Africa have limited online presence. Only the National Archives of South Africa had an active website with collections that are accessible online. Some provincial archives had websites hosted by their parent bodies while others had no websites at all. Only the Limpopo and Eastern Cape provincial archives had their Facebook pages in the top results. There were no signs of other social media sites in the top results.

The study concludes that public archival institutions are not visible online. All provincial archives need to have websites where they can be accessed. The use of social media platforms needs to be prioritised. In this fourth industrial revolution age, people communicate and interact online. Public archival institutions should therefore make it their primary mandate to take the archives to where the people are currently meeting.

The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting presents one promising method by which metadata regarding archives and manuscripts can be shared and made more interoperable with metadata from other sources. Against the background of archival descriptive theory and practice, this article outlines a method for exposing deep, hierarchical metadata from encoded archival description (EAD) files and assesses some theoretical and practical issues that will need to be confronted by institutions choosing to provide or harvest OAI records generated from EAD files. Using OAI on top of existing EAD implementations would allow institutions to repurpose their data and potentially reach more users but would also accelerate the process of reengineering archival access mechanisms. Archivists and technologists using OAI with EAD must pay careful attention to the necessity of preserving archival context and provenance.

This paper aims to investigate the role of documentary editions in supporting the development of historical collections in libraries, their function as evidential and informational objects and considerations for their evaluation in collection development. Framed as objects possessing bibliographic and archival characteristics, attention is given to the evaluative challenges these objects present during collection development.

This paper provides an archival and bibliographic analysis of documentary editions through examining and discussing their archival and bibliographic elements. Consideration is given to how these elements are expressed as information and evidence, how they operate as scholarly and archive-like objects and how they acquire value as collected objects. This approach clarifies the informational and evidential characteristics of these works, offering a framework for their evaluation in libraries.

Documentary editions possess archival and bibliographic characteristics, requiring that evaluators critique the scholarly value and archival integrity of their content. This has implications for the curation of archival objects in library collections, where library and archival expertise can support a more nuanced assessment of these works.

The blurred documentary character of these works has been identified by scholars (Cox, 1991). This paper presents evaluative considerations. Here, these characteristics are clarified, and an approach for evaluating these works is offered.

Archival arrangement and description establish physical and intellectual control over archives and manuscripts, enabling users to find the records they need. Description is the process of analyzing and recording information about these materials. The descriptive tools used to convey this information are called finding aids. In order to find manuscripts and archives when we need them, we must shift our orientation from single documents to groups of materials that can be described collectively. The principle of provenance likewise changes our focus from subject matter to the organic origins of documents, based on the purposes for which they were initially created and used. Archives and manuscripts are unique materials, but they can be organized and described using standards that permit data exchange and access by means of national networks, such as OCLC and RLIN, and through Web sites, using encoded archival description for archival finding aids. Descriptive practices continue to evolve, and improved systems are likely to be developed within the next decade.

The purpose of this paper is to examine user studies as well as user education within the context of public services offered by archival institutions. It highlighted some of the key aspects that constitute both concepts drawing from history in order to provide a better understanding in the context of current professional discussions.

The review analysed peer-reviewed articles ranging from the late 1970s to the present time to illuminate debates in the archival professional underpinning the current understanding of user studies and user education.

The paper outlined the different paths used in user studies to ensure data collection is exhaustive and provides a nuanced assessment of user needs. It also outlined the two related paradigms of structuring user education programmes, highlighted the points at which they differ and the rich discussions resulting from comparative analysis.

The paper demonstrated that there is a rich corpus of professional literature on both user studies and user education, expounding on different aspects that would ensure both are designed and implemented effectively.

Managing archives using robots rather than people can considerably enhance efficiency, while need to modify the structure of archive shelves or installation tracks. This paper aims to develop a fully automated archive access robot without modification.

First, a mobile navigation chassis and a motion algorithm based on laser ranging and map matching are created for autonomous movement to any of the archives’ locations. Second, because the existing archives are stacked vertically, the bionic manipulator is made to mimic the movement of manual access to the archives, and it is attached to the robot arm’s end to access different layers of archives. In addition, an industrial camera is used to complete barcode identification of the archives and acquire data on their location and thickness. Finally, the archive bin is created to store archives.

The robot can move, identify and access multiple archival copies placed on floors 1–6 and 2–5 cm thick autonomously without modifying the archival repository or using auxiliary devices.

The robot is currently able to navigate, identify and access files placed on different levels. In the future, the speed of the robot’s navigation and the movement of the robot arm could be even faster, while the level of visualization of the robot could be further improved and made more intelligent.

The archive access robot developed by the authors makes it possible for robots to manage archives instead of human, while being cheaper and easier to deploy than existing robots, and has already been tested in the archive storage room of the State Grid maintenance branch in Jiangsu, China, with better results.

The all-in-one archive access robot can replace existing robotic access solutions, promote intelligent management of the archive industry and the construction of unmanned archive repositories and provide ideas for the development of robots for accessing book-like materials.

This study explores the use of robots to identify and access archives without changing archive shelves or installing auxiliary devices. In this way, the robot can be quickly applied to the storage room to improve the efficiency of archive management.

In response to the special issue call for papers on international sources for advertising and marketing history, this paper aims to provide information, this paper provides information on two prominent New Zealand archives: Archives New Zealand and the Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL).

Archives New Zealand and the ATL were chosen as they are the two largest archives in New Zealand, and both have different but complementary roles – one for the preservation of government records and the other for the preservation of private collections. The history of each is provided as well as a discussion of relevant materials for marketing historians. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of the archives with regards to their colonial contexts and potential for ignoring the “other” over the years.

Archives New Zealand houses official government documents and thus occupational registrations, licences, trademarks, patents and copyright records are held, along with unique product design registration files and the complete history of health promotion in New Zealand. The ATL houses personal and thus biographically useful photographs, society records and minutes, personal letters and diaries, photos and glass plate negatives, portraits and paintings, architectural works and music.

For researchers pursuing historical research in marketing, the archival documents offered by government archives and donated private collections from throughout the world provide invaluable resources. This paper also provides a discussion of the colonial focus on record-keeping and potential bias stemming from colonial structures of government and lack of representation of marginalised groups.