Annotation Summary for: 2011 Cook
Page 1, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The Archive(s) Is a Foreign Country: Historians, Archivists, and the Changing Archival Landscape Terry Cook0"
Comment: The Archive(s) Is a Foreign
Country: Historians, Archivists,
and the Changing Archival
Landscape
Terry Cook0
Page 1, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Historians and archivists approach the documentary past differently, as they consider, respectively, the “archive” (singular) and “archives” (plural). The former focuses on issues of power, memory, and identity centered upon the initial inscription of a document (or series of documents).The latter concentrates on the subsequent history of documents over time, including the many interventions by archivists (and others) that transform (and change) that original archive into archives."
Comment: Historians and archivists approach the documentary past differently, as they consider,
respectively, the “archive” (singular) and “archives” (plural). The former focuses on issues of
power, memory, and identity centered upon the initial inscription of a document (or series
of documents).The latter concentrates on the subsequent history of documents over time,
including the many interventions by archivists (and others) that transform (and change) that
original archive into archives.
Page 1, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the two professions have drifted apart in recent decades. reasons for this divergence"
Comment: the two professions
have drifted apart in recent decades.
reasons for this divergence
Page 2, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "archives are not unproblematic storehouses of records awaiting the historian, but active sites of agency and power. archives. Both professions could benefit significantly, therefore, from a renewed partnership centered upon the history of the record to produce better history."
Comment: archives are not unproblematic storehouses
of records awaiting the historian, but active sites of agency and power.
archives. Both professions could benefit significantly, therefore, from a renewed partnership
centered upon the history of the record to produce better history.
Page 2, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "misunderstandings between two professions that should be natural allies."
Comment: misunderstandings between two professions that should be natural
allies.
Page 2, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The “archive” (singular) is usually engaged by such scholars as a metaphoric symbol, as representation of identity, or as the recorded mem- ory production of some person or group or culture."
Comment: The “archive” (singular) is usually engaged by such scholars
as a metaphoric symbol, as representation of identity, or as the recorded mem-
ory production of some person or group or culture.
Page 3, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " New alliances have been formed with records managers and information technology spe cialists on the one hand, and with librariansand museum curators on the other, while the traditional historian-archivist bond has faded as somewhat passé. "
Comment: New alliances have been formed with records managers and information technology spe cialists on the one hand, and with librariansand museum curators on the other, while the traditional historian-archivist bond has faded as somewhat passé.
Page 3, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "historians (again, with those rare excep tions) have lost touch with many changes affecting the four core archival functions of appraisal and acquisition; arrangement, pro cessing, and description; preservation; and public programming of the very primary sources central to both professions, to say nothing of the demographic, economic, and technological challenges facing today’s archives.3"
Comment: historians (again, with those rare excep tions) have lost touch with many changes affecting the four core archival functions of appraisal and acquisition; arrangement, pro cessing, and description; preservation; and public programming of the very primary sources central to both professions, to say nothing of the demographic, economic, and technological challenges facing today’s archives.3
Page 4, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the archive(s) has become a foreign country for historians."
Comment: the archive(s) has
become a foreign country for historians.
Page 4, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Many in that earlier era certainly drew inspiration from the past, But they felt no great need to preserve the actual artifacts from that past."
Comment: Many in that earlier era certainly drew
inspiration from the past,
But they felt no great need to preserve the actual artifacts from
that past.
Page 4, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "nineteenth-century observers came to view the past, Lowenthal asserts, as a place quite different from the present. Attitudes toward the preservation of artifacts from that past consequently shifted radically as well, from theantiquarian to the professional, from passive neglect to active col lecting. "
Comment: nineteenth-century observers came to view the past, Lowenthal asserts,
as a place quite different from the present. Attitudes toward the preservation of artifacts from that past consequently shifted radically as well, from theantiquarian to the professional, from passive neglect to active col lecting.
Page 5, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "photography paral leled this development, by creating the illusion that one could capture—or collect—life’s “reality” with factual precision throughvisually truthful images."
Comment: photography paral leled this development, by creating the illusion that one could capture—or collect—life’s “reality” with factual precision throughvisually truthful images.
Page 5, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "This new collecting mentalité and reverence for a distant past led to the establishment in Western countries of “public” museums, gal leries, libraries, archives—even zoos—as major state institutions to preserve artifacts, specimens, images, books, and records."
Comment: This new collecting mentalité and reverence for a distant past led to the
establishment in Western countries of “public” museums, gal leries, libraries,
archives—even zoos—as major state institutions to preserve artifacts, specimens,
images, books, and records.
Page 5, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "these new nineteenth-century public institutions represented both a democrati- zation of culture and an exertion of social control over popular taste.10"
Comment: these new nineteenth-century public institutions represented both a democrati-
zation of culture and an exertion of social control over popular taste.10
Page 6, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The very act of archiving, then, ensured that the past was perceived as different from the present, more foreign than familiar, and, equally, that the archiv ing act itself imbued the newly collected and accessible documents with different meanings and, accordingly, different uses."
Comment: The very act of archiving, then, ensured that the past was
perceived as different from the present, more foreign than familiar, and,
equally, that the archiv ing act itself imbued the newly collected and accessible
documents with different meanings and, accordingly, different uses.
Page 6, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "possibilities for fruitful cross-professional inter action to counter that divergence and improve accordingly work by both archivists and historians."
Comment: possibilities for
fruitful cross-professional inter action to counter that divergence and improve
accordingly work by both archivists and historians.
Page 6, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The argument here is that the archive(s) is a foreign country to many historians. easy"
Comment: The argument here is that the archive(s) is a foreign country to many
historians.
easy
Page 7, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Nothing marks this divergence more starkly than the archival func tion of appraisal."
Comment: Nothing marks this divergence more starkly than the archival func tion
of appraisal.
Page 7, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Archivists thereby co-create the archive."
Comment: Archivists thereby co-create the archive.
Page 7, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Once records are appraised as having archival value and are acquired or protected by the archival institution, even being in that privileged state does not ensure their equal treatment thereafter."
Comment: Once records are
appraised as having archival value and are acquired or protected by the archival
institution, even being in that privileged state does not ensure their equal
treatment thereafter.
Page 7, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "And that same initial archival appraisal decides, with finality, which records are to be destroyed, excluded from the archives and thus from all these subsequent archival processes and enhancements, thereby effectually removed"
Comment: And that same initial archival appraisal decides, with finality, which
records are to be destroyed, excluded from the archives and thus from all these
subsequent archival processes and enhancements, thereby effectually removed
Page 8, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "from societal memory, from the “archive.”"
Comment: from societal memory, from the “archive.”
Page 8, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " about 1 to 5 percent of the total available documentation of major institutions is preserved, and an even smaller percentage from thetotality of records of all possible private citizens, groups, and organizations.12 "
Comment: about 1 to 5 percent of the total available documentation of major institutions is preserved, and an even smaller percentage from thetotality of records of all possible private citizens, groups, and organizations.12
Page 8, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Appraisal as a function challenges most fundamentally historians’ stereo- types and archivists’ self-perceptions (at least traditionally) about the archivist’s role in society.13"
Comment: Appraisal as a function challenges most fundamentally historians’ stereo-
types and archivists’ self-perceptions (at least traditionally) about the archivist’s
role in society.13
Page 8, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "archivists are not perceived as constructing social memory to reflect con temporary needs, values, and assumptions; that is the role of histori ans and other users of the archive. Rather, the archivist is viewed by historians as a kind of honest broker, or informed tour guide, between the original creators of the record and its later use byresearchers"
Comment: archivists
are not perceived as constructing social memory to reflect con temporary needs, values, and assumptions; that is the role of histori ans and other users of the archive. Rather, the archivist is viewed by historians as a kind of honest broker, or informed tour guide, between the original creators of the record and its later use byresearchers
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "designating the work he did arranging archival records as “purely mechanical,” requiring “no special qualifications.”16"
Comment: designating the work he did arranging archival records as
“purely mechanical,” requiring “no special qualifications.”16
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "“purely mechanical,” requiring “no special qualifications.”16 This curatorial, neutered, and self-deprecating professional mindset held by archivists continued its grip well past the classic period of shaping archival theory."
Comment: “purely mechanical,” requiring “no special qualifications.”16
This curatorial, neutered, and self-deprecating professional mindset held
by archivists continued its grip well past the classic period of shaping archival
theory.
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "“handmaidens of historians.”17"
Comment: “handmaidens of historians.”17
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "archivists have remained invisible in the construction of social memory, their role poorly articulated and rarely appreciated, their self-image equally passive."
Comment: archivists have remained invisible in the construction
of social memory, their role poorly articulated and rarely appreciated, their
self-image equally passive.
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "historians required archivists to be neutral, invisible partners of historical research to maintain unchallenged the central professional assump tions of historians."
Comment: historians required
archivists to be neutral, invisible partners of historical research to maintain
unchallenged the central professional assump tions of historians.
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The notion of the archives as virginal territory, a fetishism toward documents bordering on the obsessive, was evi dent."
Comment: The notion of the archives as virginal territory, a fetishism toward documents
bordering on the obsessive, was evi dent.
Page 9, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " The need by historians, for methodologi cal, epistemological, and gender reasons, to have a nonproblematic, pure, virginal archive, ready for the historian to discover and exploit, almost by definition required the archivist"
Comment: The need by historians, for methodologi cal, epistemological, and gender reasons, to have a nonproblematic, pure, virginal archive, ready for the historian to discover and exploit, almost by definition required the archivist
Page 10, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "to be an invisible caretaker, a docile handmaiden, the harem-keeper of the documentary virgins."
Comment: to be an invisible caretaker, a docile handmaiden, the harem-keeper of the
documentary virgins.
Page 10, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "W. Kaye Lamb, saw clearly the misconceptions across the historian-archivist divide."
Comment: W. Kaye Lamb,
saw clearly
the misconceptions across the historian-archivist divide.
Page 10, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the archival function of appraisal:"
Comment: the archival function of appraisal:
Page 10, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Such appraisal, and especially the concomitant destruction of all other records not selected, was as frightening to historians"
Comment: Such appraisal, and especially the concomitant destruction of all other
records not selected, was as frightening to historians
Page 11, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "pres ent that David Lowenthal delineated for that earlier period. By con trast, the new scientific or professional history, best represented by von Ranke tried to re- create life in the past “as it really was” through rigorous scholarship, debate in the university graduate seminar, and the full immersion by the histo rian in archives."
Comment: pres ent
that David Lowenthal delineated for that earlier period. By con trast, the new
scientific or professional history, best represented by von Ranke
tried to re- create life in the past “as it really was”
through rigorous scholarship, debate in the university graduate seminar, and the
full immersion by the histo rian in archives.
Page 11, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " Whatever patterns exist inhistory are ‘found,’ not ‘made.’’’21 "
Comment: Whatever patterns exist inhistory are ‘found,’ not ‘made.’’’21
Page 11, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "curatorial and cleaning activities, such as Lamb mentioned. If records in archives were the critical portal to discovering the facts about the past, then the archive certainly could not be acknowledged as the product of the subjective process of archival appraisal, or of active interventions by archivists to shape and reshape the meaning of records in all the other subsequent archival activities across the never-ending life (dare I say, the history) of its documentary holdings."
Comment: curatorial and cleaning activities, such as Lamb mentioned. If records
in archives were the critical portal to discovering the facts about the past,
then the archive certainly could not be acknowledged as the product of the
subjective process of archival appraisal, or of active interventions by archivists
to shape and reshape the meaning of records in all the other subsequent
archival activities across the never-ending life (dare I say, the history) of its
documentary holdings.
Page 12, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Even postmodernist his-torians rarely confront the mediated nature of archives as appraised andselected records, as curatorial institutions, as professional activity, or as a body of theoretical and practical knowledge. F"
Comment: Even postmodernist his-torians rarely confront the mediated nature of archives as appraised andselected records, as curatorial institutions, as professional activity, or as a body of theoretical and practical knowledge. F
Page 14, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "major act of determining historical meaning—perhaps the major act—occurs not when the historian opens the box, but when the archivist fills the box, and, by implica tion, through the process of archival appraisal, destroys the other 98 or 99 percent of records that do not get into that or any other archival box. And, further, what of the layers of archival interpretation animat ing arrangement and description—and the formative assumptions underpinning these processes—that lead the historian, or not, to the 1 or 2 percent of surviving records in that box, and all other rele vant boxes; and highlight, or do not, the complex interrelationships among creators of records, their surrounding organizational cultures, patterns of contemporary record communication and use, and the record-shaping characteristics of information technologies and record ing media—all these deeply affecting the meaning of the surviving records. All these knowledge filters reflect in turn the depth, quality, and presentation of the archivist’s own research into the records’ many and continually altering contexts, and the social/cultural attitudes and backgrounds of the archivist—into, in short, the records’ own history and the archivist’s need and ability to unravel that history as the very foundation of performing well all the archival functions and processes"
Comment: major act of determining historical meaning—perhaps the major act—occurs not when the historian opens the box, but when the archivist fills the box, and, by implica tion, through the process of archival appraisal, destroys the other 98 or 99 percent of records that do not get into that or any other archival box. And, further, what of the layers of archival interpretation animat ing arrangement and description—and the formative assumptions underpinning these processes—that lead the historian, or not, to the 1 or 2 percent of surviving records in that box, and all other rele vant boxes; and highlight, or do not, the complex interrelationships among creators of records, their surrounding organizational cultures, patterns of contemporary record communication and use, and the record-shaping characteristics of information technologies and record ing media—all these deeply affecting the meaning of the surviving records. All these knowledge filters reflect in turn the depth, quality, and presentation of the archivist’s own research into the records’ many and continually altering contexts, and the social/cultural attitudes and backgrounds of the archivist—into, in short, the records’ own history and the archivist’s need and ability to unravel that history as the very foundation of performing well all the archival functions and processes
Page 14, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the archive is centered upon the original inscription, not the subsequent (includ-ing archival) history of the record"
Comment: the archive
is centered upon the original inscription, not the subsequent (includ-ing archival) history of the record
Page 15, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "archives as constructed and contested exercises in power and exclusion,"
Comment: archives as constructed and contested exercises in power
and exclusion,
Page 15, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "despite the impressive external theorizing on the “archive” in recent historical writing, what is still missing is the voice of the archivist, who, after all, is the principal actor in defining, choos ing, and constructing the archive that remains, and then in represent ing and presenting that surviving archival trace to researchers."
Comment: despite the impressive external theorizing on the “archive” in
recent historical writing, what is still missing is the voice of the archivist, who,
after all, is the principal actor in defining, choos ing, and constructing the archive
that remains, and then in represent ing and presenting that surviving archival
trace to researchers.
Page 15, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "historians studying the archive have marginalized the archivist."
Comment: historians studying the archive have marginalized the archivist.
Page 15, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Brien Brothman, asserted that historians are collectively— if maybe sub consciously—afraid to acknowledge, at least until very recently, contested archives because of their own professional mythologies."
Comment: Brien Brothman,
asserted that historians are collectively—
if maybe sub consciously—afraid to acknowledge, at least until very recently,
contested archives because of their own professional mythologies.
Page 16, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Brothman believes that this exclusion of actual archives from historians’ consciousness—archives as curatorial process, as institution, as profession, as assumptions and beliefs, and as archival records—is “a peculiar form of disciplinary repression or blindness.”"
Comment: Brothman believes that this exclusion of actual archives
from historians’ consciousness—archives as curatorial process, as institution, as
profession, as assumptions and beliefs, and as archival records—is “a peculiar
form of disciplinary repression or blindness.”
Page 16, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Without this distancing, he continues, “the differentiation between the archival object (the record or document, the artifact) and the historical object (the book, the article, knowledge [of the past]) begins to break down; archives and history begin to transgress each other, pollute each other,” threatening, if integrated too closely, “to cancel out the purity of each other’s intentions, each other’s object(ivity).”30"
Comment: Without this distancing, he continues, “the differentiation between
the archival object (the record or document, the artifact) and the historical
object (the book, the article, knowledge [of the past]) begins to break down;
archives and history begin to transgress each other, pollute each other,”
threatening, if integrated too closely, “to cancel out the purity of each other’s
intentions, each other’s object(ivity).”30
Page 17, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The “public” archives of the nine teenth century existed primarily for history, not for administration.31"
Comment: The “public” archives
of the nine teenth century existed primarily for history, not for administration.31
Page 17, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "As archives evolved during the nineteenth century, this sense of the pristine quality of archival records was reinforced by contemporary Darwinian thinking."
Comment: As archives evolved during the nineteenth century, this sense of the pristine
quality of archival records was reinforced by contemporary Darwinian thinking.
Page 17, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "a kind of natural selection left over from administrative processes,"
Comment: a kind of natural selection left over from administrative
processes,
Page 17, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Jenkinson compared the archivist—when building the “backbone” of a “skeleton” for archival arrangement—to a paleontologist."
Comment: Jenkinson compared the archivist—when building
the “backbone” of a “skeleton” for archival arrangement—to a paleontologist.
Page 17, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "In this naturalized Darwinian world, appraisal and selection by the archivist of only a portion of the total record from the whole was viewed as anti-archival, for the inevi table subjective values of the appraising archivist would do violence to the allegedly organic character of the evolved archive."
Comment: In this naturalized Darwinian world, appraisal and selection by the archivist of
only a portion of the total record from the whole was viewed as anti-archival,
for the inevi table subjective values of the appraising archivist would do violence
to the allegedly organic character of the evolved archive.
Page 18, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "oft-repeated assertions of the archivist’s objectivity and neutrality: archivists work diligently, but quietly, behind the scenes, vacuuming and cleaning, storing and retrieving, but disturbing these natural orders and organic residues as little as possible."
Comment: oft-repeated
assertions of the archivist’s objectivity and neutrality: archivists work diligently,
but quietly, behind the scenes, vacuuming and cleaning, storing and retrieving,
but disturbing these natural orders and organic residues as little as possible.
Page 18, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "miscon ceptions:"
Comment: miscon ceptions:
Page 18, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Both scholars and archivists have had, until very recently, a vested interest in perceiving (and promoting) the archives as a value-free site of document collection and historical inquiry, rather than a site for negotiating power, memory, and identity."
Comment: Both scholars
and archivists have had, until very recently, a vested interest in perceiving
(and promoting) the archives as a value-free site of document collection
and historical inquiry, rather than a site for negotiating power, memory, and
identity.
Page 19, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "a"
Comment: a
Page 19, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "advancing the archival agenda in technical and methodological ways, rather than considering the theo retical and research-based knowledge posed by these new challenges—and with a focus that caused archivists thereby, perhaps not intention ally, to drive a wedge between themselves and historians."
Comment: advancing the archival agenda in technical and methodological
ways, rather than considering the theo retical and research-based knowledge
posed by these new challenges—and with a focus that caused archivists thereby,
perhaps not intention ally, to drive a wedge between themselves and historians.
Page 19, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Beyond appraisal, most major (and well-funded) archival research projects have, over the past two decades, focused on creating and implementingconsistent descriptive standards and their display in a national network or on rules and models for managing contemporary digital records."
Comment: Beyond appraisal, most major (and well-funded) archival research projects have, over the past two decades, focused on creating and implementingconsistent descriptive standards and their display in a national network or on rules and models for managing contemporary digital records.
Page 19, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "This focus on the methodologies, the technologies, and the mechanics of archival processes and of records preservation reveals an essential proclivity to means rather than ends, to managing rather than mediating, ends, "
Comment: This focus on the methodologies, the technologies, and the mechanics
of archival processes and of records preservation reveals an essential
proclivity to means rather than ends, to managing rather than mediating,
ends,
Page 19, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "—the complex research-"
Comment: —the complex research-
Page 20, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "based knowledge of the archivist needed to fill these empty shells will always, by defini tion, be subjective and interpretive. And it will always be historical. "
Comment: based knowledge of the archivist needed to fill these empty shells will always, by defini tion, be subjective and interpretive. And it will always be historical.
Page 20, Highlight (Green):
Content: "archivists are, in the core sub stance of their work, researching to contextualize over time (that is, historically) records creators, recording media and processes, and the resultant records. By doing so, archivists create new knowledge through history—not history as historians do from the record’s con- tent, but history as archivists do about the record’s context."
Comment: archivists are, in the core sub stance of their work, researching to
contextualize over time (that is, historically) records creators, recording media
and processes, and the resultant records. By doing so, archivists create new
knowledge through history—not history as historians do from the record’s con-
tent, but history as archivists do about the record’s context.
Page 20, Highlight (Green):
Content: "“a history of the record,”"
Comment: “a history of the record,”
Page 20, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "It aims at transforming content-centered information into context- rich knowledge, and applying the results to all facets of archival work."
Comment: It aims at transforming content-centered information into context-
rich knowledge, and applying the results to all facets of archival work.
Page 20, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Hugh Taylor’ “a new form of ‘social historiography’"
Comment: Hugh Taylor’
“a new form of ‘social
historiography’
Page 20, Highlight (Green):
Content: "“the recognition of forms and patterns of knowledge which may be the only way by which we will transcend the morass of infor mation and data into which we will otherwise fall.”35"
Comment: “the recognition of forms and patterns of knowledge which may
be the only way by which we will transcend the morass of infor mation and data
into which we will otherwise fall.”35
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the interrelationshipsamong records and their creators over time and across space. "
Comment: the interrelationshipsamong records and their creators over time and across space.
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the four core archival functions of appraisal and acquisition, arrangement and description, preservation and migration, and reference and public programming."
Comment: the four core
archival functions of appraisal and acquisition, arrangement and description,
preservation and migration, and reference and public programming.
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "With considerable sophistication, his torians now recognize the silences in the surviving archival record, and the need to read “against the grain” to hear suppressed or mar ginalized voices."
Comment: With considerable sophistication, his torians
now recognize the silences in the surviving archival record, and the need to
read “against the grain” to hear suppressed or mar ginalized voices.
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "historians are not, in these recent questionings, considering the impact of archivists or archival institutions or archival policies and concepts on those same records."
Comment: historians are not, in these recent questionings, considering the
impact of archivists or archival institutions or archival policies and concepts on
those same records.
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Michel Foucault,"
Comment: Michel Foucault,
Page 21, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the discursive patterns in the archival document, or in an entire information classification"
Comment: the discursive
patterns in the archival document, or in an entire information classification
Page 22, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "system, reflect the power structures of the records creator,"
Comment: system, reflect the power structures of the records creator,
Page 22, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "French historian Jacques Le Goff was one of the first to make archives explicitly a subject for historical inquiry, politics of archival memory"
Comment: French historian Jacques
Le Goff was one of the first to make archives explicitly a subject for historical
inquiry,
politics of archival memory
Page 22, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " archives had their institutional origins in theancient world as agents for legiti mizing such power and for marginalizing those without power Harold Innis’s work on empires and their control of the means of communication."
Comment: archives had their institutional origins in theancient world as agents for legiti mizing such power and for marginalizing those without power
Harold Innis’s work on
empires and their control of the means of communication.
Page 22, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Euro pean imperial powers more generally used records, from maps to censuses to royal commission reports, to legitimize and reinforce their own power by controlling the definition, naming, and categorizing of their subjects into marginal subaltern spaces.37"
Comment: Euro pean imperial powers more
generally used records, from maps to censuses to royal commission reports, to
legitimize and reinforce their own power by controlling the definition, naming,
and categorizing of their subjects into marginal subaltern spaces.37
Page 23, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the “archive” is seen as reflecting those institutions that had the power (and resources) to articulate through written records and visual images their view of the world, and that, not surprisingly, used these recording tools in turn to order, control, name, map, depict, count, and classify that world to reflect their own assumptions and values and reinforce their own power, status, and control."
Comment: the “archive” is seen as reflecting those
institutions that had the power (and resources) to articulate through written
records and visual images their view of the world, and that, not surprisingly,
used these recording tools in turn to order, control, name, map, depict,
count, and classify that world to reflect their own assumptions and values and
reinforce their own power, status, and control.
Page 23, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "also the seeming naturalness of their own hegemony."
Comment: also
the seeming naturalness of their
own hegemony.
Page 23, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Gerda Lerner has traced how, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, there has been a systemic exclusion of women from society’s memorytools, including its archives. "
Comment: Gerda Lerner has traced how, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, there has been a systemic exclusion of women from society’s memorytools, including its archives.
Page 24, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "These and many similar works suggest possible openings for a his tory ofarchives (plural) and a history of archival records, as contrasted to the history of the archive, and one done with a perspective from inside institutional archives. "
Comment: These and many similar works suggest possible openings for a his tory ofarchives (plural) and a history of archival records, as contrasted to the history of the archive, and one done with a perspective from inside institutional archives.
Page 24, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "archivists need an intellec tual history of their own profession, from the inside out and the outside in: a partnership, of their own profession, from the inside out and the outside in: a partnership, respectively and ideally, of archivists and his torians, for they both have much to teach each other.40"
Comment: archivists need an intellec tual history
of their own profession, from the inside out and the outside in: a partnership,
of their own profession, from the inside out and the outside in: a partnership, respectively and ideally, of archivists and his torians, for they both have much to
teach each other.40
Page 25, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "to discover within the context of their time, and our own, the assumptions, ideas, and concepts that underpin archival work."
Comment: to discover within the context of their time, and our own, the assumptions,
ideas, and concepts that underpin archival work.
Page 25, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Analyzing this text over time and space prop erly forms the focus of an intellectual history of archives. Its articula tion will break the harmful silence between historiansand archivists. "
Comment: Analyzing this text over time and space prop erly forms the focus of an intellectual history of archives. Its articula tion will break the harmful silence between historiansand archivists.
Page 25, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the first articula tions of professional archival principles strongly biased in favor of the state."
Comment: the first articula tions of professional archival
principles strongly biased in favor of the state.
Page 25, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Why are personal archives (and their archivists) not part of most countries’ national archives?"
Comment: Why are personal
archives (and their archivists) not part of most countries’ national archives?
Page 26, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "fundamental divisions within the internal organization of archival memory between public and private, text and images, written and oral, are alone stark evidence that the archival endeavor, as for mulated, practiced, and codified by the archival pioneers, was hardly as value free as they asserted."
Comment: fundamental divisions within the internal organization of archival
memory between public and private, text and images, written and oral, are alone
stark evidence that the archival endeavor, as for mulated, practiced, and codified
by the archival pioneers, was hardly as value free as they asserted.
Page 26, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "the archival pioneers ignored the appraisal function entirely. document The pioneering archival theorists all worked in an era of relative document scarcity."
Comment: the
archival pioneers ignored the appraisal function entirely.
document
The pioneering archival theorists all worked in an era of relative document
scarcity.
Page 26, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "“residue” approach favored retaining as archives the policy or legal or senior-level documents most important to the government officials who made the keep-destroy decisions, rather than more transient case files where citizens interacted with the state at the “bottom” of the classic hierarchical pyramid of organizational structure."
Comment: “residue” approach favored retaining
as archives the policy or legal or senior-level documents most important to the
government officials who made the keep-destroy decisions, rather than more
transient case files where citizens interacted with the state at the “bottom” of
the classic hierarchical pyramid of organizational structure.
Page 27, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Until the 1950s, the emphasis was, moreover, on the records of the legal, constitutional, fiscal, defense, and foreign policy dimen sions of the nation state, and much less on its social, natural resource, environmental, or cultural programs. This statist approach to definingarchives evidently also marginalizes purely personal papers, outside the purview national archives purview of"
Comment: Until the 1950s, the emphasis was, moreover, on
the records of the legal, constitutional, fiscal, defense, and foreign policy
dimen sions of the nation state, and much less on its social, natural resource,
environmental, or cultural programs.
This statist approach to definingarchives evidently also marginalizes purely personal papers,
outside the purview
national archives
purview of
Page 27, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The archival rules for determining the evidence qualities and authenticity of records, and thus their “value” as reliable research sources, also reflected the state archives’ perspectives on (and thus naturalized assumptions about) well- organized, centrally controlled, and officially sanctioned govern ment records. thus favored textual documents in such registries, from which such rules were first derived, at the expense of other media,"
Comment: The archival rules for determining the evidence qualities and authenticity of
records, and thus their “value” as reliable research sources, also reflected the
state archives’ perspectives on (and thus naturalized assumptions about) well-
organized, centrally controlled, and officially sanctioned govern ment records.
thus favored textual documents in such registries, from which
such rules were first derived, at the expense of other media,
Page 27, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The positivist and “scientific” values inhibited archivists from developing and document ing multiple ways of seeing and knowing and describing their records; “origi nal order” (a classic and cardinalarchival principle) was sought a"
Comment: The positivist and “scientific” values
inhibited archivists
from developing and document ing
multiple ways of seeing and knowing and describing their records;
“origi nal order” (a classic and cardinalarchival principle) was sought a
Page 27, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Records or series of records,"
Comment: Records or series of records,
Page 28, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "are arranged and described in very detailed general-to- specific hierarchies to reflect, allegedly, their original placement in the creating agency’s administra tive hierarchy;"
Comment: are arranged and described in very detailed general-to-
specific hierarchies to reflect, allegedly, their original placement in the creating
agency’s administra tive hierarchy;
Page 28, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "Eric Ketelaar this guardianship mentalite´ of archivists, stressing custody and control, has often made archival reference rooms and services more prisonlike than welcoming,444"
Comment: Eric Ketelaar
this guardianship mentalite´ of archivists, stressing custody and control, has often
made archival reference rooms and services more prisonlike than welcoming,444
Page 28, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "and archival public pro gramming until very recently passive and unimaginative,unsuited to the needs and possibilities of an online, information-hungry, and interactive age. "
Comment: and archival public pro gramming until very recently passive and unimaginative,unsuited to the needs and possibilities of an online, information-hungry, and interactive age.
Page 28, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "The neutral, impartial archive of classic archival theory, is, in reality, a place of order, control, hierarchy, reflect- ing the power of the state, or other sponsoring institution(a business, university, church, and so on), that called it into existence and con tinues to pay the bills."
Comment: The neutral, impartial archive of
classic archival theory, is, in reality, a place of order, control, hierarchy, reflect-
ing the power of the state, or other sponsoring institution(a business, university,
church, and so on), that called it into existence and con tinues to pay the bills.
Page 28, Line Drawing (Red)
Page 29, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "What happens when organizationalcultures and workplace discourses are now transformed from vertical to horizontal, from controlling to collaborative, yet archivists still think hierarchically, increasingly out of contact with reality? "
Comment: What happens when organizationalcultures and workplace discourses are now transformed from vertical to horizontal, from controlling to collaborative,
yet archivists still think hierarchically,
increasingly out of contact with reality?
Page 29, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "response by archivists to this changing and challenging land scape very contested "
Comment: response by archivists to this changing and challenging land scape
very contested
Page 30, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: " another group of archivists is calling for a complete reinvention of archives to acknowledgethat these are contingent places of power and agency that need new concepts and models to transform them"
Comment: another group of archivists is calling for a complete reinvention of archives to acknowledgethat these are contingent places of power and agency that need new concepts and models to transform them
Page 30, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "moving the focus for archival activities from records as artifactual products to the complex processes of record making.48"
Comment: moving the focus for archival
activities from records as artifactual products to the complex processes of
record making.48
Page 30, Highlight (Yellow):
Content: "What might such a transformed archival landscape look like? minimum expectations. Appraisal would be sensitive to the citizens, not just the state, to the marginalized and unsuccessful as much as the accepted and successful, so thatarchival holdings would become more inclusive and democratic. record inscrip tion at the time of creation rather than passively accepting long after the fact the residues allowed by the powerful or those determined by transient research trends or technological imperatives. The focus in all archival activitieswould be on documenting function, activity, and ideas, rather than primarily reflecting the structures, offices, and per sons of origin. "
Comment: What might such a transformed archival landscape look like?
minimum
expectations. Appraisal would be sensitive to the citizens, not just the state, to the marginalized and unsuccessful as much as the accepted and successful, so thatarchival holdings would become more inclusive and democratic.
record inscrip tion at the time of creation rather than passively accepting long after the fact the residues allowed by the powerful or those determined by transient research trends or technological imperatives. The focus in all archival activitieswould be on documenting function, activity, and ideas, rather than primarily reflecting the structures, offices, and per sons of origin.
--
Marked up using iAnnotate on my iPad
Sent from my iPad. Please forgive typos.
Diana Ascher