Archival Divides and Foreign Countries? Historians, Archivists, Information-Seeking, and Technology: Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

Rumors of the deterioration of the historian-archivist relationship have been exaggerated. This article first traces the evolving historian-archivist bond over the last eight decades. Second, it discusses the methods scholars have employed in studying historians, namely bibliometrics, questionnaires, interviews, and a combination. Third, it describes the results and implications of those studies in three areas: locating sources, using primary and nontextual materials, and overall information-seeking and use. Fourth, it considers the evolving and still ambivalent role of information technology in historians' research. Finally, it suggests possibilities for future research, highlighting digital history, personal archiving, Web 2.0, democratization and public history, crowdsourcing and citizen archivists, digital curation, activist archivists and social justice, diversity and the changing demographics of the archival profession, and education and training. Though historians and archivists may not always have used their relationship to Clio's maximum advantage, digital technology and an improved knowledge of historians' work practices based on investigations by archival scholars engender new and better possibilities for collaboration.

Information Competencies of Historians as Archive Users: A Slovenia/UK Comparison

“…However, there was also consensus that professionals, even if experienced, would sometimes benefit from the advice of an archivist, while some amateurs had considerable research skills. This is similar to earlier findings [5,21].…”

“…Huvila [4] found that the empirical approach to studying archival users, in many cases historians, has strengthened in the new millennium, coincident with an increase in digital material in archives. These studies have generally used mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, including paper-based and web-based surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, diaries, log analysis, and experiments [5,6,7,8].…”

“…Poole, in a major review of the literature of the area [5], gave an overview of studies of the interaction between historians and archivists over eight decades. Although studies show historians increasingly adopting digital tools, there is still a reliance on traditional means of following footnotes and references.…”

“…[24]. Digital archives are increasingly seen as just another digital library [5]. Seadle made the point that the most basic information activity of historians -reading and scanning -is considerably altered as visits to physical libraries and archives are increasingly replaced by remote engagement with digital texts [25].…”

An Examination of the Convergence of Theory in Libraries and Archives

“…Furthermore, Archivaria was not cited in the library journals examined for the year 2014 (see table 3). 55 This article does consider the role information technology plays in historians' research, which supports the literature review's assertion that convergence is at least partially driven by patron access to materials.…”