Social Networks and Archival Context: From Project to Cooperative Archival Program

Pitti, Daniel; Hu, Rachael; Larson, Ray R.; Tingle, Brian; Turner, Adrian

doi:10.1080/15332748.2015.999544

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…77 The initial body of EAC-CPF records for SNAC was created by taking EAD from EAD aggregators and data from other sources, extracting creator metadata, and normalizing that metadata to make it consistent and useful. 78 An essential element of the post-2015 phase of the project is to develop the cooperative structure for editing existing records and creating new ones. However, the members who have editorial access to their own records are a tiny subset compared to the number of institutions that contributed records, but now have no means to maintain them.…”

Section: Social Network and Archival Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding Aid Aggregation: Toward a Robust Future

Allison-Bunnell

2022

The American Archivist

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Over the last twenty-five years, cultural heritage professionals have formed aggregations—of finding aids, digital object metadata, or related forms of description—in order to overcome barriers to creating and presenting structured, consistent, and interoperable description and to enable expanded access. Now most of these aggregators are struggling to update their infrastructure, meet user needs for access to archival collections, and engage with some of the most promising conceptual, technical, and structural advances in the field. In 2018–2019, the “Toward a National Archival Finding Aid Network” planning initiative identified what aggregation has accomplished, articulated the key challenges facing aggregators, identified which areas could benefit from collaborative work, and created a vision for that work. With the near-completion of a research and demonstration by the California Digital Library, “Building a National Finding Aid Network” (NAFAN), the project and the archival profession have an opportunity to learn from the past and transform access to cultural heritage. However, none of the large-scale aggregations in the United States present a viable model for sustainability. Sustainability will become possible if they overcome the factors that have limited the success of aggregation so far. These include an over-focus on implementing new technical standards and infrastructure and under-focus on the real limitations: lack of knowledge of end user needs and attempting to accomplish too much without the needed resources. By drawing on both the background research described in this article and the further research conducted during the current NAFAN project, this and other cultural heritage enterprises have an opportunity to create a future in which access to cultural heritage is equalized and expanded for both institutions and end users.

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Section: Social Network and Archival Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding Aid Aggregation: Toward a Robust Future

Allison-Bunnell

2022

The American Archivist

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“…Archivists, librarians and museum specialists need an alliance programme that ensures that its professional curatorial responsibilities are fulfilled (Pitti et al, 2015: 80). Accordingly, ALM alliance is influenced by the vision and mission statements of an organisation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the alliance of archives, libraries, and museums of South Africa National Parks: Kruger National Park

Netshakhuma

2020

IFLA Journal

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The research aims to analyse the alliance of archive, library and museum (ALM) at the Kruger National Park with regards to compliance with legislations, ALM’s role in education and the adoption of information and communication technology. A qualitative method was used to collect data. The research found that most of the participants were not aware of the legislations governing ALM in South Africa. ALM was not fully utilised for educational activities to enhance knowledge management; there is a low rate of adoption of information and communication technology as an enabler to provide education. Hopefully, this study will help to formulate research agendas to address societal challenges, such as adopting the policies which will have a positive impact on the implementation of ALM policies.

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“…Over time, discussion of provenance has increasingly focused on relationships. Archivist and humanities technologist Daniel Pitti and colleagues [14] have written of how, historically, the "network of interconnections between people" responsible for creating and maintaining archives and records was embedded in archival description. Archivists have worked toward the structural separation of these elements.…”

Section: Provenance In Museums Archives and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

Jones

2019

Heritage

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In 2017 archaeological evidence was published which indicates that modern humans first arrived in Australia around 65,000 years ago. Through the countless generations since, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples built deep connections to the landscape, developed rich material culture infused with story and myth, and used oral and ceremonial traditions to transmit knowledge over thousands of years. Yet, since European invasion at the end of the eighteenth century, the provenance of ethnographic and institutional collections has largely been documented with reference to white collectors and colonial institutions. Attitudes are starting to change. Recent decades have seen significant moves away from the idea of the authoritative institution toward relational museums and the co-creation of knowledge. But the structure and content of much museum documentation continues to lag behind contemporary attitudes. This paper looks at the documentation of Australian ethnographic and anthropological collections through the lens of changing perspectives on provenance, including archival notions of parallel and societal provenance. When placed in the context of recent developments in material culture theory, these collections help to highlight the limitations of existing documentation. The paper concludes with a call for community involvement and a more relational approach to documentation which better encompasses the complexities of provenance and the entangled institutional, archival, oral, and community perspectives that accumulate around artefacts in museums.Heritage 2019, 2 885 artefacts in particular, documented provenance often starts with collection by Australian, European, or American anthropologists and expeditions rather than with the names or stories of those who designed, manufactured, or used the item. This paper explores the broad concept of provenance in the context of museum collections and archival records, drawing on archival theory, museological and curatorial investigations into the 'relational museum,' and case studes from the history of collecting in Australia. 'Provenance' is here viewed as one element in an expanded relational field [3] of description which can (and should) contain other possibilities for the theory and practice of museum documentation. In doing so, museums can better reflect complex, entangled histories, and the multiple contexts and knowledge systems that surround artefacts and other collection items.As a white academic I do not write on behalf of Indigenous Australia. With hundreds of communities speaking more than 250 langauges, the Australian continent contains a huge diversity of cultures and perspectives, including many different attitudes towards museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Here I argue that those of us embedded in European institutions must not assume we have the experience, or the right, to make decisions regarding provenance, knowledge, and the representation of First Nations artefacts and ideas. Instead, we must critique existing practi...

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Social Networks and Archival Context: From Project to Cooperative Archival Program

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Finding Aid Aggregation: Toward a Robust Future

Finding Aid Aggregation: Toward a Robust Future

Analysis of the alliance of archives, libraries, and museums of South Africa National Parks: Kruger National Park

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

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