Stories and names: Archival description as narrating records and constructing meanings

Abstract

Abstract. The authors of this essay, coming from very different traditions and modes of archival discourse, explore together archival description as a field of archival thinking and practice. Their shared conviction is that records are always in the process of being made, and that the stories of their making are parts of bigger stories understandable only in the ever-changing broader contexts of society. The exploration begins with an interrogation of the traditional and ever-valid questions of the what and the why of archival description. Thereafter they offer a deconstruction of these questions and of the answers commonly proffered. In these sections of the essay their concern is with descriptive architecture, the analysis covering a number of specific architectures and including only oblique references to descriptive standardization. The concluding section attempts to draw out the implications of their analysis for endeavours -irrespective of the architectures being used -to define, and to justify, descriptive standards. Their call is not to dispense with standardization, but rather to create space for a liberatory approach which engages creatively the many dangers of standardization.

Uma trajetória da Arquivística a partir da Análise do Discurso: inflexões histórico-conceituais

“…"Ainda hoje, para muitos, se não quase todos, arquivistas e instituições arquivísticas, a classificação/ arranjo e descrição mantêm-se como núcleo prático e discursivo" (Duff;Harris, 2002, p.264, tradução nossa) A teoria voltada ao estudo das funções relacionadas à representação em Arquivística esteve, em um primeiro momento, calcada em modelos diplomáticos e paleográficos para a construção de representações significativas dos documentos medievais. Com o passar dos anos e a modernização do Estado, a diplomática perde força e os arquivistas e suas instituições começam a buscar novos métodos para o processamento técnico dos documentos de arquivo.…”

Arkivformidling bør framdyrkes, ikke forbys!

“…Noen arkivskribenter kaller utkommet av disse og andre valg for «storytelling» (f.eks. Cook 2011, Duff & Harris 2002, Schwartz & Cook 2002, som jeg valgte å oversette med historiefortelling. Også mitt begrep historiefortelling er altså forankret i arkivforskningen.…”

Between Commodification and Engagement: On the Double-Edged Impact of User-Generated Metadata within the Cultural Heritage Sector

“…(Manovich, 2001, p. 225) It is not so much the content of the information but rather its form that is of interest here. For our purposes in this paper, it is enough to mention the emergence of a new research area that studies the impact and possible benefits of narrativity and storytelling within the domain of information representation (see, e.g., Giaccardi, 2006;Duff & Harris, 2002).…”