Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mobilizing records: re-framing archival description to support human rights

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archival Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article seeks to raise consciousness within the field of archival studies in order to foster a generative discussion about how descriptive practices might be expanded, approached differently, or completely rethought. It brings together crosscutting theoretical issues and provides practical examples of mediation in order to mobilize these records in support of human rights work. It first problematizes the foundational archival precept of respect des fonds and its sub-principles of original order and provenance. It then analyzes the necessary transformation of institutional policies and standards in order to foster trust and transparency and identifies structural or system wide strategies for ameliorating past abuses.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adami T (2007) “Who will be left to tell the tale?” Recordkeeping and international criminal jurisprudence. Arch Sci 7:213–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates J, Rowley J (2011) Social reproduction and exclusion in subject indexing: a comparison of public library OPACs and LibraryThing folksonomy. J Doc 67(3):431–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BBC (2013) Croatians tear down Serbian signs in Vukovar. BBC News. 2 September. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23934098. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Bowker G, Star S (2000) Sorting things out: classification and its consequences. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell K (1973) The rhetoric of women’s liberation: an oxymoron. Q J Speech 59(1):74–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caswell M (2010) Khmer Rouge archives: accountability, truth, and memory in Cambodia. Arch Sci 10(1):25–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caswell M (2012) Using classification to convict the Khmer Rouge. J Doc 68(2):162–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caswell M (2014) Archiving the unspeakable: silence, memory, and the photographic record in Cambodia. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Caswell M, Broman G, Kirmer J, Martin L, Sowry N (2012) Implementing a social justice framework in an introduction to archives course: lessons from both sides of the classroom. InterActions UCLA J Educ Inf Stud 8(2). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jx083hr

  • Christen K (2011) Opening archives: respectful repatriation. Am Arch 74:185–210

    Google Scholar 

  • Christen K (2012) Does information really want to be free? Indigenous knowledge systems and the question of openness. Int J Commun 6:2879–2893

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook T (1992) The concept of the archival fonds: theory, description, and provenance in the post-custodial era. Archivaria 35:24–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Corti L (2000) Progress and problems of preserving and providing access to qualitative data for social research—the international picture of an emerging culture. Forum Qual Soc Res 1(3). http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1024/2207#gcit

  • Corti L, Day A, Backhouse G (2000) Confidentiality and informed consent: issues for consideration in the preservation of and provision of access to qualitative data archives. Forum Qual Soc Res 1(3). http://qualitative-reseach.net/fqs-texte/3-00/3-00coritetal-e.htm

  • Crooke E (2010) The politics of community heritage: motivations, authority and control. Int J Herit Stud 16(1–2):16–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Brito A, Enriquez C, Aguilar P (eds) (2001) The politics of memory and democratization: transitional justice in democratizing societies. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubriwny T (2005) Consciousness-raising as collective rhetoric: the articulation of experience in the redstocking abortion speak-out of 1969. Q J Speech 91(4):395–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duff W, Harris V (2002) Stories and names: archival description as narrating records and constructing meanings. Arch Sci 2(3):263–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duff W, Flinn A, Suurtamm K, Wallace D (2013) Social justice impact of archives: a preliminary investigation. Arch Sci 13(4):317–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar A (2006) Introducing critical race theory to archival discourse: getting the conversation started. Arch Sci 6:109–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duranti L, Thibodeau K (2001) The InterPARES international research project. Inf Manag J 35(1):44–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulkhead S (2009) Connecting through records: narratives of Koorie Victoria. Arch Manuscr 37(2):60–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Flinn A (2008) Other ways of thinking, other ways of being. Documenting the margins and the transitory: what to preserve, how to collect. In: Craven L (ed) What are archives: cultural and theoretical perspectives: a reader. Ashgate, Burlington, pp 109–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Genocide Archive Rwanda: perpetrator testimonies (n.d.) Genocide Archive Rwanda. http://www.genocidearhiverwanda.org/rw/index.php/Category:Perpetrator_Testimonies. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Gilliland A (2011a) Reflections on the value of metadata archaeology for recordkeeping in a global, digital world. J Soc Arch 32(1):97–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland A (2011b) Neutrality, social justice and the obligations of archival education and educators in the twenty-first century. Arch Sci 11(3–4):193–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland A (2012) Contemplating co-creator rights in archival description. Knowl Organ 39(5):340–346

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland A (2014) Conceptualizing twenty-first-century archives. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland A, McKemmish S (2014) The role of participatory archives in furthering human rights, reconciliation and recovery. Atlanti Rev Mod Arch Theory Pract 24 (in press)

  • Gilliland A, Willer M (2014) Metadata for the information multiverse. In: Proceedings of iConference 2014, Berlin, Germany, 4–7 March 2014

  • Gilliland A, Lindberg L, McCargar V, Langmead A, Lauriault T, Leahey-Sugimoto M, Evans J, Tennis JT, Wang H (2008) Investigating the roles and requirements, manifestations and management of metadata in the creation of reliable and preservation of authentic electronic entities created by dynamic, interactive and experiential systems: Report on the work and findings of the InterPARES 2 description cross domain group. In: Duranti L, Preston R (eds) International research on permanent authentic records in electronic systems (InterPARES) 2: experiential, interactive and dynamic records. Associazione Nazionale Archivistica Italiana, Padova, pp 261–307

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorman M (2003) Cataloguing in an electronic age. Cat Classif Q 36(3–4):5–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley M (1997) Qualitative data archiving: some reflections on its prospects and problems. Sociology 31(1):131–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris V (2002) The archival sliver: power, memory and archives in South Africa. Arch Sci 2(1–2):63–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris V (2007) Archives and justice: a South African perspective. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins K (2009) Reflections on InterPARES: a pattern language for electronic records. Archivaria 67:157–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayner P (2010) Unspeakable truths: transitional justice and the challenge of truth commissions. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hensen S (1997) “NISTF II” and EAD: the evolution of archival description. Am Arch 60(3):284–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirobayashi J (2008) Enduring communities: ‘concentration camp’ or ‘relocation center’—what’s in a name? Discov Nikkei. http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2008/4/24/enduring-communities/. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1997) Bringing them home: the ‘Stolen Children’ report. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-stolen-children-report-1997. Accessed 5 Mar 2014

  • Hurley C (1995) Problems with provenance. Arch Manuscr 23:234–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurley C (2005) Parallel provenance: if these are your records, where are your stories? Records Continuum Group Publications. http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/rcrg/publications/parallel-provenance-combined.pdf. Accessed 2 Mar 2014

  • Hutterer KL (1978) Dean C. Worcester and Phillipine anthropology. Philipp Q Cult Soc 6(3):125–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Huvila I (2008) Participatory archive: towards decentralized curation, radical user orientation, and broader contextualization of records management. Arch Sci 8:15–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iacovino L (2010) Rethinking archival, ethical and legal frameworks for records of Indigenous Australian communities: a participant relationship model of rights and responsibilities. Arch Sci 10:353–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jimerson RC (2007) Archives for all: professional responsibility and social justice. Am Arch 70(2):252–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Jimerson RC (2009) Archives Power: memory, accountability, and social justice. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Josias A (2011) Toward an understanding of archives as a feature of collective memory. Arch Sci 11(1–2):95–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ketelaar E (2008) Archives as spaces of memory. J Soc Arch 29(1):9–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipsitz G (1995) The possessive investment in whiteness: how white people profit from identity politics. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood FC (1929) The life of Edward E. Ayer. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathiesen K (2012) A defense of Native Americans’ rights over their traditional cultural expressions. Am Arch 75:456–481

    Google Scholar 

  • McKemmish S (1994) Are records ever actual? In: McKemmish S, Piggott M (eds) The records continuum: Ian Maclean and Australian archives first fifty years. Ancora Press, Melbourne, pp 187–203

    Google Scholar 

  • McKemmish S, Faulkhead S, Russell L (2011) Distrust in the archive: reconciling records. Arch Sci 11:211–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller S, Feith J, Fruin R (1898) Handleiding voor het ordenen en beschrijven van archiven [Manual for the arrangement and description of archives]. Erven B. Van der Kamp, Groningen

    Google Scholar 

  • Nesmith T (2006) The concept of societal provenance and records of nineteenth-century Aboriginal-European relations in Western Canada: implications for archival theory and practice. Arch Sci 6(3–4):351–360

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordland LP (2004) The concept of “secondary provenance”: re-interpreting Ac ko mok ki’s map as evolving text. Archivaria 1:58

    Google Scholar 

  • Novak JR (2013) Examining activism in practice: a qualitative study of archival activism, Ph D dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles

  • Olson HA (2001) The power to name: representation in library catalogs. Signs 26(3):639–668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson HA (2007) How we construct subjects: a feminist analysis. Libr Trends 56(2):509–541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce-Moses R (2005) Provenance. A glossary of archival and records terminology. Society of American Archivists, Chicago. http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/p/provenance. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Pidd H (2011) Germans piece together millions of lives spied on by Stasi. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/13/east-germany-stasi-files-zirndorf. Accessed 14 Mar 2014

  • Piggot M, McKemmish S (2002) Recordkeeping, reconciliation and political reality. In: Australian society of archivists annual conference, Sydney

  • Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal (n.d.) About, curation process. Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal. http://plateauportal.wsulibs.wsu.edu/html/ppp/help.php?topic=2. Accessed 3 Mar 2014

  • Quintana AG (1997) Archives of the security services of former repressive regimes. International Council of Archives, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Rioux K (2010) Metatheory in library and information science: a nascent social justice approach. J Educ Libr Inf Sci 51:9–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs A (2007) Archives, truth, and reconciliation. Archivaria 62:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassoon J, Burrows T (2009) Minority reports: indigenous and community voices in archives. Papers from the 4th international conference on the history of records and archives (ICHORA 4), Perth, Western Australia, August 2008. Arch Sci 9(1):1–5

  • Shilton K, Srinivasan R (2007) Participatory appraisal and arrangement for multicultural archival collections. Archivaria 63:87–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons HW (1970) Requirements, problems, strategies: a theory of persuasion for social movements. Q J Speech 56:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slymovics S (2014) How to accept German reparations. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Society of American Archivists (2011). History and memory. SAA core values statements and code of ethics. http://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Society of American Archivists, Encoded Archival Description Working Group (2002). Encoded archival description tag library. http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/index.html. Accessed 9 June 2014

  • Srinivasan R (2013) Re-thinking the cultural codes of new media: the question concerning ontology. New Media Soc 15(2):203–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stefanac T, White K (forthcoming) Representation, rights and identity of Croatia’s roma community: An archival perspective. In: Proceedings of the summer school and conference on records, archives and memory, University of Zadar Press, Zadar

  • Stoler A (2010) Along the archival grain: epistemic anxieties and the colonial common sense. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan RJ (1991) Exemplar of Americanism: the Phillipine career of Dean C. Worcester. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweet K (1998) Volumes of hope. University of Chicago Magazine. http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9810/CollegeReport/volumes.htm. Accessed 14 Mar 2014

  • Theodoridou M, Tzitzikas Y, Doerr M, Marketakis Y, Melessanakis V (2010) Modeling and querying provenance by extending CIDOC CRM. Distrib Parallel Databases 27(2):169–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson D, Bzdel L, Golden-Biddle K, Reay T, Estabrooks CA (2005) Central questions of anonymization: a case study of secondary use of qualitative data. Forum Qual Soc Res 6(1). http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/511/1103

  • United Nations (2005) Economic and Social Council. Commission on Human Rights. Sixty-first session. Item 17 of the provisional agenda. Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Impunity. Report of the independent expert to update the Set of principles to combat impunity, Diane Orentlicher. Addendum: Updated Set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity. E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1: 8 February. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/109/00/PDF/G0510900.pdf?OpenElement. Accessed 14 Mar 2014

  • Wakimoto DK, Bruce C, Partridge H (2013) Archivist as activist: lessons from three queer community archives in California. Arch Sci 13(4):293–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walch VI (1990) The role of standards in the archival management of electronic records. Am Arch 53(1):30–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Weld K (2014) Paper cadavers: the archives of dictatorship in Guatemala. Duke University Press, Durham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson T (2013) Gunmen torch vital records of rights group in El Salvador. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/14/world/la-fg-wn-gunmen-torch-records-rights-group-salvador-20131114. Accessed 14 Mar 2014

  • Wurl J (2005) Ethnicity as provenance: in search of values and principles for documenting the immigrant experience. Arch Issues 29(1):65–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Yakel E (2003) Archival representation. Arch Sci 3:1–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Studies, University of California Los Angeles, GSE&IS Building, Box 951520, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1520, USA

    Stacy Wood, Kathy Carbone, Marika Cifor & Anne Gilliland

  2. College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, Room 4105, Hornbake Building South, College Park, MD, 20742-4325, USA

    Ricardo Punzalan

Authors
  1. Stacy Wood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kathy Carbone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marika Cifor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anne Gilliland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ricardo Punzalan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stacy Wood.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wood, S., Carbone, K., Cifor, M. et al. Mobilizing records: re-framing archival description to support human rights. Arch Sci 14, 397–419 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9233-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9233-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation