public participation in the archives

Public Participation in the ArchivesHILDA TERESA AYALA GONZÁLEZ

MAY, 27 2015

Participation

The action of taking part in something

Join in an activity; be involved

Become linked or connected to”

Participation in the archives:

Access / Use

Engagement

Contribution

Content

Greece and Rome

French Revolution

Independent Community Archives

Participatory Archiving

Greece & Rome

GreeceInscribed stelai (both originals and copies) reveal

the nature of Athenian democracy, and the texts of the decrees issued by the Council and Popular

Assembly during the period from the end of the 6th c. BC down to the 3rd c. AD shed light on the history and development of the Athenian democracy over

time.

Exhibit: Athenian Democracy in Australia, organized by the Epigraphic Museum of Athens in collaboration with Athens

University.

http://www.hfc.gr/wmt/webpages/index.php?lid=2&pid=13&apprec=109

Rome

Quaestores:

Young and inexperienced men because the quaestorship was the first step in the career of Roman officials …and served for one year only, so they hadn’t the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the records, and depended entirely on their subordinates, who were the actual ‘record managers’.

Duranti, 8-9Palazzo Senatorio seen from the Roman Forum

French Revolution

French Revolution: Archives Nationales

The National Archives of France emerge in 1790 as the place that “would contain the constitution of the nation, the rights enjoyed by its citizens [and] the laws that emanated from and formed the state”

French Revolution: Archives Nationales

Law of 7 Messidor Year II (June 25, 1794)

…the central depository for the entire Republic.

…all citizens can ask, in all depositories, at the dates and times fixed, communication of the pieces contained therein

Proclaiming public access to the records.

Milligan, What is an archive?, 161-162

French Revolution: Setting the atmosphere

1789 to 1856 was more an “archive making period”

1847 development of the reading room and the establishment of consult hours

Decree in 1855: made the deposit of ministerial papers a legal requirement

declare all “the papers held in the Archives ‘inalienable’ property of the state”

assigned the director of the archives “under the tutelage of the minister of the state” Courtyard of the Archives Nationales, in Hotel de Soubise

From: Getti Images

French Revolution: Setting the atmosphere

Access rules where defined: the request had to be asked in writing, and had to describe to the detail what they wanted form the archive.

Request could be refused but refusal could also be appeal.

Archival users were identified: laureates, archivists, professors, other recognized scholars, official functionaries and others with authorization.

Inside the archives:Document classification

Inventories

Administrative protocols

Personnel

French Revolution: Access, what for?

Old Regime vs New Regime

Legitimizing: “the truth was the voice of the official records”

History of France had to be written

French Revolution: Access - Control

While Laborde had faith that the Archives held a single, self-evident truth, liberal publicité might aid and abet challenges to

the Empire’s interpretation of history and its political legitimacy…The archival policy of publicité introduced the French public to its Archives and set the terms for what became a battle

between state and citizen for the right to speak for national history in Second Empire France.

Milligan, The Problem of Publicité, 20

An anecdote

Access – vs – Control


The dilemma that emerged in the context of publicity, however, was how both to protect and publicize these documents that were legally

held in the name of public interest. The prince argued that a separation between archives for the public and archives for the

sovereign and his family was necessary for the Bonaparte dynasty to protect its legitimacy and legacy.



Not Found

Surely the Archives could not be blamed for sequestering documents they did not even hold or at least that could not be found.


Outside of France

Russia, Austria, Hungary, Prussia, or Bavaria:

Permission before arriving

Reference letters

Notes reviewed

French Revolution: Where it begins

Access as a public right - model for other Archives

Archivist role between access and control

For good or for bad, scholars and documents were connected from then on.


Impact from the outside to the inside

The establishment of a community archive is, for many, a form of activism that seeks to redress or rebalance this pattern of privileging

and marginalising. In other cases, although there is often an underlying assumption that these are histories not told or preserved

elsewhere, the inspiration is not so directly political or cultural. Rather, it is a manifestation of a shared enthusiasm for the history of

a place, occupation or interest.Flinn, Stevens, Shepherd, 74.


Community histories or community archives are the grassroots activities of documenting, recording and exploring

community heritage in which community participation, control and ownership of the

project is essential. This activity might or might not happen in association with formal heritage organisations but the

impetus and direction should come from within the community itself.

Flinn, Community histories, 153.


Materials: documents, oral histories, objects, photographs, books, ephemera, audio-visual materials, clothe, among many others

Intentional and very well thought activity of collecting

Archival significance


The point is not that the criteria of value should be the same across all of these decision-making processes…but that each is deciding

what is an archive on the basis of a set of externally applied criteria about what is significant within a particular context.

Flinn, The impact of independent,165.

Diversity + Inclusion + Respect

Archives 2.0

An approach to archival practice that promotes openness and flexibility. It argues that archivists must be user centered and embrace

opportunities to use technology to share collections, interact with users, and improve internal efficiency…It requires that archivists be active in

their communities rather than passive, engaged with the interpretation of their collections rather than neutral custodians, and serve as

effective advocates for their archival program and their profession.

Theimer, What is the meaning of archives 2.0, 60.

Participatory archiving

An organization, site or collection in which people other than the archives professionals contribute knowledge or resources

resulting in increased appreciation and understanding of archival materials and archives, usually in an online

environment.

Theimer, “Participatory Archives: Something Old, Something New”


The archives and archivist soliciting and acceptance of others contributions

A platform or space where this interaction can take place

Others interested in contributing knowledge or resources


Participation is an external phenomenon, a challenge the archivists and archival institutions have to meet by deciding how to archive and document the (primarily digital expressions of) participatory culture,

and whether/how to professionally engage in the participatory culture.

Huvila, 364

Participatory archiving: Examples

Tagging

Comments

Favorites and bookmarks

Description of documents

Wikis

Transcriptions of documents and audio

Collection development

Participatory archiving: Conflicts

Summary

Greece and Rome

French Revolution



Evidence + Memory + Identity + Community

Many historians, to take but one example, are asserting that identity in the past is shaped by common or shared or

collective memory animating invented traditions, and that such identities, once formed or embraced, are not fixed, but

very fluid, contingent on time, space, and circumstances, ever being re-invented to suit the present, continually being

re-imagined.

Cook, 96.

Importance

If - as we say we do - our reason of existence is the public, we should have a solid background on how this relationships were built so we can:understand why were are stock in some areas and why we have

advance in others

why access – control / authority – value / evidence – memory / identity are so constant in our dilemas

identify the barriers that inhibits a trustful and sincere relationship and constrict our goals

TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD

Questions?

Questions?

What other things or moments do you consider affects public participation?

Do you believe “participatory archiving” is a true and genuine effort? For what purpose?

Do you think authority is a necessary evil?

Can you imagine a new form of participation?

Bib

liogr

aphy

Bastian, Jeannette A. “The Records of Memory, the Archives of Identity: Celebrations, Texts and Archival Sensibilities.” Archival Science 12 (2013): 121-131.

Berger, Stefan. “The Role of National Archives in Constructing National Master Narratives in Europe.” Archival Science 13 (2013): 1-22.

Cook, Terry. “Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Community: Four Shifting Archival Paradigms.” Archival Science 13, no.2-3 (2013): 95-120.

Duranti, Luciana. “The Odyssey of Records Managers. Part I: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Fall of the Roman Empire.” ARMA Quarterly 23, no. 3 (July 1989): 3-11.

Eskildsen, Kasper Risbjerg. “Leopold Ranke’s Archival Turn: Location and Evidence in Modern Historiography. Modern Intellectual History 5, no. 3 (2008): 425–453.

Eveleigh, Alexandra. “Crowding out the Archivist? Locating Mia Crowdsourcing within the Broader Landscape of Participatory Archives. In Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage, edited

by Mia Ridge. Ashgate Publishing. 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1429960/1/Eveleigh-crowding-out-archivist.pdf

Flinn, Andrew. Mary Stevens & Elizabeth Shepherd. “Whose Memories, Whose Archives? Independent Community Archives, Autonomy and the Mainstream.” Archival Science 9

(2009): 71-86.

Flinn, Andrew. ‘The Impact of Independent and Community Archives on Professional Archival Thinking and Practice.” In The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping, edited by Elizabeth

Lomas, 145-169. London: Facet Publishing, 2011.

Flinn, Andrew. “Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of the Society of Archivists 28, no. 2 (October 2007): 151 – 176.

Huvila, Isto. “The Unbearable Lightness of Participating? Revisiting the discourse of ‘participation’ in archival literature.” Journal of Documentation 71, no. 2 (2015): 358-386.

Lokke, Carl. “Archives and the French Revolution.” American Archivist 31, no. 1 (1968): 23-31.

Milligan, Jennifer. “‘What is an archive?’ in the History of Modern France.” In Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, edited by Antoinette M. Burton, 159-183.

North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2005.

Milligan, Jennifer. “The Problem of Publicite´ in the Archives of Second Empire France.” In Archives, Documentation and Institutions of Social Memory. Essays from the Sawyer

Seminar, edited by Francis X. Blouin, Jr. and William G. Rosenberg, 20-35. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Newman, Jon. “Revisiting Archive Collections: Developing Models for Participatory Cataloging.” Journal of the Society of Archivists 33 (April 2012): 57‐73.

Panitch, Judith M. “Liberty, Equality, Posterity?: Some Archival Lessons from the Case of the French Revolution.” American Archivist 59 (Winter 1996): 30-47.

Posner, Ernst. “Some Aspects of Archival Development since the French Revolution.” American Archivist 3 (July 1940): 159-172.

Shilton, Katie and Ramesh Srinivasan. “Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival Collections.” Archivaria 63 (Spring 2007): 87‐101.

Theimer, Kate. “Participatory Archives: Something Old, Something New.” ArchivesNext (Blog) April “21, 2013. http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=3463

Theimer, Kate. “What Is the Meaning of Archives 2.0?” American Archivist 74 (Spring/Summer 2011): 58‐68.

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1429960/1/Eveleigh-crowding-out-archivist.pdf

http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=3463

Thank You!

public participation in the archives

Presentations & Public Speaking