Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Not that long ago, archives played a small and specialized role in preserving the official and unofficial record of human experience in specific jurisdictions or on specific topics.in this role, archives supported "unhurried burrowing" by a modest number of historians, amateur and professional researchers, and, to some extent, government officials and business employees.2 Today, archives also underpin dynamic private enterprises, celebrity-based television shows, and international networks that transcend established geopolitical boundaries.To an unexpected and unprecedented extent, historical documents are now the focus of attention in homes, businesses, and institutions in countries around the world.Moreover, such documents inspire robust online interactions and transactions thanks to intense and increasing digitization projects enriched by linkage of archival records and analytic tools.So why are we not experiencing a golden age for archives?Why, instead, is there widespread concern, evident in the launch of a formal assessment of "Memory institutions and the Digital revolution" by the council of canadian Academies and "The Status and Future of canada's Libraries and Archives" by a royal Society of canada expert panel? in other words, how can we explain the increasing public and private awareness and interest in the archival record at the same time as leading scholars and public-policy makers are 1 Many thanks to ian Wilson and Melissa Dubreuil for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Source: Archivaria
DOI: 10.20381/ruor-20532
Author: Gaffield, Chad
Language: English
Subfield: Conservation
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W55654005