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The International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA) has been held since 2003, with the most recent conference, ICHORA10, taking place online in July 2022. The conference aimed to reflect on the centenary of two significant events in recordkeeping history in the UK and Ireland. The conference featured various forms of participation, including short postcards from the past and longer academic presentations. The papers presented at the conference explored the nature of archives and records, highlighting the diversity of perspectives and the importance of historical context. The special issue of the journal includes articles on topics such as recordkeeping pioneers in Malta, recordkeepers in Latin America, and the history of archives in different countries. The conference also raised questions about the unique methods and perspectives involved in studying the history of archives and records. [Extracted from the article]

As the world of digital record-keeping becomes an increasing part of our practice, so the resources for record-keepers to understand this world keep growing. The latest course offered by the International Council on Archives (ICA), "Managing Digital Archives", aims to give practising archivists a step-by-step guide to creating a digital archive. Managing digital archives: by Nancy McGovern and Margaret Crockett for the International Council on Archives, https://www.ica.org/en/ica-online-course-managing-digital-archives, 2021, €189 for ICA members (including employees of institutional members), €255 for non-members. [Extracted from the article]

This paper presents how the author, in their capacity as an embedded archives and records management researcher as part of the Tate research project Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum, navigated the loss of all of the institutional records related to the commissioning and programming of 15 internet artworks. Beginning their case study in an informational deficit meant the author and research colleagues had to refocus their intentions and expectations. On discovering a limited body of literature in the archival and records management sector, the author reflects on developing a methodology for reconstituting and rebuilding lost institutional records and testing how this could be embedded into Tate's existing recordkeeping and archival practices. The paper also speaks to the inextricable links between the archive and memory, identity and power that the conversations around archival loss provoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The canonical work of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Manual of Archive Administration, published in 1922, provided the basis of archival theory and practice in many countries, especially British colonies. In his canon, Jenkinson requested the archivists to evaluate the manner in which they select records for permanent preservation. With examples from South Africa, this paper intends to confront the canon about the selection and destruction of modern archives. A complementary method of appraising records based on an 'audit or money trail,' as best illustrated through the Auditor-General of South Africa's audit reports of public entities such as the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, is proposed. This paper ruffles feathers and argues that contrary to established orthodoxies of records selection, financial audit trails provide the most reliable clues of which and what historical records ought to be set aside and preserved. The authors cite the limits of this 'follow the money' method and provide mitigation suggestions. The paper challenges existing appraisal paradigms and has a potential to influence policy, theory and practice of appraisal in developing and developed countries. It also offers a modern-day refurbished continuation and expansion of the ideas addressed by Sir Hilary Jenkinson in his seminal canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts the relative successes and failures in Jamaican and South African national archival systems. It does so to provide international perspectives on Britain's colonial legacy on archives. Although local differences greatly matter, Jamaica and South Africa have histories of extended British settler-colonialism which encoded white supremacy in social relations, bureaucracies, and social epistemology which in turn shaped 'institutional gaze' that guided the appraisal of collections, preservation efforts and state-recording keeping practices. Archivists in these societies are acutely aware of these problems, and so the paper examines how they have addressed questions around racism and redress to try adequately 'unsilence the past.' Through comparison we identify what practices have been useful in generating new narratives of belonging, value, and dignity. And finally, we assess which kinds of archival thought can cross-pollinate between Jamaica and South Africa to develop more equitable democratic spaces that can instantiate what this paper calls the hospitality of archival difference. The paper ends by arguing that thought and practice heeding this principle may be conducive to 'ground up' approaches to issues of memory, education, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a Europe-wide survey on the implementation of CoE Recommendation R (2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives conducted in October 2022 on behalf of the Council of Europe (CoE). It shows that overall great progress has been made in improving access to their public Archives. It also shows that there are still deficits in some instances, for example in the availability of finding aids for classified holdings or in the granting of access corrections for otherwise inaccessible archive holdings. We also highlight several challenges to the accessibility of archives, many of which are related to the ongoing process of digitalization. On the one hand, there is the growing expectation of users that collections be digitized and made accessible online, while at the same time the available resources of the Archives remain scarce. Finally, digitalization and the adoption of the GDPR also exacerbate the tension between data protection and freedom of information — often at the detriment of accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egyptological archives preserve evidence of Ancient Egyptian cultures, and historic Egyptian participation in archaeological fieldwork. This paper grew out of conversations with Egyptological archivists, who expressed concerns that their archives were under-used by both archaeological and Egyptian researchers. It provides an overview of current use and users, supported by evidence from literature and by a survey of a representative selection of institutions. Online research and interviews contribute further to the analysis of current Egyptological archive practice. As these archives are largely colonial in origin, this includes investigation of the effects of their formation, location and description. While most chose to remain anonymous, Egyptian interview subjects made an invaluable contribution to this research. Findings confirmed that, while Egyptological archives are increasingly used for original research, they are under-used both for research preparatory to fieldwork, and by Egyptian researchers. Survey respondents indicated a belief that the best way to address under-use and inclusivity was by providing scanned resources online. However, interviews and online research revealed that raising visibility and knowledge of these archives may be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the methodological premise of the 'social life of things' to give insight into the context and movements of a collection of records found at the Norwegian National Archive, that contribute to the documentation of the Armenian Genocide. A study of the life of this collection tells the story of Norwegian missionaries in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, their witnessing of the Genocide and the subsequent activations of the records. It explores the use and impact of these records in Norway, which have led to international collaborations for the historical memory of Armenia and acknowledgement of the Genocide, taking a different political stand to that of the Norwegian government. Nevertheless, silences have been encoded in the making of the archives, the making of narratives, and at the moment of retrospective significance. It highlights the circumscribing predominance of national narratives to documents and raises questions about the silences in other missionary archives in Norway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angela Fritz's 'Sustainable Enterprise Strategies for Optimizing Digital Stewardship: A Guide for Libraries, Archives, and Museums' is a concise introduction and overview of the "digital asset management ecosystems" of GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives and museums). This book will be of interest to anyone engaged in any form of digital curation activity although it is probably of most direct relevance to those working in a Higher Education environment which more closely mirrors the US situation which Fritz describes. Fritz provides a clear introduction in the first chapter to the digital asset management ecosystem concept and outlines the activities and responsibilities which form this. [Extracted from the article]

This article investigates the relationship between public cemetery management and public records management in South Africa. The intersection of South African cemetery management and archives and records management has not previously been explored and represents a rich area for further research. In order to build a common ground for reflection and recommendations, this article centres on the present regulatory framework for cemetery records management and how records management principles are understood and implemented by cemetery managers. The investigation also draws together beliefs regarding the significance of public cemetery records. While poor records management is known to be an issue in South African public cemeteries, it is treated as less important than burial space shortages, despite representing a useful tool to overcome this primary problem. Cemetery managers have inconsistent beliefs regarding the significance of cemetery records and their role as record keepers. The research points to sufficient cause for intervention by local archivists and records managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of archives scholarship highlight colonial influences in archival collections as well as archival praxis. This research project explored the extent to which archives workers in the UK feel prepared and equipped to engage professionally with decolonizing archival practices. I conducted an anonymous online survey of workers across the archives sector to gauge their attitudes to different decolonizing practices in archives and their openness to participating in such initiatives. This article discusses and mobilizes my findings to suggest ways to encourage engagement with decolonizing practices across the sector. Participants were asked about their professional background and their initial understanding and feelings about archival decolonization before rating statements reflecting different decolonizing approaches and sharing final comments. Responses reflected a strong degree of openness towards different decolonizing practices, particularly increasing (digital) access and sharing ownership. There was support for change led from within the sector based on collaborative approaches, while there was some resistance to what was considered a politicizing of the issue. I propose ways forward centred on communication, collaboration, and peer support across the sector, particularly in exploring ways to accommodate decolonizing approaches into archival praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joining the Committee of the Cumbrian Local History Federation in 2017, Adrian became a regular contributor to its I Bulletin i , typically on medieval or early modern topics, and represented the organization on the Advisory Board of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University. Already a member for 40 years when he joined the CWAAS's Council in 2012, Adrian served variously as Secretary of its Outreach Committee, as Membership Secretary, and finally as its Honorary Archivist. Graph Adrian Allan will be remembered with affection as a committed archivist with a unique and generous personality. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, the authors use the soft power concept as a framework to examine the visibility and accessibility of public archives in South Africa. The study employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. It revealed that the public archives' current visibility activities have only a marginal effect in promoting the visibility and accessibility of archival holdings and archival services. We suggest that public archives establish an active database of key stakeholders that include government's top management, traditional authorities, legislators and donors of non-public records to collaborate on topics of interest and influence the public's decision-making pattern regarding the value of an archival heritage for economic, social and cultural development in society. This ensures that public archives remain relevant and engage their public in this knowledge economy for public good. To accomplish this, we recommend a framework to serve as a benchmarking tool for public archives that seek to improve their visibility programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photographs in the archive are believed to hold significance because of the information on their obverse. This article rather focuses upon the reverse of photographic materials as a critical tool to look at the archive. To be more specific, it considers the reverse of the images of Atatürk in the collections of the Turkish Historical Society and deals with the traces there, which serve to assess the content of the images in various ways. As the traces on the reverse of these items are relative to their obverse, the article turns to Erving Goffman's concept of 'backstage' in order to understand the thought-landscape of the archive when it comes to handling visual materials as records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the relationship between researchers and archivists in the People's Republic of China, based on two co-authors' respective experiences of the same archive centres. It shows how the clearance procedures, the imprecise regulations, and the arbitrary power of archivists at various levels can either open access to restricted documents, or prevent access to others that are supposedly 'open to the public'. To this extent, this article shows how the fragmented and authoritarian nature of the Chinese bureaucracy shapes the relationship between administrators and the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The junction between the memory of violence of the past and fictional registry is a dimension of post-dictatorial society's cultural dynamics. While the testimonial narrative is dominant in the literary sphere, the archive as a repository of memory and documental inscription, with the capacity to iterate and transit from one social field to another, challenges regimes of truth and lineal temporality of official memory. This article identifies, characterises and compares the way in which records are employed in contemporary Chilean post-dictatorship narrative. The archive enables us to problematise and contextualise the relation to the recent dictatorial past and the opening up of new fields of reflection. The incorporation of records in four recent Chilean post-dictatorship novels (Puño y Letra by Eltit; Sprinters, Los Niños de Colonia Dignidad by Larra; La Dimensión Desconocida by Fernández and Monte Maravilla by Lafferte) is achieved through quotes or theme development. Such resources bring to light the fascination as well as the scepticism that archives generate in literature, as well as their effectiveness for expressing the intricate, and even contradictory, mechanisms of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, public archives repositories are operating with limited resources and under strenuous circumstances due to low profiles in the public arena. Advocacy as a tool to raise the archival profile in South Africa for the purpose of lobbying support has not been adequately explored by archivists and civil society in the country. The purpose of this study is to examine the archival advocacy initiatives of civil society organizations in South Africa to determine where and how advocacy can be improved. Data were collected through document analysis, interviews and a literature review to examine archival advocacy approaches by archivists and civil society in South Africa. It was established that the role of civil society organizations in raising the archival profile in South Africa had not been adequate. Furthermore, archivists are conspicuous in their absence in the discourse involving archives. Advocacy has the power to influence constitutional, legislation, and policy reformation. The archival community in South Africa needs advocacy in different forms to challenge those in influential offices to serve their (archival community) interests. Unless archivists become advocates for archives, they risk reducing themselves to arid functionaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These chapters are rather variable, with the nineteenth-century libraries chapter focussing solely on US social libraries, in contrast with the archives chapter which covers Europe and the US. According to the synopsis, this edited volume claims to be the first to consider the development of all three cultural heritage institutions - libraries, archives and museums - and their interactions with society and culture from the beginnings of writing in the ancient world to the present day in Western Europe and the United States. [Extracted from the article]

At the same time, we publish this issue in the context of an increasingly constrained environment for scholars and practitioners engaged in antiracist and decolonization work in Britain. In the summer of 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, USA on the 25 May 2020, UK email list discussions about the impact of systemic and structural racism on recordkeeping became heated and divisive.[1] The difficult and, at times, offensive conversation reflected long term conflicts, both overt and implied, about how to respond to the legacies of racism, slavery and colonialism that are embedded in archival institutions and practices.[2] While a vocal minority refused to acknowledge the realities of racism or its wide-ranging impacts, most contributors expressed a desire to learn and self-educate, to take action, to dismantle oppressive structures, and to work towards a more equitable and just archival field. [Extracted from the article]

This article will give an in-depth analysis of our journey in decolonizing the archives of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which began in 2019 and is ongoing. It will give readers the opportunity to understand how an institution created by the Colonial Office is confronting its history and its colonial legacy, and how the Archives Service is changing its practices in a way that seeks to confront and disrupt the colonial narrative. This has been achieved through an overview of the colonial history of the School by a research fellow and the development of decolonizing principles covering cataloguing practice, archival practice, dissemination, education and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the anti-racist project developed by the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth (AEL — Edgard Leuenroth Archive) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil that involves assembling collections pertaining to black social organizations in the state of São Paulo for preservation and dissemination. The project understands the relation between archives and anti-racism in two dimensions. One considers the very gesture of incorporating materials into the archival apparatus and the other involves the search for a new participatory paradigm for archival practices and decision-making. The collections enable us to reimagine the role of black organizations in the history of the country and its future, thus preserving and ensuring access to them is part of a broader initiative to redefine the place of the archival institution in policies aiming to dismantle racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the concept of the 'colour line,' by which W.E.B. Du Bois named the problematic 'relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea,' this article argues that the ongoing custody of archives displaced to Europe during decolonization constitutes an 'archival colour line' that both results from and recapitulates the racism of the imperial project. The article does this by first arguing that developments in post-custodialism return significance to custody, calling into question the value of 'digital repatriation' and 'joint' or 'shared heritage.' Establishing the importance of archival custody, the article then considers the racialized nature of archival displacements in postcolonial contexts, drawing on data from a recent international survey. To look more closely at how such an archival colour line might be constituted, the article examines the dispossession of people from Kericho, Kenya, to illuminate three stages of archival colour line formation; the colonial setting (provenance); decolonization and the reconfiguration of economic interests (appraisal); and postcolonial archives and the momentum of reckoning (custody). The article concludes that the ongoing European custody of the records in question results from and fortifies a global racist order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the confines of authenticity, there are indeed rules and standards - or canons - for verifying authenticity that differ within jurisprudence, diplomatics, and archival science contexts. The increase in misinformation tactics we encounter might inspire archivists to revisit the canon of authenticity, and its sister concept "reliability", as they did when confronting electronic records. Keywords: authenticity; archives; preservation; electronic records EN authenticity archives preservation electronic records 204 206 3 08/03/22 20220601 NES 220601 Archivists benefit from periodic self-critique of the tenets of our theory and practice. [Extracted from the article]