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This paper examines digital archiving policies of open access (OA) electronic scholarly journals in Central Europe. The research sample consists of 1589 journals from nine Central European countries registered in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Results show that of the 1589 journals, 69% of them have an archiving policy. In terms of the number of indexed journals, Poland ranks first with 592 journals. Switzerland is at the forefront of digital archiving with 89% of archived journals. It was also found that Portico and national libraries are the most widely used archives, and that 19% of the preserved journals are archived in more than one archive. A preliminary analysis was also conducted to investigate the possible existence of a relationship between journal rank and digital archiving. The results show a higher number of JCR indexed titles, as well as a higher ranking, among archived journals. The paper also compares the status of archiving policies among Asian and Central European countries. The results reveal that archived journals are significantly more represented in Central European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Restaurator is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The term "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is increasingly permeating public consciousness as it has gained more popularity in recent years, especially within the landscape of academia and libraries. AI in libraries has been a trending subject of interest for some time, as within the library there are numerous departments that serve a role in collectively contributing to the library's mission. Consequently, it is imperative to consider AI's influence on the digital preservation of historic documents. This paper delves into the historical evolution of preservation methods driven by technological advancements as, throughout history, libraries, archives, and museums have grappled with the challenge of preserving historical collections, while many of the traditional preservation methods are costly and involve a lot of manual (human) effort. AI being the catalyst for transformation could change this reality and perhaps redefine the process of preservation; thus, this paper explores the emerging trend of incorporating AI technology into preservation practices and provides predictions regarding the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in preservation for the future. With that in mind, this paper addresses the following questions: could AI be what changes or creates a paradigm shift in how preservation is done?; and could it be the thing that will change the way history is safeguarded? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her influential article published in 2016, Alexandra Walsham, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, coined the metaphor that 'Archives are the factories and laboratories of the historian'. Traditionally viewed as neutral storehouses of official records passively awaiting historians' scrutiny, conceptions of archives have expanded in recent decades. Archives are now understood as complex social and cultural entities that actively participate in shaping understandings of the past. This paper examines shifting perspectives on the nature and functions of archives through a critical analysis of key debates. Specifically, this paper adopts a hermeneutic lens to critically engage Walsham's metaphor and move beyond its potential limitations through situated analysis and interpretation. This paper explores how archives are actively implicated in knowledge construction through their contents, organisational frameworks, and interactions with historians. Recognising archives as fragmented, culturally contingent remnants that mediate engagement with the past, the paper calls for collaborative, reflective approaches between archivists and historians. The paper also acknowledges historians' subjective interpretive roles while advocating consultation of archivists' contextual expertise. Ultimately, it advances methodological discussions on writing history through a nuanced appreciation of archives as dynamic mediators within historical research, not transparent conduits neutrally supplying facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wittgenstein Studien. Neue Folge is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article sheds light on the digital transformation of Richard Wossidlo's regional ethnographic and linguistic collection into the research environment WossiDiA. The Digital Wossidlo Archive is based on making handwritten sources and their indexing visible to users. It has been implemented as a hypergraph database, whose abundance of node and hyperedge types is suitable for representing the diversity and delicate nature of the tradition archive. This paper will discuss how proprietary properties have been preserved in the transformation process and how the digital collection is compatible with big data scenarios. Follow-up projects have contributed to this. "Efficiency," the necessity of resource-saving, will also be problematized. Finally, it will be shown how a sparse ethnographic fieldnote can be enriched into a complex hypergraph extract, a method which is reminiscent of dragnet detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Restaurator is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The construction of national identity through historical narrative is inextricably linked to archival keeping, access and privilege. In settler-colonial contexts, archives and the way they are used are always political. Drawing on decolonising methodologies and critical archival theory, this paper examines challenges faced by an interdisciplinary project team who received University of Melbourne Engagement funding to initiate a process of repatriation. This project has been grounded in the process of consultation and engagement with the Indigenous communities from which these records originated, and the process of reconnecting former students of Mount Margaret, and their families. In confronting the inherent cultural biases of archives, this paper considers particular problems for institutions in developing methods of repatriation alongside record collection and keeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the history of the Franciscan archives under Ottoman rule by focusing on archival documents, practices, and spaces in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Fojnica. Ottoman papers and archives preserved in the Franciscan spaces were often associated with Ottoman oppression. In this study, the author demonstrates that the documentary relationship between monasteries and Ottoman chanceries was not one-directional and cannot be characterized as oppressive. Franciscans actively engaged with the Ottoman documents and genres; they relied on the Ottoman vocabularies and legitimacy embedded in the documents, and subverted them at the same time, carving out their own physical and discursive spaces, which were tied to and yet different from the imaginaries of the Ottoman imperial order. The article emphasizes how examining archival narratives is located at the intersection of practices, texts, and spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical analysis of disciplinary discussions on user-generated contributions to institutional archives collections metadata and attempts to assess its impact on professional archivists' approach to archival description. It frames archival description as a distinct knowledge domain and considers the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of expanding this key function of archival work beyond the professional purview. It discusses how enhanced user participation might contribute to the knowledge and information infrastructures of archives and what this might suggest for archival description going forward. It identifies various practical, theoretical, and ethical implications for archives emerging from this body of literature, all undergirded by the role of technology in shaping the cultural and historical phenomena that archives seek to capture. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of archives' renewed place in knowledge building in a digital society and offers suggestions for continued inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital cultural archives and databases are promising an era of heritage democratization and an enhancement of the role of arts in everyday cultures. It is hoped that mass digitization initiatives in many corners of the world can facilitate the secure preservation of human cultural heritage, with easy access and diverse ways for creative reuse. Understanding the dialogic processes within these increasingly vast databases necessitates a dynamic conceptualization of data they contain. The paper argues that this can be found in Juri Lotman's cultural semiotic notion of text and text's functions in culture. It elaborates on the three key characteristics of text – expression, boundary, and structure – as manifested within the digital semiosphere. At the same time, the textual dialogues within digital archives are increasingly conditioned by metadata, which is hereby conceptualized as metalanguage inducing a modeling effect on archived texts and defining their possible sphere of dynamics. To balance the explanations of creative operations of digital archives, the paper also demonstrates their auto-communicative mechanisms for facilitating cultural continuities and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay presents a reflection on the so-called auxiliary sciences, starting from the volume published by the Monumenta Germaniae Historica on the occasion of its foundation 200 years ago. The papers of the volume are integrated into the broader international debate on the prospects of medieval studies, both in relation to the „digital turn" and to the risk that the Middle Ages will become marginalized in university curricula and „irrelevant" to contemporary society and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literary papyri found by Otto Rubensohn on January 25 and 27, 1905, were unearthed together with the archive of the Taurinus family (5th–6th c.) in a dump at Hermopolis. Herwig Maehler proposed that, due to the circumstances of their discovery, these books may have belonged to one of the family members. This hypothesis, if correct, is all the more interesting since it makes these papyri one of the few papyrological libraries with a precise historical context. In this paper, I attempt to make an overall assessment of this library, which has never been inventoried, and discuss its possible relationship with the documentary archive of the Taurini. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte: Germanistische Abteilung is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this study we investigate the implementation and challenges of accessing archives in the digital age. Through an online survey and expert interviews, data were collected from archival institutions, professional users, and civil society organizations in all Council of Europe member states. The findings reveal that digitization has had a positive impact on document accessibility, providing convenience, reducing workload, and improving user access. However, only a small portion of archival holdings have been digitized, highlighting the need for further efforts in this area. Data protection and copyright present significant obstacles, with the European General Data Protection Regulation leading to access restrictions and legal uncertainties. Preservation, interoperability, and organization of records pose challenges in the digital realm, and while artificial intelligence shows promise in automating metadata creation and identifying sensitive materials, concerns about algorithmic biases and the need for additional checks are highlighted. To enhance accessibility, user-friendly interfaces, cooperation among memory preserving institution, and outreach to new user groups are crucial, which can ensure the effective preservation and accessibility of digital collections in the digital age. We provide insights for policy-making and archival institutions in navigating the evolving landscape of accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text contains answers to 5 questions concerning the use of Oral History in Holocaust research in Slovakia and the author's opinions and experiences with the use of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the research trends in library and information science (LIS) is important as it provides insight into the research practices of scholars in the field. This study investigated the research trends in master's and doctoral research outputs relating to LIS produced in Nigeria and South Africa between 2009 and 2015 to identify the most researched subject areas and the most neglected subject areas in LIS research in the two countries. A total of 400 master's and doctoral research outputs produced in Nigeria and South Africa were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis, and 15 research areas were created by means of modified subject categorisation adopted from the extant literature. The findings were that the most researched subject area in both countries was human information behavior in respect of both master's and doctoral research outputs. The least researched areas in LIS research outputs in Nigeria were archives and records management, LIS history and developments, bibliometrics, scientometrics and informatics, knowledge and information resource management. In South Africa, bibliometrics, scientometrics and informatics were the least researched areas in respect of doctoral research outputs, and LIS education and pedagogy were the least researched areas in master's research outputs. The positivist research paradigm was more prevalent. The implication of the findings is that LIS schools in Nigeria and South Africa need to focus more on research areas that deal with current trends and challenges confronting the profession. In today's world of work, most services are driven by information technology and research should be directed towards addressing the implementation of recent trends in the profession. Since the sample framework used for Nigeria was low, it may not be appropriate to generalise this finding to other institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a concise history of Polish folk tale from oral – analogue – beginnings to the digital collections of today. First, the storytelling tradition in Poland is described, secondly, an overview is given on folk tale collections and on the Polish research tradition, and, finally, the current digital folk tale archives are introduced in more detail. The focus of the article is about the recent development of online folk tale indexes and collections by popularising the very rich Polish folk tale documentation and scholarship as a valuable part of the European and global intangible heritage in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archival bond is the embodiment of the relationships shared amongst records generated in the course of the same activity, by the same creator. It has been one of the key governing principles of the archival profession since its inception. At the heart of this concept is the notion that records only acquire meaning and identity in the context of the aggregation they originally belong to. This interpretation has been guided by an analog worldview of archives in which creators, activities, and fonds are easily delimited constructs. With the digitalization of recordkeeping, these boundaries are meshed in favor of more fluid processes that prioritize the flow and recombination of information across several systems and classification schemes. This article attempts to revisit the concept of archival bond under the light of the current information paradigm with the goals of examining its fundamental notions, discussing its application and limitations. The methodology is qualitative and relies on documentary research. A literature review on the archival bond is conducted through the consultation of Web of Science and Scopus databases. As an expansion of the archival bond, a novel concept of informational bond is suggested as an attempt to more accurately capture the context of digital information and to reinforce the trustworthiness of archival representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angesichts des rasanten Wachstums seiner Bestände und Magazinstandorte sowie zunehmender technischer Möglichkeiten konzentriert sich das Bundesarchiv stärker denn je auf zeitgemäße massentaugliche Lösungen der Bestandserhaltung. Das Anfang 2022 veröffentlichte neue Bestandserhaltungskonzept erläutert die Grundsätze. Im Sinne einer umfassenden Bestandserhaltung auf der Basis internationaler fachwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse verbindet das Bundesarchiv in großem Maßstab Lagerungsthemen einschließlich Bauplanungen mit der Mitgestaltung einschlägiger, auch internationaler, Normen, mit Risikomanagement, dem Vorantreiben der weiteren Professionalisierung in der Restaurierung und dem Ausbau der Digitalisierung. The German Federal Archives increasingly focuses on mass-scale contemporary solutions for preservation. This is due to the recent extraordinary growth of its collections and number of storage sites as well as technological innovation. Published at the beginning of 2022, the new preservation concept is based on international research results. Consequently, the concept combines aspects of storage, including building design and risk management, the promotion of further increase in professionalism of restoration and mass-scale digitisation, as well as contribution to relevant norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communist period in Albania was a time of intense photographic production. Much more than in previous periods, photography was perceived by those in power as an indispensable tool while at the same time becoming accessible to almost the entire population. Many photographs from the time survived the end of the communist regime and can now be used to study the history and memory of that period. To be of historical value, however, the diversity of photographic genres and practices, as well as the history of the constitution of photographic archives demands consideration of the context of the production and circulation of photographs, and that is a primary objective of this article. The author shows how he conducted an ethnography of photography based on presentation of the current state of public and private collections, and how such investigation constitutes a contribution to the anthropology of communism in Albania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most relevant collection for studying the wars accompanying the breakup of Yugoslavia, which resulted in over 130,000 dead or missing, is the archive of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The Tribunal established by the UN Security Council in 1993 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes indicted 161 people and had accumulated millions of pages of testimony, military and police reports, and videos when it closed in late 2017. This invaluable record details the massacres and includes well-known incidents, such as the mass executions after the fall of Srebrenica, but also killings and torture elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. This article investigates the history of this archive, analyzes its contents, and argues that the collection has two important features which present both a huge opportunity and a significant challenge for research—the immense volume of the archive, and a lack of access to important parts of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article recognizes a new category of documents in the Middle Assyrian administrative archives — drafts of kiṣirtus. It uses two archives as case studies: the flock-master's archive from Tell Ali and the archive of Mutta, the animal-fattener from Assur. The identification of kiṣirtu drafts contributes to the reconstruction of the Middle Assyrian administrative record-keeping practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a 2016 talk I gave to a drawing research group led by Lesley McFadyen, Huda Tayob and Sophie Read. In it I look back at my PhD research completed in 2013, with a view to trying to disentangle my complicated relationship with drawing as a practice of architectural research. Working through what drawing might and might not be, I propose that, hand in hand with writing, writing-drawing forms an entangled mode of doing architectural history and theory that draws out something more, or other, than each can do alone.* The mode of writing-drawing is particularly developed in the context of historical research on a building where archival material on the architect's intent, or evidence of the uses of the building once it was built, are missing. I argue two things: firstly, that the building itself can be read as an original archive, as a series of Lacanian part-objects; and that secondly, the writing-drawing research practice creates a further archive, a »living archive« that can be contributed to over time.† The article reflects on the roles of writing and drawing in the PhD whilst incorporating thinking developed in my recent research, chiefly drawn from ethnography, sociology, literary studies, and situated feminist and autotheory writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Kizzuwatna, roughly the area around the present-day Turkish city of Adana in the plains of Cilicia in Southeastern Turkey, is known to be the origin of several magical ritual texts that were found in the archives of the Hittite Capital, Ḫattuša, in Central Anatolia. These texts are characterized by varying amounts of Luwian and Hurrian elements and rites in them. This article, however, aims to foreground festival texts with connections to Kizzuwatna and adjacent regions, namely the "Festival for Teššub and Ḫebat of Lawazantiya (CTH 699)" and the "Cults for Teššub and Ḫebat of Aleppo (CTH 698)". Both festivals reveal very little Luwian, but they do exhibit obvious Hurrian influences. This article offers first thoughts toward an interpretation of the lack of Luwian in these texts, along with other texts with an alleged origin in Southeastern Anatolia or Northern Syria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors address working class women’s activism in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on archives produced at both factory and municipal levels by local društva žena or aktivi žena (women’s societies/sections) in the industrial town of Varaždin, Croatia. Their critical exploration of archival sources produced between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s has enabled the authors to challenge dominant interpretations of women’s activism during state socialism, particularly the idea that no relevant activism existed after the dissolution of the Antifascist Women’s Front (AFŽ) in 1953. To counter that view the authors highlight the continuities between the AFŽ and subsequent women’s organizations, the Union of Women’s Societies (SŽD) and the Conference for the Social Activity of Women (KDAŽ), in terms both of discursive narratives and of biographical trajectories. They argue that local archival collections provide new and differentiated insights into past gender and labour conflicts and into working class women’s activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative analysis of the sources preserved at the Archivio del Gran Priorato di Lombardia e Venezia and the Archives of the Order of Malta in the National Library of Malta, have made it possible to quantify and identify the lands owned by the Order of Malta on the Venetian mainland – the Terraferma – between the 16th and the 18th centuries. The archival documentation, further corroborated by research in the Archives of Venice, Padua and Verona, uncovered a vast range of situations, yet to be studied and linked to the properties owned by the knights in Veneto. Furthermore, the documentation sheds some light not only on the knights to whom the Commanderies were assigned, but also on the vast number of people who actively participated in the life and administration of the properties owned by the Order of Malta in the Terraferma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at the University of Adelaide was founded in 1972 and is the world's only dedicated university centre for Australian Indigenous music studies. This article investigates the making of the CASM Archive through collaboration between CASM academics and students and professional archivists in the University of Adelaide Library. It demonstrates how this unusual approach, originally intended to provide students with an understanding of CASM's history, resulted in a collaborative process of slow appraisal that enabled CASM students to make greatly useful contributions to appraising and communicating the significance of the CASM Archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]