Digital Commons Network^™

“Living Document”: From Documents To Documentality, From Mimesis To Performative Indexicality, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this article, in distinction to documentation as an epistemic understanding of documents, I will discuss the epistemology of documentality as an indexical theory of documental functions, which I will develop through Bruno Latour’s notion of information. This notion of indexicality is different than Suzanne Briet’s notion of indexicality (which I have discussed elsewhere (Briet, 2006)).

I will begin this paper with an historical problem that illustrates the issues of viewing documents as content representation. This is the problem identified by Vincent Debaene (Debaene, 2014) in early and mid-twentieth century French field anthropology of the “two book” phenomenon, which attempted …

The Documentality Of “Smong” As Social Control For Disaster Risk Reduction In Simeulue Island, Rusdan Kamil, Dian Novita Fitriani, Niswa Nabila Sri Bintang Alam, Zulfatun Sofiyani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Aim – This study aims to analyze nandong smong as an oral tradition with the documentality approach by Frohmann.

Design/Methodology/Approach – This study analyzes nandong smong using qualitative method, especially case study research. The data collected in this study used secondary data obtained from literature sources or journal documents and previous research related to nandong smong. In this research, data analysis document analysis.

Finding – Nandong smong is one of the oral traditions that has become a disaster mitigation tool for the people of Simeulue. According to Frohmann's concept of documentality, Nandong Smong has four aspects of documentality, as …

Emergence: Documents In Crisis, Wayne De Fremery

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This essay suggests the etymologies of emergence, emergency, and crisis create a useful framework for theorizing documents. Indeed, the overlapping semantic associations of the words allow for the idea that documents emerge in crisis. The semantic overlap also allows a means for theorizing how documents descend into crisis. Theorizing documents in crisis, the essay argues, usefully complements documentalist theories of documentary representation suggested by thinkers like Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet, as well newer conceptualizations of documentality as conceived by Michael Buckland and Maurizio Ferraris and documentarity as described by Ronald Day.

Bringing Political Upheaval And Cultural Trauma Into Order: A Document-Theoretical Approach To The Social Significance Of Bibliographic Classification Systems, Joacim Hansson

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper explores the ability to define bibliographic classification systems as socially significant documents in a way that goes beyond their immediate function in the information retrieval process. It does so in dialog with theory on documents and documentality, and knowledge organization theory. Two examples show how development of new classification systems address social and cultural structures in periods of rapid social and cultural change and crisis. The first example discusses the design of a classification system for Swedish public libraries in the late 1910s, and the second addresses the re-formulation of the Holocaust experience in American Jewish library classification …

Documents In The Dynarchive: Questioning The Total Revolution Of The Digital Archive, Rachel Pierce

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The digital archive is often described in opposition to its physical counterpart. Media theorist Wolfgang Ernst has coined the term “dynarchive” to describe the former, a phrase that neatly contrasts digital archival remixability with the statis of the physical archive and its hierarchical fond structure. The article both uses and questions this characterization by examining the archive’s physical and digital document practices in three areas: (1) Hierarchical collection description versus individual document description; (2) Original order versus relevance-based results; and (3) Archival selection practices and the illusion of completeness. Archival structure and description have been central to the authority and …

Commuters’ Health Certificate As Social Control During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Rahmi Rahmi, Lydia Christiani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In Indonesia, a regulation on large-scale social restrictions (“Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar” or PSBB) restricted citizens’ activities in the cultural, social, and economic sectors. These large-scale social restrictions also impact Jakarta’s activities from the commuting communities of Central Java, the Yogyakarta Special Region, and East Java Provinces. As a result, these commuters have become accustomed to travelling back to their hometowns every Friday afternoon. On Sundays, they return to Jakarta and arrive in Jakarta on Monday mornings to go to work. This activity is often referred to as “Pulang Jumat Kembali Ahad” (PJKA) or Going Home Every Friday Evening and …