Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Metadata To Mitigate The Risks Of Digitizing Archival Photographs Of Violence And Oppression, Claudia A. Mallea

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Questioning the archival imperative of access, this research article discussed how descriptive metadata can be used to contextualize and problematize digitized archival photographs, which are often inadequately described in the digital environment. Beginning with literature review of atrocity photos and their use and digitization to discuss the risks inherent to disseminating photos of or born from violence. Review continued into the digital environment and the risks inherent to making difficult archival collections accessible online and the conflict between the right to privacy of the individuals represented in archival materials and the archival imperative to provide access.

Expanding on the recommendations …

Digitize Your Yearbooks: Creating Digital Access While Considering Student Privacy And Other Legal Issues, April K. Anderson-Zorn, Dallas Long

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Student yearbooks are distinctive cultural records. For the schools and universities that produced them, yearbooks promoted a shared sense of identity and experience among students and helped create enduring loyalty to the institutions long after the students graduated. For scholars and other users, yearbooks are unique primary sources that provide insight into past eras of local student life and culture. In regards to user engagement and preserving local histories, student yearbooks should be ideal candidates for digitization by libraries and archives. However, yearbooks are challenging digitization projects because they are likely to contain privacy-sensitive photographs and other information as well …

Review Of Mary Kandiuk, Editor. Archives And Special Collections As Sites Of Contestation. Sacramento, Ca: Library Juice Press, 2020., Jennifer Gotwals

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archives and Special Collections as Sites of Contestation, an edited volume collecting 17 essays from practitioners across the United States and Canada, contains chapters critically evaluating how Special Collections approach instruction, digital projects, cataloging, knowledge production, and ethics.

“Who’S Driving The Bus?” Or How Digitization Is Influencing Archival Collections, Kathelene Mccarty Smith, David Gwynn, Beth Ann Koelsch, Jennifer Motszko

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archivists who work directly with unique collections, as well as librarians and other professionals who coordinate digitization, generally agree that access should be prioritized. However, each group has its own goals, standards, and timelines that may conflict with those of their colleagues. The push to maximize access to collections may, in some cases, go so far as to influence collecting policies. Is the lure of rapid digitization affecting best practices of arrangement and description? If online access to the collections is the ultimate goal, and if each stakeholder has a different perspective on how best to accomplish this, who decides …

The Nuremberg Trials Project At Harvard Law School: Making History Accessible To All, Judith A. Haran

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article is primarily a case study of the Nuremberg Trials Project at the Harvard Law School Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It begins with an historical note about the war crimes trials and their documentary record, including the fate of the several tons of trial documents that were distributed in 1949. The second part of the article is a description of the Harvard Law School Nuremberg project, including its history, goals, logistical considerations, digitization process and challenges, and resulting impact. The structure and function of the project website is described, followed by a description of a typical user experience, the …

Getting To Tier 1 By Revitalizing A Special Collections Program With Cultural Competence, Mark L. Shelstad

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Seeking to revitalize a special collections program at a Tier 1 aspirant university, the author introduced a variety of contemporary and innovative management strategies along with new outreach opportunities to demonstrate its value toward fulfilling the university's strategic plan. The revitalization efforts included creating a manuscript and rare book collection development policies that incorporated web harvesting, making connections with the community, and finding new audiences using social media. The dramatic increase in collection use and collaboration demonstrated the value of special collections to the community and the university.

Ethical Issues In Digitization Of Cultural Heritage, Zinaida Manžuch

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The growing number of case studies on the ethical issues faced in cultural heritage digitization calls for a discussion of this generally neglected dimension of digitization. The importance of the ethical dimension is also supported by implicit and explicit assumptions that well-established approaches to ethics in archives, libraries, and museums do not work with digitization. The aim of this paper is to determine what ethical issues arise in cultural heritage digitization and how they affect methods of decision-making and organizing digitization. The paper identifies and discusses several areas of concern that have caused ethical issues in digitization. They include contextual …