Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Archiving Blackness: Reimagining And Recreating The Archive(S) As Literary And Information Wake Work, Jamillah R. Gabriel

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

“…we, Black people everywhere and anywhere we are, still produce in, into, and through the wake an insistence on existing: we insist Black being into the wake.”

– Christina Sharpe, In the Wake (2016)

In this paper, I introduce Christina Sharpe’s conceptualizations of wake and wake work, as they pertain to archiving the experiences of Blackness to better understand how the archive and archives are vital for those living and working in the wake of slavery. I am particularly interested in the wake work conducted both in literary works (speculative fiction) and at information sites (archives). To that end, …

Applying Archival Science To Digital Curation: Advocacy For The Archivist’S Role In Implementing And Managing Trusted Digital Repositories, Sammie L. Morris

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Archivists have led digital preservation efforts for as long as there have been digital records, as a natural extension of archival responsibilities to collect, preserve, and provide ongoing access to unique information of enduring value. Increasingly, librarians and information professionals are also focusing attention and resources on these initiatives. Examples include data curation, establishment of institutional repositories, and providing virtual work spaces for researchers to collaborate and archive their scholarly output.

Information professionals are relying upon standards such as ISO 16363 for certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to facilitate successful digital preservation and access. Unfortunately, archivists are sometimes forgotten in …

Archival Literacy Competencies For Undergraduate History Majors, Sharon A. Weiner, Sammie L. Morris, Lawrence J. Mykytiuk

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Undergraduate history majors need to know how to conduct archival research. This paper describes the second phase of a project to identify “archival literacy” competencies. Faculty, archivists, and librarians from baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral/research institutions commented on a draft list. This resulted in competencies in six major categories: accurately conceive of primary sources; locate primary sources; use a research question, evidence, and argumentation to advance a thesis; obtain guidance from archivists; demonstrate acculturation to archives; and follow publication protocols. Collaborations of archivists, faculty, and librarians can integrate the competencies throughout undergraduate history curricula in their institutions.

Born Digital: Event-Driven Archives, Vincent Capone

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The growth of the internet has brought numerous tools and opportunities for archivists to both enhance their collections and reach out to potential patrons. Archives across the globe have begun immense digitization efforts to bring collections into the digital age and make them accessible to a broader audience. But what challenges face new archives whose collections are born-digital? How do these archives prove that they are indeed an archival facility and not simply a memory institution? These questions have risen around numerous digital archives born in the past decade to document and commemorate social events and tragic disasters, including the …