Archival Science Commons^™

Curating The Liberal Arts: High-Impact Approaches To Teaching Medical Humanities In The Archives, Alyssa Culp, Liz Bloodworth

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article emphasizes high-impact practices in the archives and encourages instructors and archivists to use prolonged collaboration as a way to teach digital learners analog thinking. The digital and physical exhibits we discuss were designed to model liberal arts thinking and curate experiential learning opportunities that led students to make connections between artifacts and lived experiences. Our case study focuses on one course developed with sustained archival interaction, which demonstrates an effective use of archives for promoting active learning through direct engagement with primary source materials in a liberal arts environment and thereby serves as an example of partnership for …

A Historian And A Sociologist Walk Into A Bar: A Data Archive For Social Sciences And Digital Humanities Hosted At A National Archives Institution, Benjamin Peuch, Oliver Lenaerts, Rolande Depoortere, Johan Van Der Eycken, Youssef Ouahalou

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In October 2020, a new service was launched at the State Archives of Belgium, the Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive (SODHA). It is the result of several years of feasibility research into the viability of a data archive for social sciences and digital humanities in the research landscape of Belgium. SODHA acts as a service provider for the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archive (CESSDA ERIC) and takes up the task of preserving and disseminating research data in any of the disciplines that constitute the aforementioned fields.

SODHA is a latecomer compared to other similar organizations in Europe …

Lanthorn, Vol. 61, No. 05, October 5, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 61, August 10, 2026 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Tennessee Archives Month Proclamation, 2026, Tennessee. Office Of The Governor

Tennessee Archives Month proclamations

Proclamation issued by the Governor designating October 2026 as Tennessee Archives Month.

Lanthorn, Vol. 61, No. 04, September 28, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 61, August 10, 2026 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Virtual Lunch And Learn: Efficient Database Translation, Stefanie Lapka

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

Searching across multiple databases is an important part of a comprehensive literature search—but translating a search strategy from one database to another takes more than simply copying and pasting.

Join us for September's Lunch & Learn to explore database translation. Register to attend this virtual session.

Resources Feature: Explore Public Opinion Data With Roper Ipoll, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

Looking for public opinion or survey data? Roper iPoll, available through the TMC Library, provides access to nearly one million survey and poll questions and responses covering decades of public opinion research.

Explore Roper iPoll through the TMC Library’s A–Z Databases: https://bit.ly/4rixZFk

History Of Medicine Seminar Returns For Fall 2026, Alice Sherwood

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

The History of Medicine Seminar is back for the Fall 2026 semester! This longstanding collaborative series brings together the TMC community for conversations exploring the history of medicine, archival collections, philosophy, and morally relevant questions in medicine.

View the Fall 2026 History of Medicine Seminar schedule

From The Archives: Rediscovering The John Preston Papers, Isabella Sumner

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

The John Preston, MD Papers, the newest collection at the McGovern Historical Center, contain letters and institutional records documenting life at the Austin State Lunatic Asylum—now Austin State Hospital—during Dr. Preston's 36 years as superintendent. Materials include correspondence from patient's families, physicians, judges, sheriffs, and attorneys, along with budgets, patient records, and even menus for staff and patients. Together, they offer a window into mental health care in Texas during the early 20th century.

Read the full story and explore highlights from the collection on the McGovern Historical Center blog. 

Lanthorn, Vol. 61, No. 03, September 14, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 61, August 10, 2026 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Read, Evaluate, Cite: Using Chatgpt To Teach Primary Source Literacy, Victoria Jones

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

For the last three years, generative artificial intelligence and its uses have been a frequent topic of conversation. In education, many of us have wondered about the impact that generative AI will have on teaching and student learning. The present study considers the benefits and challenges of using generative AI tools in archival education to improve students’ primary source literacy skills. The focus of the research project is an assignment that uses ChatGPT to remove one of the challenges of developing primary source skills: historical writing. In doing so, the students were able to focus on practicing key archival research …

Review Of Archives And Emotions: International Dialogues Across Past, Present, And Future, Caelin Ross

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This review analyzes Archives and Emotions: International Dialogues Across Past, Present, and Future, edited by Ilaria Scaglia and Valeria Vanesio, which argues that emotions are constitutive forces in archival practice rather than distortions of objective work. This volume explores international case studies from the 1800s to the present, bridging the gap between archival science and historical scholarship. It examines how emotions influence preservation, access, and the production of knowledge. The editors use various theoretical frameworks to show that affect plays a contextual role across different types of archives and institutional settings. Key contributions include analyses of international standardization, archivists' …

Leveling Up Data Analytics To Understand Patron Interactions, Sasha H. Kim, Keri K. Eason Ph.D.

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This case study demonstrates how a special collections unit library has used descriptive and predictive (inferential) data analytics with reference transaction data over three years. The goals of this case study are to introduce the idea of inferential statistics and analysis to the library and archive world, to show how using inferential statistics and analysis can help a newly hired library leader understand historical context of user behavior quickly, and how to use data analysis as part of data-informed decision-making that can strengthen archives and library leadership and administration.

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

When Winning Got More Than Gold: Hope's Glory Days; How Hope College Built Its Physics Program, Mackenzie Niswonger, Ryan Mccreedy

Archives and Special Collections Quarterly

When Winning Got More Than Gold: Hope's Glory Days

Column: From the Director of Archives and Special Collections

How Hope College Built Its Physics Program

Lanthorn, Vol. 61, No. 02, August 31, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 61, August 10, 2026 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Raising History From The Grave: Reparative Archival Pedagogy, International Virtual Exchange, And Community Engagement, Antonia Macdonald, Leah Rosenberg

archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

This article brings together three threads in digital pedagogy: international virtual exchange, archival recovery work, and reparative pedagogy to argue that their convergence generates a transformative framework for reimaging critical archival practice and transnational collaborations. Our argument is supported by two related pedagogical projects that we undertook. The first is a collaboration with Pan Caribbean Sankofa (PCS) and the Panama Canal Museum Collection (PCMC) at the University of Florida (UF). The second is a collaborative online international learning (COIL) exchange that took place between two undergraduate classes at a university in the Eastern Caribbean and UF. Both initiatives were grounded …

Unaccountable Archives: A Review Of Underwriting Souls, Samantha Stephens

archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

No abstract provided.

Measure By Measure: Reflections On Building A Quiz Map For Critical Caribbean Digital Pedagogy, Ra Bacchus, Medardo G. Rosario, Alexander S. Butler

archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

This article reflects on the web development of a digital quiz map designed to help students critically engage with the representation of the Caribbean in digital space. Emerging from workshops organized by Visiones del Caribe—a digital humanities initiative using digitized maps and archives to teach Caribbean history, culture, and cartography—this tool responds to students’ inquiries about the region’s spatial boundaries. The quiz invites students to select on a map those countries and territories they consider part of the Caribbean, prompting reflection on the diversity of perspectives shaping Caribbean identity. Drawing from the discourse of critical cartography and digital pedagogy, we …

Tun Up: Building Digital Dancehall Fashion Archives From An Artist’S Perspective, Grayson Chong

archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

This article investigates the opportunities and challenges of building a dancehall fashion archive with particular emphasis on the transition from the material to the digital. As an artist-scholar, I use my own dancehall fashion collection as a case study to explore the process of digitizing material artifacts (in this case, fashion and textiles). I focus on dancehall fashion in particular because it speaks to themes of resistance, self-fashioning, and creativity in the global fashion market. Throughout the article, I highlight what the transition between material and digital affords scholars and public audiences. In particular, I ask: "How do we retain …