Community Archives: The Shaping of Memory (Principles and Practice in Records Management and Archives) - Hardcover

Bastian, Jeannette; Alexander, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1856046397 ISBN 13: 9781856046398

Publisher: Facet Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

How do archives and other cultural institutions such as museums determine the boundaries of a particular community, and of their own institutional reach, in constructing effective strategies and methodologies for selecting and maintaining appropriate material evidence? This book offers guidance to which archivists, record managers and museums professionals can turn to when faced with such issues in their daily work. This edited collection explores the relationships between communities and the records they create at a practical and scholarly level. It focuses on the ways in which records reflect community identity and collective memory, and the implications of capturing, appraising and documenting them - with particular focus on the ways in which recent advances in technology can overcome traditional obstacles, as well as how technologies themselves offer possibilities of creating new virtual communities. It is split into three parts: Context and concepts; Case studies: community archives, community and non-traditional recordkeeping, record loss, destruction and recovery, and online communities; and, practical implications. This will appeal to practitioners, researchers, and academics in the archives and records community and beyond.

About this title

About the Author

Ben Alexander, Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, New York; and Jeannette A. Bastian, Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Boston.

Review

"This volume is an important contribution to the growing literature on the significance of archives in society...Its significance lies in part in the variety of community archives it represents and in its engagement with some of the most challenging, perplexing, and exciting issues facing the archival profession." --The American Archivist, Fall/Winter 2010

"Anyone presented with the task of creating a new physical archive or evaluating an existing one would benefit from the information on new methods of obtaining information and assessing it…the book provides a readable and interesting look at a wide range of community archives and their challenges." --Journal for the Society of North Carolina Archivists, Fall 2010

"This book is a notable addition to archival literature, particularly because it illuminates areas which are of fundamental important to societal memory and yet often neglected or ignored." --The Australian Library Journal, November 2010

"With stories from immigrant populations, marginalized native groups, postcolonial independent states, post-traumatic communities, and gay and lesbian groups, we are able to understand that commmunity and identity formation through archives are cross-cultural concepts....It is nearly impossible to read Community Archives without thinking about the archival community and how it can be strengthened through an understanding of archives' power to bring people together and create common purpose." --Archival Issues, 2011

Edition details

• Publisher: Facet Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1856046397
• ISBN 13: 9781856046398
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320