[Air-l] Re: archives

[Jonathan Sterne]

Hi All,

Finally a research method I know something about -- archival work.

While I believe the issues with digital archiving are very serious and very 
difficult, we would be wise to remember the following about extant paper 
archives:

1.      They contain only a small fragment of the paper documents that once 
existed.  They are in no way comprehensive and reflect only a small slice 
of the history that occurred.

2.      They are often taken as evidence of events, or pointing to external 
events -- but in fact they are events in themselves.  (In other words, 
you've got to interpret the document as much as the event or fact it 
purports to describe).

3.      Archives are always dependent on archivists, who rarely have the 
same politics or research interests as scholars.  This is not because 
archivists are in another universe but rather because the person who got 
the collection back in 1920 and did the massive amount of work required to 
organize it lived in the 1920s, and we confront his or her work in the 
present.  For my own research, the categories are almost always completely 
wrong.

4.      It would seem to me that these issue will be relevant for thinking 
about digital archives as well.

Best,
--J