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Paperback
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ISBN:
9781783301829
9781783302185
9781783302192
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234mm x 156mm x 10mm
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Archival Futures

This book draws on the contributions of a range of international experts to consider the current archival landscape and imagine the archive of the future. Firmly rooted in current professional debate and scholarship, Archival Futures offers thought provoking and accessible chapters that aim to challenge and inspire archivists globally and to encourage debate about their futures.
It is widely acknowledged that the archive profession/discipline is facing a time of change. The digital world has presented changes in how records are created, used, stored and communicated. At the same time, there is increased public debate over issues such as ownership of and access to information and its authenticity and reliability in a networked and interconnected world. On a practical level archivists are being asked to do more, to have a greater range of skills, often with increasingly restricted resources while competing with others to maintain their role as experts in ever changing environments.
Exploring the potential impact of these changes is timely. Such reflections will provide the opportunity to consider the archivists' purpose and role, discuss the practical impact of change on skills and functions and to articulate what can be contributed to a mid 21 century world.
The contributors, Kate Theimer, Luciana Duranti, Victoria Lemieux, Geoffrey Yeo, Jenny Bunn, Sonia Ranade, Barbara Reed, Gillian Oliver, Frank Upward, Joanne Evans, Michael Moss, David Thomas and Craig Gauld cover:

  • the role of archives in relation to individuals, organisations, communities and society
  • how appraisal, arrangement, description and access might be affected in the future
  • the impact of changing societal expectations in terms of access to information, how information is exchanged, and how things are recorded and remembered
  • the place of traditional archives and what 'the archive' is or might become
  • competition or opportunity offered by other information, cultural or IT related professions and the future role of the archive profession
  • truth and post-truth: archives as authentic and reliable evidence

This book will appeal to an international audience of students, academics and practitioners in archival science, records management, and library and information science.

1. It's the end of the archival profession as we know it, and I feel fine - Kate Theimer
2. Whose truth? Records and archives as evidence in the era of post-truth and disinformation - Luciana Duranti
3. The future of archives as networked, decentralized, autonomous and global - Victoria Lemieux
4. Can we keep everything? The future of appraisal in a world of digital profusion - Geoffrey Yeo
5. Frames and the future of archival processing - Jenny Bunn
6. Access technologies for the disruptive digital archive - Sonia Ranade
7. Multiple rights in records: the role of recordkeeping informatics - Barbara Reed, Gillian Oliver, Frank Upward and Joanne Evans
8. The accidental archive - Michael Moss and David Thomas
9. The end of archival ideas? - Craig Gauld

Caroline Brown is the Programme Leader and Honorary Lecturer for the archives programmes at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies, University of Dundee, where she is also Deputy Archivist. She is a Chair of Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland's) Conference Committee, sits on its Professional Development Committee, having formerly served as the Chair of the Education, Training and Development Committee, and is a member of the Executive Committee for ARA Scotland. She is a sits on the Section Bureau of the International Council on Archives Section on Archival Education and is active in ICA/SUV . She is an Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College and Panel Member and has written and spoken on a range of archival and recordkeeping issues. She is the editor of Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into practice (Facet, 2013).

In Archival Futures, Professor Brown draws upon her years of experience and expertise as well as the contributions of a range of international experts to consider the current archival landscape and imagine the archive of the future. Firmly rooted in current professional debate and scholarship, Archival Futures offers thought provoking and accessible chapters that aim to challenge and inspire archivists globally and to encourage debate about their futures.- Midwest Book Review

Midwest Book Review

'There is plenty of discussion about future access to archives, their access and availability and the role of archive staff as intermediaries between collection and public, which may or may not disappear...Thirteen authors contributed to the book, including well-known names such as Luciana Duranti, Geoffrey Yeo, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward.'

Hereditas Nexus

'I would recommend that everyone read this very timely book because only through collective understandings of the issues can the profession consider its proactive and positive responses to the challenges it identifies.'

Taylor & Francis Online

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