Abstract. Archival interfaces are critical nodes in archival systems where archivists negotiate and exercise power over the constitution and representation of archives. Drawing on notions of interfaces from physical, technological, and computer systems, archival interfaces are both a metaphor for archivists' roles as intermediaries between documentary evidence and its readers and a tangible set of structures and tools that place archival documents in a context and provide an interpretative framework. Interfaces in modern institutions and technological systems are neither natural nor neutral. In probing archival interfaces, what may appear as neutral and objective processes are revealed as places where archivists determine what constitutes legitimate evidence of the past and shape social memories. The emergence of computer interfaces as an increasingly common mode of user interaction with archives demands that archivists confront the interpretative nature of their work and exploit opportunities to place themselves visibly in the interfaces they construct.
Keywords: archival description, archival systems, digital documents (electronic records), interfaces, representationTo modem planners, engineers, and systems designers, interfaces serve the vital function of connecting components and subsystems into efficient and rational systems. 1 The best-designed interfaces are invisible to the user because they appear to be natural, if they are visible at all. As such, interfaces enable and constrain certain activities in ways that are inconspicuous and often taken for granted. Doors and hallways provide interfaces between the interior and exterior of modem buildings that allow people to enter the
The collection, organization, and long-term preservation of resources are the raison d'être of archives and archivists. The archival community, however, has largely neglected science data, assuming they were outside the bounds of their professional concerns. Scientists, on the other hand, increasingly recognize that they lack the skills and expertise needed to meet the demands being placed on them with regard to data curation and are seeking the help of ''data archivists'' and ''data curators.'' This represents a significant opportunity for archivists and archival scholars but one that can only be realized if they better understand the scientific context.
The National Science Foundation and DELOS, the European Commission sponsored Network for Digital Libraries, supported a working group to define a research agenda for digital archiving and preservation (DAP-WG) within the context of digital libraries. The report of this group, Invest to Save, has laid out a range of research challenges that need to be addressed if we are to make progress in the development of sustainable digital libraries. DAP-WG considered archiving and preservation needs and the research that had been conducted to address these. It concluded that research in this domain could benefit from being expanded and refocused-new research communities must be engaged, the approaches to conducting the research must be made more rigorous, and a significant shift in what was being researched needed to be taken. The Group identified twenty-two key research activities worthy of investigation.
Information technology and data sharing policies have made more and more social science data available for secondary analysis. In secondary data analysis, documentation plays a critical role in transferring knowledge about data from data producers to secondary users. Despite its importance, documentation of social science data has rarely been the focus of existing studies. In this paper, based on an introduction of the concept of documentation and its role in secondary data analysis, the authors proposed the Documentation Evaluation Model(DEM) for social science data. In the model, two indicators are used to evaluate the documentation for social science data: sufficiency and ease-of-use. Then the authors review the sufficiency problems of documentation, identify three factors that affect the sufficiency of documentation: users, data, and the ease-of-use of documentation, and formulate hypotheses about how those factors affect the sufficiency of documentation. In future research, a survey instrument will be created based on the model and the factors affecting the sufficiency of documentation. The survey instrument will then be applied to the secondary users of social science data. Hypotheses will be tested based on the survey data.
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