Postgraduates' personal digital archiving practices in China: Problems and strategies

Archival knowledge in the field of personal archiving: an exploratory study based on grounded theory

“…Although PA is a common behaviour and phenomenon, extant research indicates a relatively low level of archival literacy and awareness among the general public. Studies also show that most writers neglect digital archival concerns (Becker and Nogues, 2012), evidencing “benign neglect” (Marshall, 2008) due to a lack of knowledge and technological know-how (Zhao et al , 2019). Consequently, user privacy and archiving security constitute significant challenges.…”

“…As such, the first major challenge that needs to be overcome is individuals' (justifiable) unwillingness to spend too much energy on curation—an unwillingness scholars have called ‘benign neglect' (Marshall, 2008). Meanwhile, user privacy and archive security are the biggest risks and challenges faced by postgraduates in managing their digital archives (Zhao et al , 2019). Numerous studies confirm that experienced home computer users are creating, receiving and finding an increasing number of digital belongings, and that they have already lost irreplaceable digital artefacts such as photos, creative efforts and records (Marshall et al , 2006).…”

“…In the archival community, personal archives are generally used to refer to these materials, specifically referring to documents created, acquired or received by an individual in the course of his or her affairs and preserved in their original order (if such order exists) (Pearce-Moses and Baty, 2005), and personal archiving (PA) is the behaviour of created, acquired, received and maintained of these archives. However, PA practice has been complicated by the advent of the digital age—the increasing application of electronic technology and the rise of the Internet resulting in the accumulation of more personal digital archives, both on and offline (Zhao et al , 2019). As a result, PA is no longer a matter of simply collecting, organising and maintaining materials.…”

“…Some scholars are trying to develop aids that meet the needs of PA (Van Kleek et al , 2012; Dumais et al , 2003; Anciaux et al , 2019; Ji et al , 2019). Meanwhile, researchers in the field of LIAS are more concerned with the significance and strategies of PA (Sinn and Syn, 2014; Zhao et al , 2019), seek to provide professional guidance for public PA (Cushing, 2016; Becker and Nogues, 2012) and through a community-based participatory archiving project to provide equipment support for personal digital archiving (PDA) or impart core knowledge and skills about PDA(Han, 2019). Indeed, several libraries—including the Library of Congress (2019), Columbia University Library (2019) and Cornell University Library (2019)—have established PA guides on their websites.…”

Towards a typology of personal information management behavior: exploring and defining people's interactions with personal information

“…Bergman et al (2003Bergman et al ( , 2008 define the process of managing personal information as user-subjective. Because each person manages his or her own information based on subjective decisions, different people are likely to employ different practices (Bergman and Whittaker, 2016;Whittaker and Sidner, 1996;Zhao et al, 2019).…”