Promoting Inclusivity in the Archive: A literature review reassessing tradition through theory and practice

Wetli, Autumn

doi:10.31979/2575-2499.080204

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…First, this is about adding more diverse and inclusive data: expanding the collections of memory institutions by adding the histories of previously marginalised groups, or creating new institutions dedicated to certain groups (Tagliavini, 2011). Adding data is not just about more information but is also about describing history in other forms (Christen and Anderson, 2019), such as collecting data through oral history projects (Wetli, 2019). Adding data can also be about curating what is being digitised, made visible and contextualised in special exhibitions (Gil-Fuentetaja and Economou, 2019).…”

Section: Reimagining Archival Structures and Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

visual methods for desire and wonder in the digital heritage

Hansson

2023

Feminist Review

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The digitalisation of cultural heritage creates expectations for improved research methods and more diverse and inclusive memory institutions. However, it is difficult to take advantage of the opportunities the quantification might give owing to deficient and inadequate metadata. The diversity of standards and wilfulness in different historical archive practices creates problems when aggregating data from various sources. The ambition to create more diverse and inclusive memory institutions, compensating for the historical lack of justice, also creates the risk of excluding important contexts from the digital collections. To develop research methods that take this archival wilfulness into account, in this study I have used speculative design to explore images from Europeana, the digital archive that aggregates data from memory institutions all over Europe. Instead of seeing this archive as something lacking in terms of shared standards and inclusive vocabularies, I suggest we see Europeana as a queer collection of wilful archival practices, by showing the desires and imaginations represented in the archival context. By contrasting the visual content of an image with the metadata that describes the image, the norms and desires in the archival practice come into focus, as the metadata points out what at the time was considered interesting about an image, and the reason the photograph was taken. Images described as ‘Swedes’, for example, rarely show pictures of Swedes in Sweden. Swedes are described as Swedes when they are outside Sweden. It is the exotic and foreign that are categorised. Most importantly, the person who controls the camera is not in the picture, but the choice of perspective and the metadata description of the image tell us something about the photographer’s and archivist’s will and desires. By visually reversing the perspective and making visible both norms and deviations, I show how one can approach this digital heritage with a methodology of feminist wonder.

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Section: Reimagining Archival Structures and Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

visual methods for desire and wonder in the digital heritage

Hansson

2023

Feminist Review

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“…This can be done by documenting the experiences and the voices of previously marginalised groups to contribute towards inclusive archives. Inclusive archives are more focused on the archival collection of the marginalised to build archival holdings that include all people, whether poor or rich, black or white, kings or commoners (Wetli 2019). One way of building inclusive archives can be through the collection of athletics memories, as this area has not been fully explored in South Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcending invisible lanes through inclusion of athletics memories in archival systems in South Africa

Matshotshwane

Ngoepe²

2022

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

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In countries like South Africa, sports have the power to transcend invisible lanes of politics and race and thus inspire citizens to come together. Sport, including athletics, has been demonstrated as an instrument of solidarity of fragmented cultures. However, while sport is of such significance, it is still minimally represented in public archival holdings in South Africa. Despite the mandate to transform the archival system, evidence suggests that much of the memories of sports heroes, especially that of athletes, have not been recorded. This qualitative study utilised oral history as a research method to explore the feasibility of building inclusive archives through the collection of sports memories. Athlete participants were identified through snowball sampling and data were collected using both oral testimony interviews from athletes with first-hand information and oral tradition augmented through document analysis. The results of the study indicated that there are stories and memories of many great South African distance runners that must be told and included in the archive repositories. Sadly, these stories have not been recorded in written words, as there is a tendency to perpetuate elitism by documenting mostly oral history of prominent members of society with political power. The study revealed that most of athletes’ memories from their running careers include certificates, trophies, medals, Springbok jerseys, newspaper clippings and pictures in their possession. It is concluded that until these sports archives and objects are considered as an important and unique element of South African history, they will forever be lost.Contribution: This study makes a contribution to the ongoing discourse of building inclusive archives in South Africa through the collection of athletics memories. The study is linked to the scope of the journal through propagating the inclusion of marginalised voices of athletics sports memories in mainstream archives.

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Social Justice as It Evolves in the LAM Sector

Momin

2022

Advances in Library and Information Science

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This chapter intends to explore the history of social justice in libraries, archives, and museums (LAM) in general and social inclusion in particular. The value of this chapter is in the identified indicators, also known as characteristics (e.g., title words and its relation to citation behavior) in the current literature. A profile of over 500 articles, from 2001 to 2021, is analyzed. Journal articles from 2016 to 2021 are used to test three hypotheses. The findings of this study facilitate in understanding the emerging themes and interdisciplinary areas in the field of social justice.

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Promoting Inclusivity in the Archive: A literature review reassessing tradition through theory and practice

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

visual methods for desire and wonder in the digital heritage

visual methods for desire and wonder in the digital heritage

Transcending invisible lanes through inclusion of athletics memories in archival systems in South Africa

Social Justice as It Evolves in the LAM Sector

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