The book traces the development of descriptive systems, the creation and management of computer-generated records, and the curation of digital materials.

Archives intersect with our lives in many ways. We have archives of our own, documenting family memories and histories. Then, there are larger archives that document different aspects of the past — memories, identities, location, time, and space. This volume explores changing notions of the archive in different areas, to trace the ways in which the archives continue to be used in history. It examines how history, the historian, and the archive interact in many ways to look at the past and record it. The chapters in this volume discuss an array of diverse and important themes regarding the making and usage of archives which include reconstructing pre-modern economic history from the Dutch archives; the role of India Office Records in the British Library; reading the Rungia Gosavi Affair in 1857 from colonial archives; and Uday Shankar’s Kalpana as archive besides the usage of archives to study nationalism, historiography and literature, water and Chola history, Mysorean invasions in Kerala, and cyberspace. The chapters also explore how archives impact and shape our investigations. First of its kind, this important work will be of interest to scholars and researchers of archival studies, research methodology, archaeology, Indian history, ancient history, medieval history, modern India, anthropology, and history in general.

How the archive evolved to include new technologies, practices, and media, and how it became the apparatus through which we map the everyday. In Archive Everything, Gabriella Giannachi traces the evolution of the archive into the apparatus through which we map the everyday. The archive, traditionally a body of documents or a site for the preservation of documents, changed over the centuries to encompass, often concurrently, a broad but interrelated number of practices not traditionally considered as archival. Archives now consist of not only documents and sites but also artworks, installations, museums, social media platforms, and mediated and mixed reality environments. Giannachi tracks the evolution of these diverse archival practices across the centuries. Archives today offer a multiplicity of viewing platforms to replay the past, capture the present, and map our presence. Giannachi uses archaeological practices to explore all the layers of the archive, analyzing Lynn Hershman Leeson's !Women Art Revolution project, a digital archive of feminist artists. She considers the archive as a memory laboratory, with case studies that include visitors' encounters with archival materials in the Jewish Museum in Berlin. She discusses the importance of participatory archiving, examining the “multimedia roadshow” Digital Diaspora Family Reunion as an example. She explores the use of the archive in works that express the relationship between ourselves and our environment, citing Andy Warhol and Ant Farm, among others. And she looks at the transmission of the archive through the body in performance, bioart, and database artworks, closing with a detailed analysis of Lynn Hershman Leeson's Infinity Engine.

The way in which we view the nature of archives and the role of the archivist has changed significantly in the last few decades. With increasing interest from outside of the profession, the idea of archives as the static, impartial carriers of truth and the archivist as a guardian of records has been questioned: how can society take greater control over its own written memory? There have been a number of other changes which have impacted upon the way archivists conceive of themselves and the way in which they work. Chief among these are the rapid rise of technology and the challenges this poses, and the changing place of archives within related fields, such as records and information management. It is imperative that archivists engage with these challenges if archives are to emerge as a renewed force in the 21st century. This much-needed book is designed not as a practical guide to professional practice, but rather as a reader addressing these challenges. The chapters are contributed by leaders in the field, and are grouped around the following four core themes: defining archives shaping a discipline Archives 2.0: archives in society archives in the information age: is there still a role for the archivist? Each chapter represents a defined argument in its own right to enable readers to dip in and out of the collection as they wish, and the book is structured to highlight chapters that share a common theme. Readership: Archivists and students of archive administration.

Publicly funded archive services have a vital role within the communities they serve to contribute to local democracy, strong and cohesive communities, social policy, education, research, history and culture. This document sets out the strategic vision for the sustainable development of a vigorous, publicly funded archive sector across England and Wales. It replaces the "Government policy on archives" that was issued by the Lord Chancellor in 1999 (Cm. 4516, ISBN 9780101451628)and focuses on actions for publicly funded archives while acknowledging that private archives remain vital to the archival health of the nation. Section 1 outlines how the landscape in which archive services operate has changed: large organisations now keep most, if not all, of their information in electronic form. Section 2 provides a vision of the true potential of publicly funded archives. Section 3 outlines the challenges facing archive services in the delivery of their core task of preserving authentic information and helping people to access and understand the past. Section 4 sets out five key recommendations: develop bigger and better services in partnership; strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce; co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information; comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to digitised archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them; active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of identity and place within the community. Section 5 highlights the need for concerted action by all parties connected with the archive sector to ensure a sustainable future.

Much of our nation’s documentary heritage resides in small historical societies, libraries, cultural organizations, houses of worship, and museums. The preservation of this heritage often depends on the dedicated efforts of people who, in their workaday world, practice some profession other than archivist. For twenty five years, Organizing Archival Records has equipped non-professional archivists to tackle the challenging task of arranging and describing archival materials. The latest edition preserves the practical, easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach of earlier editions while updating its content to reflect current archival practices: practical ways to arrange and describe digital records; simple tools you can use to manage and store your descriptions, whatever the level of your computer skills; how to share your descriptions with others; why provenance and original order are foundational to arrangement and description; how the principles codified in SAA’s Describing Archives: A Content Standard can guide your arrangement and description process; an expanded discussion of related topics, including appraisal, security, safe handling of records, storage conditions, and what to do with all the records that were in your archives before you read Organizing Archival Records.