Documenting society and institutions : the influence of Helen Willa Samuels. Documenting society. Documenting appraisal as a societal-archival process : theory, practice, and ethics in the wake of Helen Willa Samuels -- Traveling in a Hellenic world : an odyssey from oral history and documentation strategy to continuing issues and integrated recordkeeping -- The archival garden : photographic plantings, interpretive choices, and alternative narratives -- The complication of color in an academic archive -- Technology's promise, the copying of records, and the archivist's challenge : a case study in documentation rhetoric -- Brown shoes in a world of tuxedos : corporate archives and the archival profession -- A cautionary tale about laws, records, and technology : making a case for electronic records management -- Keeping records in changing organizations -- The tower, the cloud, and posterity : documenting in a digital world -- Representing archives : being archival. Structural formalisms in documentation : reflecting function and supporting meaning -- Who represents the past? Archives, records, and the social web -- Designs for records and recordkeeping : visual presentation in diplomatics, the record continuum, and documentation strategy -- The evolution of archival practice and the history-archival divide -- The archivist's perspective : the history of an idea -- Ethics and the archive : "an incessant movement of recontextualisation" -- How archivists control the past -- Reflections. Making better professionals : reflections on selected writings of Helen Willa Samuels -- Learnings : weaving it all together.
Summary:
"[In this volume], twenty leading archivists honor Helen Willa Samuels ... by exploring the theme of documenting modern society and its institutions, and carefully considering the implications arising from the archivist's control over social memory ... The first nine essays explore the rich contexts in which the appraisal of potential archival sources takes place and focus on understanding and managing all documentation to select the small percentage that will survive in archives. Several chapters trace how the profession is being radically transformed in the digital age with topics such as making a case for electronic records management, documenting appraisal as a societal-archival process, and challenging stereotypes about corporate archives"--P. [4] of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.