International and Global Archives

Sumayya Ahmed, Jeannette Bastian, Meredith Evans, Anne Gilliland,

Rebecca Hankins, Nance McGovern, Jane Zhang (facilitator),

Caitlyn Stewart (RA)

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Teaching international archives

• Nothing is taught about international archives, so where do we start?
• Is the archival landscape really moving from more local to international? Is everything really [not] local anymore?
• What is international archives all about and what does it look like outside of the US?
• What do we as archivists think students in the US need to know about international archives?
• What international knowledge is essential for a 21st century archivist to have?
• Are there things students need to know about and whether it helps them to pursue a job or not?

Teaching international archives

• How do we get students interested/excited in these things?
• Students are becoming more empathetic/sympathetic/understanding of cultures and cultural differences
• Finding things that excite or interest them in international archives may be a way to approach and attract students to the topic/course
• Training for local environments would/should be typically number one priority
• International law highly complex and most records managers will be primarily concerned with local laws
• Want the material to be engaging enough for students to open their minds to thinking about issues on a global level instead of solely a local level
• Collaboration with an international archivists/faculty could be incredibly beneficial to teaching a course like this
• Help students to gain actual insight into these topics and challenges

Learning outcomes

• How terminology used differently in different parts of the world
• Archiving as universal activities
• Archiving happens in many different forms and formats across the world and how to engage with each other
• Historical nature of international archives making
• International archival organizations/initiatives/collaborations
• Archives in other countries
• Understand the international setting and how to make it inclusive
• Working with records for different legislative/legal/cultural environments

Terminology

• Terminology used differently in different parts of the world
• Students should be aware of the terminology used in different contexts
• NISO and ISO have been working to help standardize terminology and show their variety at the same time
• Could provide beneficial resources
• Need to be careful because it isn’t relevant to all standards
• One way to tie terminology and practice together is to create activities for students to connect such ideas/concepts

Archives, archiving, and provenance

• Archives or archiving
• Distinction should be made between the two, like repositories vs. practice
• “Archiving” is a Western word
• Need to address the word “archiving” - the most problematic term to address
• Different terminologies based on where you are, looking at “archives” as a terminology and what it means to different countries
• Provenance
• One of the main issues lies in provenance, the profession’s obsession with it can be seriously problematic in how it’s been used as a means of empowering states of oppression in the US & internationally
• Provenance has been used to silence voices

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Other terms

• Access and custody
• Domain tension to what libraries consider access and what archivers consider access
• Access and custody to records a large issue, especially for colonized regions
• Recordkeeping & records management
• Two terms that are understood very differently and often mixed up in standards
• Ethics
• Vary between countries - not every country is going to make archives available to the public
• Neutrality
• Record

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Archiving as universal activities

• Archiving happens in many different forms and formats across the world
• Should spend time looking at those forms/formats as a way to start thinking about archives around the globe
• Then move into the cross-cultural international work archivists can engage in
• Understand traditions in keeping records and memory and the practice of keeping, preserving, passing on
• Aware that “Archives” is a European word and comes with a notion of power
• Do we want to show archiving as a universal activity?
• What happens when distinct archival practices come into contact with each other?
• How do they engage with each other?

International landscape

• Should have a focus on the historical nature of international archives/archiving
• There are a lot of historical resources to point students to so more time can be devoted to other aspects of international archives
• Need to make sure we’re actually being inclusive in the archives we talk about and don’t to end up with a solely eurocentric focus
• What is the existing landscape and how did we get here?
• Look at infrastructure and practices
• The foundation of international work in archives
• No need to devote too much time to it but students should have a basic grasp of it
• Understand why they need to know about the international landscape
• They might end up working in such a setting

International standards

• Students should at least be made aware of different international standards and that they exist for them to use
• What are the things students need to know regarding how standards are created?
• Using particular vocabularies, cloud storage systems, legal structures and systems
• We often think about international standards and human rights in archives
• Should include that in learning about different cultures around the world to be more inclusive of marginalized groups’ work
• International standards are being increasingly developed online
• It's something we and students need to be aware of and thinking about
• There’s a lot of pushback from different countries when it comes to (re)creating archival standards on what’s acceptable, especially regarding the vocabulary involved
• Starting to see strong push backs against archivists addressing issues like social justice and diversity

International collaboration

• Students will more than likely encounter situations where they’re working collaboratively with others from different institutions / countries need to be able to explore/learn about how such systems work
• Discussion on the impact of remote work, especially in the context of the impact of international archives
• How do student explore the implications of remote work and remote collaboration internationally

International archival organizations

• International archival organizations (UNESCO, ICA, etc.)
• Sense of archival educational programs in other countries
• Introductory overview could include some kind of review and comparison of international archival organizations and how they’re affiliated and relevant
• Gaining a sense of their mission and focus and looking at how their missions have changed and how the organizations have changed/expanded and factors that lead to such changes
• These organizations are more or less important to different countries - participation can highly vary
• There’s a power issue at play in some instances - what is the effect when these larger organizations pull out of countries that were somewhat reliant on their support?
• We don’t want students thinking that larger organizations like UNESCO are the reason for the formation of international archives in countries with long histories on recordkeeping

International initiatives/projects

• International projects/cooperations with archives as examples from which students can learn.
• Endangered Archives Program
• CARE Principles https://www.gida-global.org/care
• RDA and archives
• Implications of the FAIR Principles for archives/keeping records
• Could look at the initiatives international organizations have been involved in
• Students could select a particular project/initiative and follow it through/explore it to see how it worked out
• e.g., ICA provides a lot of grants- do the projects they’re supporting always work out/are they achieved?

Archives in other countries

• Start with the ICA doing a regional breakdown could be beneficial
• The way UNESCO worked in the 50s/60s in developing archival systems in colonized countries an interesting route to take and learn about for students
• Show the way different societies have their own practices and the context/situations they evolved from
• Explain why students need to understand archives at the international setting in order to work there / how to make it inclusive
• How to help students deal with the language issues they may face
• US students often don’t know multiple languages but we should try to show students that it shouldn’t prevent them from trying to prevent this line of work
• Need to be aware of the fact that a language’s native semantics and direct translation are not the same - additional problems can arise from this

Colonialism and international archives

• How colonialism has imposed archival practices on so much of the world and now countries are trying to reclaim their archives
• Displaced archives
• Records created under colonialism almost always end up with the more powerful country, leaving the smaller country trying to get their records back
• Are copies acceptable?
• Archives/records are international currency in a way and show these power imbalances in play
• Show the transactional power archives have

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Other structures and systems

• Impact of colonialism and Western archival structures
• There are other structures in the world, we need to explore those other structures rather than those that have been imposed

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• Legal systems need to be viewed
• Everyone brings their own history and archival traditionals are contingent on such histories
• You need to understand the legal system your operating in if you're trying to promote/further human rights

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Digitization, born digital, and access

• Balancing the difference between digitization and born digital is already challenging and practices vary greatly internationally
• Having an understanding of the factors related to these practices is important
• Professional in different countries see things like digitization and digital access very differently depending on their history and situation
• They may be hesitant to digitize information due to storage or fears of losing valuable data/information
• How do we maintain privacy with born digital or digitized content
• How do we balance oral communities or multilingual communities or how do we honor and not belittle different cultures or take their history

International archival controversies

• International archival controversies could be of interest and important to unpack with students
• American students often have a very general understanding of the history of different countries but giving in-depth explanations of important historical conflicts involving archives could be of interest and important
• Situations like genocide have immensely impacted archives and recordkeeping in some countries
• Addressing social justice and diversity issues has become highly controversial
• Critical thinking required to understand the historical/cultural/conflict perspectives that tie into differing archival practices and theories
• Archives in recent news
• e.g., Archives in war-Iraqi National Archives; Archives in Timbuktu Mali

Working with international records

• Understand how to work with records from different legal environments
• Present day issues or hot topics would be a good place for discussion of power and archival custody like we see in the Dutch-West Indies; France-Algeria, etc
• Case studies of places like Puerto Rico that use common law
• Can be used to demonstrate international issues
• Release of WWII records related to the holocaust
• American records opened far earlier than European records and since some were accessible through the internet it put pressure on other countries to release their records

Potential activities

• Emphasis on having students explore on their own could be a powerful part of the module
• Activities could explore how different systems are structured and further discuss gets into privacy, custody, language issues, etc.
• Let students explore and develop their own opinions
• Use international projects/cooperations with archives as examples from which students can learn
• E.g., Endangered Archives Program, CARE Principles (https://www.gida-global.org/care)
• Create activities where students have to explore resources on their own related to international archiving
• Need to focus on how we come to understand how the work is done in other places

Potential activities

• How students develop their own framework for exploring the context they’re working in? e.g. legal, infrastructure,
• Could have students bring in something from their own background
• Start a conversation about their own background/culture
• Share the pedagogy in class instead of making it unidirectional
• Could also partner students together
• Could have students work on assignments that require them to work on international problems
• Work across different records in different countries and languages
• Gain an insight into how recordkeeping practices truly vary across the world

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Relevant readings and resources

“Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation Conference.” Educopia Institute, 2011. https://educopia.org/anadp/.

Archives and Records Professionals for Research Data IG. Research Data Alliance, February 16, 2022. https://rd-alliance.org/groups/archives-records-professionals-for-research-data.html.

Boel, Jens, Perrine Canavaggio, and Antonio Gonzalez Quintana. Archives and Human Rights. Taylor & Francis Group. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2021. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9780429054624/archives-human-rights-jens-boel-perrine-canavaggio-antonio-gonz%C3%A1lez-quintana.

Britz, Johannes, and Peter Lor. “A Moral Reflection on the Digitization of Africa's Documentary Heritage.” IFLA Journal 30, no. 3 (2004): 216–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/034003520403000304.

Cox, Richard. “Ramp Studies and Related UNESCO Publications: An International Source for Archival Administration.” The American Archivist 53, no. 3 (1990): 488–95. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.53.3.3208575353831608.

Relevant readings and resources

Digital Library for International Research (DLIR), 2022. http://www.dlir.org/.

Drake, Jarrett M. “Insurgent Citizens: The Manufacture of Police Records in Post-Katrina New Orleans and Its Implications for Human Rights.” Archival Science 14, no. 3-4 (2014): 365–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9224-2.

Geraci, Noah, and Michelle Caswell. “Developing a Typology of Human Rights Records.” Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies 3 (January 2016).

Gilliland, Anne J., and Hariz Halilovich. “Migrating Memories: Transdisciplinary Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching About Diasporic Memory, Identity and Human Rights in Archival Studies.” Archival Science 17, no. 1 (2016): 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-016-9265-9.

Gilliland, Anne J., and Kathy Carbone. “An Analysis of Warrant for Rights in Records for Refugees.” The International Journal of Human Rights 24, no. 4 (2019): 483–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2019.1651295.

Relevant readings and resources

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Gilliland, Anne, and Sue McKemmish . “The Role of Participatory Archives in Furthering Human Rights, Reconciliation and Recovery.” Atlanti: Review for Modern Archival Theory and Practice 24 (2014): 78–88.

Golding, Frank, Antonina Lewis, Sue McKemmish, Gregory Rolan, and Kirsten Thorpe. “Rights in Records: A Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in out-of-Home Care for Australian and Indigenous Australian Children and Care Leavers.” The International Journal of Human Rights 25, no. 9 (2021): 1625–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2020.1859484.

Holland, Maurita Peterson, and Kari R. Smith. “Using Information Technology to Preserve and Sustain Cultural Heritage: The Digital Archive.” In World Culture Report, 2000: Cultural Diversity, Conflict and Pluralism, 186-196. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000121111

Ketelaar, Eric, and Viviane Frings-Hessami. “Scholarly and Professional Communication in Archives: Archival Traditions and Languages.” Archives and Manuscripts 49, no. 1-2 (2021): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/01576895.2021.1919043.

Relevant readings and resources

Lor, Peter Johan. “The IFLA–UNESCO Partnership 1947–2012.” IFLA Journal 38, no. 4 (2012): 269–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035212463138.

Posner, Ernst. “Archives in Medieval Islam.” The American Archivist 35, no. 3-4 (1972): 291–316. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.35.3-4.x1546224w7621152

Research Data Alliance, 2022. https://www.rd-alliance.org/

Research Library Issues, no. 296 (2018). https://doi.org/10.29242/rli.296

“SAHR Publications.” International Council on Archives, 2022. https://www.ica.org/en/sahr-publications

“United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations, 2022. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html