Archiving and Reusing Qualitative Data: Theory, Method and Ethics across Disciplines

Conference: Archives 2.0: Shifting Dialogues between Users and Archivists, 19-20 March 2009, Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel

The conference was the final event in the series and focused on the relationship between archivists, archives and their users. We looked at the emerging phenomenon of so-called ‘Archives 2.0,’ with the premise that this emergence is less about the integration of Web 2.0 technologies into online finding aids, and more related to a fundamental shift in perspective, to a philosophy that privileges the user and promotes an ethos of sharing, collaboration, and openness. The conference examined this arguable ‘democratisation’ of the archive, and considered its implications both for users of archives and the archival profession itself. We asked:

To what extent does the ‘remix’ culture of Web 2.0 undermine the central premise of the archive, which is to preserve the original context of an archival object?
How does this new culture encourage new modes of access and use of the archive within learning, research and everyday life?

We invited papers that explored and/or challenged the concept of Archives 2.0, and especially sought papers or panels from individuals who use digital archives in their teaching or research. Though we encouraged papers addressing Web 2.0 technologies, we also invited papers that examined thematically related issues concerning the archive in teaching and learning, the growth of community archives, the changing role of the archival professional, and the shifting nature of archival research in the digital context.

The topics we were particularly interested in included:

Democratisation of the archive
The impact of digitisation – challenges and opportunities
Web 2.0 and Archives
Changing role of the archival profession
Approaches to teaching with primary sources (Archives and teaching?)
What do archivists want from academics and teachers?
What do academics/teachers want from archivists?
Community archives
Measuring archival use: quantitative and qualitative approaches
Marketing the archive
Collaborative initiatives, particularly between archivists and researchers
Issues of authority over the archive.

Programme

Thursday 19 March 2009

10.30 - Registration

11.00- 11.15 Introduction and Welcome: Till Geiger

11.15- 13.00 Opening Plenary Panel: Whither Archives 2.0?

Archives 2.0: If We Build It, Will They Come?
Joy Palmer, Mimas, University of Manchester

Innovative Ways, Sustainable Means: The Archives Hub and AIM25
Geoff Browell, Kings College London and Jane Stevenson, Mimas, Manchester

Archives 2.0 on a Micro Scale
Amanda Hill, Deseronto Archives, Toronto

13.00-13.45 - Lunch

13.45-14.45 - Session One: Visualising Archived Data

Oral History Archives and the Spatial Turn: Examples from Manchester's Migrant Histories
Laurence Brown and Kofi Owusu, University of Manchester

The Politics of New Data and the Challenge of Archiving
Mike Savage, CRESC the University of Manchester

14.45-15.00 - Break

15.00-16.30 - Session Two: Democratising Archives

The Movie of the Archive?: Showing and Sharing a Study of Young Lives [over time]
Sheila Henderson, London South Bank University and Professor Rachel Thomson, Open University

"A frontal attack on professionalism, standards and scholarship”? Democratising archives and the production of knowledge
Andrew Flinn, University College London

Supporting, Sustaining and Developing Online Resources for Specialist Subject Research Communities: Genesis – A Case Study
Teresa Doherty, The Women’s Library

16.30-16.45 - Break

16.45-17.45 - Session Three: Archives and Academics

Share. Collaborate. Innovate. Building an Organisational Approach to Web 2.0
Paul Bevan, National Library of Wales

Playing an ACE: Promoting Access, Collaboration and Engagement in the British Library
Jude England, The British Library

18.00 - Reception and Tour John Rylands Library.

20.00 - Dinner: Dimitri’s Restaurant, Deansgate

Friday 20 March 2009

09.00-09.40 - Plenary: How to Store Living Information

Arjen Mulder, V2, Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam

9.40-10.00 - Break

10.00-11.00 - Session Five: Archives and Teaching

Approaches to teaching using Documents of Irish Foreign Policy online
Kate O’ Malley, Trinity College Dublin

The real and the virtual: online exhibitions, Web 2.0 and design students
Jane Devine Mejia, University of Brighton

11.00-11.15 - Break

11.15-12.45 - Session Six: Digitizing Archives

Collections, Collaborations and the Digital Environment: Increasing Research ‘Dividends’ from an Academic Library
Stella Butler, John Rylands University Library

Shedding Light on the Life of the Sick Child: The Historic Hospital Admission Records Project
Andrea Tanner, Kingston University

The impact and opportunities of digitisation on the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) Series
Michael Kennedy, Royal Irish Academy

12.45-13.30 - Lunch

13.30-14.30 - Session Seven:

Describing archives in their totality? Thoughts on the construction of the finding-aid in the age of Web 2.0
Geoffrey Yeo, University College London

‘Revisiting Archive Collections’ and the chimera of definitive description: How the culture of Web 2.0 is opening up archival description to multiple voices
Jon Newman, Archive Consultant

14.30-14.45 - Break

14.45-16.45 - Plenary Panel

A Risks and Opportunities Framework For Archives 2.0
Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath

Guarding the Past and Neglecting the Future: How to Reframe the Future of Libraries or Libraries for the Future: Reframing their Purpose or It's All on the Web - Isn't it?
Derek Law, University of Strathclyde

Without the Data, the Tools are Useless; without the Software, the Data is Unmanageable?
Michael Moss, University of Glasgow