Finding Balance Between Archival Principles and Real-Life Practices in an Institutional Repository

  • Erin O’Meara
  • Meg Tuomala

Abstract

Today’s archivists struggle to find a balance between theory and practice in their professional duties, especially when tasked with designing and implementing an institutional repository. This article explores the intersections between theory and real-life practice through a discussion of relevant archival theory and realistic advice, and an examination of how some of these theories were, or were not, applied in the development of the Carolina Digital Repository (CDR), the institutional repository at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

RÉSUMÉ 

Les archivistes d’aujourd’hui ont beaucoup de mal à trouver un juste équilibre entre la théorie et la pratique dans leurs tâches professionnelles, surtout quand ils doivent conceptualiser et mettre en place un dépôt d’archives institutionnel. Cet article explore les croisements entre la pratique par le biais d’une analyse de la théorie archivistique pertinente et des conseils réalistes, puis il examine comment certaines de ces théories ont servi ou pas au développement de la Carolina Digital Repository (CDR), le dépôt d’archives institutionnel de la University of North Carolina à Chapel Hill (UNC). 

Author Biographies

Erin O’Meara

Erin O’Meara is the electronic records archivist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Before joining UNC in 2009, she was the electronic records archivist at the University of Oregon. She received her Master of Archival Studies degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2004. While at UBC, Erin conducted research for the InterPARES 2 Project pertaining to archaeological records managed in a geographic information system.

Meg Tuomala

Meg Tuomala is currently the digital archivist at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, she was the records services archivist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She received her Master of Science in Library Science with a concentration in archives and records management from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science in 2010.

Published
2012-04-25
How to Cite
O’Meara, Erin, and Meg Tuomala. 2012. “Finding Balance Between Archival Principles and Real-Life Practices in an Institutional Repository”. Archivaria 73 (April), 81-103. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13385.
Section
Articles