Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival Collections

  • Katie Shilton
  • Ramesh Srinivasan

Abstract

Archival theory has a long history of utilizing principles designed to preserve contextual value in records. We believe that traditional practices of appraisal, arrangement, and description can be rearticulated as participatory, community-oriented processes. This can enable context to be represented meaningfully in archives of traditionally marginalized communities. We believe this process can help build culturally relevant records repositories while enabling marginalized communities to share their experiences with a wider public. By broadening their traditional tools to actively engage marginalized communities in the preservation process, archivists can preserve local knowledge and create representative, empowered archives.

 

RÉSUMÉ
La théorie archivistique s’est longtemps servie de principes conçus pour préserver la valeur contextuelle des documents. Les auteurs pensent que les pratiques traditionnelles de l’évaluation, du classement et de la description peuvent être reformulées comme des processus participatifs et axés sur la communauté. Ceci peut permettre au contexte d’être articulé de façon significative dans les archives de communautés traditionnellement marginalisées. Ils croient que ce processus peut mener vers la création de centres d’archives plus pertinents au point de vue culturel (« culturally relevant ») tout en permettant aux communautés minoritaires de partager leurs expériences avec un plus grand public. En s’ouvrant à un plus grand éventail d’outils pour inviter les communautés marginalisées à participer au processus de préservation, les archivistes peuvent sauvegarder les connaissances locales tout en créant des archives qui font appel aux notions de la représentativité et de l’autonomisation.

Author Biographies

Katie Shilton
Katie Shilton is a graduate student in Information Studies at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her areas of research interest include examining the historical narratives reified and ignored in traditional archival systems and emerging digital preservation initiatives. Katie has worked in a variety of archival repositories, including museum, academic, and community archives. She also has a background in community non-profit work and fundraising. She received a BA in History and German Studies from Oberlin College.
Ramesh Srinivasan
Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan, Professor of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), holds an MS Degree from MIT’s Media Laboratory and a Doctorate degree from Harvard, and has focused his research globally on the development of information systems within the context of culturally-differentiated communities. He has studied how an information system can be developed to engage communities to develop their socioeconomic, educational, and cultural infrastructures. He has studied how the cultural practices specific to communities can manifest themselves into the information system’s architecture, particularly with respect to how it represents, categorizes, and disseminates the information it stores. This research allows one to uncover mechanisms by which indigenously-articulated forms of development can converge with international development initiatives, as related to current work in pastoral and tribal communities in Southern India. His research has spanned such bounds as Native Americans, Somali refugees, Indian villages, Aboriginal Australia, and Maori New Zealand.
Archivaria 63 front cover
How to Cite
Shilton, Katie, and Ramesh Srinivasan. 1. “Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival Collections”. Archivaria 63 (1), 87-101. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13129.
Issue
Archivaria 63: Special Section on Archives and Culture (Spring 2007)
Section
Counterpoint

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