Doing Fieldwork in Indigenous Communities

The 30 Second Archive

Annelie De Villers, eScholarship Research Centre, University of Melbourne

Archivists deal with the storage, maintenance and accessibility of unpublished information and knowledge within our societies. Those who access archives down the track are influenced by the way in which the information is represented, therefore what we do has political and cultural ramifications.

Ever heard the phrase ‘history is written by the victors’? People who own knowledge or information have power over the way in which future generations remember certain events, or even, certain groups within society. Therefore archives can empower or disempower.

I work as a research archivist at the University of Melbourne’s eScholarship Research Centre. The majority of the time I am lucky enough to I work on a project called ‘Return, reconcile, renew: understanding the history, effects and opportunities of repatriation and building an evidence base for the future’.

The Return, Reconcile, Renew project records the history…

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Bringing Archives to Life

This photo titled ‘William Keye and Mary Jane Roberts making straw hats: Riviera Beach, Florida’ was taken by Charles Foster in 1939.

I’ve photoshopped William and Mary onto vintage wallpaper.

Archival photo persistent URL: www.floridamemory.com/items/show/166225

Volunteers in Australian Archives

Why do volunteers choose to contribute thousands of unpaid hours per week to Australian archives? This paper presents the results of a nationwide web survey that provides insight into the demographics, motivations, and experiences of volunteers in Australian archives.

Demystifying the Copyright Amendment Bill

What does the Copyright Amendment Bill actually mean for archivists and archival organisations? Jessica Coates of The Australian Libraries and Copyright Committee was generous enough to answer my questions.

Archivist: Research Support or Researcher?

I recently became excited when I learned that an Australian Information Management undergrad course contained subjects about research. This excitement dampened considerably when I was told the intent of the subject was to teach future information professionals about how to support the research activities of others, rather than to conduct research of their own.

In that instance, our information professional students, on the cusp of their careers, are subliminally being told; “you are research support, not researcher”.

2017 Aus Women Writers Challenge

This year I will be partaking in the Australian Women Writers Challenge which ‘was set up to help overcome gender bias in the reviewing of books by Australian women’. Throughout 2017 I will be reading and reviewing at least 6 books which are authored by female Australians and are related to the following subject matters:

2016: The Pact that Proves the Value of New Professionals

Being a new archival professional is terrifying. You are scared of stepping on toes, of being viewed as competition, of making a fool of yourself. Often this means that we hesitate to step out of our comfort zones.

Unless of course, you make a pact with a colleague…

Innovative Archivists as Drivers of Change

Innovative archivists know three things:

1. Archival systems are infrastructure
2. Archival infrastructure is man-made
3. That which is man-made can be man-unmade

Debunking Archival Research Myths

For most archivists, research continues to be shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately this contributes to the growing gap between practitioners and researchers in our profession.

This blog post sets out to debunk a couple of myths that are stopping people from doing research.

‘Let me tell you’: Personal digital archives for children in out-of-home care

If the Care sector recognised that their records were evidence of a child’s life and therefore formed part of that child’s personal recordkeeping the nature of their records would be very different. This post is a re blog of the post I wrote for the Find & Connect Web Resource Blog on 27/06/2016.

Survey for Volunteers in Australian Archives

UPDATE: THIS STUDY HAS CONCLUDED. RESULTS ARE FORTHCOMING.

You can all stop holding your breath, as we are now launching the survey which was proposed at the 2015 ASA conference! *collective intake of breath*

Social Media and Collaboration Opportunities in the Archival Sector

Social media presents us with the opportunity to collaborate with one another, in accessible language which not only increases the reach and impact of your ideas, but also fosters collaborative opportunities. Aligning our professions’ research activities with industry requirements would be to the benefit of us all.

#FundTROVE

UPDATE: Following extensive campaigning, Trove received a commitment of $16.4 million in Dec 2016.

In case you missed it: The Australian federal government is significantly cutting funding to the National Library of Australia. One of the services that will be most detrimentally impacted is Trove, which will no longer be able to aggregate content from museums and universities unless fully funded to do so.

No More Gatekeepers! Social media engagement breaks down barriers within the archival sector

The irrefutable strength of social media is in its ability to break down barriers. We usually talk about this quality in terms of social media’s ability to overcome issues of time and space, but in this post I want to focus on its’ ability to overcome barriers between groups; say… between researchers and practitioners in the Australian archival sector.

Ethical and interpersonal challenges of researching with Aboriginal communities

Last week I attended a lecture by Dr. Brett Baker which was part of the University of Melbourne Office of Research Ethics and Integrity’s seminar series. The title of the lecture was ‘Ethical guidelines for researchers working with Aboriginal communities’ and it reflected upon interpersonal challenges in addition to ethical guidelines related to research within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.