Revealing collections, exploring discovery? Participatory archiving and creating 'thick description' catalogues for medical and scientific archives
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Information Studies
Abstract
Despite the large number of significant scientific and medical archives deposited in UK archives since the 1970s, many collections are underused because of inadequate cataloguing, a lack of scientific expertise amongst archive staff and only limited contextual information. Staff at the Wellcome Library wish to address this by extending the involvement of its stakeholders in the archival process. The Library has access to a diverse network of experts and subject specialists, ranging from specialist communities of practice in the biomedical sciences and elite clinical disciplines, to patient support and pressure groups, and hopes that the expertise of all these groups can be captured and incorporated into archival catalogues. Significantly the Library believes that these participatory approaches could also involve 'historically marginalised communities', such as the mental health survivor history network, in the description of archives.
These objectives mesh with contemporary academic and professional debates about the 'participatory archive' which seek to enable record creators, depositors and users to participate in professional archival processes with the aim of creating more detailed descriptions and a deeper understanding of the record and the context of its creation and use. Some recent attempts to apply user-generated content perspectives to the catalogue have been driven by the use of Web 2.0 technologies, however participatory archival practice includes many less technologically dependent approaches, such as Revisiting Archive Collections (RAC) and life history interviews with creators and depositors. In these examples, user contributions are obtained by the archivist staging and recording encounters between users and the collections, the results of which can then be used to enhance catalogue descriptions.
User participation approaches such as these can be employed to capture the knowledge of both traditional 'experts', including the creators and depositors of archive collections, and the responses of individuals and groups that might be characterised as having a cultural rather than 'expert' association with the archives. Incorporating more subjective and instinctive responses into archive catalogues poses some serious questions about validity, reliability and representativeness and the archivist's role in assessing this is a major professional challenge.
This research aims to deliver a thorough understanding of the potential strengths, opportunities and challenges of participatory approaches to archival description by examining the impacts of employing RAC and life history interviews to a number of scientific archives at the Wellcome Library. A crucial element of this research will be to explore how decisions about the reliability or otherwise of the data captured are made and then documented, and how any resulting ethical issues are met.
The key research questions are
* What are the challenges in capturing and utilising multiple voices within scientific archive catalogues? What are the impacts of such approaches on public engagement with scientific archives?
* What are the professional implications of the incorporation of multiple voices within the catalogue? Should the archivist have a central role in moderating and framing this new content and if so how is this role to be documented?
* What are the ethical implications of incorporating multiple voices into the catalogue?
* What lessons can be learnt about the capture and utilisation of user contributed content from other disciplines?
* What is the relationship between the approach to participation and the chosen delivery mechanism (including technology based solutions)?
Although the research focuses on scientific and medical archives in the Wellcome Library, the results will be of wider interest to all heritage professio
These objectives mesh with contemporary academic and professional debates about the 'participatory archive' which seek to enable record creators, depositors and users to participate in professional archival processes with the aim of creating more detailed descriptions and a deeper understanding of the record and the context of its creation and use. Some recent attempts to apply user-generated content perspectives to the catalogue have been driven by the use of Web 2.0 technologies, however participatory archival practice includes many less technologically dependent approaches, such as Revisiting Archive Collections (RAC) and life history interviews with creators and depositors. In these examples, user contributions are obtained by the archivist staging and recording encounters between users and the collections, the results of which can then be used to enhance catalogue descriptions.
User participation approaches such as these can be employed to capture the knowledge of both traditional 'experts', including the creators and depositors of archive collections, and the responses of individuals and groups that might be characterised as having a cultural rather than 'expert' association with the archives. Incorporating more subjective and instinctive responses into archive catalogues poses some serious questions about validity, reliability and representativeness and the archivist's role in assessing this is a major professional challenge.
This research aims to deliver a thorough understanding of the potential strengths, opportunities and challenges of participatory approaches to archival description by examining the impacts of employing RAC and life history interviews to a number of scientific archives at the Wellcome Library. A crucial element of this research will be to explore how decisions about the reliability or otherwise of the data captured are made and then documented, and how any resulting ethical issues are met.
The key research questions are
* What are the challenges in capturing and utilising multiple voices within scientific archive catalogues? What are the impacts of such approaches on public engagement with scientific archives?
* What are the professional implications of the incorporation of multiple voices within the catalogue? Should the archivist have a central role in moderating and framing this new content and if so how is this role to be documented?
* What are the ethical implications of incorporating multiple voices into the catalogue?
* What lessons can be learnt about the capture and utilisation of user contributed content from other disciplines?
* What is the relationship between the approach to participation and the chosen delivery mechanism (including technology based solutions)?
Although the research focuses on scientific and medical archives in the Wellcome Library, the results will be of wider interest to all heritage professio
Planned Impact
Both UCL DIS and the Wellcome Library will benefit from the research, but a much wider range of people and bodies will also feel the impact of the work.
DIS will benefit from the opportunity to work closely with one of the major science archives, held by the Wellcome Library, and from the subject and professional expertise of the archivists who manage the archives and the individuals and communities who create, deposit and use the science archives. This enables the researchers to study the application of concepts and theories on the professional practice of archives and gives them access to a site of study, the Wellcome Library, not otherwise accessible to them.
The Wellcome Library will benefit from working closely with researchers at DIS, who can provide access to research methods and research findings which reflect on professional archival practice. This research and expertise will help directly in supporting the achievement of the Library's stated strategic aims.The three main strands in the Library transformation strategy are:
* targeted collecting (working with a range of organisations and individuals in order to reflect current medical issues within an active collecting programme)
* strategic digitisation (meeting growing user expectations of free online access to resources and making use of web tools to allow users to contribute to, manipulate and use content according to their needs)
* expert interpretation (working in partnership with a range of contributors to place the collections in their cultural and historical contexts and promote them to new audiences).
All three elements overtly encourage increased participation and promote the active contribution of a wide range of individuals and communities to the creation and contextualisation of the Library's archival collections. The Library is keen to ensure that these changes are accompanied by a critical awareness of their potential impact on how its collections are acquired, managed, promoted and used, and this research will make clear the implications for the future shaping of the historical record in the field of health and medicine.
The CDA offers the partners the chance to work together on a structured research project for the first time, thus encouraging the interaction and iteration between research and practice which has been developed informally so far. The student will develop both research and work-based skills which s/he can use in future employment in the profession or in the academy.
In addition, the CDA will have an impact well beyond the partners, in professional archival practice in the UK and abroad, in the under-researched area of the management and exploitation of science archives. At a policy making level, community participation in collections has attracted some attention (such as for the UK Cultural Olympiad, Stories of the World project) and this research will help to ensure that policy makers structure initiatives appropriately and execute them effectively. Archivists and other cultural heritage professionals will be better able to use participatory techniques in description. In these ways, the effectiveness of public archives services and policy will improve. As a result, users of archives and communities who create them will be able to participate more fully in the archive, enriching the nation's culture. Marginalised groups, such as mental health survivors, who will be engaged as research participants may experience improved quality of life and health through participatory engagement.
In order to help ensure these impacts, the CDA will, as well as producing a thesis, also contribute an article/s to professional archival journal and other relevant publications, offer paper(s) to professional and academic conferences; offer paper(s) at internal Wellcome Library seminars and DIS research seminars; and seek to engage with u
DIS will benefit from the opportunity to work closely with one of the major science archives, held by the Wellcome Library, and from the subject and professional expertise of the archivists who manage the archives and the individuals and communities who create, deposit and use the science archives. This enables the researchers to study the application of concepts and theories on the professional practice of archives and gives them access to a site of study, the Wellcome Library, not otherwise accessible to them.
The Wellcome Library will benefit from working closely with researchers at DIS, who can provide access to research methods and research findings which reflect on professional archival practice. This research and expertise will help directly in supporting the achievement of the Library's stated strategic aims.The three main strands in the Library transformation strategy are:
* targeted collecting (working with a range of organisations and individuals in order to reflect current medical issues within an active collecting programme)
* strategic digitisation (meeting growing user expectations of free online access to resources and making use of web tools to allow users to contribute to, manipulate and use content according to their needs)
* expert interpretation (working in partnership with a range of contributors to place the collections in their cultural and historical contexts and promote them to new audiences).
All three elements overtly encourage increased participation and promote the active contribution of a wide range of individuals and communities to the creation and contextualisation of the Library's archival collections. The Library is keen to ensure that these changes are accompanied by a critical awareness of their potential impact on how its collections are acquired, managed, promoted and used, and this research will make clear the implications for the future shaping of the historical record in the field of health and medicine.
The CDA offers the partners the chance to work together on a structured research project for the first time, thus encouraging the interaction and iteration between research and practice which has been developed informally so far. The student will develop both research and work-based skills which s/he can use in future employment in the profession or in the academy.
In addition, the CDA will have an impact well beyond the partners, in professional archival practice in the UK and abroad, in the under-researched area of the management and exploitation of science archives. At a policy making level, community participation in collections has attracted some attention (such as for the UK Cultural Olympiad, Stories of the World project) and this research will help to ensure that policy makers structure initiatives appropriately and execute them effectively. Archivists and other cultural heritage professionals will be better able to use participatory techniques in description. In these ways, the effectiveness of public archives services and policy will improve. As a result, users of archives and communities who create them will be able to participate more fully in the archive, enriching the nation's culture. Marginalised groups, such as mental health survivors, who will be engaged as research participants may experience improved quality of life and health through participatory engagement.
In order to help ensure these impacts, the CDA will, as well as producing a thesis, also contribute an article/s to professional archival journal and other relevant publications, offer paper(s) to professional and academic conferences; offer paper(s) at internal Wellcome Library seminars and DIS research seminars; and seek to engage with u
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andrew Flinn (Principal Investigator) |