Archival Futures

This book draws on the contributions of a range of international experts to consider the current archival landscape and imagine the archive of the future. Firmly rooted in current professional debate and scholarship, Archival Futures offers thought-provoking and accessible chapters that aim to challenge and inspire archivists globally and to encourage debate about their futures.

It is widely acknowledged that the archive profession/discipline is facing a time of change. The digital world has presented changes in how records are created, used, stored, and communicated. At the same time, there is increased public debate over issues such as ownership of and access to information and its authenticity and reliability in a networked and interconnected world. On a practical level, archivists are being asked to do more, to have a greater range of skills, often with increasingly restricted resources while competing with others to maintain their role as experts in ever-changing environments.

Exploring the potential impact of these changes is timely. Such reflections will provide the opportunity to consider the archivists’ purpose and role, discuss the practical impact of change on skills and functions, and articulate what can be contributed to a mid-21st century world.

The contributors, Kate Theimer, Luciana Duranti, Victoria Lemieux, Geoffrey Yeo, Jenny Bunn, Sonia Ranade, Barbara Reed, Gillian Oliver, Frank Upward, Joanne Evans, Michael Moss, David Thomas, and Craig Gauld cover:

• the role of archives in relation to individuals, organisations, communities, and society
• how appraisal, arrangement, description, and access might be affected in the future
• the impact of changing societal expectations in terms of access to information, how information is exchanged, and how things are recorded and remembered
• the place of traditional archives and what ‘the archive’ is or might become
• competition or opportunity offered by other information, cultural, or IT-related professions and the future role of the archive profession
• truth and post-truth: archives as authentic and reliable evidence

This book will appeal to an international audience of students, academics, and practitioners in archival science, records management, and library and information science.