Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

This paper is the second installment in a two-part series on the physicality of archival material in the context of the digital age. The first part reviewed key lessons in the history of new technologies that have affected archival practice. Part two will explore a holistic understanding of paper-based knowledge transmission in the context of the digital access movement. The intent is to provide a more expansive context to the shift from a physically, place-based activity to one of ubiquitous access to secondary materials. The investigation emphasizes two notions: archives as thing and archives as experience. Issues of authenticity, evidence, and sensory engagement are seen as potential knowledge elements of original material. Furthermore, physical archives are considered in their environmental context, through physical processes in the embodied act of using, and through their meaning to the user. The purpose of this article is to highlight the tacit, assumed and taken-for-granted aspects of using original archival material to better understand the conversion from physical to digital.

This paper, which will be published in two parts, explores the physicality of archival materials in the context of the digital age. This first part reviews key lessons in the history of new technologies that have affected archival practice. The issues and problems we now face with conversion of physical archives to digital form are not entirely new. Throughout time, humans have gone through similar major transformations which affected not only culture and behavior but cognition in relation to information acquisition--the conversion from oral transmission to written or from locally available written media to mass-produced forms of communication are examples. This article provides a brief review of these historical processes and gives an overview of some of the lessons we can learn from them. Part Two (which will be published in the March 2011 issue of LIBRES) will explore a holistic understanding of paper-based knowledge transmission--specifically archives--in the context of the digital access movement.

This paper is an attempt to support and promote education programs that cover the entire cultural heritage landscape (libraries, archives, museums) as an integrated, larger meta-discipline. By taking a larger picture approach, professionals who do the work of memory institutions can be more effective in their work, in the promotion of that profession, and increase public value of all related institutions and their purposes. Through the description of the integrated museum studies specialization at Kent State University School of Library and Information Science, this paper aims to provide one example of how this can work, first by describing the role of Library and Information Science (LIS) as a meta-discipline, next by discussing the changing landscape of cultural heritage professional education, and finally by describing in detail the new Kent State integrated museum studies specialization. The infusion of museum studies with LIS is discussed as a part of a larger movement toward integration of training information professionals in the entire cultural heritage sector.

In the case of libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs), the concept of convergence has become commonplace in recent time. Convergence addresses both physical spaces and the services provided. What is currently known as convergence within these institutions, should perhaps more accurately be described as reconvergence, as "in the late 1800s and early 1900s, libraries and museums shared space, resources, and personnel" (Given and McTavish, 2010). Research--especially about children's play--necessitates a fresh look at convergence in services provided by libraries and museums. This, in turn, asks for a reconsideration of training of museum and library professionals. This short communication considers the changing nature of training professionals in both libraries and museums within this emerging reconvergence of the LAMs. The authors use the concept of play as a central point of focus--a conceptual converging point where both museums and libraries intersect--to help explore the possibilities for both training professionals and informing their future practice.

Religion is a defining factor in the identity formation process of a minority community. Historically, religion has often been used as a driving force behind the introduction, development and completion of projects that require collective effort. In fact, in many cases, religion has been an extreme denominator that has created new communities of practice, or solidified existing ones. A unifying force, religion and its expressions in liturgical or everyday forms is an overarching element that unites members of these communities beyond the geographic or temporal limitations. Today, new technologies are paramount in online and digital archives of minority communities, especially in ways that these communities use these technologies to retell and “exhibit” their identity online. Crowdsourcing archives with user-generated material can add valuable context to archival holdings, shed light on hidden collections, and tie them with material in other institutions or countries. In the context of this paper, the notion of crowdsourcing in archives will be examined through the lens of religion and a classification of such initiatives will be proposed.