Explore the vast range of titles available.

The federal government generates and increasingly saves a large and growing fraction of its records in electronic form. In 1998, the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) launched its Electronic Archives (ERA) program to create a system to preserve and provide access to federal electronic records. To assist in this project, NARA asked the NRC to conduct a two-phase study to provide advice as it develops the ERA program. The first two reports (phase one) provided recommendations on design, engineering, and related issues facing the program. This report (phase two) focuses on longer term, more strategic issues including technology trends that will shape the ERA system, archival processes of the ERA, and future evolution of the system. It also provides an assessment of technical and design issues associated with record integrity and authenticity.

This article analyses the role of national archives for the construction of national master narratives. It starts off by discussing the different origins of national archives, the merits of talking about proto-national archives and the importance of the French revolution for establishing the modern national archive system. It goes on to highlight the difficulties of historians with obtaining access to the archives in the nineteenth century. The importance of archives in authenticating and legitimating the authority of historical work meant that archives became increasingly important for the professionalization of history writing. As history writing saw one of its prime tasks in legitimating the nation-state, archives soon occupied an important position for nation-building projects. They got involved in editing sources regarded as being of national importance, and they played a role in projects of national pedagogy. The article also charts efforts to centralize archives at the national level which resulted in failure almost everywhere. Nevertheless, whilst archives were clearly important for imperial and also subnational projects, it was the national archives that captured the imagination of nation-states in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite the importance of national archives, the articles goes on to argue that it is striking that most national master narratives in the modern period were not based on archival work.

In 2012 the Australian Commonwealth government was scheduled to release the first dedicated policy for culture and the arts since the Keating government's Creative Nation (1994). Investing in a Creative Australia was to appear after a lengthy period of consultation between the Commonwealth government and all interested cultural sectors and organisations. When it eventuates, the policy will be of particular interest to those information professionals working in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) environment. GLAM is a cross-institutional field which seeks to find points of commonality among various cultural-heritage institutions, while still recognising their points of difference. Digitisation, collaboration and convergence are key themes and characteristics of the GLAM sector and its associated theoretical discipline. The GLAM movement has seen many institutions seeking to work together to create networks of practice that are beneficial to the cultural-heritage industry and sector. With a new Australian cultural policy imminent, it is timely to reflect on the issues and challenges that GLAM principles present to national cultural-heritage institutions by discussing their current practices. In doing so, it is possible to suggest productive ways forward for these institutions which could then be supported at a policy level by the Commonwealth government. Specifically, this paper examines four institutions: the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia and the National Museum of Australia. The paper reflects on their responses to the Commonwealth's 2011 Cultural Policy Discussion Paper. It argues that by encouraging and supporting collecting institutions to participate more fully in GLAM practices the Commonwealth government's cultural policy would enable far greater public access to, and participation in, Australia's cultural heritage. Furthermore, by considering these four institutions, the paper presents a discussion of the challenges and the opportunities that GLAM theoretical and disciplinary principles present to the cultural-heritage sector.

The statute book is a large, complex system; a vast corpus of texts dating back to the thirteenth century, now evolving at a rate of around 100,000 words a month1. The volume and pace of change combine with the constraints of current generation of digital tools to present a real barrier to researchers, limiting the type of research that is currently possible. The statute book is simply too big, and changes too rapidly, for any one person to easily comprehend. This situation is transformed if you view legislation as data, and then apply big data technologies and new data analysis techniques to that data. The aim of the Big Data for Law research project2 is to do just that; applying the latest analytical techniques to legislation, making it possible to research, interrogate and understand the statute book as a whole system. An important part of the initiative is to make available the raw data for conducting this type of research, alongside new tools and methods for working with the content. In this article, John Sheridan, Head of Legislation Services at The National Archives, sets out some of the ideas that underpin the project and describes the new service that researchers can use from Spring 2015.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the current Southern African countries’ archives and records management legislations to identify the gaps and challenges. It is important to assess the role played by National Archives legislations within the preservation of heritage and history; private archives known as liberation archives; the transfer of archives; the disposal and retention of records, access, copyright management and skills; and development of staff.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a qualitative methodology through document analysis, interviews and observation. The sampling of the study comprised representatives from the selected Southern African National Archives (South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia).FindingsThe key findings revealed gaps of the archives and records management legislations in terms of definitions, transfer, disposal and transfer of records and accessibility. Some of the Southern African countries failed to use archives and records management legislation to promote accountability and governance.Research limitations/implicationThe research is limited to the following countries: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.Practical implicationsArchive and records management legislation which has gaps creates problems in terms of effective implementation of archives and records management programmes.Social implicationsThe failure by Southern African countries to revise their National Archives legislations and clarify the role of National Archives will lead to loss of archival materials if not addressed.Originality/valueUpdated archives legislation contributes to the development of effective archives and records management programme.

There is a widespread notion that archives, especially national archival institutions, represent the nation’s memory. Historically, archives have played an important role for history writing, thereby contributing to the construction of national master narratives and the strengthening of national identities. What the association between archives and memory actually means is however debated in archival literature. Taking the discussion on the relation between archives and memory as a starting point, this study examines how national archives in today’s world present themselves to the public. The source material consists of mission statements collected from 138 webpages and 18 Facebook accounts all over the world. The first research question concerns the connection between mission statements and a national master narrative, the second asks where references to national memory and national identity are most pronounced, and the third asks whether self-images of national archives can be connected to historical experiences. The analysis shows that mission statements contain many allusions to history and heritage, while references to memory and identity are less widespread than expected. Some variations between continents, and between different groups of countries are identified, although relatively small. A possible explanation is that national archives are engaged in quite a lot of international cooperation, for instance in the International Council on Archives and UNESCO. Thus, they are likely to be as much influenced by each other as by the political environment in their own countries.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on production, organization and tradition of autograph collections since the beginning until the end of the nineteenth century. In particulary, these collections, considered by the classical archival science only such one of the principle causes of destruction of the archives and as the result of the collectors’ craze that pervaded Europe in that turn of years, were used as a kind of archives, where historians could find all sorts of records, performing a para-archivistical function in absence of the availability of public archives, also influencing the methods of the archival arrangement.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on production, organization and tradition of autograph collections since the beginning until the end of the nineteenth century. In particulary, these collections, considered by the classical archival science only such one of the principle causes of destruction of the archives and as the result of the collectors’ craze that pervaded Europe in that turn of years, were used as a kind of archives, where historians could find all sorts of records, performing a para-archivistical function in absence of the availability of public archives, also influencing the methods of the archival arrangement.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on production, organization and tradition of autograph collections since the beginning until the end of the nineteenth century. In particulary, these collections, considered by the classical archival science only such one of the principle causes of destruction of the archives and as the result of the collectors’ craze that pervaded Europe in that turn of years, were used as a kind of archives, where historians could find all sorts of records, performing a para-archivistical function in absence of the availability of public archives, also influencing the methods of the archival arrangement.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on production, organization and tradition of autograph collections since the beginning until the end of the nineteenth century. In particulary, these collections, considered by the classical archival science only such one of the principle causes of destruction of the archives and as the result of the collectors’ craze that pervaded Europe in that turn of years, were used as a kind of archives, where historians could find all sorts of records, performing a para-archivistical function in absence of the availability of public archives, also influencing the methods of the archival arrangement.