Overview

This groundbreaking text demystifies archival and recordkeeping theory and its role in modern day practice. The book's great strength is in articulating some of the core principles and issues that shape the discipline and the impact and relevance they have for the 21st century professional. Using an accessible approach, it outlines and explores key literature and concepts and the role they can play in practice. Leading international thinkers and practitioners from the archives and records management world, Jeannette Bastian, Alan Bell, Anne Gilliland, Rachel Hardiman, Eric Ketelaar, Jennifer Meehan and Caroline Williams, consider the concepts and ideas behind the practicalities of archives and records management to draw out their importance and relevance. Key topics covered include: • Concepts, roles and definitions of records and archives • Archival appraisal • Arrangement and description • Ethics for archivists and records managers • Archives, memories and identities • The impact of philosophy on archives and records management • Does technological change marginalize recordkeeping theory? Readership: This is essential reading for students and educators in archives and recordkeeping and invaluable as a guide for practitioners who want to better understand and inform their day-to-day work. It is also a useful guide across related disciplines in the information sciences and humanities.

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9781856048255

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Reviews

This book is a welcome reminder of what archivists like best: talk about archives. For those who originally studied archive theory 30 or more years ago, it is particularly striking how many sources there are now compared to the relatively few published sources available on archival theory then. The bringing together of past and current thinking in this way will hopefully encourage and inform existing and future debate. For more recently qualified archivists, the book is a welcome chance to revisit some of the theoretical thinking underpinning archive work, in the light of the issues they have faced in their professional experiences since leaving university. For those new to the profession or studying to qualify, the book will provide an overview of milestones of archival thinking, with references to further reading. -- Archives and Records ...an excellent introduction to the many and varied strands of thought in recordkeeping. The thorough bibliographies provided by the authors will enable the reader to go on their own voyage of discovery. -- Archives and Manuscripts ...ideal for anyone looking to seriously develop their theoretical knowledge of the archival and records management disciplines. -- CILIP CLSIG Journal

Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into practice is described on its back cover as essential reading for students and educators in the field. I could not agree with this more. If you are a professor of archives or recordkeeping courses, put this book on your syllabus. If you are a student preparing to enter the profession, pick this book up. In addition, those of us who are already working in the archival profession should look at the essays in this text to expand our own understanding of the historical and theoretical contexts of the world in which we work. In particular, current professionals should closely read Jennifer Meehan's chapter on arrangement and description and Rachel Hardiman's fabulous discussion of philosophy in chapter 6. These two chapters are the cream of a very good crop. -- American Archivist ...ideal for anyone looking to seriously develop their theoretical knowledge of the archival and records management disciplines. -- CILIP CLSIG Journal ...an excellent introduction to the many and varied strands of thought in recordkeeping. The thorough bibliographies provided by the authors will enable the reader to go on their own voyage of discovery. -- Archives and Manuscripts This book is a welcome reminder of what archivists like best: talk about archives. For those who originally studied archive theory 30 or more years ago, it is particularly striking how many sources there are now compared to the relatively few published sources available on archival theory then. The bringing together of past and current thinking in this way will hopefully encourage and inform existing and future debate. For more recently qualified archivists, the book is a welcome chance to revisit some of the theoretical thinking underpinning archive work, in the light of the issues they have faced in their professional experiences since leaving university. For those new to the profession or studying to qualify, the book will provide an overview of milestones of archival thinking, with references to further reading. -- Archives and Records

Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into practice is described on its back cover as essential reading for students and educators in the field. I could not agree with this more. If you are a professor of archives or recordkeeping courses, put this book on your syllabus. If you are a student preparing to enter the profession, pick this book up. In addition, those of us who are already working in the archival profession should look at the essays in this text to expand our own understanding of the historical and theoretical contexts of the world in which we work. In particular, current professionals should closely read Jennifer Meehan's chapter on arrangement and description and Rachel Hardiman's fabulous discussion of philosophy in chapter 6. These two chapters are the cream of a very good crop. -- American Archivist This book is a welcome reminder of what archivists like best: talk about archives. For those who originally studied archive theory 30 or more years ago, it is particularly striking how many sources there are now compared to the relatively few published sources available on archival theory then. The bringing together of past and current thinking in this way will hopefully encourage and inform existing and future debate. For more recently qualified archivists, the book is a welcome chance to revisit some of the theoretical thinking underpinning archive work, in the light of the issues they have faced in their professional experiences since leaving university. For those new to the profession or studying to qualify, the book will provide an overview of milestones of archival thinking, with references to further reading. -- Archives and Records ...an excellent introduction to the many and varied strands of thought in recordkeeping. The thorough bibliographies provided by the authors will enable the reader to go on their own voyage of discovery. -- Archives and Manuscripts ...ideal for anyone looking to seriously develop their theoretical knowledge of the archival and records management disciplines. -- CILIP CLSIG Journal

...ideal for anyone looking to seriously develop their theoretical knowledge of the archival and records management disciplines. -- CILIP CLSIG Journal

Author Information

Patricia Whatley BA is the Archivist at the University of Dundee and head of the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS). Caroline Brown BA MA is Deputy Archivist at the University of Dundee and is programme leader and lecturer on the Archive and Records Management programme at CAIS. Both editors regularly write and lecture on archival issues and serve on the committees of a number of professional bodies.

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