The University Tower Building where the Archives is located in the basement. This shows the Tower being constructed in the late 1950s. |
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Learning to Build Archives of the Future
Thursday 16 September 2010
Memory and Identity
This interplay between memory and identity, and the impact on these of archives and records, is the theme of our Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities Network Project. This is the second RSE award that we have received and we were delighted that the current funding enabled us to extend the research generated by the Investigating the Archive Project. Caroline Brown attended a Research Awards Reception at the RSE last week where she gave a poster presentation about the Memory and Identity project. In addition Pat Whatley has been asked to speak about the Network Award at an RSE Research Awards in Arts & Humanities Information Evening in October.
Over the next few months we'll be returning to this theme regularly and we'd welcome any comments that you have. Our conference in December is a culmination of a series of workshops and lectures relating to Memory and Identity and will look particularly at the following areas:
- Value, Appraisal and Theories of Identity and Memory
- The Impact of Description on the Archival Record
- The Act of Display and Interpretation in the Creation of Memory
- Records and Truth: the Creation of Community and National Identities
- Everyone their Own Archivist – an Eternal Verity or a Digital Virtue?
- Activating the Archive: A Site for Creative Exploration
- Beyond the Written Word: Recording Memory and Identity
- The Making of History: Archives and the Historian
Watch out for more blog posts on these and other issues soon.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Congratulations Terry Cook
only a handful of archivists have been members of the...RoyalTom also provided the formal RSC citation:
Society of Canada, and they were elected for their outstanding scholarship as historians. Terry is the first to be recognized for scholarship about archives, and for his prominent role in defining and shaping the contours of the very field of Archival Studies as a distinct intellectual and academic pursuit.
COOK, Terry, History of archives and of recorded information, University of ManitobaTerry gave a keynote presentation at the 'Philosophy of the Archive' conference held by CAIS in Edinburgh in 2008 and part of the Royal Society of Edinburgh supported 'Investigating the Archive Project'. He returns to Scotland later this year to provide another keynote lecture at the conference 'Memory, Identity and the Archival Paradigm: an interdisciplinary approach' to be held in Dundee 8-10 December. This conference is part of the successor project to 'Investigating the Archive', the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded research network 'Memory and Identity: an Interdisciplinary Research Network in Scotland'.
Terry Cook has transformed archives from being perceived as storehouses of old records to sites of power worthy of scholarly attention. In rethinking appraisal to decide what records become archives, responding to the challenges of digital records and critical theory and exploring archival history, Cook has developed, nationally and internationally, a distinctive voice for Canadian archival scholarship.
We would like to add our congratulations to those already offered by Terry's friends and colleagues. This is a tremendous achievement and one thoroughly justified by the quality and depth of his scholarship and his outstanding contribution to the theoretical basis of the recordkeeping profession.
Tuesday 14 September 2010
4,000 visitors!
As you can see from the map, people viewing the blog come from all over the world.
As well as this blog you can also find us online in the following places:
- The University of Dundee webpages for Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS)
- The CAIS twitter account
- Museum Services' twitter account
- The bookmarks we save on delicious
- Images from Museum Services on Flickr
We're really pleased that so many people find the blog interesting and useful. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on how we could change or improve things.
NOTE: we use Google's Analytics service to track our web statistics and the screenshots are taken from there.
Friday 10 September 2010
CAIS Study School, Sept 10 - Days 3, 4 & 5
Today's sessions have included a debate on whether the recordkeeping professions are being marginalised by developments in technology and a session on the impact of information legislation on recordkeepers. Linda Bankier and Sue Wood from Northumberland Archives and Rachel Hart of the University of St Andrews are leading a workshop this afternoon on palaeography, diplomatic and different types of archive sources and records. The day finishes with the annual CAIS Study School Seminar. This year the distinguished guest is George MacKenzie, the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.
Tomorrow the students have sessions on professional ethics and final preparation for their courses starting on Monday 20 September. It has been a very full week, but a very enjoyable one with valuable and thought provoking contributions from all the students, visiting tutors and speakers and the CAIS staff.
Wednesday 8 September 2010
CAIS Study School, Sept 10 - Days 1 & 2
Today there are sessions on how to use the University's online learning systems and workshops on metadata and archival theory (with David Haynes and Caroline Brown respectively), before Sarah returns with Alan Bell this afternoon as they lead a session examining issues and concepts in records management. The day also includes a visit for the records management students to an off-site storage facility and concludes with a visit for everyone to the University Library and Conservation Studio.
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Brittle Bone Society Archive comes to the University of Dundee
Archive Services are very pleased to announce that the archive of the Brittle Bone Society (UK) has been given to the University of Dundee.
Founded in Dundee in 1968 the Brittle Bone Society is the only UK wide organisation providing support to people affected by the bone condition Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI). The archive is significant in tracing the history of this important charity and developments in treatment of the condition. Changes in fundraising approaches, marketing, membership and administration can all be exploredthrough the records. As a UK charity based in Dundee the collection has strong local significance, but also reflects the impact of the charity on the development of similar organisations overseas. This photograph shows Caroline Brown with Margaret Grant, who established the Society, and Sheena Moreland who has worked for the Society for several years.
Archive Services hopes to shortly undertake an oral history project with members of the Society.
Monday 6 September 2010
CAIS Study School, September 2010
The Study School is a chance for each new intake of students to meet each other and the CAIS staff and tutors, find out how to use the University's online learning systems and to begin to think about many of the professional theories and issues that they will encounter during their courses. It's always a really interesting and enjoyable few days and we're really looking forward to the rest of the week. We'll be posting updates on the Study School here throughout the week so remember to check back from time to time.
Wednesday 1 September 2010
Abstracts available: Memory, Identity and the Archival Paradigm
The conference is being held by the Centre for Archive and Information Studies supported by a Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities research award. It is the second major conference within the Investigating the Archive project.
Details on how to register can be found on this page and the conference website also includes information on travelling to Dundee and accommodation options.