Society is documenting itself
But we have made those tools for ourselves as much as for
anyone. They serve our custodial environments, not the creators
of records. At the same time, a world of software developers are
creating systems that 'manage' documents and records, but too
often those tools include few or no requirements for
documentary authenticity or reliability. Archivists have to work
with these industry partners to design user friendly, effective
tools for records creation, preservation, dissemination, and use,
tools that protect the integrity of records throughout their life.
And then we have to share those tools, which means
relinquishing control. We have to become facilitators more
than custodians, so that we can help communities manage their
own records. We can then step in with custodial care when
communities cannot achieve success themselves, or when they
wish to contribute to wider social networks. If we help to create
strong tools, and we make people aware of the value of records
for accountability, identity, and memory, I believe we can help
society achieve my watchwords of Remember, Respect, Record.
So finally, to answer the question I was brought here from
Canada to consider. The archivists' role in documenting society,
in an age when society is documenting itself, involves four tasks.
First, to keep in custody when circumstances allow, which will
be less and less often. Second, to facilitate, guide, and advise
when circumstances do not, which will be more and more often.
Third, to build the tools that help societies document
themselves, to the standards archivists expect in order to ensure
records remain authentic and reliable. And finally, to raise
awareness across society of the critical value of records as
evidence, and the incredible benefits they bring to individuals,
families, and communities. Only by making people aware of the
great documentary wealth they hold - literally - in the palm
of their hands, can we truly help today's communities achieve
accountability, foster their own identity, and preserve their
collective memory.
If the end result of that awareness raising is that people
protect their personal and family records themselves, instead of
waiting for bureaucratic institutions like state or national archival
repositories to do it for them, then I for one will let out a great
cheer. As David Gauntlett, of the University of Westminster,
and the keynote speaker at this afternoon's conference, has
argued before and I suspect will argue again today, society is
seeing a shift from what he calls a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture'
to a 'making-and-doing culture'.
Let us support that shift in the archival world by
relinquishing our custodial predisposition. If we are successful,
then perhaps people will recognize the value of their family
stories and will treasure their family's documentary records, using
the tools and technologies we help create. Then perhaps the
families of the future will know more about their past, which is
something that eluded me until I was able to discover Great
Uncle Frank in a digital database. I am so grateful to discover
those records ABOUT Great Uncle Frank, courtesy of an
enormous team of archivists, computer technicians, historians,
and volunteers at Library and Archives Canada and Ancestry.ca.
Now, I shall continue the search for the records OF Uncle Frank,
and perhaps someday I will find something that tells me what it
was to be Frank the man as well as Frank the soldier.
And when I leave Amsterdam at the end of this wonderful
visit, my husband and I will drive to the Railway Dugouts Burial
Ground near Zillebeke. We will walk past the more than 2400
headstones in that cemetery, until we get to Plot 6, Row B,
Grave 40. There, I will meet Great Uncle Frank. I will use my cell
phone to take a photograph of me by his headstone, and I will
tweet that photograph to my small group of followers, both
