r
'I believe we can help
society achieve my
watchwords of Remember,
Respect, Record.'
Society is documenting itself
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
family and friends. If you follow me at @MillarLaura, you will
see that image and join me in that experience. And, then
perhaps, with the help of digital technologies, I will start to
construct the documentary connections I imagine for my Great
Niece Claire and her generation.
Thank you.'
Laura Millar independent consultant records and archives
management.
Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (photo: 'Wernervc', Wikimedia Commons).
nummer 1 2015 37
