Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Trust and professional identity: narratives, counter-narratives and lingering ambiguities

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archival Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the field of archives, professional identity is constructed around the twin notions of archivists as trusted custodians and archival institutions as trusted repositories. This essay examines the historical links between professional identity and trust and the ways in which those links are being attenuated and reconfigured in the digital world. It argues that new information and communication technologies and shifting currents of thinking inside and outside the field of archives are challenging and transforming the archival understanding of the relationship between trust and professional identity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The relevant sections of the Justinian Code have been translated from the Latin by Duranti (1994a, p. 41) with one alteration: I have translated the Latin phrase “fidem faciant” as "capable of making faith" where Duranti has translated it as "serve as authentic evidence." For a detailed discussion of methods of authenticating documents in ancient Rome, see Haighton (2010).

  2. For a more detailed history of these developments, see MacNeil (2000, pp. 1–31).

  3. The concept of the nation as an imagined political community is associated with the work of Benedict Anderson. For Anderson, the modern nation “is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. …[It] is imagined as limited because even the largest of them …has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations. … It is imagined as sovereign because the concept was born in an age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were destroying the legitimacy of the divinely-ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm. …nations dream of being free, and …[t]he gage and emblem of this freedom is the sovereign state. Finally, it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship” (Anderson 2006, pp. 6–7).

  4. For a detailed discussion of the dispute see Milligan (2002, pp. 61–119) and Moore (2008, pp. 209–236).

  5. The first “official” inventory was published in 1863 and focused on the series of documents known as the Layettes du Trésor des Chartes. The inventory was compiled by Alexandre Teulet and included an item level listing of the contents of the layettes (skippets) series, facsimile reproductions of the documents, information about the dates of the documents and the events they described, their status as originals and copies, the historical actors that authored or appeared in them, and the history of the series’ arrangements and re-arrangements by previous custodians and scholars. See Teulet (1977 [1863]).

  6. The first articulation of the French principle of respect des fonds in an 1841 government circular was, for its part, “inhabited and animated” by the historical vision of France’s political regime of the time, the July Monarchy. According to Moore (2008), the July Monarchy, which governed France from 1830 to 1848, was committed to an organicist conception of history and continually compared the French nation to “a living being that had slowly grown into full maturity.” Viewed from this angle, the principle of respect des fonds was simply “an extension of [the July Monarchy’s] historical vision into the realm of classification. The newly ‘restored’ archival fonds would offer documentary proof of the slow and inexorable progress of the French ‘nation’ from the struggles of the medieval period to the triumph of the July regime” (p. 122). For a fuller discussion of the 1841 circular see Moore (pp. 117–123).

  7. In a related vein, the concept of “performance authenticity” in art theory and its relevance to an understanding of the preservation requirements of digital records is discussed in Roeder (2008).

  8. The notion of original order in relation to this broader time frame is discussed further in MacNeil (2008).

  9. Leopold von Ranke is frequently cited as a key figure in the nineteenth century archival turn in historiography. The evolution of von Ranke’s archival turn is discussed in Eskildsen (2008). See also Smith (1995).

  10. For examples of projects that have incorporated such approaches see Huvila (2008), Krause and Yakel (2007) and Shilton and Srinivasan (2007).

  11. See, for example, Cook (2001), Duff and Harris (2002), Light and Hyry (2002), Nesmith (2005).

  12. The following discussion is drawn from MacNeil and Mak (2007, pp. 38–44) and MacNeil (2000, pp. 37–46).

  13. For a sampling of recent studies of this topic in relation to museums, libraries, and archives, respectively, see Cameron (2007), Manoff (2006), Conway (2010) and Opp (2008).

  14. The ideological dimensions of “context” and “frame” and the kinds of agency involved in defining an inside and an outside have been explored perceptively by a number of writers and from a range of disciplinary perspectives including literary criticism and art history and theory. Culler (1988), Derrida (1987) and Mattick (1996) are useful starting points. Many of their insights are relevant and transportable to archival discussions of context.

References

  • Anderson B (2006) Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (rev. ed.). Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai A (2003) Archive and aspiration. In: Brouwer J, Mulder A (eds) Information is alive: art and theory on archiving and retrieving data. NAI Publishers, Rotterdam, pp 14–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton A (2005) Introduction: archive fever, archive stories. In: Burton A (ed) Archive stories: facts, fictions, and the writing of history. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron F (2007) Beyond the cult of the replicant–museums and historical digital objects: traditional concerns, new discourses. In: Cameron F, Kenderdine S (eds) Theorizing digital cultural heritage: a critical discourse. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 49–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Christen K (2008) The politics of search: archival accountability in aboriginal Australia. Paper presented at MIT5: media in transition 5 conference. http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit5/papers/Christen.pdf. Accessed 19 July 2010

  • Clanchy MT (1993) From memory to written record: England, 1066–1307, 2nd edn. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway P (2010) Modes of seeing: digitized photographic archives and the experienced user. Am Arch 73(2):425–462

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook T (2001) Fashionable nonsense or professional rebirth: postmodernism and the practice of archives. Archivaria 51:32–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Culler J (1988) Framing the sign: criticism and its institutions. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman

    Google Scholar 

  • Culler J (2008) On deconstruction: theory and criticism after structuralism (25th anniversary ed.). Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida J (1987) The truth in painting (trans: Bennington G and McLeod I). University of Chicago Press, Chicago

  • [The] Discovery Channel [for the National Archives Experience] (2006) Democracy starts here. http://videocast.nih.gov/sla/NARA/dsh/index.html. Accessed 27 Jan 2011

  • Duff W, Harris V (2002) Stories and names: archival description as narrating records and constructing meanings. Arch Sci 2:263–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duranti L (1994a) Medieval universities and archives. Archivaria 38:37–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Duranti L (1994b) The concept of appraisal and archival theory. Am Arch 57(2):328–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Eskildsen KR (2008) Leopold Ranke’s archival turn: location and evidence in modern historiography. Modern Intellect Hist 5(3):425–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fides (2010) In Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/206119/Fides. Accessed 27 Jan 2011

  • Ghosh D (2005) National narratives and the politics of miscegenation: Britain and India. In: Burton A (ed) Archive stories: facts, fictions, and the writing of history. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 27–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Haighton A (2010) Roman methods of authentication in the first two centuries AD. J Soc Arch 31(1):29–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hiatt A (2004) The making of medieval forgeries: false documents in fifteenth-century England. British Library and University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Huvila I (2008) Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and broader contextualisation of records management. Arch Sci 8:15–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson H ([1937] 1965) Manual of archive administration (new and rev. ed.). P. Lund, Humphries, London

  • Krause MG, Yakel E (2007) Interaction in virtual archives: the polar bear expedition digital collections next generation finding aid. American Archivist 70:282–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy D (2001) Scrolling forward: making sense of documents in the digital age. Arcade, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Light M, Hyry T (2002) Colophons and annotations: new directions for the finding aid. Am Arch 65:216–230

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeil H (2000) Trusting records: legal, historical and diplomatic perspectives. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeil H (2008) Archivalterity: rethinking original order. Archivaria 66:1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeil H, Mak B (2007) Constructions of authenticity. Library Trends 56(1):6–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Manoff M (2006) The materiality of digital collections: theoretical and historical perspectives. Libr Acad 6(3):311–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mattick P (1996) Context. In: Nelson RS, Shiff R (eds) Critical terms for art history. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 70–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller D (1995) On nationality. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Milligan JS (2002) Making a modern archive: the Archives Nationales of France, 1850–1887. Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers. (UMI No. 3055074)

  • Milligan JS (2006) The problem of publicité in the archives of Second Empire France. In: Blouin FX, Rosenberg WG (eds) Archives, documentation, and institutions of social memory: essays from the Sawyer seminar. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, pp 20–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore LJ (2008) Restoring order: the ecole des chartes and the organization of archives and libraries in France, 1820–1870. Litwin, Duluth

    Google Scholar 

  • Narrative (2004) In: Barker C (ed) The Sage dictionary of cultural studies. Sage, London, p 131

  • National Archives of Australia (2002) An approach to the preservation of digital records. http://www.naa.gov.au/images/an-approach-green-paper_tcm2-888.pdf. Accessed 25 Jan 2011

  • Nesmith T (2005) Reopening archives: bringing new contextualities into archival theory and practice. Archivaria 60:269–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Opp J (2008) The colonial legacies of the digital archive: the Arnold Lupson photographic collection. Archivaria 65:3–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Roeder J (2008) Art and digital records: paradoxes and problems of preservation. Archivaria 65:151–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross S (2009) Engendering trust, managing processes and measuring performance. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Canadian Archivists, Calgary, Alta, May 2009

  • Sahadeo J (2005) Without the past there is no future: archives, history, and authority in Uzbekistan. In: Burton A (ed) Archive stories: facts, fictions, and the writing of history. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 45–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheppele KL (1997–1998) The ground-zero theory of evidence. Hastings Law Rev 49:321–334

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott M (1998) Imitation Leonardo. Vancouver Sun: D1, D7, Oct 3, 1998

  • Shilton K, Srinivasan R (2007) Participatory appraisal and arrangement for multicultural archival collections. Archivaria 63:87–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith B (1995) Gender and the practice of scientific history: the seminar and archival research in the nineteenth century. Am Hist Rev 100(4):1150–1176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teulet A (1977 [1863]) Layettes du trésor des chartes: tome premier [De l’année 755 à l’année 1223]. Kraus, Nendeln, Liechtenstein

  • Thibodeau K, Blake R, Carucci P, Chadduck R, Cloonan M, Hamidzadeh et al (2005) How to preserve authentic electronic records. In: Duranti L (ed) The long term preservation of authentic electronic records: findings of the InterPARES project. Archilab, San Miniato, app. 6, pp 293–328

  • Tollebeek J (2004) ‘Turn’d to dust and tears’: revisiting the archive [review of the book Dust]. Hist Theory 43:237–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wake P (2006) Narrative and narratology. In: Malpas S, Wake P (eds) The Routledge companion to critical theory. Routledge, London, pp 14–27

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, 140 St. George St., Toronto, ON, Canada

    Heather MacNeil

Authors
  1. Heather MacNeil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather MacNeil.

Additional information

This is a revised version of a keynote address delivered at Questions of Trust: Archives, Records, and Identities, an international conference sponsored by the Forum for Archives and Records Management Education and Research for the UK and Ireland in association with Network of Archival Educators and Trainers, July 5–6, 2010.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

MacNeil, H. Trust and professional identity: narratives, counter-narratives and lingering ambiguities. Arch Sci 11, 175–192 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-011-9150-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-011-9150-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation