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SI 580 001 FA 2020 Settings Dr SI 580 001 FA 2020 Settings Dr. Patricia Garcia Understanding Records & Archives: Principles and Practices University of Michigan School of Information SI 580 / History 600, Fall 2020 Location: Virtual (Links to an Meeting Time: Tuesday 1:00-4:00 pm external site.) E-Mail: [email protected] Office: 4437 North Quad Office Hours: Monday 11:00 am-1:00 pm (Links to an Course Website: Canvas SI 580 F20 external site.) Overview Understanding Archives and Records is an introduction to and overview of the concepts, principles, and issues of managing archives and records. The course will teach students to: • Become conversant with the basic concepts, practices, and methods used to create, store, organize, and preserve records and archives. • Develop an understanding of the history and evolution of the archival profession • Identify and describe the professional functions of appraisal, acquisition, arrangement, description, access, and outreach • Identify organizational, legal, technological, and cultural factors that have an impact on records and archives • Analyze how organizations and individuals use records and archives for research, ongoing operations, accountability, and organizational memory • Develop a knowledge-base and set of principles for responding to legal, policy, and ethical issues For students who pursue professional careers in archives and records management, this course provides an introduction to the field; introduces concepts and ideas that will be used in more advanced courses; introduces current issues in the professions; and builds a foundation for internships and professional networking. For students who pursue careers in related information fields, this course introduces broadly applicable concepts used in information management, data curation, information policy, and user services. This course also provides opportunities to build your portfolio of professional skills, in particular: oral presentations; writing and argumentation; problem analysis and problem solving; and teamwork/collaboration. Organization The course is divided into two parts. Part 1: Archives and Records – Concepts, Terminology, and Practice will present the core ideas in archival science that have defined the profession for the past century or more. The purpose of this portion of the course is to master the basic concepts, become familiar with the sources of literature in the field, and establish common ground for addressing archives and records issues and problems. You will get a general overview of widely accepted conventions and practices in archives. Part 2: Current Issues in Archives and Records focuses on important changes in the ways that records and archives are created, used by individuals and organizations, and valued by society. In this section, we will focus on the relationship between archives and the technological, organizational, and political context in which they are created and used. Additional Course Links • Zoom Course Link (Links to an external site.) • Course Schedule and Readings • Lecture Slides & Recordings • Assignments and Evaluation • Office Hours • Academic Integrity • Student Support • Classroom Etiquette • Additional Resources • Extracurricular Activities Course Schedule - Table Outcomes Assignment Due Readings Week 1 (9/1): The Role of Archives in Society • Icebreaker: Show us Students will be something or Optional: able to: someone you • love! (Links to an Punzalan, Ricardo L. "Dear Students: • Explain the Becoming an Archivist in a Time of external relationship Uncertainty and Unrest." The Library site.) Password to between key Quarterly, 87 no. 4 (2017): 303-305. terms such as post: SI580 archive(s), archivist, and record • Comprehend major assignments and course expectations Week 2 (9/8): Core Concepts in Archives and Records Students will be • Due: Mini- • Foote, Kenneth. “To Remember and able to: Assignment Forget: Archives, Memory, and 1- Topic Culture.” American Archivist 53 no. 3 • Explain the Brainstorm (Summer 1990): 378-392. relationship between core • Michelle Caswell, “’The Archive’ is concepts such Not an Archives: Acknowledging the as evidence, Intellectual Contributions of Archival provenance Studies,” Reconstruction: Studies in (respect des Contemporary Culture 16 no. 1 fonds), and (2016), focus on the “Archival original order Studies: An Intellectual History” section (paragraph 6 – 21) • Describe the life cycle and • Millar, Laura. “Archival Institutions: continuum Creatures of History and Culture.” models of Chapter 2 in Archives: Principles and recordkeeping Practices, New York: Neil-Schuman Publishers, 2010: 27-44. • Distinguish between • Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two different types Acts,” small axe 26 (June 2008): 1- of archival 14. institutions • Interpret the role archives play in society Week 3 (9/15): Record Identification, Acquisition, & Appraisal Students will be • Class cancelled • Foscarini, Fiorella. “Archival Appraisal able to: in Four Paradigms.” In Terry Eastwood and Heather MacNeil, Eds. • Explain the Currents of Archival Thinking, 2e, strengths and (2017): 109-133. weaknesses of the • Ham, Gerald F. “Archival Choices: documentation Managing the Historical Record in an strategy Age of Abundance,” The American process Archivist 47, no. 1 (Winter 1984), 11– 22. • Comprehend key terms • Hackman, Larry and Joan Warnow- related to Blewett, “The Documentation collection Strategy Process: A Model and a development Case Study,” The American including Archivist 50, no. 1 (January 1, 1987), acquisition, 12–47. collection policy, and gift • Daniels, Caroline, Heather Fox, agreement Sarah-Jane Poindexter, and Elizabeth Reilly, “Saving All the Freaks on the • Evaluate Life Raft: Blending Documentation different Strategy with Community appraisal Engagement to Build a Local Music paradigms Archives,” The American Archivist 78, no. 1 (2015), 238–61. • Comprehend the role of • Review the SAA sample policies and appraisal in deeds for appraisal and acquisition managing collections Week 4 (9/22): Arrangement and Description • Visit from Caitlin Students will be Pollock, Digital • Yakel, Elizabeth. “Archival able to: Pedagogy Librarian Representation,” Archival Science 3:1 (2003), pp. 1-25. • Differentiate • In-Class between levels Exercise: Instructions • Duff, Wendy M. and Verne Harris, of archival for group work “Stories and Names: Archival processing Description as Narrating Records and Constructing Meanings,” Archival • Identify major Science 2, no. 3–4 (2002): 263–85. components of finding aids • Wood, Stacy, Kathy Carbone, Marika Cifor, Anne Gilliland, and Ricardo • Analyze the Punzalan. “Mobilizing Records: Re- political, social, Framing Archival Description to and cultural Support Human Rights.” Archival implications of Science 14, no. 3–4 (August 31, descriptive 2014): 397–419. practices • Dunham, Elizabeth and Xaviera Flores. “Breaking the Language Barrier: Describing Chicano Archives with Bilingual Finding Aids.” The American Archivist 77, no. 2 (2014). • Brilmyer, Gracen. "Archival assemblages: applying disability studies’ political/relational model to archival description." Archival Science 18, no. 2 (2018): 95-118. Week 5 (9/29): Use and Users Students will be Due: Jigsaw Group User Group Cases - Read the article able to: corresponding to the user group you • Sign up here for a have selected. • Describe a user group case. diverse range • Zeitlyn, David. "Anthropology in and of users and • Come prepared to of the archives: Possible futures and uses answer the following contingent pasts. Archives as questions about anthropological surrogates." Annual • Evaluate the your user case: Review of Anthropology 41 (2012): specific needs 461-480. and o 1) Who is your requirements of user group? • Garcia, Patricia. "Accessing Archives: diverse users Teaching with Primary Sources in K– 2) How do they and uses o 12 Classrooms." The American use archives? Archivist 80, no. 1 (2017): 189-212. • Analyze the 3) Do they have implications of o • Elizabeth Yakel and Laura Bost. any unique diverse user “Understanding Administrative Use needs that an needs on and Users in University archivist should professional Archives.” The American Archivist 57, consider? work no. 4 (September 1, 1994): 596–615. • Due: Mini- Assignment 2 - Platform Features • Elizabeth Yakel and Deborah Torres. “Genealogists as a ‘Community of Records.’” The American Archivist 70, no. 1 (January 1, 2007): 93–113. • Diana K. Wakimoto, Christine Bruce, and Helen Partridge, "Archivist as Activist: Lessons from Three Queer Community Archives in California," Archival Science 13, no. 4 (2013), 293-316. • Frank, Rebecca D., Elizabeth Yakel, and Ixchel M. Faniel. “Destruction/reconstruction: Preservation of Archaeological and Zoological Research Data,” Archival Science 15, no. 2 (2015): 141–67. • Mattock, Lindsay K., and Eleanor Mattern. "Looking at Archives in Cinema: Recent Representations of Records in Motion Pictures." (2015). • Carbone, Kathy. "Artists in the archive: an exploratory study of the Artist-in-Residence Program at the City of Portland Archives & Records Center." Archivaria 79 (2015): 27-52. Week 6 (10/6): Constructing Race in the Archive Students will be • Due: Mini- • Sutherland, Tonia. "Making a Killing: able to: Assignment 3 - On Race, Ritual, and (Re)Membering User Needs in Digital Culture." PDT&C (2017): 32- • Discuss how 40. race is constructed • Farmer, Ashley. "Archiving While and Black." Black Perspectives reconstructed (2018). (Links to an external site.) through archival • Ghaddar, Jamila J. "The spectre
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