Title (en)
Preserving for People: Observing Humanities Scholars' Research Practices in a Hybrid Archive Environment
Language
English
Description (en)
In order to assess the potential suitability of digital preservation efforts for future research, it is necessary to understand how users interact with information in the present. Yet there is very little information on how humanities researchers – a key user group for archives – interact with archives beyond discovery. In the following, we show the importance of recognising end-users as part of wider information workflows that comprise not only discovery but the reuse of information and an unfolding interpretation of materials to construct new knowledge. We make our case through the presentation of findings from a naturalistic empirical observation of 11 humanities researchers engaging in research at a national archive. Our work identifies two research practices important to knowledge construction – reading and collecting –through which scholars create an interpretation of the archival record situated in its wider context.
Keywords (en)
Archives, Human Information Interaction, Knowledge construction, Information use
Author of the digital object
Alexandra Leigh  (City, University of London / The National Archives, UK)
Author of the digital object
Stephann Makri  (City, University of London)
Author of the digital object
Alex Taylor  (City, University of London)
Author of the digital object
Alec Mulinder  (The National Archives, UK)
Author of the digital object
Sarra Hamdi  (The National Archives, UK)
Author of the digital object
Sonia Ranade  (The National Archives, UK)
Format
application/pdf
Size
462.3 kB
Licence Selected
CC BY 4.0 International
Conferences
Conference 2021