This volume contains a baker’s dozen of essays by postgraduate students, all, but one, at the masters level, from the School of History and Archives in University College Dublin.
Essays in the first section, devoted to theory, will prove particularly useful to students commencing a qualification in archival studies. Three of the four essays are literature reviews: Doran directs readers interested in archives and the postmodern turn to a number of pertinent sources; Brooks’ paper provides both a summation of recent debates over the place of history in archival appraisal and a chronological account of changing approaches to appraisal; and Ryan provides an interesting overview of the place of archival theory in the acquisition, appraisal and description of personal archives. In contrast, Wheelock gives a brief synthesis of several archival websites which allow users to provide some element of description.
Essays in the remaining two sections represent a more research-oriented approach. In an analysis of a year’s stories in two Irish broadsheets, Lohan finds that references to archives are generally positive, but unsurprisingly concentrate on the collection rather than the concept. Swords’ examination of five community archives in Northern Ireland finds that approaches to cross-community inclusion differ along religious lines, and Benson’s account of interviews with expert stakeholders in relation to privacy and personal data retention gives little indication of the divisions of opinions often seen between archivists and privacy advocates on this matter. Collins’ interviews with five local authority archivists show a steadfast refusal on their part to rate genealogical research as of greater or lesser value than any other kind.
Wright’s study of six genealogists finds that the archives do not play a preeminent role in the acquisition of knowledge within this group, while Kennedy finds that the knowledge and use of archives vary considerably between undergraduates and postgraduates, and that collaborative relationships between academics and archivists were narrow and ill-defined. Kirby anticipated an increased engagement between teachers and archival institutions in the light of a syllabus change that encouraged original research. He found instead that teachers did not have the time or knowledge to develop their own resource materials based on original archival records, and it required activity on the part of archival institutions to provide links between their holdings and the syllabus.
Mulrennan’s discussion of recordkeeping in an Irish asylum emphasises the importance of context in record-keeping practices, and Saunders’ paper on German efforts to open access to the records of the Stasi is equally interesting. Although wholly based on published documentary sources, this chapter illustrates the arguments made by archivists on the importance of retention of certain surveillance records, despite the potential hurt this can cause to the subjects of the documents and embarrassment to the regime which collected them.
This collection’s main audience will be students of archival studies at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Nevertheless, I recommend this book to those archival practitioners who maintain an active interest in the field and who recognise the utility of evidence-based approaches to the management of collections, services and user expectations.
