Historians tend to think of archivists as the ‘keepers of history’ and to a large extent this is indeed the case. The history of archives is a fascinating topic…how did the modern field of archival studies come about?  Who makes the decisions regarding the building of collections and the access to documents and why?  Do we recognise that archives, to quote scholar Elizabeth Yale, are sites with “histories and politics of their own”?  A study of archives draws us into a consideration of the development of the public and private spheres, the growth of global institutions and the ever-growing emphasis on data.

How do such considerations affect the running of archives?  And, for researchers – how might this affect not only our access to sources but the way we approach our research? These are important questions to keep in mind as we engage in research…

-D. Brunero

Interested to know more? Read:  Elizabeth Yale, “The History of Archives: The State of the Discipline” Book History, Vol 18 (2015), 332-359.