Community Archives, Community Spaces: Heritage, Memory and Identity

This book traces the trajectory of the community archives movement, expanding the definition of community archives to include sites such as historical societies, social movement organizations and community centers, and explore new definitions of what community archives might encompass, particularly in relationship to disciplines outside the archives.Over ten years have passed since the first volume of Community Archives, and inspired by continued research as well as by the formal recognition of community archives in the UK, the community archives movement has become an increasing important area of research, recognition and appreciation by archivists, archival scholars and others worldwide. Increasingly the subject of papers and conferences, community archives are now seen as being in the vanguard of social concerns, markers of community-based activism, a participatory approach exemplifying the ongoing evolution of "professional" archival (and heritage) practice and integral to the ability of people to articulate and assert their identity. Community Archives, Community Spaces reflects the latest research and will also include practical case studies on the challenges of building and sustaining community archives.This new book will appeal to practitioners, researchers, and academics in the archives and records community as well as to historians and other scholars concerned with community building and social issues.
Archivists working in a number of fields describe the growth of community archives around the world and how they are increasingly engaging with records of people whose lives and history are often outside history's spotlight. Presenting first analytical essays, then case studies, they consider such topics as affective bonds: what community archives can teach mainstream institutions, community archives and the records continuum, self-documentation of Thai communities: reflective thoughts on the Western concept of community archives, Maison d'Haiti's collaborative archives: archiving a community of records, and post-x: community-based archiving in Croatia. Annotation ©2020 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)