Imagining Archives: Essays and Reflections

by Hugh A. Taylor, Cook, Dodds

Overview

Hugh A. Taylor is one of the most important thinkers in the English-speaking world of archives. A retired civil servant and archival educator, he was named to the prestigious Order of Canada, his nation's highest civilian award. The fifteen essays in this volume are presented in chronological order so that readers may appreciate the broadening evolution and rich interconnections in Taylor's thought as these occurred over more than three decades. These essays link archives to social life and contemporary ideas. Long before postmodern scholars' recent fascination with 'the archive,' Taylor was intent on constructing archives anew, imagining them as places where archivists connect their records with social issues, with new media and technologies, with the historical tradition of archives, with the earth's ecological systems, and with broader spiritual meaning. Also included are two original essays by editors Terry Cook and Gordon Dodds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780585478951
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/05/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Terry Cook is visiting professor in the postgraduate archival studies program at the University of Manitoba and has taught at the University of Michigan's School of Information. He is the author of The Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information: A RAMP Study With Guidelines and editor of Electronic Records Practice: Lessons from the National Archives of Canada . Since 1972, Gordon Dodds has worked at the Archives of Ontario, the National Archives of Canada, and the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, where he was manager of the Government Records Office and an associate provincial archivist. In addition to several articles on archival issues, he is the coauthor of four books: Tyneside Classical: The Newcastle of Grainger, Dobson, and Clayton; A Picture History of Ontario; Canada: A History in Photographs; and The World of William Notman.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	vii
Part 1	About Hugh A. Taylor
1	Hugh Taylor: The Far-Away Archivist	3
2	Hugh Taylor: Imagining Archives	16
Part 2	Essays and Reflections by Hugh A. Taylor
3	Archives in Britain and Canada: Impressions of an Immigrant (1969)	31
4	Administrative History: An Archivist's Need (1970)	44
5	The Discipline of History and the Education of the Archivist (1977)	52
6	The Media of Record: Archives in the Wake of McLuhan (1978)	63
7	Documentary Art and the Role of the Archivist (1979)	75
8	Information Ecology and the Archives of the 1980s (1984)	90
9	Transformation in the Archives: Technological Adjustment or Paradigm Shift? (1987-1988)	107
10	"My Very Act and Deed": Some Reflections on the Role of Textual Records in the Conduct of Affairs (1988)	131
11	Towards the New Archivist: The Integrated Professional (1988)	149
12	The Totemic Universe: Appraising the Documentary Future (1990)	162
13	Chip Monks at the Gate: The Impact of Technology on Archives, Libraries, and the User (1991-1992)	173
14	Opening Address to the "Documents That Move and Speak" Symposium (1992)	184
15	Recycling the Past: The Archivist in the Age of Ecology (1993)	198
16	A Life in Archives: Retrospect and Prospect (1993)	213
17	The Archivist, the Letter, and the Spirit (1997)	226
	Afterword: On Reflection and Imagination	245
	About Hugh A. Taylor	253
	About the Editors	254