Research Initiatives (top)


AERI sponsors several initiatives to achieve its goal of stimulating the growth of a new generation of academics in archival education who are versed in contemporary issues and knowledgeable of the work being conducted by colleagues.  These initiatives are:

•    Emerging Archival Scholars Program (contact: Kelvin White, University of Oklahoma): A recruitment and outreach scholarship program to encourage minority students at the undergraduate and graduate levels to consider undertaking doctoral education focusing in Archival Studies--a multidisciplinary field that examines the professional, social, cultural, political, and technological imperatives of recordkeeping and remembering in society. The program is designed to introduce students to the nature of doctoral education and the rewards and demands of a research-oriented career, e.g., as a professor, in the archives field. Our goal is to stimulate and begin to nurture the growth of a new and more diverse generation of scholars who are versed in interdisciplinary research that addresses issues in Archival Studies, broadly conceived. Read more about this project here.

•    Literature Analysis Project (contact: Paul Conway, University of Michigan): “Scoping the Published Archival Research Corpus” (SPARC) is the first international review of the state of published research literature in archival science. The project encompasses research published in a variety of languages in peer-reviewed journals (primarily archival, but also other disciplines if identifiable), while also incorporating selected published research in other formats, including peer-reviewed conferences and book/book chapters. The expanded study involves a distributed effort to collect data and a more sophisticated analysis and presentation of the data in keeping with some of the current methods of bibliometric research. A team of doctoral students, guided by Paul Conway (University of Michigan), is gathering data from a corpus of archival research literature using a template that the team developed collaboratively. A faculty advisory board is supporting the larger international research project. At AERI 2012 at UCLA, the research team will present the results of the study at a plenary session and foster a discussion on the implications of the research. The team will follow up with a report designed for publication in multiple peer-reviewed journals.
Prospectus for Publishing AERI Proceedings: This document is a report on an investigation by an ad hoc task force of appropriate models for AERI proceedings publications. Please send your comments to Paul Conway (pconway[at]umich.edu) and Anne Gilliland (gilliland[at]gseis.ucla.edu).

•    Grand Challenges (contact: Sue McKemmish, Monash University): Resulting from a plenary at AERI 2011 and workshop at AERI 2012, Sue McKemmish leads a project to draft research and education agendas that addresses grand challenges in Archival Studies.

•    Journal Ranking (contact: Karen Anderson, University of Mid-Sweden: In 2009, AERI endorsed scholarly and professional journal rankings published by the Australian Research Council. AERI continues to promote the role and development of rankings of archival journals as an important part of the infrastructure necessary for recognition of excellence in scholarship in Archival Studies.

•    Pluralizing Archival Education (contact: Anne Gilliland, University of California, Los Angeles): More often than not, the archival profession, archival organizations, and archival education programs conceive of diversifying the field in terms of attracting greater numbers of individuals from minority racial and ethnic groups into the profession and ensuring that they are represented in forums such as institutional and professional association committees and councils. The Pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group maintains that such an approach, while important, overlooks the systemic nature of the problems it seeks to address, and that diversifying the student population without expanding pedagogy and practice perpetuates a lack of awareness and consideration of the perspectives, behaviors, and needs of many different communities.   It addresses three key components of pluralist approaches in curricula and pedagogy:
•        identifying ways in which dominant cultural paradigms permeate archival pedagogy, theory, and practice;
•        envisioning and exploring alternatives to these paradigms; and
•        developing an archival educational framework that can promote the critique of professional and societal norms and include and reflect upon diverse perspectives on archival theory and practice.

Publications (top)

Akmon, D., Zimmerman, A., Daniels, M., and Hedstrom, M. “The Application of Archival Concepts to a Data-Intensive Environment: Working with Scientists to Understand Data Management and Preservation Needs.” Archival Science, 11 (2011): 329-348.

Anderson, Karen, Jeannette Bastian, Ross Harvey, Terry Plum, Goren Samuelson,  “Teaching to Trust: How a Virtual Archives and Preservation Curriculum Laboratory Creates a Global Education Community,” Archival Science, 11. 3-4  (2011): 349-372

Anderson, K., Becker, S., Blanco-Rivera, J., Caswell, M., Chu, I-T., Daniels, M., Faulkhead, S., Gilliland, A., Greer, A., Guerra, F., Howard, T., Jacobsen, T., Kim, D., Krebs, A., Lau, A., McKemmish, S., Pearlstein, E., Pendse, L., Punzalan, R., Shepherd, E., Steele, J., White, K., Willer, M., & Wong, V. (2011) 'Educating for the archival multiverse: The Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI) pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG)'. The American Archivist, vol.74, issue 1, Society of American Archivists, pp. 69-101 [A in ERA Rankings].

Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI) Pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG). “Educating for the Archival Multiverse,” American Archivist (Spring/Summer 2011): 68-102.

Archival Research and the Multiverse, edited by Anne Gilliland, Andrew J Lau and Sue McKemmish (in process), will feature 50 essays by established and emerging archival scholars, the majority of whom have been attending AERI and will be published in late 2013 by Monash University. It is envisaged that a companion volume laying out and critiquing archival ideas and theories in the multiverse will be begun a year from now.

Bastian, Jeanette and Ben Alexander (eds.) “A living archive, shared by communities of records”, in Community Archives. The shaping of memory (Facet Books, London 2009) 109-132.

Buchanan, Sarah. "Accessioning the Digital Humanities: Report from the 1st Archival Education and Research Institute." Digital Humanities Quarterly 4.1 (Summer 2010). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000084/000084.html

Buchanan, Sarah, Elaine Franco, and John Sherlock. "Digging into Our 'Hidden Collections': Maximizing Staff Skills and Technology to Enhance Access to Special Collections." In Proceedings of 13th California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL) Conference: Digging into Our Past and Polishing Our Present to Transform Our Future, Ed. B. Smith. California: CARL, 2010. http://carl-acrl.org/Archives/ConferencesArchive/Conference10/2010proceedings/ElaineFranco.pdf

Buchanan, Sarah, and Katie Richardson. "Representation Through Documentation: Acquiring Student and Campus Life Records through the Bruin Archives Project." The American Archivist, 75.1 (Spring/Summer 2012). http://archivists.metapress.com/

Caswell, Michelle and Andrew J Lau. “Editor’s Notes: Special Section on Archival Education and Human Rights,” special issue of InterActions (2012).

Crow, Jeff, Luis Francisco-Revilla, April Norris, Shilpa Shukla, and Ciaran Trace, “A Unique Arrangement: Organizing Collections for Digital Archives and Libraries.” Forthcoming in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL), 2012. [AERI participants are Trace and Norris]

Dong, L., Blanco-Rivera, J., Caswell, M., and Steele, J. (publication date unknown). Examinations of Injustice: Methods for Studying Archives in a Human Rights Context. In A. Gilliland, A. Lau., and S. McKemmish (Eds.), Archival Multiverse.

Gilliland, Anne. “Pluralizing Archival Education: A Non-Zero-Sum Proposition,” submitted to A Diversity Reader, Mary Caldera and Kathy Neal, eds. (Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists) (under review).

Gilliland, Anne, and Sue McKemmish. "Archival and Recordkeeping Research: Past, Present and Future," in Research Methods: Information Management, Systems, and Contexts (Prahan, Vic: Tilde University Press, 2013 (in press).

Gilliland, Anne J. and Sue McKemmish. “Recordkeeping Metadata, the Archival Multiverse, and Societal Grand Challenges,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 2012, Kuching, Malaysia, September 2012 (in press).

Gilliland, Anne, Andrew J Lau, and Sue McKemmish. “Pluralizing the Archive,” in Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age (Koyasan University, Japan) (in press).

Gilliland, Anne. “Neutrality, Social Justice and the Obligations of Archival Educators and Education in the Twenty-first Century,” Archival Science 11 nos. 3-4 (2011).

Gilliland, Anne and Sue McKemmish. “Pluralising the Archives in the Multiverse: A Report on Work in Progress,” Atlanti (2011): 177-185.

Gilliland, Anne. “Neutrality, Social Justice and the Obligations of Archival Educators and Education in the Twenty-first Century,” Archival Science 11 nos. 3-4 (2011).

Gilliland, Anne and Sue McKemmish. “Pluralising the Archives in the Multiverse: A Report on Work in Progress,” Atlanti: Review for Modern Archival Theory and Practice 21 (2011): 177-185.

Gilliland, A. & McKemmish, S. (2012 forthcoming). Archival and Recordkeeping Research: Past, Present and Future. In K. Williamson & G. Johanson (eds). Research methods: Information, systems and contexts

McKemmish, Sue, Livia Iacovino, Eric Ketelaar, Melissa Castan and Lynette Russell. “Resetting relationships: archives and Indigenous human rights in Australia,” Archives and Manuscripts 39 (2011) 107-144.

McKemmish, S., Wilson, R., Burstein, F., Faulkhead, S., Gilliland, A., Fisher, J., & McLoughlin, I. (Guest Eds.). (2012, Forthcoming). Information, Communication and Society – Community Centred Information Technology, Management and Systems Research, 15(7).  [Accepted November 2010; A in ERA Rankings].

Sternfeld, J., "Archival Theory and Digital Historiography: Selection, Search, and Metadata as Archival Processes for Assessing Historical Contextualization," American Archivist 74.2 (Fall/Winter 2011), 544-575. Web: http://archivists.metapress.com/content/644851p6gmg432h0/

Trace, Ciaran B. and Carlos Ovalle, “Archival Reference and Access: Syllabi and a Snapshot of the Archival Canon,” The Reference Librarian (53) (2012): 1-19.

UK FARMER conference proceedings, Special Issue: Archives, REcords and identities- Questions of Trust, Archival Science, vol 11, nos 3-4, 2011.

White, Kelvin and Anne Gilliland. “Promoting Reflexivity and Inclusivity in Archival Education, Research and Practice,” Library Quarterly (in press).

White, Kelvin. “Ethnic Studies as a Theoretical Framework for Archival and Recordkeeping Research,” in Research in the Archival Multiverse, eds. Anne Gilliland, Andrew Lau, and Sue McKemmish (forthcoming).

Willer, Mirna. Educating for the Archival Multiverse. The American archivist 74 (Spring-Summer 2011), 69-102.

Youn, Eunha. (2011) " Archival Studies of 2011 in North America: Current Developments and Trends", Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management 11(2):77-94

Presentations (top)


Abreu, A., Acker, A., & Hank, C. New directions for 21st century digital collections. Panel at the 2012 American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting [peer-reviewed proposal]. With Amy Buckland, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Elin Jacob, Matthew Kirschenbaum, & Gary Marchionini (panelists).

AERI booth at 2012 Society of American Archivist Conference, featuring AERI poster winners Sarah Buchanan (Texas), Elaine Goh (UBC) and Joanne Mihelcic (Monash)

Akmon, D. and Daniels, M. Capturing Contextual Information for Scientific Data: Shared Motivations, Divergent Needs.  Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Friday, August 13, 2010.

Akmon, D., Daniels, M., Zimmerman, A. Data practices in a materials science group. FARMER/NAET Conference, Oxford, England, 2010.

Benoit, III, E., Anderson, K.D., & Powell, A. Mind the gaps: Leveraging networks to learn. Presented at the Midwest Archives Conference. Grand Rapids, MI, 2012.

Brock, C., Pierce, K., and Norris, A. Building Communities: Designing the Austin Historic Architecture Digital Archive. Poster presented at the Society of American Archivists Annual Conference, Washington, DC, August 2010. 

Cachola, Ellen-Rae. “An Archival Reading of Postcolonial Vigan through the Evidence Provided by Museums,” International Conference on History of Records and Archives at University of Texas Austin, August 2-4, 2012.

Cachola, Ellen-Rae, Dalena Hunter, Patricia Garcia and Jesse Erickson. “Graduate Education in Archival and Library Studies,” Workshop collaboration between AAP Graduate Research Mentorship Program and Emerging Archival Scholars Program, UCLA, February 6, 2012.

Cachola, Ellen-Rae. “The Postcolonial Archive: Whose Landscape of Memory?” Paper presentation in roundtable, Alterity in the Archives: An exchange between scholars working within, and critically examining, archives, UCLA Women's Studies and the Center for Information as Evidence, February 4, 2011.

Cachola, Ellen-Rae, Dalena Hunter, Andrew Lau, and Liladhar Pendse Ramchandra. “The Relevance of Postcolonial and Ethnic Studies in Information Studies,” UCLA Information Studies Colloquium, November 4, 2010.

Dong, L.; Luehrsen, V.; Nordberg, E.; Norris, A.; Pierce, K. Strategies for Designing Undergraduate Archival Courses. Workshop to be given at the Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), Los Angeles, CA, July 2012.

Dong, L. (2010, August). The Timbuktu Manuscript Project: A Decade of Global-Local Collaboration.  Panel chair, “Preserving and Digitizing Records in the Developing World: Trust, Accountability, and International Cooperation” at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archivists, Washington, D.C. [with Caswell, M., and Steele, J.]

Dong, L. (2010, July). New constructions of Malian identity: International collaborations & digital interpretations of the ancient past. UK and Ireland Forum for Archives and Records Management Education and Research/Network of Archival Educators and Trainers, Oxford, UK. [with Caswell, M.]

Doty, P., Galloway, P., Becker, S., Blaha, C., Brock, C., Dong, L., Kim, S., Luehrsen, V., & Norris, A. (2012, January). Student led conferences and internships: Integrating professional community engagement into an iSchool doctoral program.  Juried program, ALISE, Dallas, TX.

Evans, J., Gibbons, L., & Lymn Jessie. (2011) Achieving Critical Mass: Local Impacts of International Collaboration on Archival Education and Research. Panel at in Forum 2011

Evans, J (2012) Towards Critical Mass in Archival Education and Research. Short paper at Australian Information Education Symposium.

Evans, Joanne; Mirna Willer. Metadata Models and Modeling Methods: Workshop Curriculum Development/Research Methodology. Building the Future of  Archival Education and Research, Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI),University of California Los Angeles, July 8-13, 2012

Galloway, P., Doty, P., Becker, S., Blaha, C., Brock, C., Dong, L., Kim, S., Luehrsen, V., Norris, A., and Pierce, K. (2012). Student Led Conferences and Internships: Integrating Professional Community Engagement into an iSchool Doctoral Program. Panel presentation given at the Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Conference, Dallas, TX., January 2012.

Gilliland, Anne and Sue McKemmish. “Recordkeeping Metadata, the Archival Multiverse, and Societal Grand Challenges,” International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Kuching, Malaysia, September 2012.

Gilliland, Anne, Andrew J Lau, and Sue McKemmish, (With Andrew J Lau and Sue McKemmish). “Pluralizing the Archive,” paper, 40th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, Delhi, February 2012 (forthcoming).

Gilliland, Anne and Sue McKemmish. “Pluralising the Archives in the Multiverse: A Report on Work in Progress,” paper, 21st IIAS Conference 2011 International Institute for Archival Science of Trieste (Italy) and Maribor (Slovenia) "IIAS" in cooperation with the Archivio di Stato di Trieste (AST) Italy and Central European Initiative (CEI) Trieste, Italy, November 2011.

Ibanez, Florante, Ellen-Rae Cachola, Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, Elnora Kelly Tayag, and Professor Anne Gilliland (Commenator), “Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) Creating Diverse and Collaborative Community Archival Methods,” Panel Presentation, Society of American Archivist Beyond Borders, San Diego HiltonBayfront, August 10, 2012.

Norris, A. (2010). Advancing Digital Preservation with Digital Forensics. Paper presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), Ann Arbor, MI., June 2010.

Norris, A. Practice and Implications of Digital Forensics Techniques in an Archival Setting. Poster presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), Boston, Mass., July 2011.

Pierce, K., Norris, A., and Brock, C. Building Communities: Designing the Austin Historic Architecture Digital Archive. Poster presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), Ann Arbor, MI., June 2010.

Trace, Dr. Ciaran B. PhD (Chair), Luis Francisco-Revilla, April Norris, MSIS (Commentator). "A Meeting of the Minds: HCI and the Re-engineering of Archival Processing," Society of American Archivists, San Diego, August 2012. [AERI participants are Trace and Norris]

Willer, Mirna. Preparing Heritage Institutions' Metadata for the Semantic Web: Case Study of Bibliographic Data. // Building the Future of  Archival Education and Research / 2011 Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), Simmons College, Boston, MA, July 10-15, 2011. Available at: http://gslis.simmons.edu/wikis/aeri2011/Research_Paper_Presentations#Tuesday.2C_July_12

Willer, Mirna. Teaching Metadata and Interoperability at the Department of Library and Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Croatia. // First Annual Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI). University of California, Los Angeles, USA, July 6-11, 2009. 

White, Kelvin.  "Archival research, education and practice: Collaborating to create new knowledge".  International Council on Archives (ICA)-Section on Archival Education and Training (SAE), the Archival Education and Research Institute, Monash University and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). ICA 2012 Australia. August 2012. Download flyer here.

White, Kelvin. "From Archival Universe to Archival Multiverse". Invited presentation at an NSF workshop, New Configurations of the Virtual and the Material. Chicago. March 2011.

White, Kelvin and Anne Gilliland.  “Promoting Reflexivity and Inclusivity in Archival Education, Research and Practice,” iConference 2009, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, February 2009.