archival intelligence for av archives

Understanding What Users Need to Understand Us

(And Our Data):Archival Intelligence for AV Archives

Amy CiesielskiCurator

ciesiel@mailbox.sc.eduMoving Image Research Collections (MIRC)

University of South Carolina

Archival Intelligence

1.) “Knowledge of archival theory, practices, and procedures”

2.) “Strategies for reducing uncertainty and ambiguity when unstructured problems and ill-defined solutions are the norm”

3.) “Intellective skills, or the ability to understand the connection between representations of documents…and the actual object...being represented”

Yakel, E., & Torres, D. (2003). AI: archival intelligence and user expertise. The American Archivist, 66(1), p. 5.

Barriers (Challenges)• Language and terminology

• Increase of online resources can lead to decreased interaction with archivists

• Multitude of online resources can be overwhelming and confusing for users

• Differences between what content is of vs. what content is about. How do we catalog efficiently and effectively?

• Frustrations with lack of available content online

Possible Solutions?

• Increased transparency for resources—what they are, what information they provide. Difference between catalog record, finding aid, online video with descriptive metadata

• Instructional tools on how to use online resources

• Researchers having a “starting point”

• Learn more about users, user groups, what they tend to search to direct description and cataloging efforts

• Obvious contact information (with encouragement to ASK QUESTIONS)

Direction of Continued Research

Armitage, L. H., & Enser, P. G. (1997). Analysis of user need in image archives. Journal of information science, 23(4), 287-299.

Searching and Browsing

Amy Ciesielskiciesiel@mailbox.sc.eduMoving Image Research Collections (MIRC)University of South Carolina