Questions of trust? Archives, records and identities"
Keynote speakers' abstracts:
Professor Heather MacNeil, University of Toronto, 'Trust and professional identity: narratives, counter-narratives, and lingering ambiguities'
In the field of archives, professional identity is constructed around
the twin notions of archivists as trusted custodians and archival
institutions as trusted repositories. In the opening address the
speaker will examine the historical links between professional identity
and trust and how those links are being attenuated and, perhaps,
reconfigured in the digital world. She will look particularly at the
ways in which new information and communication technologies and
shifting currents of thinking inside and outside the field of archives
are transforming our understanding of who we are and what we do both as
educators and practitioners.
Professor Anne J. Gilliland, University of California, Los Angeles, 'Trust, Neutrality and the Obligation of Archival Education in a Global, Digital Society'
In a globalized world of increasingly diverse, mobile and digitally-facilitated communities and
activities, there is a fundamental tension between the archival mindset
and practices associated with the constructs of trust and neutrality
that has rendered the profession ill-equipped to deal with this changing
world. When faced with the digital, even more than with the physical,
we have placed considerable weight on assuring and preserving the
trustworthiness of materials that will
come under our care. Archival codes of ethics around the globe exhort
us to neutrality so that records creators and posterity trust us to be
impartial in our stewardship and curatorship. But can that neutrality
ever support the interests of all parties equally? Are we as concerned
about being trusted by those who create records outside the usual
institutional parameters, who are the subjects of the records, who are
absent from the records, or who would use the record against the grain,
as we are about maintaining the trust of more mainstream records
creators and supporting the interests of the preserving institutions?
Archival educators and education programmes that are preparing new
generations to enter the archival field have an obligation to address
such constructs and tension critically and practically in light of the
new realities of this world. This paper will discuss ways in which
archival education, itself subject to various constraints, might address
such concerns.
Professor Michael Moss, University of Glasgow, Is it a question of trust?'
This key note address will explore the relationship of concepts of trust
in information to authenticity, truth, trustworthiness, governance, and
the rule of law. These concepts are regularly used to support the role
of archivists and records managers, particularly when they think
themselves beleaguered and unappreciated. They are all slippery terms
that are by their very nature diachronic that has been thrown into sharp
relief by the encroaching digital environment and the recent financial
meltdown. This address will challenge some of the pre-conceptions of the
information community and explore ways in which it needs to adjust to
meet the expectations of society and legislators in the face of big
reductions in public expenditure.
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