Generic evolution and the online archival catalogue

Abstract

Rhetorical genre studies emphasize the social actions genres perform and frame rather than the common textual and visual patterns they exhibit. Accordingly, rhetorical genre theorists focus on the interaction between a given social group and the genres used by that group to carry out its activities, communicate its aims and promote its values. In this article, we draw on the insights of rhetorical genre theorists in an exploration of the online archival catalogue in order to gain some preliminary understanding of the kinds of social actions this description genre is accomplishing, the professional, institutional and socio-cultural values that are shaping it and the extent to which it is transforming our understanding of what it means to make records known and available for use.

Keywords:

• rhetorical genre theory
• archival description
• online archival catalogue

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge staff at The National Archives UK who consented to be interviewed for this project; their knowledge and expertise provided important context and insights for our examination of the evolution of TNA's online catalogue. ‘Thank you’ to: Emma Allen, Jenny Bunn, Paul Carter, Sean Cunningham, Jone Garmendia, Tim Gollins, Guy Grannum, Jeff James, Emma Jay, Valerie Johnson, Caroline Kimbell, Nick Kingsley, Paul Lamey, James Lawson, Jenni Orme, Andrew Payne, Paul Stembridge, David Thomas and Amy Warner. Thanks also to Michael Roper (former PRO archivist and Keeper of Public Records, 1988–1991), Jane Winters (Institute of Historical Research), and Ruth Roberts who arranged the interviews. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous peer assessors for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

^1. For an overview, see Andersen, ‘Concept of Genre’. The inclusion of entries relating to genre studies in the latest edition of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (LIS) is a further indication of this growing interest. See Crowston, ‘Internet Genres,’ 2983–95 and Schryer, ‘Genre Theory and Research,’ 1934–42.

^2.Trace and Dillon, ‘Evolution of the Finding Aid,’ 500–19.

^3.MacNeil, ‘What Finding Aids Do,’ 485–500.

^4. The research project, which was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, was entitled Archival Description as Rhetorical Genre in Traditional and Web-based Environments.

^5. See Douglas and MacNeil, ‘Generic Evolution of Calendars,’ 151–74; MacNeil and Douglas, ‘Generic Evolution of Calendars,’ 294–326; MacNeil, ‘Constructing a Community,’ 93–115.

^6.Freedman and Smart, ‘Navigating the Currents,’ 239.

^7.Kwasnick and Crowston, ‘Introduction,’ 79.

^8. See [UK] DCMS, Centres for Social Change.

^9.Miller, ‘Genre as Social Action,’ 30.

^10.Miller and Shepherd, “Blogging as Social Action,” 13.

^11.Devitt, Writing Genres, 27, 25, 28.

^12.MacNeil, “What Finding Aids Do,” 489–90.

^13.Rowley-Jolivet and Campagna, ‘Print to Web 2.0,’ 44.

^14.Theimer, ‘Meaning of Archives 2.0?,’ 58.

^15.Theimer, ‘Meaning of Archives 2.0?,’ 68.

^16.Palmer, ‘Archives 2.0.’

^17.Freeman, ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ 112.

^18. Ibid., 114.

^19. See for example: Dowler, ‘The Role of Use;’ Beattie, ‘An Archival User Study;’ Craig, ‘What Are the Clients?;’ Jimerson, ‘Redefining Archival Identity;’ Maher, ‘Use of User Studies;’ Turnbaugh, ‘Archival Mission;’ Conway, ‘Facts and Frameworks.’

^20. See for example: Duff and Johnson, ‘Where Is the List;’ Duff and Stoyanova, ‘Transforming the Crazy Quilt;’ Duff and Johnson, ‘Accidentally Found on Purpose;’ Yakel, ‘Encoded Archival Description.’

^21. See for example Meissner, ‘First Things First.’

^22.Rowley-Jolivet and Campagna, ‘Print to Web 2.0,’ 46–7.

^23.Evans, ‘Archives of the People,’ 394.

^24.Krause and Yakel, ‘Interaction in Virtual Archives,’ 288; Light and Hyry, ‘Colophons and Annotations.’

^25.Palmer, ‘Archives 2.0.’

^26. See for example, Gracy, ‘Ambition and Ambivalence,’ 362; Moran and Taylor, ‘Lowering the Drawbridge;’ Sexton et al., ‘Understanding Users,’ 47; Cooper, ‘Online On-Site,’ 203; Tucker, ‘Doors Opening Wider;’ Yakel and Torres, ‘Genealogists as a Community.’

^27.Tucker, ‘Doors Opening Wider,’ 133–9; see also Hannah Little, ‘Archive Fever.’

^28.Theimer, ‘Meaning of Archives 2.0,’ 60.

^29.Duff and Harris, ‘Stories and Names,’ 279-285. See also Chris Hurley, ‘Parallel Provenance (1),’ 110–45; and Chris Hurley, ‘Parallel Provenance (2),’ 52–91.

^30.Light and Hyry, ‘Colophons and Annotations,’ 226–9; Yakel, ‘Who Represents the Past?,’ 259; Yakel, ‘Balancing Archival Authority;’ Huvila, ‘Participatory Archive,’ 25; Wheelock, ‘Web 2.0 and Archival Description,’ 56–7.

^31.Jamieson, ‘Generic Constraints,’ 163.

^32.Miller, ‘Do Genres Evolve,’ n.p.

^33.Miller and Shepherd, ‘Blogging as Social Action,’ 10. See also Jamieson, ‘Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint’.

^34.Miller, ‘Do Genres Evolve,’ n.p.

^35.Newman, ‘Revisiting Archive Collections,’ 58.

^36. For a sampling of the literature on the history of the archival catalogue within the historical manuscripts and public archives tradition in the United States, see Trace and Dillon, ‘Evolution of the Finding Aid;’ Berner, Archival Theory and Practice; and Gilliland-Swetland, ‘Provenance of a Profession.’ For a sampling of the literature on history of the catalogue in the Manuscripts Department of the British Library see Barker, ‘The Department of Manuscripts,’ 9–23; Gorton, ‘Arrangement and Cataloguing;’ Stockdale, ‘Retrospective Conversion.’

^37.Hensen, ‘‘NISTF II’ and EAD,’ 289.

^38.Cook and Procter, MAD2, xiii.

^39. The three editions of MAD were: Cook et al., MAD (1985); Cook and Procter, MAD2 (1993); Procter and Cook, MAD3 (2000).

^40.Arrowsmith, ‘Archives,’ 247.

^41.Cook and Procter, MAD2, xii.

^42.Cook and Procter, ‘MAD2: Reassessing the Experience,” 16; see also Gunton and Raymond, ‘Designing and Using Archway: Experience with the Program (and MAD) to Date.’

^43.Shepherd, Archives and Archivists, 214.

^44. International Council on Archives. ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. Ottawa: International Council on Archives, 1994. A second edition was published in 2000. See International Council on Archives. ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. Second edition. Ottawa: International Council on Archives, 2000.

^45.Procter and Cook, MAD3, xii–xiii.

^46.National Council on Archives, Archives On-Line: The Establishment of a United Kingdom Archival Network, 3.

^47.Shepherd, ‘Archives,’ [1991–2000], 272–3. See also Amanda Hill, ‘Bringing Archives Online,’ Sarah J.A. Flynn et al., ‘A2A: The Development of a Strand,’ and Shepherd, ‘Archives,’ [2001–2005].

^48. See [UK] DCMS, Centres for Social Change and the follow-up report, [UK] DCMS, Libraries, Museums, Galleries, Archives.

^49.National Council on Archives, Taking Part, 1, 2.

^50. See, for example, National Council on Archives, British Archives; [UK] Museum, Libraries and Archives Council Task Force, Listening to the Past; [UK] Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Archives for the 21st Century.

^51. For discussion of such initiatives see Krause and Yakel, ‘Interaction in Virtual Archives;’ Wheelock, ‘Web 2.0;’ Eveleigh, ‘Crowding Out the Archivist?;’ Gorzalski, ‘Examining User-Created Description;’ Mayer, ‘Box of Chocolates.’

^52.Collections Trust and MLA, Revisiting Archive Collections. See also Newman, ‘Revisiting Archive Collections’ and Reed, Is Revisiting Collections Working? A variation on this kind of initiative are projects such as Library and Archives Canada's Project Naming and TNA's World through a Lens project which combine various types of community engagement with photo identification. As with Revisiting Archive Collections, the expectation with these projects is that at least some of the information gathered will be subsequently incorporated into the catalogue. For Project Naming see ‘Project Naming: The First Ten Years and Beyond,’ at http://thediscoverblog.com/tag/project-naming/ and Greenhorn, ‘Project Naming,’ For World through a Lens, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/collections/72157632921688592/ and http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/tag/through-a-lens/

^53. For the genesis of PROCAT see Dunham et al., ‘Retrospective Conversion,’ 223-230; Sweet et al. ‘Redesigning Finding Aids,’ 197-211; Garmendia, ‘User Input,’ 51-57.

^54. These include the National Register of Archives (NRA); Directory of Archives (ARCHON); Access to Archives (A2A); and the Manorial Documents Register (MDR). See ‘Discovery: Our Catalogue,’ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/discovery-service.htm

^55.Rush and Stembridge, Editorial Standards Framework, 7.

^56. For a detailed explanation of the processes involved in converting these paper finding aids see Dunham et al., ‘Retrospective Conversion,’ 223–30; Sweet et al. ‘Redesigning Finding Aids,’ 197–211; Garmendia, ‘User Input,’ 51–7.

^57.Rush and Stembridge, Editorial Standards Framework, 6.

^58. [UK] National Archives, ‘Advanced Search.’ Discovery Catalogue. Accessed June 19, 2015. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/advanced-search

^59. [UK] National Archives, ‘Browse.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse

^60. [UK] National Archives, ‘Sorting and Filtering your Research Results.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help/sorting-and-filtering.htm

^61. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Find Research Guides.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/. Some of the research guides are task-oriented ‘signposts’ directing users to sources for researching persons, places, and subjects; others are updated, standardized and streamlined versions of more in-depth guides to specific types of records and record creators that had been prepared by archivists over several decades and that were scattered throughout TNA's reading rooms.

^62. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Start Here.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/start-here.htm

^63. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Webinar: Using Discovery, The National Archives’ Online Catalogue.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/webinar-using-discovery-national-archives-online-catalogue/

^64. [UK] National Archives, ‘Discovery Help.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help/discovery-help.htm

^65. See Garmendia, ‘User Input.’

^66. For an overview of this research see David Phillips, ‘Design through Research: The Concepts behind Discovery.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/design-through-research-the-concepts-behind-discovery/#more-3172

^67. [UK] National Archives, ‘The National Archives Labs.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://labs.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wordpress/index.php/about/

^68. The evolution of Discovery and its features and functionalities can be traced through TNA blog posts. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Blog: Search Results for ‘discovery.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/?s=discovery

^69. [UK] National Archives, ‘Help us Tag Records in our Collection.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tags/index

^70.Your Archives was launched in 2007 to provide a wiki-based website for users to contribute their own knowledge about archival sources held by TNA and other UK archives. It was closed in 2012 and its content moved to a read-only part of the TNA website. According to the closure announcement, ‘users expect to see information relating to records in one place, whether the “official” catalogue description or detail added by another user.’ The plan was to integrate Your Archives' user collaboration functionality into Discovery. Some of the content of Your Archives was subsequently migrated to Discovery in the form of tags. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Planned Closure of Your Archives in 2012’, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130108145617/http:/yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=home_page; [UK] National Archives, Volunteering at The National Archives, 6. For an overview of Your Archives, see Guy Grannum, ‘Harnessing User Knowledge.’

^71.[UK] National Archives, Volunteering at The National Archives,’ 9, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Zd1Rlyh3yYcJ:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/volunteering-at-the-national-archives.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

^72. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Planned Closure of Your Archives in 2012.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130108145617/http:/yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=home_page

^73. For examples of recently completed volunteer cataloguing projects see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/get-involved/completed-projects.htm

^74. The aim of the ‘Gold Coast 1900’ cataloguing project, for example, which focused on records relating to Ghana during the Ashanti war of 1899–1901 that were part of the Colonial Office (CO 96 series) was ‘to highlight and to begin to open up an under-used area of The National Archives’ collection of diverse histories'. For the project, TNA actively solicited volunteers with an interest in, or connection with, African history. Jennie Orme, ‘Voices from the Volumes’ [blogpost]. Accessed June 19, 2015. http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/voices-from-the-volumes/#more-311. ‘Your Caribbean Heritage’ cataloguing project also actively solicited volunteers with Caribbean ancestry. See [UK] National Archives, ‘Your Caribbean Heritage: An ongoing project at The National Archives of the UK.’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HKY6AJZkFqoJ:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/caribbean-studies.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

^75. See, for example, the catalogue entry for WO 97 Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers Service Documents, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14305

^76. See [UK] National Archives, “Volunteer experiences,” http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/get-involved/volunteer-experiences.htm and “Staff experiences,” http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/get-involved/staff-experiences.htm

^77. See, for example, [UK] National Archives, ‘The Golden Stool: Cataloguing Colonial Office Records from 1900 [podcast].’ Accessed June 19, 2015. http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/the-golden-stool-cataloguing-colonial-office-records-from-1900/

^78.Rush and Stembridge, Cataloguing Guidelines, Part B, 9.

^79.[UK] National Archives, Volunteering, 4. For more about the Big Society agenda see [UK] Parliament, Voluntary Sector and Big Society, London: House of Commons, 21 Mar. 2013, http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05883#fullreport. For the Race Online agenda see UK. Digital Champion [Martha Lane Fox], Race Online 2012: Manifesto for a Networked Nation. London: [UK], July 2010.

^80.Newman, “Revisiting Archive Collections,” 58.

^81. See ibid., esp. pp. 66-70 for Newman's account of the experience of dealing with different types of user contributions in the Revisiting Archive Collections project.

^82. See, for example, Kidd, Enacting Engagement Online,” 64–77 and Hooland et al., “Between Commodification and Engagement,” 707–20.

^83.[UK] National Archives, Archives for the 21st Century, 14.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through its Standard Research Grants Programme.