A trauma-informed approach to managing archives: a new online course

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the development of a new online training course, A trauma-informed approach to managing archives, for the Australian Society of Archivists. It outlines why such a course is needed, who its audience is, and provides a brief overview of what is covered. Trauma is pervasive and affects everyone, and this course provides information and training materials about what this means for archives and how archivists can better support people having a trauma reaction. It introduces the concept of trauma-informed practice, expands on that notion to outline what trauma-informed archival practice may look like, and also discusses vicarious trauma and the impacts this may have on archives workers. The article provides information about when the course will be available, and how people will be able to access the course.

KEYWORDS:

• Online training course
• trauma-informed practice
• trauma-informed archival practice
• vicarious trauma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. RD Fallot and M Harris, ‘Creating Cultures of Trauma-Informed Care (CCTIC): A Self-Assessment and Planning Protocol’, 2009, available at <https://www.theannainstitute.org/CCTICSELFASSPP.pdf>, accessed 10 November 2019.

2. W Fogarty, M Lovell, J Langenberg and MJ Heron, ‘Deficit Discourse and Strengths-based Approaches: Changing the Narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing’, 2018, The Lowitja Institute, available at <https://ncis.anu.edu.au/_lib/doc/ddih/Deficit_Discourse_and_Strengths-based_Approaches_FINAL_WEB.pdf>, accessed 13 November 2019.

3. M Hart, N Laurent and C O’Neill, ‘Emotional Labour and Archival Practice’, paper presented at the Joint National Conference and Symposium of Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) and Information Technologies Indigenous Communities (ITIC), Melbourne, 26–28 September 2017, available at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWZNGrxGs44>, accessed 20 November 2019.

4. M Hart and N Laurent, ‘Providing an Australian Perspective on Emotional Labour and Archival Practice’, paper presented at Society of North Carolina Archivists Conference, Durham, 14–16 March 2018; M Hart and N Laurent, ‘Looking after the people behind the records: vicarious trauma and empathy in archival practice’, paper presented at Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) conference, Glasgow, 29–31 August 2018; and N Laurent and M Hart, ‘Emotional Labour and Archival Practice’, Journal of the Society of North Carolina Archivists, vol. 15, 2018, pp. 13–22, available at <http://www.ncarchivists.org/journal-of-the-society-of-north-carolina-archivists-j-snca/vol-15-2018/>, accessed 10 November 2019.

5. Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland), ‘Emotional Support Guides’, 2017, available at <https://www.archives.org.uk/what-we-do/emotional-support-guides.html>, accessed 15 November 2019.

6. K Sloan, J Vanderfluit and J Douglas, ‘Not “Just My Problem to Handle”: Emerging Themes on Archivists and Secondary Trauma’, Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, vol. 6, Article 20, 2019, available at <https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=jcas>, accessed 21 November 2019.

7. W Duff, H Aton and M Shields, ‘Challenges Faced by Archivists Working with Sensitive Records’, paper presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute, Liverpool, 8–12 July 2019.

8. Anna Sexton, ‘Working with traumatic records: how should we train, prepare and support record-keepers?’, paper presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute, Liverpool, 8–12 July 2019.

9. M Hart and N Laurent, ‘Building a Trauma Informed Community of Practice’, paper presented at the Archival Education and Research Institute, Liverpool, 8–12 July 2019.

10. Find & Connect web resource, available at <https://findandconnect.gov.au/>, accessed 22 November 2019. While archivists might be aware of the web resource, the Find & Connect service also includes support services in each State that assist people who grew up in out-of-home care. There is a strong counselling element to the work done by the support services, and they are required to work in a trauma-informed way, as this is recognised as best practice when working with trauma survivors.

11. See, for example, AJ Gilliland and M Caswell, ‘Records and their imaginaries: imagining the impossible, making possible the imagined’, Archival Science, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 53–75; M Caswell and M Cifor, ‘From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives’ Archivaria, vol. 81, Spring 2016, pp. 23–43, available at <https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb9568h>, accessed 10 November 2019; Department of Social Services, ‘Access to Records by Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants: Access Principles for Records Holders, Best Practice Guidelines in providing access to records’, 2015, available at <https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/family-relationships/find-and-connect-services-and-projects/access-to-records-by-forgotten-australians-and-former-child-migrants-access-principles-for-records-holders-best-practice-guidelines-in-providing-access>, accessed 15 November 2019; and M Caswell, ‘Dusting for Fingerprints: Introducing Feminist Standpoint Appraisal’, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, Vol. 3, 2019, available at <https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/113>, accessed 14 November 2019.

12. S McKemmish, J Bone, J Evans, F Golding, A Lewis, G Rolan, K Thorpe and J Wilson, ‘Decolonizing recordkeeping and archival praxis in childhood out-of-home Care and indigenous archival collections’, Archival Science, 2019, available at <https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10502-019-09321-z>; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network Inc, ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information, Services’, 2005, available at <https://atsilirn.aiatsis.gov.au/protocols.php>, accessed 14 November 2019; First Archivists Circle, ‘Protocols for Native American Archival Materials’, 2006, available at <http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/>, accessed 12 November 2019.

13. Blue Knot Foundation, ‘Trauma-informed Care and Practice’, 2019, available at <https://www.blueknot.org.au/Workers-Practitioners/For-Health-Professionals/Resources-for-Health-Professionals/Trauma-Informed-Care-and-practice>, accessed 22 November 2019.

14. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, ‘Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report. Volume 1 ‘Our inquiry’, 2017, available at <https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/our-inquiry>, accessed 12 November 2019.

15. Australian Society of Archivists, ‘Online Courses’, available at <https://www.archivists.org.au/learning-publications/online-courses>, accessed 18 November 2019.

Additional information

Funding

The authors were contracted by the Australian Society of Archivists to develop the course A trauma-informed approach to managing archives.

Notes on contributors

Nicola Laurent

Nicola Laurent is the Senior Project Archivist on the Find & Connect web resource team, University of Melbourne, and is also the Vice-President of the Australian Society of Archivists. Nicola advocates for trauma-informed archival practice including sustainable access to online material through the preservation of links, promoting the issue of content drift and link rot, and discusses the impact of vicarious trauma on archivists. She has previously presented on topics including vicarious trauma, emotional labour, broken links, interactive timelines and engaging with community. She completed a Master of Business Information System Professional at Monash University. With Kirsten Wright, she developed ‘A trauma-informed approach to managing archives’, an online training course for the Australian Society of Archivists.

Kirsten Wright

Kirsten Wright is the Program Manager, Find & Connect web resource, University of Melbourne. Prior to this she held a number of roles at Victoria University, and also worked at the Public Record Office Victoria. Kirsten holds a BA in history and politics and a Master of Information Management and Systems, both from Monash University. She has previously published and presented on topics including tattoos and the archive, ghost signs, archives and power, and historical language and archival description. With Nicola Laurent, she developed ‘A trauma-informed approach to managing archives’, an online training course for the Australian Society of Archivists.