CFP (abstract deadline 9/29): Featured section in History in Africa: Archives, the Digital Turn and Governance in Africa

Featured section in History in Africa:
Archives, the Digital Turn and Governance in Africa

Guest editors:

Dr Marie Rodet, School of Oriental and African Studies
Dr Vincent Hiribarren, King’s College London
Fabienne Chamelot, University of Portsmouth

digital.turn.africa@gmail.com

Deadline for abstracts: 29 September 2017

This featured section of History in Africa will address the wave of digitisation of archives in Africa over the last fifteen years. With the rise of information technologies, an increasing part of public – and to some extent private – African archives are being digitised and made accessible on the internet. This wave of digitisation is usually seen as a progress with the help of ambitious initiatives applying new technologies to cultural heritage of humanity such as the rescue of the manuscripts of Timbuktu or the Endangered Archives programme at the British Library. Yet as much as these new technologies raise enthusiasm, they also prompt discussions amongst researchers and archivists, which go from intellectual property to sovereignty and governance.

First, in the digital era, the issue of the ownership of these documents is crucial since the very definition of an archive is being challenged: from unique hard copies of documents, they can now exist in a variety of formats reproducible at will. Second, technical and economic issues at stake are also key to the discussion and intertwined with that of sovereignty: institutions elaborating a digitisation programme may do so under the pressure of donors or non-African scholars. All in all, beyond the discourse of transparency, whether to the benefit of governance or that of scientific research, this matter is eminently political. These archives are thus concerned with negotiations which go far beyond their sole technical and scientific aspect.

In the field of history, archives are usually addressed as sources for research, and questioned as such because of their documentary aspect. More rarely are they approached as historically constructed systems combining intellectual and physical aspects, as archival science theorises it. Yet digital archiving disrupts archival norms and practices, opening up a field of reflection relatively little explored by historians. The digital turn of African archives is therefore an object of study in its own right, located at the crossroads of political and economic interests.

This featured section seeks to reflect on the practices of digitisation of archives in Africa (pre-colonial, colonial or postcolonial) and to engage both with history and archival science.

Submission instructions

If you wish to contribute, please submit a 500-word abstract of the proposed paper as well as a short CV by Friday 29 September 2017 to digital.turn.africa@gmail.com

Notifications of decision will be sent by Friday 27 October 2017.

Selected authors will then be expected to send their full-length paper (no more than 10,000 words, including notes) by Friday 16 February 2018.

All completed papers will be subject to peer-reviewing process in accordance with History in Africa requirements.

Please address any query you may have to digital.turn.africa@gmail.com

Call for Book Reviewers: JCAS

The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) seeks book reviewers who are looking to engage with the professional literature. Sponsored by New England Archivists, Yale University Library, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this open access journal publishes articles on a rolling basis.

To apply, please review our submission guidelines and then email the journal at email.jcas@gmail.com. Submit a brief list describing your area(s) of professional interest or expertise, and we will match you with a book to review.

The mission of the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies is to further awareness of issues and developments in the work of professional archivists, curators, librarians, and historians, and to serve as a locus for graduate students and professionals in library science, archival science, and public history to contribute original works of research and inquiry for peer-review and publication.

For more information, visit elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas.

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Katy Sternberger
Marketing Associate
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies
email.jcas@gmail.com
Follow the journal on Facebook and

Recent Issue: Archives and Records

Volume 38, Issue 1, 2017

Editorial: archives and public history
Victoria Hoyle

Articles
‘To Be Able to Imagine Otherwise’: community archives and the importance of representation
Michelle Caswell, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci & Marika Cifor

‘Setting the record straight’: the creation and curation of archives by activist communities. A case study of activist responses to the regeneration of Elephant and Castle, South London
Elena Carter

The small politics of everyday life: local history society archives and the production of public histories
Fiona Cosson

A labour of love: the affective archives of popular music culture
Paul Long, Sarah Baker, Lauren Istvandity & Jez Collins

‘I will not leave, my freedom is more precious than my blood’. From affect to precarity: crowd-sourced citizen archives as memories of the Syrian war
Dima Saber & Paul Long

Artists and records: moving history and memory
Kathy Michelle Carbone

‘Instead of fetching flowers, the youths brought in flakes of snow’: exploring extreme weather history through English parish registers
Lucy Veale, James P. Bowen & Georgina H. Endfield

Book Reviews
Directory of rare books and special collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
Julia Sheppard

Managing local government archives
Niamh Brennan

Building trustworthy digital repositories: theory and implementation
Jenny Mitcham

Managing digital cultural objects: analysis, discovery and retrieval
Adrian Brown

Introduction to metadata
Ellen O’Flaherty

Digitizing flat media: principles and practice
Alex Fitzgerald

Digital preservation essentials
Simon Wilson

Preserving popular music heritage: do-it-yourself, do-it-together
Andrew Flinn

Edward II: his last months and his monument
Rebecca Phillips

Early records of University College Oxford
A. C. Green

Northallerton wills and inventories, 1666–1719
Andrew George

Seals in medieval London 1050-1300: a catalogue
Paul R. Dryburgh

Rookwood family papers 1606–1761
Robert F. W. Smith

The building accounts of the Savoy Hospital, London, 1512–1520
Anthony Smith

The Royal Irish Constabulary: a short history and genealogical guide with a select list of medal awards and casualties
Neil G. Cobbett

New Page: Newsletters

When I started this blog, I knew that there are a wide variety of archival writing opportunities. I chose to focus on scholarly publishing due to the lack of guidance and resources for archivists.

Now that the blog has been active for over 2 years, it’s a good time to assess and rethink. I still plan to have the bulk of the content focus on scholarly publishing. However, there are many opportunities that provide good writing practice which can eventually lead to journal, chapter, or book publications.

Therefore, I compiled a long list of newsletters on a separate page. Because there’s so much out there, including a newsletter link is limited to archival or related organizations and groups; individual and/or institutional newsletters will not be included to help maintain a manageable list. But please let me know if there are any to be added.

While I will try to post announcements about calls for contents or new issues, there are so many it is unlikely I’ll keep up. But I’ll do what I can! And I hope you find this valuable.

New/Recent Publications: Reports, Guides, and Other

Provenance Guide
International Foundation for Art Research

Navigating Research: How academic users understand, discover, and utilize reference resources
Oxford University Press

CHU, Clara M. and DAVIS, Mary Ellen K. and PUENTE, Mark A. (2017) Learning Together: Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 112 – Poster Sessions.

“Construction of Backup System and Operating Mechanism for Military Archives” International Conference on Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering
Shisheng Cheng, Yongqing Zhang, Qianqian Wu, Rong Liu

Archives Digital and Otherwise: Recent Books on Archiving Canadian Writing” Journal of Canadian Studies 50 No. 3 (Fall 2016)

The Activist’s Guide to Archiving Video
Witness.org

SAA Annual Meeting Session Recordings Available

Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Symposium on Document Engineering

Association of Research Libraries, SPEC Kit 356: Diversity and Inclusion (September 2017). There’s also a webinar about this on October 11.

Association of Research Libraries, SPEC Kit 354: Data Curation

Association of Research Libraries, Issue Brief: Using Fair Use to Preserve and Share Disappearing Government Information

 

SAA Case Studies

SAA announced a new Campus Case Study, “Successful Fundraising with Library and
Archives Collaboration.” SAA started this series geared towards academic archives, but often the studies offer insight and tips to any type of institution.

More recently, the case studies have expanded and there are now openly accessible case studies on ethics, diversifying the archival record, and government records.

These are also a good publishing opportunity. Recognizing the benefit of these to the profession, SAA is open to expanding the contributing groups.  They are much shorter than journal-article length, good for collaborative writing, and allow to share real-life experiences and practices.

New Issue: SLIS Connecting

Volume 6, Issue 1 (2017)
(open access)

Columns

SLIS Director’s Update
USM School of Library and Information Science

Spotlights: Faculty, Alum, and Courses

USM School of Library and Information Science

From the GAs: Congratulations, Publications, Presentations

USM School of Library and Information Science

Student Associations: News and Events

USM School of Library and Information Science

Articles

Emerging Roles: Academic Libraries Crossing the Digital Divide

Scott A. Manganello

Oral History Review seeks Book Review and Pedagogy Section Editors

The Oral History Review, the official journal of the Oral History Association, is accepting applications for two positions on the editorial team, the Pedagogy Editor and the Book Review Editor.

The successful applicants will join the six-member editorial team of the Review and will participate actively in the development of the journal.  The editorial team—a creative and dedicated band of editors/oral historians—is motivated by a commitment to the journal and its place in the life of the Oral History Association and the broader oral history community.  Together, we seek to make the Review a lively site in which to experience, discuss, and debate oral history.

These positions are wonderful opportunities for national visibility and service to a well-established scholarly journal.  Each provides a chance to network with well-known and emerging scholars in the field and to stay abreast of the latest oral history scholarship.

Applicants for either position should, first and foremost, be familiar with the literature on oral history. Specific duties for each position can be found after the end of this announcement.

Candidates should also possess:

  • strong writing and editing skills (although no formal editorial training is required);
  • solid organizational abilities to manage the volume of articles or reviews;
  • interpersonal skills to work with authors from many backgrounds and fields;
  • technological flexibility in order to learn and use both computer software applications (such as Word and Excel) and emerging web-based applications.

Deadline for applications is 1 November 2017.

Interviews will be conducted in early November, with an expectation that the new editors will be selected no later than 15 December 2017.  The official start date for the position will be 1 January 2018; however, the incoming editors will work with, and be trained by, the outgoing editors (working together as co-editors) to deliver the issue of the journal that is due to the publisher in February 2018.

The incoming editorial team will be in Minneapolis for the annual Oral History Association meeting and available to answer questions and discuss the positions in greater detail.  Also, for more information about the positions and the editorial board, or to submit an application, please contact:

David Caruso
Editor, Oral History Review
Director, Center for Oral History
The Chemical Heritage Foundation
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 873-8236
dcaruso@chemheritage.org

To apply, please provide the following:

  1. Letter of application, stating interest in one of the positions and describing relevant experience.
  2. CV. or resume.
  3. Optional, but recommended: a short writing and/or editing sample, roughly 1,000 to 1,500 words in length.

Pedagogy Editor

The Pedagogy Section is published once annually, in the journal’s fall issue. It aims to highlight not only innovative pedagogical practice, but also sound analysis of the use of oral history in the classroom, in both secondary and higher education settings. Applicants should have experience doing oral history work in a classroom setting, an eye for innovative teaching practices, and an ability to distinguish process from analysis. Interested candidates are encouraged to read through the Pedagogy Section in recent issues of the Review in order to get a feel for the section’s offerings.

The Pedagogy Editor:

  • Solicits articles for the journal’s Pedagogy Section.
  • Works with authors during the initial development of their work.
  • Manages the peer review process for submissions.

Book Review Editor

Each issue of the Review contains roughly thirty book reviews, as well as longer pieces meant to elicit deeper reflections on the role a book or a collection of books has played, is playing, or may play in oral history.

The Book Review Editor:

  • Identifies oral history based books to review using publishers’ catalogues.
  • Finds reviewers for identified books.
  • Evaluates and edits submitted reviews both for substance and for adherence to stylistic guidelines.
  • Maintains a database of books accepted for review, reviewers selected for reviews, and the expertise of reviewers.
  • Develops ways to highlight specific works in the field.
  • Works with the book review assistant (position already filled) to accomplish the above tasks.

New Content: JCAS

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies
Vol. 4, Issue 1
(open access)

Article

Altmetrics and Archives
Elizabeth Joan Kelly

Case Study

Open-Source Opens Doors: A Case Study on Extending ArchivesSpace Code at UNLV Libraries
Cyndi Shein, Carol Ou, Karla Irwin, and Carlos Lemus

CFP: VIEW Special Issue “Audiovisual Data in Digital Humanities”

Considering the relevance of audiovisual material as perhaps the biggest wave of data to come in the near future (Smith, 2013, IBM prospective study) its relatively modest position within the realm of Digital Humanities conferences is remarkable. The objective of this special issue for VIEW is to present current research in that field on a variety of epistemological, historiographical and technological issues that are specific for digital methods applied to audiovisual data. We strive to cover a great range of media and data types and of applications representing the various stages of the research process.

The following key topics / problems / questions are of special interest:

  1. Do computational approaches to sound and (moving) images extend or/and change our conceptual and epistemological understanding of these media? What are the leading machine learning approaches to the study of audio and visual culture and particularly time-based media? How do these approaches, models, and methods of learning relate to acquiring and producing knowledge by the conventional means of reading and analyzing text? Do we understand the 20th century differently through listening to sounds and voices and viewing images than through reading texts? How does massive digitization and online access relate to the concept of authenticity and provenance?
  2. What tools in the sequence of the research process – search, annotation, vocabulary, analysis, presentation – are best suited to work with audio-visual data? The ways in which we structure and process information are primarily determined by the convention of attributing meaning to visual content through text. Does searching audio-visual archives, annotating photos or film clips, analyzing a corpus of city sounds, or presenting research output through a virtual exhibition, require special dedicated tools? What is the diversity in requirements within the communities of humanities scholars? How can, for example, existing commercial tools or software be repurposed for scholarly use?
  3. What are the main hurdles for the further expansion of AV in DH? Compared to text, audiovisual data as carriers of knowledge are a relatively young phenomenon. Consequently the question of ‘ownership’ and the commercial value of many audiovisual sources result in considerable constraints for use due to issues of copyright. A constraint of a completely different order, is the intensive investment in time needed when listening to or watching an audiovisual corpus, compared to reading a text. Does the law or do technologies for speech and image retrieval offer solutions to overcome these obstacles?

Practicals
Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in media studies, digital humanities, television and media history.
Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on October 2nd , 2017.
Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata.
A notice of acceptance will be sent to authors in the 1st week of November 2017.
Articles (3 – 6,000 words) will be due on 15 th of February 2018. Longer articles are welcome, given that they comply with the journal’s author guidelines.
For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the co-editors: Mark Williams (Associate Professor Film and Media Studies, Dartmouth College U.S.), Pelle Snickars (Prof. of Media Studies Umea Univesity, Sweden) or Andreas Fickers (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History).

About VIEW Journal
See http://www.viewjournal.eu/ for the current and back issues. VIEW is supported by the EUscreen Network and published by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in collaboration with Utrecht University, Royal Holloway University of London, and University of Luxembourg. VIEW is proud to be an open access journal. All articles are indexed through the Directory of Open Access Journals, the EBSCO Film and Television Index, Paperity and NARCIS.