New Articles: Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) announces three new articles:

“Community Defining Archives: A comparative view of community archives definitions,” written by Britney Bibeault.

Download the article: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/11

Abstract: Defining community archives has been described as difficult in academic literature because of the wide range of activities the organizations do and who they represent, leading to a lack of an agreed-upon definition in the field. Until now, a comparison between how community archivists describe themselves and academic definitions of community archiving has not been undertaken. This paper explores the definitions of community archives given by practitioners in their digital community archives and compares them with academic literature. Using both qualitative thematic coding and quantitative word frequency counts, this study found Flinn (2007) and Flinn et al. (2009) definitions are commonly used in academic literature and highlights themes in practitioner definitions, like futurity and access, that provide insight into the values and goals of practitioners. The results indicate areas of improvement for community archives academics who hope to accurately portray community archives work and further highlight the importance of working with and supporting community archivists. Without the inclusion of practitioner definitions, descriptions, and ideas, academic literature about community archives is disconnected from the field, barring the creation of new ideas and methods.

“Associations among Trauma Exposures, Workplace Factors, and Distress Responses in Archivists,” written by Cheryl Regehr, Wendy Duff, and Rachael Lefebvre.

Download the article: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/12

Abstract: A growing body of research addresses the emotional impact on archivists from working directly with materials that contain depictions of human suffering and from working with researchers and donors whose own lives are depicted in the records. This study sought to determine the impact of exposures to potentially traumatizing events and ongoing work stressors on symptoms of post-traumatic stress and burnout in archivists, as well as whether organizational factors, including trauma-informed practices, are associated with levels of post-traumatic stress and burnout. Seventy-seven archivists participated in a web-based survey. Findings reveal moderate to strong associations between a variety of potentially distressing workplace exposures and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, as well as between ongoing workplace stressors and burnout. Perhaps less expected were the associations found between ongoing workplace stressors and post-traumatic stress symptoms and the strong correlations between traumatic stress symptoms and burnout, suggesting that organizational environments can contribute to traumatic stress responses. However, trauma-informed organizational practices were significantly associated with lower levels of burnout and traumatic stress. This finding supports the implementation of trauma-informed practices not only to improve services to users, donors, and the community but also to improve the well-being of archival staff.

“Beyond Description: Interrogating Narrative Elements in Archival Finding Aids,” written by David J. Williams and Richard Kearney.

Download the article: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/13

Abstract: As the archival profession evolves, attention is increasingly paid to the usability of its resources and services. User Experience, or UX, is a contemporary design practice gaining prominence among archivists interested in addressing usability. Information design, the process of organizing and presenting information for efficient and effective use, is a component of UX incorporating both the presentation and content of communication instruments, with plain language writing guidelines applied toward achieving this goal. A prominent information artifact produced by archivists is the finding aid, describing and inventorying archival collections. Those components of finding aids providing “access points” into collections-communicating the nature, history, and context of the materials-include several narrative elements, but how are they typically composed and how do they impact UX? Applying a series of readability and comprehension tests following plain language guidelines, we interrogate the usability and potential effectiveness of over 10,000 finding aids collected from 31 different archives. Our analyses suggest that finding aids offer fewer general audience access affordances than the format can support, and our research suggests that plain language writing is a manageable and measurable technique for improving the usability and experience of both finding aids and the archival collections they represent.

The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) also announces two new book reviews:

“Review of Dissonant Records: Close Listening to Literary Archives,” written by Rachel C. Poppen.

Download the article: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/9

Abstract: In Dissonant Records: Close Listening to Literary Archives, Tanya E. Clement addresses the 150-year legacy of these audio records and provides a call to action for digital humanists and literary scholars to recognize the research value of archival audio records and to integrate close listening into their research practices. Consisting of case studies on five aspects of close listening (amplification, distortion, interference, compression, and reception), Clement uses these topics to discuss the method of close listening, the use of audio records in research, and access issues to audio recordings in archives.

“Review of Archiving Cultures: Heritage, Community and the Making of Records and Memory,” written by Emily Homolka.

Download the article: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/10

Abstract: This short, but densely packed, book aims to extend the disciplinary boundaries of archival studies and the ‘archive’ from its focus on tangible history, most commonly the written word, towards a more holistic understanding which allows for the inclusion of intangible, living culture in the ‘cultural archive.’ Archiving Cultures: Heritage, Community, and the Making of Records and Memory by Jeannette A. Bastian takes an interdisciplinary, transhistorical approach to reframe archivists’ understanding of a ‘record’ with the goal of creating archival equity between tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

JCAS is a peer-reviewed, open access journal sponsored by the New England Archivists, Yale University Library, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

New Issue: Archives and Records

Archives and Records, Volume 46, Issue 1 (2025)
(partial open access)

Articles

Introduction to digital preservation articles from iPRES 2023 meeting
Christopher Prom & Tracy Seneca

Advancing digital archival practices in Oman: challenges, opportunities, and prospects for the future
Ahmed Maher Khafaga Shehata & Abderrazak Mkadmi

2013 – 2023: a review of ten years of email archiving in France
Marion Ville

Trustworthiness of digital records through NDSA levels of digital preservation
Özhan Sağlık

Digitized archives and research on the musical heritage of the Yellow River basin
Jingheng Geng

Looking for the direction of thought and practice in Polish archival studies: futurology or forecasting?
Monika Cołbecka

Book Reviews

The archival afterlives of Philippine cinema
by Bliss Cua Lim, Durham & London, Duke University Press, 2024
Josephine Botting

The materiality of the archive: creative practice in context
edited by Sue Breakell and Wendy Russell, Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2024
Charlotte Berry

Collecting in the twenty-first century: from museums to the web
edited by Johannes Endres and Christoph Zeller, Rochester, Camden House, 2022
Thomas Poole

Call for Peer Reviewers: Humanities Methods in Librarianship #OpenAccess

Humanities Methods in Librarianship is a no-fee, open access journal that publishes high quality, peer-reviewed research with an emphasis on articles that push the boundaries — both thematically and formally — of what has been traditionally viewed as scholarship within the discipline. The journal aims to broaden the conversation by encouraging submissions that deploy methods from the humanities to address current or salient issues in the library profession. Humanistic methodological approaches may be used to address a wide range of topics within librarianship, so we encourage creative approaches and a diversity of submissions.

Are you interested in reviewing library papers relevant to your expertise in the following areas?

  • Archives
  • Art
  • Cultural studies
  • History
  • Literature
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  • Religion

Please consider filling out this form. We would not expect to send peer reviewers more than one article per issue; at present, we expect to publish about one issue per year.

We hope that you will consider joining us! We look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

The Humanities Methods in Librarianship editorial board

Feel free to direct any questions to editors@humanitiesmethods.org.

Call for Contributions to Notes from the Field: Fall 2025

Notes from the Field, a publication of the TPS Collective, is accepting submissions about teaching and working with primary sources for three series of peer-reviewed blog posts: “Art and Creative Making in Primary Source Instruction,” “Primary Source Kits,” and an Open Call.

These topics are drawn from subjects discussed at the 2025 TPS Fest and Conversations on the TPS Listserv. Grounded in issues your colleagues in the field are exploring, this call is intended to highlight a broad range of voices from all sectors of the TPS community. Please see the calls below for more information.

Art and Creative Making in Primary Source Instruction

Following up on a spectacular session at TPS fest, we want to hear about your experience with integrating art creative making in primary source instruction. Are your students making zines? Are they remixing or crafting creative, visual, or otherwise less conventional outputs than a written worksheet or assignment? For this series, we want to hear about it all. What works, what doesn’t work, or what you hope to explore in the future.

Primary Source Kits

For this series, we want to hear about your experiences with primary source kits, physical, digital, or hybrid. What were the logistics of making such a primary kit (e.g., audience, content, creator, etc.)? What have been the challenges and/or the successes? What are your hopes for the future of these kits? We look forward to hearing your answers to these questions and more to better understand the work being done by our colleagues with this tool for instruction and outreach.

An Open Call!

We are also accepting submissions on topics related to teaching and working with primary sources to be featured in peer-reviewed blog posts. While we ask that contributions fall into either our “Reflective Practice” or “Practical How-To” categories, this fall we are open to reviewing submissions from a range of contexts. Our hope is that this call for miscellaneous submissions will create opportunities for practitioners to submit work that may fall outside our recent thematic calls.

Contributions should be 1000-1200 words and are subject to Notes from the Field’s peer review process.

Posts will be published on a rolling basis beginning in October 2025. Full submission information is available in the Notes from the Field author and peer review guidelines.

Any questions, expressions of interest, or submissions can be sent to the Notes from the Field Lead Editor, Joe Lueck at lueckj@union.edu.

CFP: Ozarks Studies Association Annual Meeting

Call for Presentations

Ozarks Studies Association 6th Annual Meeting

April 3th, 2026

at

Springfield-Greene County Library

Springfield, Missouri

The Ozarks Studies Association (OSA) invites presentations, papers, and posters for its fifth annual meeting in Springfield, Missouri on April 3, 2026. Presentations from across the disciplines on broad array of issues related to any aspect of Ozarks life throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas are invited. 

We invite proposals 

  • of complete panels (with or without a chair) or individual papers
  • by scholars, archivists, museum staff, independent scholars, and graduate students
  • in the fields of anthropology, archelogy, biology, environmental studies, engineering, geography, geology, history, literature, museum design, pedagogy, preservation, urban studies, zoology, etc.

To be considered, submit

  • an abstract 
  • a two-page CV
  • label it as paper or poster

To Dr. Jared Phillips at jmp006@uark.edu. 

All materials must be received by January 16th, 2026. Notifications will be made by February 6th, 2026. 

If you would be willing to chair a panel, submit a two-page CV Dr. Jared Phillips by March 6th, 2026.

All inquiries should be sent to Dr. Jared Phillips at jmp006@uark.edu. 

Contact Information

Jared Phillips,

Ozarks Studies Association President

University of Arkansas

Contact Email

jmp006@uark.edu

URL

https://www.ozarks-studies-assoc.com/about-6

New Issue: American Archivist

In issue 88.1 of American Archivist, Helen Wong Smith urges the profession to increase collaboration in her Presidential Address from the 2024 Annual Meeting; Megan K. Friedel offers pathways for archivists to apply reparative description practices to disability histories; and Alexandra Chassanoff, Eliscia Kinder, and Elliott Kuecker share experiences teaching MLIS students to use regional primary sources to construct digital history exhibits. Also in this issue, discover six excellent reviews on recent archives publications.

This issue also features a Special Section on Accessioning edited by Rosemary K. J. Davis, Audra Eagle Yun, and Rachel Searcy. The section contains five articles on a diverse range of topics, including a case study confronting the challenges of accessioning in a repository with limited resources, a case study detailing the process of starting a born-digital archival accessioning program and designing workflows scalable for a small institution, excerpts from the National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group’s Archival Accessioning Best Practices, and an introduction from the co-editors of this special section.

On the Cover: Accessioning-themed embroidery art created by guest editor Rachel Searcy. Based on the iconic “Mom Heart” tattoo motif from the American traditional tattoo style, the banner reads “Accession.” Leaves and flowers around the heart symbolize the growth of accessioning practice in recent years, and the bird represents its flight to new heights. Created by hand with needle and thread, this piece demonstrates the craft of accessioning and highlights the labor required to do accessioning work. Read this issue’s Special Section on Accessioning starting on page 10. Photo courtesy of Rachel Searcy.

American Archivist 88.1 (Spring/Summer 2025)
Table of Contents

(Review access here)

From the Editor

Presidential Address

From the Special Section Co-Editors

Special Section: Accessioning

Articles 

Reviews

CFP: Digitalisation and (Un)Sustainability: Assessing Digital Waste and Material Pollution in the City

CFP from Urban Planning, open access journal

About the Issue
Recent developments in AI technologies have exacerbated existing concerns about the (un)sustainability of digitalisation and datafication. These concerns are related to the limitations of resources both natural and infrastructure-wise (Dekeyser & Lynch, 2025), to the exhaustion of the latter provoked by the excessive AI-use (Wang & Yorke-Smith, 2025), digital archiving, and mundane data consumption (Vale et al., 2024). This is related to the glut of digital footprints and waste in cities, which has been a problem for both cities and the media for centuries, albeit supercharged in the contemporary moment. What is new is the excessive use and normalisation of an (un)sustainable relationship with digital technology, including the everyday use of tools such as Chat GPT (Hogan, 2024). These tools have severe carbon footprint impacts, using as much water as an average family uses in almost two years for server cooling and electricity generation. For every hundred words generated by the service, an average of three bottles of water are consumed (DeGeurin, 2023).

The smart city and the new digital twins’ tropes—along with prescriptive and acritical perspectives that technologies will be the panacea for any complex issue—are part of the problem (Chiappini, 2020). Discourses around the effectiveness of these types of initiatives and projects often create, semantically and semiotically (Babushkina & Votsis, 2022), a distorted view of digital solutions for fictitious issues, including distortions of key human traits such as knowledge, meaning, and embeddedness into reality. On a smaller scale, the everyday life consumption on search engines, direct messaging, social media addiction, multimedia file exchange, and purchases on big tech logistic platforms pollute not only the environment but the collective consciousness, producing confusion, exhaustion, and fatigue. This constant generation of an amount of information that pollutes the brain becomes what Lovink (2019) defined as “brain-junk.” The number of apps keeps increasing, and so does the data they collect, but users are not always aware and digitally literate about these risks. Hence, both co-dependency on media technologies and a lack of a high degree of digital literacy can be considered societal and spatial issues that might create unevenness. It is unfortunately not possible to control-click emptying the trash from digital waste and material pollution: much of it goes beyond the current understanding and technical capability to take care of. Therefore, there is an urge to overcome the rapid accelerationism of techno-determinism and solutionism and identify tactics and strategies aimed at reducing digital waste.

This thematic issue is concerned with the timely and vital problem of digitalisation and its (un)sustainability, fostering a discussion on the waste and pollution, digital and material, caused by massive datafication and urban platformisation (Cristofari, 2023). The relationship between the geographical scale, socio-political goals, and the technological design of digital infrastructures is of crucial importance to the understanding of the issue of digital waste and its possible reduction (Chiappini & Ferrari, 2024). For instance, data centres account for about two percent of all global energy use, and the raw amount of energy consumed by data centres doubles roughly every four to eight years (International Energy Agency, 2022). Hence, in terms of urban planning, the localisation of data centres has key implications, with direct consequences over the surrounding environment with regard to air pollution and climate change. The thematic issue encompasses inter- and trans-disciplinary perspectives from urban studies and planning, including digital geography, sociology, semiotics, environmental studies, and legal approaches. It aims to engage critically with the normative and prescriptive discourses which favour a techno-determinist view where smart city projects are celebrated. We invite papers that deal with concepts such as waste, noise, and excess in terms of data, materials, time, labour, cultural surplus, chatbots, and AI-powered services, also, but not exclusively, in relation to the uselessness and ineffectiveness of smart city projects and digital twins’ experiments.

References:

Instructions for Authors
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Urban Planning is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Open Access
Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal’s open access charges can be found here.

Call for Applicants: SHARP News Bibliographers

Over the past three years, SHARP News has expanded its range of bibliographies beyond the Annual Bibliography, publishing bibliographies on special themes such as paper, accessibility, and queer studies; bibliographies dedicated to dissertations and theses; and location-specific bibliographies on South America, South Asia, and Africa.

We are currently seeking a team of two or more Bibliographers to serve a 3-year term with SHARP News (2026-2029). The individuals serving in this role will collaborate to prepare an annual monograph and edited collections bibliography, an annual dissertation and theses bibliography, and 1-2 special topics bibliographies each year. They will also invite and manage occasional special topics collaborators from the SHARP community and support the Social Outreach Editor in promoting bibliographies. Familiarity with Zotero and strong search skills within bibliographic databases are required for this role. Bibliographers should have strong reading skills in English and another language. 

Applicants may apply individually or as a team. Each applicant should submit a one-page letter of interest indicating their vision for the role, as well as a brief (no more than two-page) resume highlighting relevant experience. We encourage applications from early career researchers (ECRs) and especially welcome applications from BIPOC. Please note that all positions at SHARP News are volunteer roles, and do not offer remuneration.

Submissions are due by October 1, 2025 to news@sharpweb.org. Successful applicants will be notified about potential next steps by November 1st, 2025. The new Bibliographers will begin their term on January 1st, 2026. 

Please feel free to direct any questions to the Editor-in-Chief, Andie Silva, at news@sharpweb.org and our outgoing Bibliographer, Alex Wingate, at bibliographer@sharpweb.org.

For more information about what happens behind the scenes at SHARP News, watch our video from SHARP 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PMcmYS5l5s.

Call for Proposals: MAC/SOA Annual Meeting 2026

The Program Committee for the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) and Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA) are seeking session proposals for the 2026 joint annual meeting. MAC and SOA will hold a joint 2026 Annual Meeting on May 14-16, 2026, at the Ohio Union, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, THE Ohio State sits a few miles north of downtown Columbus. A city unto itself with an enrollment of over 65,000, Ohio State is known for its top ranked academic programs in engineering, agriculture, and business, its world class research endeavors, and, of course, football. For more information about the host and the conference, see the meeting website: https://www.midwestarchives.org/2026-annual-meeting 

From 2015 until 2023, Ohio’s tourism slogan was “Find it Here.” As a slogan, it raised the obvious question “find what here?”; but as an archives motto…well, to “Find it Here” is an archivist’s greatest hope for anyone exploring their collections. Join us as we explore the myriad ways in which archivists and memory workers make their collections accessible, discoverable, and usable.

The Program Committee encourages submissions from newer professionals, first-time presenters, and colleagues from non-academic institutions. A MAC or SOA membership is not required. Presenters may submit more than one proposal but may present only one session OR poster. We also encourage those from smaller shops to submit presentations for a focused SOA track. We want to hear from the solo archivists or from those with more limited institutional support! For a list of possible topics and details on the proposal process, please view the MAC/SOA 2026 Call for Proposals website.

To facilitate collaboration among those brainstorming session ideas, the Program Committee encourages use of the MAC Facebook page, SOA Facebook page,  and this spreadsheet for brainstorming session proposal ideas.

The deadline for submitting session proposals for the 2026 MAC / SOA Annual Meeting is October 17, 2025, at 5 pm CST. Use the Call for Proposals form to submit your proposal. There will NOT be an extension to the call, so make sure to get your proposals in by the deadline.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Program Committee Co-Chairs Hayley Jackson (jackha01@luther.edu) and Adam Wanter (awanter@midpointelibrary.org).

CFP: Printing History – Seditious Printing

Call for Papers for Printing History Themed Issue: Seditious Printing

In respect of the 250th anniversary of the printing of the Declaration of Independence, Printing History 38 will examine print as a means of provocation, agitation, and rebellion. We invite author submissions that interrogate print-as-protest across borders and cultural contexts, with a focus on printing’s particular power to foment political and social change. We particularly welcome submissions highlighting the print production of underresearched and/or marginalized groups and individuals. 

We invite interested researchers, professionals, and practitioners to share work engaged with the following topics:

  • Print production as a means of political provocation and rebellion
  • Print and the shaping of American (or other cultural/political) imaginaries
  • Print as a catalyst for social change
  • Activist print cultures: posters, broadsides, zines, ephemera
  • Printed matter as an organizing tool
  • Secret presses; underground printing 
  • Interrogations of print and power

In general, Printing History follows the Chicago Manual of Style. An APHA style guide and further information for contributors can be downloaded here.

Submissions should be emailed to editor@printinghistory.org. If you have questions about this issue, the process, or the journal in general, do not hesitate to write. We do not solicit proposals for articles, but we are happy to discuss ideas and abstracts via email.

Submission deadline: October 31, 2025