Digital Archiving Resources

Sustaining Community Archives.

Title

Sustaining Community Archives.

Subject

Curation

Description

In this article, author Joanna Newman reports the findings of her survey of local community archives in New Zealand. Newman designed a survey to evaluate only archives whose records held sustained value for the governance, historical research, and legal administration of their respective communities. Newman also distinguished these archives from libraries and museums by their stated mission to preserve and sustain long-term access to its records. She incorporated the standards and principles of archival theory adopted by the United States and New Zealand in the survey and synthesized them into three main categories for comparison: organization, the archives, themselves, and community engagement.

Newman discovered officially sanctioned local community archives were more likely to receive the funding and highly skilled staff necessary for maintaining the physical environment and professional standards associated with other institutional archives. She also noted that while inter-institutional collaboration was less evident and significant for the New Zealand community archives than comparable archives in the United States, the archivist’s enthusiasm and support of local volunteers were influential factors in the archive’s overall sustainability. Newman explains that archivists offer assurance that standards will be upheld and local volunteers strengthen the connections between the archive and its community. Together these factors help ensure continued use and funding by the local authorities.

Creator

Newman, Joanna

Publisher

Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services

Date

2012

Contributor

Polk, Victoria

Type

Journal Article

Identifier

http://ica2012.ica.org/files/pdf/Full%20papers%20upload/ica12Final00190.pdf

Bibliographic Citation

Newman, Joanna. “Sustaining Community Archives.” Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services 25.1 (2012): 37-45.

Files

Sustain.jpg

Citation

Newman, Joanna , “Sustaining Community Archives.,” Digital Archiving Resources, accessed March 29, 2024, https://dar.cah.ucf.edu/items/show/72.