{"id":41,"date":"2016-04-04T05:41:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T05:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/?p=41"},"modified":"2016-04-04T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T06:01:00","slug":"a-reflection-on-journeying-into-the-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/2016\/04\/04\/a-reflection-on-journeying-into-the-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection on “Journeying Into the Archives”"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we read further and further\u00a0into\u00a0archival research<\/a>, I’m starting\u00a0to view it as more of\u00a0an\u00a0art rather than a process. Yes, it does involve abiding\u00a0by\u00a0very mechanic and structured rules, such as what you can and can’t do when\u00a0using\u00a0the archival artifacts, but then there’s also the more complex techniques and methods that are involved with\u00a0actually\u00a0acquiring the information.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of this\u00a0week’s reading assignments, “Archival Survival” by Lynee Gaillet, was one such article that opened my eyes to the complexities of archival research. What I was first surprised by was\u00a0the sheer amount of preparation that goes into attaining the needed documents. Applications need to be filled, appointments must be made, self-credibility needs to be established… the list goes on.<\/p>\n

Once you finally are<\/em> granted access to the documents, however, the hardest part\u00a0becomes actually finding answers. One tip the article gives\u00a0is that it is important to have a broad reading on the artifact<\/strong>, which means placing it in time periods and contexts besides the one it is actually from. This is likely to occur especially if the information you find in one document leads to a previous or later event that another document\u00a0describes. In this case, the research process will be much like an investigation, where one clue leads to another. But this, of course, is not always going to be the case. Reading information will involve a lot of analysis and interpretation for times when\u00a0the answers aren’t\u00a0so clear and obvious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Another tip that I found very useful had to do with the importance of analyzing the physical characteristics of the artifact and what it reveals\/implies from its state.\u00a0I could see myself overlooking such important and revealing clues\u00a0by focusing simply on\u00a0the words of a document (for example) rather than the physical paper\u00a0itself. A lot can be said about\u00a0the\u00a0physical\u00a0characteristics\u00a0of an object, such as the purpose of its layout, the materials used to make the object, the way in which it is presented (implying potential information about the intended audience)…etc.<\/p>\n

Overall, this was a very eye-opening\u00a0article that revealed to me the hidden complexities\u00a0of\u00a0archival research, as well as\u00a0tips that I will be sure to keep in mind in the future.<\/p>\n

Images Cited:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.klahanieresearch.ca\/images\/788092_34164869_c.jpg<\/p>\n

http:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/54c6a4c7e4b0a8ea616094fe\/t\/54c6a512e4b09604652dd55f\/1432623832597\/?format=1500w<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we read further and further\u00a0into\u00a0archival research, I’m starting\u00a0to view it as more of\u00a0an\u00a0art rather than a process. Yes, it does involve abiding\u00a0by\u00a0very mechanic and structured rules, such as what you can and can’t do when\u00a0using\u00a0the archival artifacts, but then there’s also the more complex techniques and methods that are involved with\u00a0actually\u00a0acquiring the information. One … Continue reading A Reflection on “Journeying Into the Archives”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":31,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"lcosgrove","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/author\/lcosgrove\/"},"qubely_comment":31,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"As we read further and further\u00a0into\u00a0archival research, I’m starting\u00a0to view it as more of\u00a0an\u00a0art rather than a process. Yes, it does involve abiding\u00a0by\u00a0very mechanic and structured rules, such as what you can and can’t do when\u00a0using\u00a0the archival artifacts, but then there’s also the more complex techniques and methods that are involved with\u00a0actually\u00a0acquiring the information. One…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/lcosgrove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}