You are probably thinking to yourself, where exactly are we journeying to? And the answer is… into the archives. Why? Simply because every archival research encounter influences one’s research process, just as Katherine Tirabassi claims in “Journeying into the Archives.”
Like many other people, before spending tike in an archive, Tirabassi viewed an archive as its obvious function: as a storage facility preserving historical materials that might otherwise be lost in closets, attics, barns, and local landfills. However, from her first archival encounter, she was directly able to see how artifacts could be reimagined with a fresh perspective by a researcher asking a different set of questions than those implied by the archive’s established categories. As she saw the archives through a new perspective, she outlines some practical approaches and challenges of archival research.
The four key principles that motivate her work in the archives are as follows:
- Principle of Selectivity
- Principle of Cross-Referencing
- Principle of Categorization
- Principle of Closure
The Principle of Selectivity is understanding how the archivists select and omit artifacts for a given collection.
The Principle of Cross-Referencing is the practice of searching across documents for contextual traces that clarify an archival document’s rhetorical situation or that confirm, clarify, or contradict a fact or point cited in a given document.
The Principle of Categorization is the development of keywords and findings aids that help researchers access information in the archive.
The Principle of Closure is understanding that there are inherent gaps in the archival records and that while the archive is complex and rich, it cannot be searched exhaustively. Finding the ending point or knowing when to make an exit is an essential part of archival research.
In addition to that, Tirabassi claims that when we choose to conduct archival research, it is because we have a passion for the work and the questions that are pushing us to find answers. Personally, I do not necessarily agree with this statement. I might not actually have a passion for an archival research project, but it might be assigned to me. This can be related to a topic I touched on in my most previous blog post, “Is It Really a Disaster Though?” With that being said, I would question Tirabassi by asking, what if we do not have passion for it?
