Counterweight: Helen Samuels, Archival Decolonization, and Social License

ABSTRACT Helen Samuels sought to document institutions in society by adding to official archives counterweights of private records and archivist-created records such as oral histories. In this way, she recognized and sought to mitigate biases that arise from institution-centric application of archival functionalism. Samuels's thinking emerged from a late-twentieth-century consensus on the social license for archival appraisal, which formed around the work of West German archivist Hans Booms, who wrote, “If there is indeed anything or anyone qualified to lend legitimacy to archival appraisal, it is society itself.” Today, archivists require renewed social license in light of acknowledgment that North American governments and institutions sought to open lands for settlement and for exploitation of natural resources by removing or eliminating Indigenous peoples. Can a society be said to “lend legitimacy” to archival appraisal when it has grossly violated human, civil, and Indigenous rights? Starting from the question of how to create an adequate archives of Canada's Indigenous residential school system, the author locates Samuels's work amid other late-twentieth-century work on appraisal and asks how far her thinking can take us in pursuit of archival decolonization.

Design Records Appraisal Tool

ABSTRACT A common obstacle during the appraisal of design records is the specialized vernacular creators use to describe them. As a result, archival professionals may feel unprepared for discussions with potential donors while acquiring these distinct and sometimes problematic materials. Using authoritative architectural and archival sources, the authors expanded on existing literature to develop appraisal grid templates that generally align with different collecting institutions' missions and overarching development and retention policies and created a consolidated and comprehensive glossary of design phases, categories, and definitions to use as a reference. The authors hope that this resource will assist those who are unfamiliar with the design process to interpret disparate design record types, to inform the appraisal process, and ultimately, to make accessioning decisions.

Archival Engagements with Wicked Problems

ABSTRACT The concept of wicked problems can be used as a frame for enriching archivists' understanding of the societal challenges they are confronting in their work. This article explores the core tenets and intellectual history of the concept, looking at the origins of the term; its uses in design, planning, and various policy domains; and recent critiques of the concept. Using examples of archival engagements with the challenges of policing in underserved communities, refugees, child welfare, and climate change, this article examines the role of records and recordkeeping systems in wicked problems and how archivists have used community engagement as a core tenet of how to approach these societal challenges. These engagements also illustrate how grappling with wicked problems can change the practices, theories, and self-awareness of the profession itself.

Archivists at Work: Stress and Mood Effects in a Gendered Profession

ABSTRACT Although much has been written about both the gendering of the archival profession and how gender impacts work in society, empirical data are insufficient to document how they combine to specifically influence archivists and archival work. This study examines gender differences as a factor in individual and work-site characteristics of archivists. Six central questions are used to explore the role of gender in the intensity or stressfulness of work, organizational climate where archival work is done, administrative support for archivists, and mood. Methodology, results, and suggestions for future research are presented.