📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.

Jesse Locker@jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3w ago

Giving myself a headache in the archives

The worst depiction of an archivist in media is the archivist in Minas Tirith who brings FIRE into the record store. The best depiction of an archivist in media is Brother Armbruster in A Canticle for Leibowitz, who absolutely Gets It™

We have created a booklet with advertisements of self-emancipating enslaved people in Barbados in the 18th and 19th centuries. It aims to make these ads more accessible and contains images of c. 20 ads, their transcriptions, and a short introduction contextualizing them. tinyurl.com/26zkuxf7 1/

I've written a new piece, together with my colleague Virginia Dressler. Thank you to @cliocontemporary.bsky.social for providing the platform. Special thanks to the many archivists, librarians, and information professionals who work on making these stories accessible.

Clio and the Contemporary@cliocontemporary.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Check out our new guide to digital #archives that deal with sensitive material, written by archivists Virginia Dressler & @amaliasl.bsky.social. They explore 9 archives and their attempts to navigate ethical issues, such as representation of marginalized communities. 🗃️

🤬 You do not "fill the gap" in archives. You ask *why* the gap is there in the first place. That is where the real information resides. Also: LLMs train on digitized materials. Do you have any idea how little has been digitized? LLMs train on a *sliver* of the human past and human knowledge.

Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Rebranding a hallucination as a ‘critical confabulation’ that can fill archival gaps is a big no from me.

On this #InternationalArchivesWeek I'd like to repost this absolute gem by the @bucksarchives.bsky.social!

Buckinghamshire Archives@bucksarchives.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

For #InternationalArchivesWeek, consider how digitized copies of manuscripts can preserve access to a manuscript's contents, provide a record of ownership if the object is removed, and provide access to cultural heritage if a community is displaced. Learn more: hmml.org/stories/reversal-of-fates

The more things change, the more they stay the same... Nice study that essentially corroborates Michel Rolph Trouillot's silencing framework. The diagram embodies all silencing processes (fact creation/assembly/retrieval/retrospective significance), a bleak reminder on how power operates today.

Joshua Tucker@jatucker.bsky.social · 3mo ago

1/ Excited to report we have a new paper out @nature.com today! The bottom line: training data for LLMs does not just fall from the sky - it is created in the context of existing social political institutions - and that has consequences for LLM output. nature.com/articles/s41...

This data article about fugitive adverisements in eastern #Caribbean newspapers is the result of years of work by the team at @inthesamesea.bsky.social Read it at scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsdp/ar... and find the dataset at enslaved.org - an open-access research resource!

I'm excited this is out! We spent countless hours building the database in a way that will hopefully be usable for other scholars and students of fugitivity in the Caribbean. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsdp/ar...

Enslaved Fugitives in the Lesser Antilles, 1760s-1860s

Dataset CreatorsRasmus Christensen, University of CopenhagenGunvor Simonsen, University of CopenhagenHeather Freund, University of CopenhagenFelicia Fricke, University of CopenhagenGabriëlle La Croix,...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Beautiful essay, and...recordkeeping galore in the thread. 😍 It took a lot of effort (and intention) for information to 'travel' to us today. #histarchives

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Among my obsessions, the critical importance of government documents. As a historical subject as well as source. IOW, it's *always* been a data state. My new piece for Smithsonian on chasing paperwork around the American Revolution. Owes to work by: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ever...

🔥🔥🔥

Miriam Posner@miriamposner.com · 3mo ago

Here’s a presentation for students on data brokers & digital surveillance, with a lot of links that might be of interest. (Got a little enthusiastic about animations!) docs.google.com/presentation...

Cross-disciplinary solidarity

⬇️ I can't repost this 🔥 thread about the fragility of humanity's digital memory enough.

Internet Archive@archive.org · 3mo ago

🧵 We tend to think the internet is permanent, but VANISHING CULTURE—the new 📚 from Internet Archive—starts with a simple reality: our digital record is far more fragile than we think 🕳️ 📖 Read for free: archive.org/details/vani... 🛒 Purchase in print: www.betterworldbooks.com/product/deta... ⬇️

In an era of speed and volume, there is value in slow research in archives. Let me start out by clarifying what slow research is and is 𝒏𝒐𝒕: Slow research is not slow. You can still go through hundreds of pages in one day, even in one hour. 1/

I have a chapter in this newly published book. "‘Runaway’ Ads as Records of Life Writing: Ariadne’s Story." The essay explores methodological & epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean in life writing abt enslaved people. www.routledge.com/InDependent-...

(In)Dependent Selves: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Life Writing, Slavery and Dependency

This book brings into conversation perspectives from the disciplines of history, literary studies, archival studies and religious studies, and explores the entanglements of life writing and dependency...

routledge.com

an incredibly important project by Connie Walker — most Canadians don't know that the government has an archive of 38,000 residential school survivor testimonies, which are slated to be destroyed next year www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...

Journalist plans to create new archive of residential school survivor stories — before it's too late | CBC News

A new project from award-winning journalist Connie Walker aims to create an archive of testimonies of abuse at residential schools before the accounts are destroyed in September 2027.

cbc.ca

"Microscopy in PRTD allows us to investigate materiality on a new scale, shifting our perspective so that we can continue to check our assumptions, help preserve the collections, and answer questions about materiality."

Colleen T@librarycolleen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Observing Collections a Micron at a Time: A Tools of the Trade Post by Megan Zins, Library of Congress 📜 blogs.loc.gov/preservation...

We need more historians because history is one of the most powerful forms of knowledge. Just ask any autocrat why they want to control it! #TalkAboutHumanities

"AI research assistant" researching data that is incomplete biased skewed missing excluded obscured extracted from collections that were already a partial, skewed view of the past (unless one really interrogates the sources of the data). What could go wrong...

Andrea Reyes E (she/her)@altibel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Family Search has now an "AI Research Assistant" 🙄 WeridTaxidermyMonkeyWHY.gif BenAffleckSmoking.gif

The University of Virginia Archival AI Protocol governs "how artificial intelligence systems may access + use arch collections." Core rules: - item-level provenance + attribution - institutional control - donor + community responsibilities #ai #archives libraopen.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/...

Archives are neither dusty nor old stuff neither dead nor boring. Archives are what we make of them. Each generation, each of us sees diferent things in an item. Each of us adds something new every time we engage. Each item in the archives is the sum of all these interactions.

Also worth noting for the ‘everything is online’ crowd that the numbers of archives being destroyed means that an increasing proportion cannot ever be online.

Amalia S. Levi, PhD@amaliasl.bsky.social · 6mo ago

1/ Important new article by Dr. Tara Inniss that discusses the "chronic underfunding, aging infrastructure, and climatic threats" of Caribbean archives, compounded by vulnerabilities and policy gaps. Thread w recent examples of destruction of collections by fire: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Awesome work, result of *collaboration* btwn historians & comp scientists! Nice shoutout to underlying work of generations of archivists and librarians who "over more than a century, transcribed, collated, gathered and published biographical records for over 20,000 individuals." #archives #labor

Aileen Fyfe@aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 5mo ago

What happens when a historian meets a data visualisation expert? They create an interactive visualisation charting and exploring the colonial connections of over 900 students from the University of St Andrews, 1700-1897. news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/new-...

⬇️ This. Many collections everywhere, but particularly beyond Europe or N. America, are undercatalogued or not catalogued at all. When they burn, no trace survives.

John Levin@anterotesis.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Also worth noting for the ‘everything is online’ crowd that the numbers of archives being destroyed means that an increasing proportion cannot ever be online.

For the "everything is online" crowd in the back: Important to consider that "everything" cultural heritage related that is accessible online represents only 1% (one percent) of archives, libraries, and museum collections worldwide.

Creative Commons@creativecommons.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Did you know that less than 1% of the world’s institutions share heritage in open access? In this article, our Open Culture team makes the case for openness as a key principle in the preservation and dissemination of documentary heritage. www.ijodh.org/0201-09/

IN THE SAME SEA's team and Dr. Joy Lewis have guest-edited the special issue “Small Islands, Proximity and Connection in the Eastern Caribbean” of the Journal of Caribbean History. See: www.uwipress.com/journals/the... Thanks to all contributors and the journal’s main editor Kathleen Monteith.

Journal of Caribbean History | University of the West Indies Press

The Journal of Caribbean History (JCH) is a peer reviewed journal produced by the Departments of History, The University of the West Indies, and published by the University of the West Indies Press. T...

uwipress.com

Missed this 3 days ago, but we're thrilled this is out. @ruthahnert.bsky.social @danielwilson.bsky.social & I wrote this after 6 years of collaboration + discussions about - what "data" and "digitization" mean [in History] - what we need to do to ensure data is findable & accessible

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 6mo ago

New in Transactions: 'Show Me the Data: New Practices for Historical Sources', by @ruthahnert.bsky.social, Katherine McDonough & @danielwilson.bsky.social: bit.ly/460nrkM As the ecosystem of historical research data expands, how do we keep control of source materials, esp digital? #Skystorians 1/2

"Cultural institutions face a perfect storm of risk factors. Operating budgets prioritise immediate public service – acquisitions, exhibitions, programmes, access – over invisible infrastructure investments." informationsecuritybuzz.com/the-cyberatt...

The Cyberattack That Exposed The Fragility Of Digital Heritage

Saturday 28 October 2023 is a date that will live long in the memory of staff at the British Library. As they arrived for work that day, they encountered

informationsecuritybuzz.com