Category: Publicly Funded

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Evaluation

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I learnt as much as I could of my script and relief mostly on my queue cards. This was difficult and I found that my nerves not only meant that I was looking down a lot, but that some of my words were mixed. Below I will ‘quote’ my script and write evaluative text throughout. Script What is the purpose of an archive? Stephen Plant, the records manager, from the University of London suggest that archives “form a unique and indispensable record for researchers.” (Plant, 2005) Often conventional archives are thought to be well structured, catalogued and preserved, and when … Continue reading Evaluation

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Stuart Whipps

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I visited the Ikon Gallery in 2011 to see Stuart Whipps’ installation ‘Uncatagorised Boxes’. The work was eluding to the short-lived architectural culture of Birmingham. Architect John Madin saw more than one of his buildings get demolished in his lifetime, and all the remains are the archives of the plans for them. Paper has outlived the brick. What is the purpose of  Stuart Whipps’ work? I think it is curiosity of the archive: what is inside these boxes? Viewers to Whipps’ work are left unknowing. But these boxes hold part of the landscape of Birmingham’s past. In an interview with … Continue reading Stuart Whipps

350MC, Commerical, Importance/Urgency of Archives, Information wants freedom, Publicly Funded, Scarce Information is ExpensiveLeave a comment

350MC Research Presentation

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Title: Does Archive Information Want To Be Free? Firstly, I wanted to research into why archives are important and why we keep them: I found a document from Stephen Plant from University of London who says archives “form a unique and indispensable record for researchers”. Stephen Plant is the records manager at UoL; from this it can be inferred that he has a great deal of knowledge about records, archives and how they are catalogued and managed. Yet, the nature of his work automatically makes us assume that of course he is going to suggest that keeping archives is a positive … Continue reading 350MC Research Presentation

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Flickr: The Commons

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In conversation with Aaron Guy (my archive guru) he recalled the Sunderland University Photography Conference from 2011 and how some talks/papers may be of use to me. I couldn’t be more grateful for his effort in helping me retrieve this information: he successfully got the webpage of the talk back online to browse. The last section of talks was called: The Versatile Image: Photography in the Era of Web 2.0. Under this heading I uncovered the paper ‘Flickr the Commons: Challenging Perceptions of Photographic Collections? Summary of talk: Social Media Platforms “generate broad interest on a large scale” Social Media Platforms encourages … Continue reading Flickr: The Commons

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Open Access and the Paywall

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An unlikely relationship. Seemingly more like arch-enemies in the digital economic landscape as Open Access activists freely oppose the paywall which restricts the everyman to information that apparently “wants to be free”. Paywalls A paywall does exactly what it says on the tin: you can’t go through the gate unless you pay to get in. That is unless you’re a super activist who digs the tunnel underneath or climbs over the top. Paywalls can be subscriptions, such as to Newspapers. This is becoming increasing more common as advertisers are moving away from Newspaper sites and onto cheaper more trafficked websites … Continue reading Open Access and the Paywall

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Research: The Library of Congress

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The biggest library in the world, the Library of Congress is a publicly funded archive in the USA with “155.3 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves” (Library of Congress Website). In this research I am going to look more closely into: Its funding/budget Its website functionality and design Funding/Budget: In an article from the New York Times the budget from 2012 to 2013 for the Library of Congress was cut 4% offering $598.4 million; although its actual spend was $632.3 million in 2013. Here are two images from the fiscal budget for this year (2014): The article explains that the digitisation … Continue reading Research: The Library of Congress

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Research: What are Commercial/Public Archives?

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In essence, it is exactly what it says on the tin. Commercial archives are archives which are set to make many from its content, whether that be by subscription, auction or buying print copies. Publicly Funded archive are paid for by governments from taxpayers so that information is free. Starting with commercial archives, I have looked at: Magnum Photos Getty Images Time Magazine Two of which are photographic archives and the third a newsprint archive. Although the subject matter is broad, the physical medium is very specialised: Time Magazine’s archive is of its magazines and what that entails: articles. Magnum … Continue reading Research: What are Commercial/Public Archives?

350MC, Commerical, Importance/Urgency of Archives, Information wants freedom, Publicly Funded, Scarce Information is ExpensiveLeave a comment

Key Research

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From broadly researching into my topic, I have focussed my attention on this secondary research: Does Archive Information want to be Free? Free by Chris Anderson (Book) – This book discusses what ‘free’ or ‘zero price’ means in the current digital economy. Anderson explores the psychology behind ‘free’; different models of ‘free’ and also reflects on the digital activist saying “information wants to be free”. I found this book after looking around the “information wants to be free” quotation. I have found this book particularly relevant for my research into digital economies for me to then make links to the migration … Continue reading Key Research