Editing Archive (section)

== Limitations and alternatives ==
[[File:Humanités Numériques.JPG|thumb|Illustration of the epistemologic changes of the [[digital humanities]]: archives organized with network visualization and analysis. [[League of Nations archives]] ([[United Nations Office at Geneva|UN Geneva]]).]]
Archives that primarily contain physical artifacts and printed documents are increasingly shifting to [[Digitization|digitizing]] items that did not [[Born-digital|originate digitally]], which are then usually stored away. This allows for greater accessibility when using search tools and databases, as well as an increase in the availability of digitized materials from outside the physical parameters of an archive, but there may be an element of loss or disconnect when there are gaps in what items are made available digitally.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=September 2010|title=Raiders of the lost articles|journal=Nature Reviews Microbiology|volume=8|issue=9|pages=610|doi=10.1038/nrmicro2435|issn=1740-1526|doi-access=free}}</ref> Both physical and digital archives also generally have specific limitations regarding the types of content that are deemed able to be preserved, categorized, and archived. Conventional institutionalized archive spaces have a tendency to prioritize tangible items over ephemeral experiences, actions, effects, and even bodies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Springgay|first1=Stephanie|last2=Truman|first2=Anise|last3=MacLean|first3=Sara|date=2019-11-13|title=Socially Engaged Art, Experimental Pedagogies, and Anarchiving as Research-Creation|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077800419884964|journal=Qualitative Inquiry|volume=26|issue=7|pages=897–907|language=en|doi=10.1177/1077800419884964|s2cid=210545023|access-date=6 February 2021|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419165431/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077800419884964|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Battaglia|first1=Giulia|last2=Clarke|first2=Jennifer|last3=Siegenthaler|first3=Fiona|date=2020|title=Bodies of Archives / Archival Bodies: An Introduction|journal=Visual Anthropology Review|language=en|volume=36|issue=1|pages=8–16|doi=10.1111/var.12203|issn=1548-7458|doi-access=free}}</ref> This type of potentially biased prioritization may be seen as a form of privileging particular types of knowledge or interpreting certain experiences as more valid than others, limiting the content available to archive users, leading to barriers in accessing information, and potentially alienating under-represented and/or marginalized populations and their [[Epistemology|epistemologies]] and [[Ontology|ontologies]].<ref>Loeper, Lindsey. "LibGuides: Visiting Special Collections: Silences and bias in archives". ''lib.guides.umbc.edu''. Retrieved 2021-02-06.</ref> As Omnia El Shakry shows, dealing with destruction is a challenge central to decolonial historiography.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mikdashi |first=Maya |title=Practicing Sectarianism |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2022 |page=59 |chapter=The Archive is Burning: Law, Unknowability, and the Curation of History |doi=10.1515/9781503633872-006}}</ref> When faced with a lack of archival documents, historians resort to different sources and methods. For example, due to the lack of a Palestinian state archive, many historians of [[Nakba]] had to rely on sources in the Israeli state's archives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Donnelly |first=Mark |last2=Norton |first2=Claire |title=Doing History |url=https://www.routledge.com/Doing-History/Donnelly-Norton/p/book/9781138301559 |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Routledge |page=135 |language=en}}</ref>

As a result of this perceived under-representation, some activists are making efforts to [[Decolonization|decolonize]] contemporary archival institutions that may employ hegemonic and white supremacist practices by implementing subversive alternatives such as anarchiving or counter-archiving with the intention of making [[Intersectionality|intersectional]] accessibility a priority for those who cannot or do not want to access contemporary archival institutions.<ref>Caswell, Michelle. “Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives.” ''The Library Quarterly (Chicago)'', vol. 87, no. 3, 2017, pp. 222-235.</ref><ref name=":1">Page, Morgan M. "One from the Vaults: Gossip, Access, and Trans History-Telling." ''Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility''. By Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2017. 135-46. Print.</ref><ref name=":0" /> An example of this is Morgan M. Page's description of disseminating [[transgender]] history directly to trans people through various social media and networking platforms like [[tumblr]], [[Twitter]], and [[Instagram]], as well as via [[podcast]].<ref name=":1" /> While the majority of archived materials are typically well conserved within their collections, anarchiving's attention to ephemerality also brings to light the inherent impermanence and gradual change of physical objects over time as a result of being handled.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hennessy|first1=Kate|last2=Smith|first2=Trudi Lynn|date=2018-06-01|title=Fugitives: Anarchival Materiality in Archives|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/public/2018/00000029/00000057/art00014;jsessionid=7p15krcuibs9b.x-ic-live-01|journal=Public|volume=29|issue=57|pages=128–144|doi=10.1386/public.29.57.128_1|s2cid=191506831 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The concept of counter-archiving brings into question what tends to be considered archivable and what is therefore selected to be preserved within conventional contemporary archives.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Derrida|first1=Jacques|last2=Prenowitz|first2=Eric|date=1995|title=Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/465144|journal=Diacritics|volume=25|issue=2|pages=9–63|doi=10.2307/465144|jstor=465144|issn=0300-7162|access-date=6 February 2021|archive-date=13 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213153434/https://www.jstor.org/stable/465144|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> With the options available through counter-archiving, there is the potential to "challenge traditional conceptions of history" as they are perceived within contemporary archives, which creates space for narratives that are often not present in many archival materials.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cvetkovich|first=Ann|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50478406|title=An archive of feelings : trauma, sexuality, and lesbian public cultures|date=2003|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-3076-8|location=Durham, NC|oclc=50478406|access-date=6 February 2021|archive-date=24 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524174802/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50478406|url-status=live}}</ref> The unconventional nature of counter-archiving practices makes room for the maintenance of ephemeral qualities contained within certain historically significant experiences, performances, and personally or culturally relevant stories that do not typically have a space in conventional archives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mohamed |first=Maandeeq |date=15 March 2018 |title=Somehow I Found You: On Black Archival Practices |url=https://cmagazine.com/articles/somehow-i-found-you-on-black-archival-practices |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416183822/https://cmagazine.com/articles/somehow-i-found-you-on-black-archival-practices |archive-date=16 Apr 2023 |access-date=2023-06-19 |work=C Magazine |issue=137 |page=8 |language=en}}</ref>

The practices of anarchiving and counter-archiving are both rooted in [[social justice]] work.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ng|first1=Wendy|last2=Ware|first2=Syrus Marcus|last3=Greenberg|first3=Alyssa|date=2017-04-03|title=Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint for Museum Educators as Allies and Change Makers|journal=Journal of Museum Education|volume=42|issue=2|pages=142–154|doi=10.1080/10598650.2017.1306664|issn=1059-8650|doi-access=free}}</ref>