Trivette Karen
Fashion Institute of Technology-State University of New York (USA); Gladys Marcus Library Special Collections and College Archives (SPARC) /
Univerza v New Yorku; vodja posebnih zbirk in fakultetnega arhiva, Knjižnica Gladys Marcus Združene države Amerike
Alma Mater Europaea, Evropski center Maribor, Slovenija / Alma Mater Europaea, European Centre Maribor, Slovenia
Confronting an Ethical Matter in College and University Archives: a Shift to Lesser Access Protocols Regarding Digitized Theses as a Case Study
Soočenje z etičnimi načeli v fakultetnih in univerzitetnih arhivih: študija primera premika k slabšemu dostopu do digitiziranih zaključnih del
(Moderna arhivistika 2022, 5 (2), str./pp. 438-453)
https://doi.org/10.54356/MA/2022/ILKM7893
Abstract:
Ethical issues abound within the archival science landscape, accessibility matters not the least among them. These issues are further compounded by the evolving nature of records themselves, morphing from analog to digital forms or their being born-digital records. In this paper, the author will recall and reflect upon her experience of confronting an ethical quandary very early in her tenure at her present employer, a publicly-funded university. The ethical quandary in question was one related to theses written and delivered as graduation requirements across graduate programs in the university; upon deposit, they were deemed part of the College Archives. The theses’ accessibility was dramatically reduced after legacy and current theses were digitized (and later, born-digital) and due to a major pivot regarding their storage infrastructure and retrieval protocols. This extreme shift towards access reduction is one that the writer believes to be unethical in a publicly-funded institutional archives domain given the more access rather than less paradigm within the profession and which digitization typically promises.
Key words:
ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations); accessibility; institutional repositories; college archives; ethics
Izvleček:
Soočenje z etičnimi načeli v fakultetnih in univerzitetnih arhivih: študija primera premika k slabšemu dostopu do digitiziranih zaključnih del
V arhivski znanosti se pogosto porajajo etična vprašanja, tudi glede dostopnosti. To potencira tudi razvijajoča se narava samih dokumentov, ki se spreminjajo iz analognih v digitalne ali pa so digitalni že v izvirniku. V prispevku bo avtorica razmišljala o lastnih izkušnjah pri soočanju z etičnimi dvomi, ki so se pojavili že zgodaj v času njene zaposlitve pri sedanjem delodajalcu, javno financirani univerzi. Omenjeni etični dvomi so bili povezani z diplomskimi nalogami na univerzi, ki so postale del fakultetnega arhiva. Dostop do nalog je bil namreč drastično omejen, potem ko so bile digitalizirane (in kasneje, ko so že nastajale v digitalni obliki), a tudi zaradi spremembe načina hrambe ter protokolov dostopa. Tak ekstremen premik k zmanjšanju dostopnosti je, glede na paradigmo širokega dostopa, ki ga digitizacija obljublja, po mnenju avtorice v javno financiranem arhivu neetičen.
Ključne besede:
digitalna dela in dizertacije, dostop, institucionalna hramba, fakultetni arhivi, etika
