The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland

David Beel, Claire Wallace, Gemma Webster, Hai Nguyen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

5 Citations (Scopus)
5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The CURIOS (Cultural Repositories and Information Systems) project has been working with community heritage groups to co-produce sustainable solutions for the production of heritage archives in digital form. This process has produced an opportunity for fascinating geographical research into the ways in which community heritage groups produce history from their own perspective. This paper will therefore begin to open up these ongoing processes to consider, through case study examples, the ways in which the production of digital archives alters the geography of community heritage production. A number of community heritage groups have been converting their ‘analogue’ collections into ‘digital’ forms and the paper will argue how this significantly alters the positionality of the archive. This will be shown by detailing the ways in which the processes of collection and preservation, conducted by community volunteers, take place. The paper will then move to consider the ways in which this historical material, representative of place, is presented back to a wider audience. In doing this, it will discuss the rationales and processes involved in these practices and how this relates to broader themes of research within geography. Whether for historical research or for theoretical positioning, geographers have, on a number of levels, engaged with archives. Yet, the digital archive has seen little attention especially in terms of thinking through the ways in which digital mediums alter perceptions of space and place.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)201-211
Number of pages11
JournalScottish Geographical Journal
Volume131
Issue number3-4
Early online date22 Jan 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Fingerprint

geography
geographical research
history
repository
positioning
community
information system
cultural system
Group
digital media
project
material
historical research

Keywords

  • archives
  • digital heritage
  • community
  • value
  • rescue archaeology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

Cite this

The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland. / Beel, David; Wallace, Claire; Webster, Gemma; Nguyen, Hai.

In: Scottish Geographical Journal, Vol. 131, No. 3-4, 2015, p. 201-211.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Beel, D, Wallace, C, Webster, G & Nguyen, H 2015, 'The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland', Scottish Geographical Journal, vol. 131, no. 3-4, pp. 201-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2014.980839
Beel D, Wallace C, Webster G, Nguyen H. The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland. Scottish Geographical Journal. 2015;131(3-4):201-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2014.980839
Beel, David ; Wallace, Claire ; Webster, Gemma ; Nguyen, Hai. / The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland. In: Scottish Geographical Journal. 2015 ; Vol. 131, No. 3-4. pp. 201-211.
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  • The Geographies of Community History Digital Archives in Rural Scotland

    © 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.

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