CFP: Archive Journal Issue 4 – “Publishing the Archive”

CFP: Archive Journal Issue 4 – “Publishing the Archive”

Archive Journal is now accepting project and essay proposals for the “Archives, Remixed” section of its upcoming fourth issue, “Publishing the Archive.” This issue will examine how technological developments—from discrete digitization projects and databases to linked data and APIs for extensible machine-readability—are changing how we produce and publish archives and archival research.
The overarching question of this issue is: how do new forms of structured data and new modes for exhibiting archival materials constitute something more than straightforward repositories—becoming instead publications in their own right? And, a related question: What theoretical and operational changes occur when we think of archives and collections as data aggregations in need of publishing? In this sense the term “publishing” means “making public,” but it also means providing high-quality forms of access (as well as human- and machine-friendly metadata) for using, reusing, and remixing archival data.
We invite proposals that investigate the possibilities and limits of “publishing the archive.”  Projects might include, but are not limited to:

• Development of a specific archive-oriented API along with a narrative account of what the application seeks to achieve.
• Textual and/or multimedia explorations of the challenges and promises of linked data with regard to specific archives, collections, or databases.
• Examinations of the history of archival interoperability (for instance, thinking critically about how the evolution of metadata schemas has led to new archival structures and new ways of linking across archives).
• Analysis, modeling, or development of new modes of presenting archives on the web, including new kinds of searchability, visualizations of data, and capacity for user-driven contributions.
• Analysis, modeling, or development of new tools and platforms for working in archives and collections (e.g., an application that allows scholars to produce research–annotations, essays, or experimentations–in the same space as the cultural artifact).
• Specific discussions not only about what can be published, but about what should be published. That is, in an environment where wholesale digital access is possible, do we need specific parameters for authoritative “editions” of the archive?
• Discussions of how to effectively address copyright restrictions preventing archival material from being published.
• Discussions about what happens to analog archives that do not have a digital presence. Or, related to this: what are the effects of the digital surrogate becoming increasingly de rigueur?

Submitting proposals
An open access, peer-reviewed journal, Archive Journal seeks content that speaks to its diverse audience of librarians, scholars, archivists, and technologists. We encourage proposals from humanities and social science researchers, archive developers and directors, and special collections librarians and library technologists. In your 500-1000 word proposal, please include:

• a description of the project’s argument and scholarly significance
• the archives, collections, or databases to be addressed in the project
• a description of the project components and format (e.g., traditional text or multimedia essay; a streaming media work; an archival tool, code or API, etc.; interactive visualization, etc.)

This issue is being guest edited by Anvil Academic. If you have any questions about your proposal, please feel free to contact Korey Jackson at kjackson@anvilacademic.org.  Submit proposals to Fred Moody (fmoody@anvilacademic.org) by June 3, 2013. Proposals should include a brief (200-word) professional biography and current CV.