A classroom discussion with the students of the Archival Enterprise II course at the University of Texas Austin School of Information regarding the conceptualization of Community Archives in the field of archival studies.

1. community
communities
& archives
A DISCUSSION WITH ITZA CARBAJAL
latin american metadata librarian | llilas benson latin american studies and collections | ut austin
Archival Enterprise II | UT iSchool | January 6, 2019

2. hello!
I’m Itza A. Carbajal
UT School of Information MSIS graduate.
Now the Latin American Metadata Librarian for LLILAS Benson
Read more: www.itzacarbajal.com

3. attendees submitted their responses via Qualtrics with recorded data shown live as a visualization during class discussion
Survey Question 1: How do you
define community archives?

4. attendees submitted their responses via Qualtrics with recorded data shown live as a visualization during class discussion
Survey Question 2: What is the best term
for the concept of a community archive?

5. The term “nonprofit” groups together a number of organizations even though many do
not share characteristics beyond some sort of 501 status
National Council of NonProfits 2014

6. “ Does a community archive
exist without or prior to the
academic gaze? Or does it only
come into existence and
according to the principles set
out by the privileged
researcher and their own set of
value and preferences?
- Itza Carbajal
Critical Digital Archives course guest speaker, UT Austin | October 14, 2018,

7. 1. Existing Definitions
of Community Archives

8. U.S. Community Archives Define Community Archives
South Asian American Digital Archive
Community-based archive not affiliated with
a larger academic or institutional repository.
SAADA is governed by an independent board
of directors, a nonprofit fundraising
professional, a lawyer and a consultant.
Appalshop Archive
Works to preserve the creative output and
history of the independent, non-profit
organization, as well as orphaned media
materials and other collections that help
enrich our understanding of the history,
culture, art, and social issues of central
Appalachia.
Interference Archive
Mission is to explore the relationship between
cultural production and social movements. This
work manifests in an open stacks archival
collection, publications, a study center, and
public programs including exhibitions,
workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which
encourage critical and creative engagement
with the rich history of social movements.
Freedom Archives
Non-profit educational archive located in San
Francisco dedicated to the preservation and
dissemination of historical audio, video and print
materials documenting progressive movements
and culture from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Lesbian Herstory Archive
A new concept. A grassroots Lesbian archives.
Keeps all of the services of the Archives free,
to not seek government funding, and builds
grassroots support for the project. Exists to
gather and preserve records of lesbian lives
and activities so that future generations will
have ready access to materials relevant to
their lives. The process of gathering this
material will also serve to uncover and collect
our herstory denied to us previously by
patriarchal historians in the interests of the
culture which they serve. The existence of
these archives will enable us to analyze and
reevaluate the lesbian experience;

9. Research defines Community Archives
Andrew Flinn
Community histories or community archives are
the grassroots activities of documenting,
recording and exploring community heritage in
which community participation, control, and
ownership of the project is essential. (2007)
Erica Ander
Collections of archival records that originate in
a community - that is, a group of people who
live in the same location or share other forms
of community of interest - and whose
collection, maintenance and use involves
active participation of that community (2007)
Andrew Flinn, Mary Stevens, Elizabeth
Shepherd
Community archives are created in response to
needs defined by the members of a community,
who may also exert control over how materials
are used. (2009)
Terry Eastwood
Community archives created or accumulated,
described, and/or preserved by individuals and
community groups who desire to document their
cultural heritage based on shared experiences,
interests, and/or identities (2010)
Michelle Caswell, Marika Cifor, and Mario
Ramirez
Community Archives is a general umbrella term
under which a host of different types of projects
may fit. (2016)
Diversifying the Digital Historical Record:
Integrating Community Archives in National
Strategies for Access to Digital Cultural Heritage
These archives are independent, grassroots
alternatives to mainstream repositories through
which communities make collective decisions
about what is of enduring value to them, shape
collective memory of their own pasts, and control
the means through which stories about their past
are constructed. Such organizations are often
created in response to minoritized communities
being shut out of dominant historical narratives
created by mainstream memory institutions.
(2016-2017)

10. Traditional archives define community archives
Austin History Center
Community Archivists Program is
dedicated to collecting and preserving
the history of underrepresented and
marginalized groups in Austin and
Travis County.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Community Archivist for the Southern Historical
Collection will document and preserve the histories
of marginalized communities previously omitted
from traditional archives. The Community Archivist
will service the Collection’s existing community
archives projects
Others define community archives
The Hershey Community
A unique corporate-community archives
serving both its corporate clients and
the community established by Milton S.
Hershey. The Archives seeks to collect,
preserve and make available records
that document the history and
development of the Hershey,
Pennsylvania community.
Community Archives and Heritage Group
The subject matter is a community of
people including people living in the
same location or communities of
interests. The process of creating a
collection has involved the community.

11. “ Why are “we” (referring to
academics and/or archival
practitioners) so focused on
formulating definitions of and
making distinctions between
mainstream and community
archives and their endeavors?
- Anne Gilliland and Andrew Flinn
CIRN Community Informatics and Research Network Keynote 2013

12. Community Archives Landscape
Fully Autonomous
(Non-Digital)
Semi-Autonomous
Institutionally
Sponsored
Institutionally
Created (outside
traditional settings)
Indigenous /
Tribal Archives
Fully Autonomous
(Digital)
Community Archives Landscape Diagram proposed by Itza Carbajal in January 2018

13. Community Archives Landscape
Fully
Autonomous
(Non-Digital)
Semi-Autonomous
Institutionally
Sponsored
Institutionally
Supported
(outside
traditional
settings) Indigenous /
Tribal Archives
Fully
Autonomous
(Digital)
Revised Community Archives Landscape Diagram proposed by Itza Carbajal in November 2018
Fully
Autonomous
(Non-Digital &
Digital)
Private
Institutions
(For-Profit)
Federal/State/
City/County
Sponsored

14. Community Archives Landscape
Fully
Autonomous
(Non-Digital)
Semi-Autonomous
(non-digital and/or
digital)
Sponsored by
Academic
Institution
(in traditional
archival setting)
Institutionally
Supported
(outside
traditional
settings)
Indigenous /
Tribal
Archives
Fully
Autonomous
(Digital)
Revised Community Archives Landscape Diagram proposed by Itza Carbajal in January 2019
Fully
Autonomous
(Non-Digital
and/or Digital)
Private
Institutions
(For-Profit)
Federal/State/
City/County
Community
Adjacent
Government
Sponsored
(Digital and/or
Non-Digital)
Religious
Institutions

15. “ Is it possible to go beyond the
fetishisation of community
archives and arrive at a definition
which accurately describes
community archives or at least
establishes an outline of a field
which could encompass all
community based archive
activity?
- Anne Gilliland and Andrew Flinn
CIRN Community Informatics and Research Network Keynote 2013

16. 2. What about other archival spaces?

17. “ If using the term Community Archives in
regards to marginalized and ignored
collections, what is lost, visible, or found?
What happens when we remove or focus on
direct references to Indigeneity, Blackness,
Latinidad, Queerness, Feminist, etc when
speaking about archives or archival spaces
that belong or are controlled by these
communities or peoples? Do these terms
already reference a community?
- Itza Carbajal
Critical Digital Archives course guest speaker, UT Austin | October 14, 2018

18. thanks!
questions?
Email me at itza.carbajal@gmail.com
Follow me @archiviststan
?

19. Further Readings
□ Caswell, Michelle, and Bergis Jules. Integrating Community Archives into a National
Digital Platform: Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations, November 2017
□ Gilliland, Anne, and Andrew Flinn. "Community Archives: What Are We Really
Talking About." Address, Italy, Prato, 2013.
https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/920626/gilliland_flinn_keyn
ote.pdf.
□ Gordon, Bonnie, Lani Hanna, Jen Hoyer, and Vero Ordaz. "Archives, Education, and
Access: Learning at Interference Archive." Radical Teacher 105 (2016): 54-60.
doi:10.5195/rt.2016.273.
□ Moore, Nathanial. "Don’t Trust Anyone Over the Age of 30: Youth Empowerment and
Community Archives." Progressive Librarian, no. 44 (Spring 2016).
http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/FreedomArchives.DontTrustA
nyoneOver30.article.pdf.
□ Nestle, Joan. "The Will to Remember: The Lesbian Herstory Archives of New York."
Feminist Review, no. 34 (1990): 86. doi:10.2307/1395308.
□ O'Neal, Jennifer R. " ‘The Right to Know’: Decolonizing Native American Archives."
Journal of Western Archives, Article 2, 6, no. 1 (2015).
http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/westernarchives/vol6/iss1/2.
□ Sellie, Alycia, Jesse Goldstein, Molly Fair, and Jennifer Hoyer. "Interference Archive:
A Free Space for Social Movement Culture." Archival Science 15, no. 4 (2015): 453-72.
doi:10.1007/s10502-015-9245-5.