Future Proof II. Deutsches Museum, Munich, 20-22 April
2005
Abstracts
Introduction to the conference
Peter Harper, Director,
NCUACS, Bath
This introductory paper considers the role of two of the
organisations sponsoring the meeting: the Co-operation on the Archives of
Science in Europe (CASE) group and the Commission on Bibliography and
Documentation of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science
Division of History of Science (IUHPS DHS).
It outlines the thinking behind the present conference and its relation
to the Edinburgh Future Proof meeting and possible future meetings.
Documenting the Work of
Physicists in Industrial Laboratories
Joe Anderson, American Institute of Physics
The Center for History of
Physics, American Institute of Physics, is currently conducting a Study to
Document the History of Physicists in Industry, a particularly tough area for
conventional documentation methods.
Project staff have interviewed more than 70 corporate physicists,
R&D managers, and information professionals at nine leading industrial
laboratories in the United
States so far and are
visiting major American and European archives that preserve industrial
records. The findings of the study will
provide concrete guidelines for identifying and preserving historically
valuable R&D records.
A joint digital university archives. Swedish collaborative project on digital
preservation of digital scientific data
Renata
Arovelius, Swedish Agricultural Sciences University, Uppsala and Eli Hjorth
Reksten, Linköping University, Sweden
Digital preservation of scientific data is a problem
for many universities and research institutions. Fourteen Swedish universities
are involved and share costs for a joint project in aim to establish a joint
digital university archive for scientific research. The project consists of two
main groups: the national steering group made up of representatives from 6
universities and the institutional project group from Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences. The institutional group comprises nine scientists, two
ICT staff, two librarians and the university archivist as a project leader. The
project will use and test about six different scientific databases and focus on
both bit and functional preservation in accordance to the Open Archival
Information System (OAIS) Reference Model and DSpace environment as a technical
solution for the test. This paper will
deal with the background of the joint project, main problems and outcome so
far.
How can the Center for History of Science play a
role in the formation of a (national) collection strategy for scientific
archives?
Maria
Asp Romefors and Anne Miche de Malleray, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,
Stockholm
The paper provides an introduction to the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences and its research institution the Center for History
of Science, and discusses how this particular institution historically may have
played a role in the formation of a collection strategy for scientific archives
in Sweden. The Center’s own collection strategies are discussed, as well as its
relation to other Swedish institutions preserving scientific archives. In
particular the question is raised if the Academy as a non-governmental,
prestigious and unbound organisation may have a special role to play in this
context. This, perhaps, in spite of the laws governing handling of documents
belonging to official bodies, where much of scientific research in Sweden is
done.
German Science in London:
August Wilhelm von Hofman and the Royal College of Chemistry
Anne
Barrett, College Archivist & Corporate Records Manager, Imperial College
London
Using
material from Imperial College Archives, the work of the Royal College of Chemistry
and the influences of Hofmann the first Director, will be discussed in the
context of 19th century science teaching.
Archiving
SLD Records in SRB: The Persistent Archives Test-bed (PAT) Project at SLAC in
2004
Jean Deken, Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center
Report on the first year of SLAC's participation in the collaboration
to test the US National Archives' and Records Administration (NARA) prototype
persistent archives' ability to perform the functions of accessioning,
arrangement, description, preservation and access on the electronic records of
the SLD (SLAC Large Detector) collaboration using the Storage Resource Broker
(SRB) developed by the San Diego SuperComputer Center (SDSC).
Aufbau des Archivs zur
Geschichte der Kernenergie in der Schweiz (ARK) –
Ein Modellprojekt für
die Archivierung naturwissenschaftlicher Bestände?
(The setting-up of the Archives
of the History of Nuclear Energy in Switzerland (ARK) –
A model project for the archiving of historical scientific records/holdings?)
Angela Gastl, Archive und
Nachlässe / ETH-Bibliothek Zürich
Von 1999 bis 2002 lief
am Institut für Geschichte der ETH Zürich ein Forschungsprojekt zur Geschichte
der zivilen Nutzung der Kernenergie in der Schweiz («Nuclear Energy and
Society»). Im Rahmen dieser Forschungstätigkeiten wurde eine grosse Menge von
Quellen bearbeitet, die der historischen Forschung bislang nicht zugänglich
waren. Gleichzeitig musste festgestellt werden, dass die Erhaltung und
Zugänglichkeit dieses wissenschaftlich äusserst wertvollen Materials über die
Dauer des Forschungsprojekts hinaus nicht gewährleistet war. Daraus ergab sich
die Zielsetzung, ein «Archiv zur Geschichte der Kernenergie in der Schweiz»
aufzubauen.
Das ARK umfasst
heute Archivalien, die aus den Beständen von Firmen, Forschungs- und Bundesinstitutionen
sowie von Privatpersonen zusammengetragen werden konnten. Im Rahmen des
Archivaufbaus wurden die Materialien bewertet, geordnet und elektronisch
verzeichnet. Sie stammen aus den Jahren 1941 bis 1998 und beanspruchen im
erschlossenen Zustand 214 Laufmeter Platz. Dem interessierten Publikum sind sie
über Findbücher auf Papier sowie über die elektronische „Archivdatenbank
online“ des Archivs der ETH Zürich zugänglich. Im Lesesaal der
Spezialsammlungen der ETH-Bibliothek können die Archivbestände vor Ort
eingesehen werden.
Im Rückblick erweist
sich dieses Archivprojekt als Erfolgsbeispiel für die dauerhafte Archivierung
und Erschliessung ursprünglich breit gestreuter Teilbestände, die erst in ihrer
Gesamtheit eine solide Basis für Forschungsarbeiten bilden können. Diese
Ausgangssituation ist im Zusammenhang mit naturwissenschaftlichen
Archivbeständen weit verbreitet. Welche Lehren können aus diesem Beispiel für
ähnliche Projekte gezogen werden, und inwiefern kann das ARK-Projekt generell
als Modellprojekt für die Archivierung naturwissenschaftlicher Bestände genutzt
werden?
From 1999 until 2002, the Institute of History of the
ETH Zurich ran a research project for the history of the civilian use of
nuclear energy in Switzerland ("Nuclear Energy and Society"). In the
course of the research a large quantity of historical sources was examined,
which had not been accessible to historical research before the launch of the
project. At the same time it became obvious that the preservation and
accessibility of these scientifically extremely valuable materials were not
ensured beyond the duration of the research project. These facts led to the
objective to build up an "Archive of the History of the Nuclear Energy in
Switzerland".
Today, the ARK holds records that originate from
business companies, research or federal institutes as well as personal papers
from individuals that were involved at the time. During the process of setting
up the ARK the records were evaluated, arranged and registered electronically.
They cover the years 1941 to 1998 and add up to 214 linear meters. The files
may be searched online in the archival database (http://www.ethbib.ethz.ch/eth-archiv/dachs.html)
or in the finding aids in the reading room of the Special Collections.
In the review, this project proves a successful
example for the durable archiving and development of originally broadly strewn
records, which can only form a solid foundation for research work as a whole.
In case of historic scientific records above setting often occurs. Which lesson
can therefore be drawn for similar projects, and in what respect can the ARK
project generally be of use as a model project for the archiving of historic
scientific records?
Digital Manuscripts: capturing scientific information and
the historical moment by adapting existing scientific techniques
Jeremy Leighton John, Department of Manuscripts,
Directorate of Scholarship & Collections,
British
Library
This talk briefly discusses the concept of digital manuscripts,
compares these with conventional manuscripts, and highlights possible
implications for archival work today and in the future. An archival life cycle
is outlined for ‘born digital’ unpublished writings, data and workings on
computer media, incorporating a tripartite approach to capturing, retaining and
presenting the information for curators and researchers. In particular three
forms of access to personal digital files are advocated: (i) initial access
with a pragmatic but certified digital examination tool, (ii) style-retaining
high-fidelity access with restoration and emulation of obsolete legacy hardware
and software, and (iii) archival access with digital facsimiles, metadata and
machine knowledge. Thoughts on cataloguing and description will be briefly
mentioned. Much of the talk is devoted to indicating how some techniques and
technologies can be usefully borrowed and modified from existing scientific
disciplines: computer forensic science, ancestral computing and emulation, and
bioinformatics and evolutionary science. In this wide-ranging, sometimes
complex and often inherently urgent activity, diverse cooperative alliances are
likely to be essential – cooperation with other archivists and their institutions,
university and institutional researchers, and amateur and professional experts.
Acquisition of personal papers in the Archives
for the History of the Max Planck Gesellschaft
Marion Kazemi, MPG, Berlin
The Archives for the History of the Max
Planck Society document the scientific work of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society / Max
Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, a German non-profit organization
with - today - 78 research facilities for basic research in natural sciences
and the humanities. The Archives keep not only the records from the
Administrative Headquarters, but also from the institutes and research units.
They focus primarily on preserving the papers of outstanding personalities who
were once active in the KWS/MPS, especially of the Scientific Members. Since
the Archives started work in 1976 they have collected the papers of more than
200 scientists. It will be shown why the Archives try to save these papers and
what kind of efforts are made to acquire them.
Distributed Collecting? Strategies for archive
networking in Germany
Michael Klein,
Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Bonn
In Germany, national collections are nearly
not practicable because of the cultural sovereignty of the federal states.
Nevertheless, the topics of many particular collections are of national, i.e.
nationwide, interest. In this situation, it is to show that ‘distributed collecting’
is not only a makeshift but a new strategy for archives: Building networks of
archives with different purposes and focuses within a common collecting policy.
The Leibniz Association (Leibniz-Gemeinschaft), as a nationwide network of
scientific institutes, archives and researching museums, is an example for this
new strategy. Diversity and variety are not a deficit but a strength in the
process of developing an integrated modular system of nationally relevant
collections.
French
provincial observatories and their scientific archives
Françoise Le Guet
Tully, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, France and
Jean Davoigneau, Direction de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine,Ministère de la
Culture et de la Communication, Paris, France
Unlike the Paris-Meudon observatory, provincial observatories do not
have a specialised staff for keeping and safe-guarding their historical
archives. In the mid 1990s we launched
a national inventory of the astronomical heritage. An indirect consequence of this has been to focus interest on
archival material which documents the instruments, the buildings and other
items. As a result, in most of the inventoried astronomical sites initiatives
have been taken in order to try and set up real archival policies. We shall
describe the different attempts, assess the results achieved until now and
discuss the future of these scientific archives.
All is Digital: Scientists’ records in a connected information universe
Gavan McCarthy, Director,
Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, University of Melbourne
The archiving of the records of scientists from the mid twentieth
century onwards has generally proved to be problematic and this is usually
associated with the introduction of new information technologies, in
particular, digital technologies. Hans Christian von Baeyer, in Information: the new language of science
(Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 2003), argues convincingly that all
information, at its most fundamental, is digital. In other words, all
information can be reduced to a sequence of 0s and 1s. For those of us grounded
in the physicality of records, there is an embedded challenge in this assertion
that should cause us to think more deeply about the work we do and how we
approach the archival problems of the digital world. Paper-based materials have
essential qualities that have evolved over centuries to make them particularly
useful for humans. These sit in stark contrast to the coded, abstract,
machine-dependent electronic materials that now form the dominant means of
communication in the developed world. How do we reconcile these differences? If
we conceive of all information as being digital does this help us envision a
future where this reconciliation might take place? Although the associated
challenges of long term preservation and access have been a key focus of
archival discourse for some time, it appears that the scientists are less
concerned by these issues. For the scientists, working day-to-day and meshed in
the context of their laboratory, their workgroup, their organisation, their
disciplinary colleagues, their collaborators, their particular funding
framework, their political environment and their personal circumstances, these
new technologies seem to be working just fine. Why? Because each scientist
builds a corpus of implicit contextual knowledge that they use to make sense of
the world in which they live. In the paper world enough of this contextual
information was captured (by chance) to enable archivists to do their job.
However, in the electronic world it is this knowledge that tends to be lost.
What can be done to ensure that this critical contextual information is somehow
captured? In a connected information universe, where all is digital, it is
possible to conceive of ways this might be achieved. Recent scientific studies
of open complex networks have shown that they have surprising and useful
properties that could be employed by archivists to help them meet their long
term objectives.
Pour un observatoire de l’archivage des materiaux de terrain des
ethnologues
Marie-Domique
Mouton, Universite de Paris X
On
constate depuis quelques années l’engouement grandissant des ethnologues pour
leurs archives et en particulier pour les matériaux recueillis ou constitués
sur le terrain. Jusque là considérés comme des éléments essentiels à l’histoire
de la discipline, ces documents s’envisagent maintenant comme des ensembles
constitués, composés de données primaires, disponibles pour de nouvelles
études. Or, élaborer le projet de ré analyser, pour sa propre recherche, les
matériaux de terrain rassemblés par un autre ethnologue, est une démarche
certainement plus novatrice mais qui suscite également plus d’interrogations.
Elargissant la réflexion, on peut se demander quelles conséquences pourrait
avoir la systématisation de ces opérations d’archivage, pour les ethnologues,
pour ceux qu’ils ont observés, pour la pratique de la discipline elle-même.
A
ce stade, seule la mise en oeuvre d’expériences concrètes pouvait nous aider à
progresser dans la réflexion autour de ces questions. C’est ainsi qu’à été
conçu le projet d’un Observatoire de
l’archivage des matériaux de terrain des ethnologues.
Dans ce cadre, seront menées parallèlement huit expériences, organisées
autour de deux axes : le premier Archiver
les matériaux de terrain : pourquoi et comment? portera sur la
collecte des données, la constitution de corpus, les problèmes méthodologiques,
juridiques et éthiques rencontrés lors du traitement et de la valorisation des
archives ; le deuxième Re-visiter
des terrains archivés permettra de tester comment et avec quel résultat une
équipe nouvelle parviendra à appuyer un travail de terrain sur un fonds
d’archives anciennement constitué (à Grazalema en Andalousie, sur les traces de
Julian Pitt-Rivers; dans les Baronnies de Bigorre à partir des notes de terrain
de Georges Augustins; à Madagascar pour une revisite des archives de la Norvegian Missionary Society).
Un site Web [réalisé à la MMSH (Aix-en-Provence), sous la direction de
Jean-Christophe Peyssard] dédié à cet observatoire assurera la visibilité du
projet. Sur ce site seront publiés les résultats de chaque expérience.
Plusieurs ateliers virtuels seront organisés, ils permettront d’approfondir la
réflexion sur des questions connexes : quels critères appliquer dans la
sélection des fonds, le choix des documents à éliminer, à conserver, à
numériser? Quelles méthodologies mettre en oeuvre pour indexer les documents et
contextualiser les fonds? Comment développer l’accès aux données en
faisant respecter les droits des observés, en garantissant, aux déposants, le
respect de leurs droits d’auteur?
Sur tous ces points, on s’attachera à recueillir les réactions et les
réflexions de chercheurs de diverses disciplines, de professionnels de la
documentations et des archives, issus tant des pays occidentaux que des régions
du monde concernées par la collectes des matériaux de terrains.
A cette occasion enfin, on tentera de mettre
en place une base de données européenne [réalisée à la MISHA (Strasbourg) par
Catherine Douvier] des fonds d’archives des ethnologues.
Anthropologists seem to be more and more interested in their own
archives or, I would rather say, in their predecessor's archives. Between all
the documents collected and kept, anthropological records or field materials are
perceived as particularly precious because they can be used not only for
writing anthropological history but also for doing new anthropological researches.
That is why anthropological archives repositories may become tomorrow new
places for doing fieldwork. From now we can ask ourselves to know what will be
the consequences on former observers and observed and on anthropology itself
The project: "Archiving field notes: Towards an observatory of
practices" has been worked on the debates leaded during workshops and
informal meetings about all that topics.
The purpose is to re-use former field notes during new research
program. We hope to involve in that project all the archivists and the
anthropologists concerned with these problems by the way of an interactive
website. On this web side we will organize online meetings and give access to a
databases of anthropological records kept in different European institutions.
The
preservation of research data in the Netherlands.
Archival
law and digital archives
Menno
Polak, University of Amsterdam
Academic research results in publications that are
based on evidence of collected data (or objects). Obviously, not all the raw or
processed data find their way into the publication. For several reasons however
the preservation and access of these data is important. The issue of how to preserve them came up in
the course of the University of Amsterdam's Archive Project, that is intended
to recover the university's archives since 1877 and to transfer them to a
public repository, as is prescribed by law.
On 29 November 2004 a conference was held in Amsterdam that addressed
the issues involved. A report of that
conference will be presented.
Initiatives in the archives of
science and technology in Taiwan
Timothy
E. Powell, NCUACS, Bath
This paper presents a personal overview of initiatives
being taken in the acquisition, preservation and provision of access to
archives of science and technology in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s prosperity has depended largely on its industrial and
technological strengths but as the country has had to adapt to meet competition
in these areas, its economy is rapidly changing. Without a longstanding archival tradition (its Archives Law only
coming into force in 2002) or a strong heritage lobby as exists in many western
countries, the Taiwanese National Archives Administration and archivists and
curators in other institutions are looking to preserve a physical record of
this recent past before it disappears.
As a new country (not yet sixty years old) comes to terms with how to
best document its heritage, it is instructive to see how the issues surrounding
archives of science and technology are being addressed. I shall highlight some of the difficulties
facing Taiwanese archivists and some of the ways in which starting from the
beginning has encouraged an imaginative approach.
Spain’s new Scientific Archives Service: building on the
Catalan Servei d’Arxius de Ciència’
The three year pilot programme to launch the Servei d’Arxius de Ciència
was completed in 2004 with clear progress: the systematic search for personal
and institutional collections was well on its way, and the results about to be
implemented in a renewed web site; and, on the other hand, two significant
personal collections, that of Esteve Terradas and Professor Albert Dou, were
almost completely catalogued.
We will report about recent progress and, above all, about the
extension of the Servei to the whole of Spain as a new Servicio de Archivos de
Ciencia, thanks to a grant from the Spanish Ministery of Education and Science.
This will allow us to hire a full time archivist, improve the web, travel to a
numbers of repositories, etc. We will also extend the systematic search for
collections along the same lines of the existing Servei.
So far, emphasis has been placed on gathering information about
existing collections, in the hope this will help us convince Spanish scientists
that their papers may be relevant and should be kept.
History of physics and physics
archives of Strasbourg University (1945-Present)
Sebastien Soubiran,
Strasbourg
The University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg entered a
program for the preservation of the records and the development of historical
researches on physics in Strasbourg since 1945. This study focused mainly on
paper archives but included also instruments and all kind of materials related
to the activity of physicists in the University of Strasbourg after the Second
Word War. This initiative is certainly unique in France where no dedicated
centralized structure exists to collect scientific archives. The National
archives office, though aware of the specificity of this kind of archives,
didn’t put in place a long term policy for the benefit of this kind of
materials. Over all, few universities care about the preservation of their
archives and only three of them have a record department.
To begin with, six physics laboratories or institutes
have been chosen: the Institute of Physics, the astronomical Observatory, the
Charles Sadron Institute (research on macromolecules), the Institute of
Subatomic Research, Institute of Physics and Chemistry (magnetic and optical
properties of materials), and Laboratory for complex fluids dynamics. Those six
departments represent most of research in physics pursued at the University and
its heritage.
As well as creating access to historical records of
modern physics via the web and other media, this program aims to set a records
management plan of physics laboratory attached to the university and have
finding aid of the various papers in order to initiate various researches on
the history of physics in Strasbourg after 1945. This program received the 2005
Grants from the Friends of the Center for History of Physics, American
Institute of Physics.
After a brief presentation of the program and the
first results obtained so far, I will focus my paper on two major issues.
Firstly, I will try to explain why such initiative has been possible in a
French university given the difficulties described previously. Secondly, I
intend to put our program in a European perspective and compare it with other
major actions involved with the preservation of physics archives linked to
research program in history of twentieth century physics.
Double Helix: The Munich Way of Research in the History
of Science and Technology
Helmuth Trischler,
Deutsches Museum, Munich
The
paper will firstly present the “Munich way” of linking the Deutsches Museum
with the Munich universities with the aim to run an international center of
excellence in the field of history of science and technology. It will secondly
provide an overview on the research agenda of the Deutsches Museum which
closely connects the main research activities with its core functions of
collecting, exhibiting and educating. It will thirdly discuss the key role of
the archives of the Deutsches Museum for its research program.