Archival Intelligence

(Partially funded by the University of Michigan Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies Research Partnership Program)

The Archival Intelligence framework is the result of a qualitative study of archival researchers (primarily academic scholars - e.g., historians, sociologists, anthropologists, education researchers). Analysis is based on data from interviews with 30 individuals and over 100 hours of observations done over the course of the Spring and Summer of 2002. Archival Intelligence is a model of the knowledge and skills that researchers need to effectively work with the surrogates for as well as actual primary sources, This includes their identification, selection, interpretation, and analysis. Archival Intelligence includes: domain knowledge, artifactual knowledge, and archival intelligence. Domain knowledge is expertise in one's area of study. The importance of domain knowledge in library search and retrieval has been studies by a number of information science researchers (e.g., Marchionnini et al., 1993). Artifactual intelligence (Weinberg, 2001; Bass, n.d.) is the ability to interpret and analyze primary sources. Archival intelligence is a term I have developed to explore the knowledge and skills needed by users of archival materials (Yakel and Torres, forthcoming). Archival intelligence refers to knowledge about the environment in which the search for primary sources is being conducted, in this case, the archives. This can be deconstructed in several dimensions: 1) knowledge of archival theory, practices and procedures; 2) strategies for reducing uncertainty and ambiguity when unstructured problems and ill-defined solutions are the norm; and 3) intellective skills or the ability to understand the connection between representations of documents, activities, and processes and the actual object or process being represented.

Investigators: Elizabeth Yakel and SI Doctoral Student Deborah A. Torres

Articles: E. Yakel and Deborah A. Torres, (in press), "AI: Archival Intelligence and User Expertise," American Archivist.

E. Yakel, (2002), "Listening to Users," Archival Issues (26/2).

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