User:HS904679/Archive

(In Other section)

Some archives are made up of a compilation of both types of collections. An example of this type of combined compilation is The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria which contain a multitude of collections of donations from both individuals and organizations from all over the world. Many of these donations have yet to be cataloged, but are currently in the process of being digitally preserved made available to the public online.

Limitations and Alternatives
Archives that primarily contain physical artifacts and printed documents are increasingly shifting to digitizing items that did not originate digitally, which are then usually stored away.This allows for greater accessibility when using search tools and databases as well as an increase in the availability of digitized materials from outside the physical parameters of an archive, however there may be an element of loss or disconnect when there are gaps in what items are made available digitally. Both physical and digital archives also generally have specific limitations regarding the types of content that is deemed able to be preserved, categorized, and archived. Conventional institutionalized archive spaces have a tendency to prioritize tangible items over ephemeral experiences, actions, affects, and even bodies. This type of potentially biased prioritization may be seen as a form of privileging particular types of knowledge or interpreting certain experiences as more valid than others, limiting the content available to archive users, leading to barriers in accessing information and potentially the alienation of under represented and/or marginalized populations and their epistemologies and ontologies.

As a result of this perceived under representation, some activists are making efforts to decolonize contemporary archival institutions that may employ hegemonic and white supremacist practices by implementing subversive alternatives such as anarchiving or counter-archiving with the intention of making intersectional accessibility a priority for those who cannot or do not want to access contemporary archival institutions. An example of this is Morgan M. Page’s description of disseminating transgender history directly to trans people through various social media and networking platforms like tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as via podcast. While the majority of archived materials are typically well conserved within their collections, anarchiving’s attention to ephemerality also brings to light the inherent impermanence and gradual change of physical objects over time as the result of being handled.

The concept of counter-archiving brings into question what tends to be considered archivable and what is therefore selected to be preserved within conventional contemporary archives. With the options available through counter-archiving, there is the potential to "challenge traditional conceptions of history" as they are perceived within contemporary archives, which creates space for narratives that are often not present in many archival materials. The unconventional nature of counter-archiving practices makes room for the maintaining of ephemeral qualities contained within certain historically significant experiences, performances, and personally or culturally relevant stories that do not typically have a space in conventional archives.

The practices of anarchiving and counter-archiving are both rooted in social justice work.