The Problem of Anonymity in Archives: A Literature Review

Archivists processing documents rely on factors such as authorship and provenance to contextualize their materials and render them searchable. But in my past experience as an archives user, I repeatedly came across instances of anonymity: letters and diaries by unnamed authors or to unknown recipien...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inBilgi Dünyası Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 240 - 250
Main Author Emily Ross
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Üniversite ve Araştırma Kütüphanecileri Derneği 31.10.2013
Subjects
anonymity
anonymous
author
material of unknown origin
pseudonym
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Archivists processing documents rely on factors such as authorship and provenance to contextualize their materials and render them searchable. But in my past experience as an archives user, I repeatedly came across instances of anonymity: letters and diaries by unnamed authors or to unknown recipients, photographs of unknown subjects. In some cases this anonymity is a loss of information that was once there, but in other case it enabled the material to come into existence in the first place: such as in the case of satirical political poetry, for which a writer might face legal censure. In this literature review, the issue of anonymity in the archives is explored, both in a pragmatic sense (recommended strategies for managing it), and a philosophical sense (according anonymous documents the same status as documents with known authors).
ISSN:2148-354X
DOI:10.15612/BD.2013.119