Re-aligning Archival Practice and Researcher Needs to Improve Data Discovery

科学档案馆收集和保存通过研究创造的材料。人类学档案记录了过去和现在的人类多样性。这些数据是私人和公共部门投入大量时间和资源的结果，今天仍然与研究有关。它们被科学家、公民和源社区成员用来帮助回答从社区到全球的各种问题。然而，这一材料没有得到充分利用，因为过时和不适当的档案描述做法使研究人员无法找到和访问收藏。尽管在线数据库和搜索工具越来越强大，但有价值的档案数据仍然隐藏，往往只是偶然发现。该奖项资助的研究项目由Gabriela Pérez Báez博士和约书亚A博士领导。贝尔（国家人类学档案馆，史密森学会），将通过调查人类学的需求和数据收集的做法，为提高人类学材料的存档标准提供信息，以解决这个问题。该项目将提高对人类学档案在保存数据方面的作用的认识，促进人类学档案的查阅和发现，并帮助确保这种材料既可供未来的研究人员使用，也可供他们使用。 该项目将由史密森学会国家人类学档案馆（NAA）的一名博士后研究员进行。NAA是全国最大的人类学档案馆，是进行这项研究的理想地点。除了从130多位人类学家那里收集了大量与地球仪约2,000种文化有关的不同媒介外，NAA每年还与数百名研究人员联系，这提供了大量的研究人口。该研究员将由语言学家佩雷斯·贝兹和文化人类学家贝尔指导，并得到档案管理员吉娜·拉帕波特的支持。 在这个为期三年的项目中，研究小组将调查档案用户，以确定他们是谁，他们如何获得这些集合，以及什么障碍限制他们使用集合。这项调查的结果将用于实施新的编目术语和元数据字段，以确保材料的可重复性。将编制一套初步的三个案例研究，以测试这些编目技术。与学者和社区谁在这些材料的既得利益，这项工作将得到完善，并在使这些材料的访问所涉及的道德进行了探讨。由于“天生数字化”数据的增加，研究团队还将探讨如何有效弥合档案数字化和模拟化的差距。结果将通过参加专业会议、史密森尼学会的研讨会和出版物来传播。这笔赠款将产生：1）培训新的档案领导，2）更好地获取人类学数据，3）开发一个可以应用于美国各地人类学档案的模型。最终，目标是促进更好地利用已经收集的人类学材料，无论它们现在和将来存放在哪里。

Scientific archives collect and maintain materials created through research. Anthropological archives document human diversity in the past and present. These data, which result from major private and public investments of time and resources, continue to be relevant to research today. They are used by scientists, citizens, and source community members to help answer questions that range from the communal to the global. However, this material is not being fully utilized because outdated and inappropriate archival descriptive practices make it impossible for researchers to locate and access collections. Despite increasingly robust online databases and search tools, valuable archival data remain hidden, often discovered only by chance. The research project funded by this award, led by Dr. Gabriela Pérez Báez and Dr. Joshua A. Bell (National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution), will address this problem by investigating anthropological needs and data-gathering practices to inform improved standards for archiving anthropological materials. The project will improve understanding of the role of anthropological archives in preserving data, facilitate access and discovery in anthropological archives, and help ensure that this material is both available to and usable by future researchers. The project will be carried out by a post-doctoral fellow based at the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Archives (NAA). The NAA is the nation's largest anthropological archive and is an ideal location to carry out this research. As well as having extensive collections of different media from more than 130 anthropologists relating to some 2,000 cultures from around the globe, the NAA is contacted by hundreds of researchers each year, which provides a large study population. The fellow will be mentored by linguist Pérez Baez and cultural anthropologist Bell, with support from archivist Gina Rappaport. During this three-year project, the research team will survey archive users to determine who they are, how they obtain access to these collections, and what impediments limit their use of collections. Results from this survey will then feed into the implementation of new cataloguing terms and metadata fields that will ensure the discoverability of materials. An initial set of three case studies will be developed to test these cataloguing techniques. Working with scholars and communities who have vested interests in these materials, this work will be refined, and the ethics involved in making this material accessible explored. Because of the increase in "born digital" data, the research team will also explore how to effectively bridge archival digital and analogue gaps. Results will be disseminated through participation in professional conferences, a workshop at the Smithsonian, and publications. This grant will result in: 1) training of new archival leadership, 2) better access to anthropological data, and 3) development of a model that can be applied to anthropological archives throughout the United States. Ultimately, the goal is to facilitate better use of already-collected anthropological materials wherever they are housed, now and in the future.