Paper short abstract:

In social sciences archiving and re-using the research materials is a newly found field of theoretical discussions. What can we folklorists as established users of archives learn from the problematics of re-use in social sciences? What could they learn from us?

Paper long abstract:

Mieke Bal's idea of travelling concepts carries with itself an idea of disciplines living somehow in different theoretical realities or different ”time zones”. What is an established state of art someplace can be totally new invention in other place. It looks like in social sciences the questions of archiving and re-using the research materials is a newly found field of theoretical discussions. Interesting discussions about re-using interviews and other types of research materials are taking place especially in European oral history studies (Paul Thompson, Joanna Bornat and Malin Thor Tureby just to name some of our colleagues who have written about this topic), among social scientists (Niamh Moore) and among digital archive people in social sciences and humanities (Libby Bishop, Arja Kuula-Luumi). For a folklorist working in and for folklore archives this situation looks first somewhat funny: haven't we been archiving and re-using our research materials already for a century? However, looking more deeply into the cases of re-use, questions of theoretical implications of re-use and ethical problems in archiving interviews made for a project not existing anymore wakes up also important questions about folklore archives. Have we talked enough about ethical and theoretical questions of the re-use of archived materials? What could we learn from the problematics of re-use in social sciences? Is there something we could offer to this discussion based on our longer practice of secondary analysis of archive materials? Should we be more reflective in our secondary use of research materials?

Paper short abstract:

Paper will be based on project with a goal to collect and process the data related to the Czech and Slovak subcultures including developing online platform to publicize them. I will discuss questions on infrastructure, technology and access in light of three paradigms – archive, library, collection.

Paper long abstract:

The paper will be based on experience with the project that had a goal to collect and process the data related to the Czech and Slovak fanzines. Within the project we have collected and digitized more than 3000 zines and conducted more than 50 interviews with zinesters and we started to develop online platform to publicize them. Our collection comprises mainly digitized materials from punk, hardcore, skinhead, metal, environmentalist, anarchist and feminist scenes from 1980s to 2010s.

These data have been produced by non-institutionalized networks of independent publishers and activists and were made in DIY way mostly for informal communities that position themselves as alternative or politically oppositional movements. This fact raises several challenges for archiving practice. In my paper I will address three questions that respond to the theme of the panel based on our experience and informed by debates we have had with subcultural archivists from Germany, USA, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia. What is the institutional infrastructure that enable/disable archiving of subcultures? What are the technological decisions that must made and what is their impact? What kind of access to the data is possible in terms of technology, legal regulations and ethics? I will discuss these three questions in the case of our data collection on subcultures in view of three paradigms – archive, library and (private) collection. All these three paradigms offer significant limits in data collection, management and access and I will present our approach to these challenges.

Paper short abstract:

Access to collections and data is one of the most fundamental starting points for every humanities researcher. In 2018 access to information changed dramatically with the coming of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This paper is about the GDPR and the access to collections and data.

Paper long abstract:

Access to collections and data is one of the most fundamental starting points for every humanities researcher. In 2018 access to information changed dramatically in the European Union with the coming of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This paper is about issues regarding the GDPR and the access to collections and data. The collections of the Meertens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) will be presented as a use case.

The GDPR emphasizes the individual's rights to understand and control how their data is used. The impact of the GDPR for researchers and other users includes the:

1. ability to use data;

2. ability to transfer data;

3. requirements for storing data.

It also affects the collection and data departments of institutes, universities and museums. Most collections contain legacy data and the question on how to make collections meet with the new regulations is an issue. Within this setting the vast collections of the Meertens Institute are no exception.

The collections of the Meertens Institute concentrate on the diversity in culture and language in the Netherlands. Next to a wealth of information these collections contain all kinds of personal information such as religious information regarding research participants. This poses a challenge and this paper will address the following issues:

1. How does the GDPR affect the access of the collections and data.

2. How does the institute cope with the GDPR.

3. What is the impact of the GDPR on the use of the collections and data.

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