In this issue, five contributors critique and analyze The Walt Whitman Archive by answering four questions about this digital archive. We invite you to read through the roundtable by question or by author.

The Archeology of Archival Practice: Disciplinarity and Disorder

by Gabrielle Dean

The primal scene of archival research takes place in a dreary reading room. A researcher sits at her table, inert. An archivist enters, pushing a cart that bears a dozen dusty gray boxes. (Can we get a close-up of a box, please, to show the label with the long call number?) The archivist unhinges a box, removes a numbered file folder and, placing it at the researcher’s elbow, steps back. The researcher stirs, then sits upright with a mechanical jolt. She turns sharply in the direction of the folder, flips it open and cocks her head towards the flimsy leaves inside; now she is reading. (Zoom in on the eyes as they click into focus.)

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Life in the Archives

Notes & Queries: On Archival Processes & Practices

Same Object, Different Audiences

by Elliot Shore

The encounter of the person with the object: that is the object of this journal and the focus of this first issue. This particular object, the Castle Book of Hours #2, a gift to the Bryn Mawr College Library, has been in my hands several times and is now part of an exhibition of objects from the College’s Special Collections. All of the objects in the exhibition have been in the hands of students and faculty over the years, encountered in classrooms, used in assignments, touched.

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Archive Fever: Favorite Objects & Finds

Cracking a Civil War Code

by Meg Norcia

civil-war-letter
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News & Announcements

1.19.12 ARL on DH

A publication of interest to Archive readers: http://www.arl.org/news/pr/spec326-6dec11.shtml Description from the press release: “The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Digital Humanities, SPEC Kit 326, which provides a snapshot of research library experiences with digital scholarship centers or services that support the humanities (e.g., history, art, music, film, literature, philosophy, religion, etc.) and the [...]

11.29.11 Digital Archives course

Policies and Practices in Access to Digital Archives: Towards a New Research and Policy Agenda The Central European University invite applicants for an intensive one-week summer session in Budapest from 2 July-6 July, 2012. This course has been developed to meet the specific needs of established professionals looking to deepen their impact on policy issues [...]

11.23.11 AAS Fellowships

(From AAS): American Antiquarian Society Visiting Academic Fellowships, 2012-2013 The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) invites applications for its 2012-13 visiting academic fellowships. At least three AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships will be awarded for periods extending from four to twelve months. Long-term fellowships are intended for scholars beyond the doctorate; senior and mid-career scholars [...]

11.22.11 Reading List

A new issue of DHQ just came out, on the “Future of Digital Studies.”

11.19.11 More on the Walt Whitman Archive

For readers of the round table on The Walt Whitman Archive, here’s another interesting analysis: Emily Monks-Leeson, “Archives on the Internet: Representing Contexts and Provenance from Repository to Website.” The American Archivist. Vol. 74 (Spring/Summer 2011): 38-57.