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Article
Publication date: 30 August 2023

Roswitha Skare

The purpose of this study is to show that the neo-documentary – or complimentary – approach in Library and Information Science by no means is conservative, but highly necessary…

158

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to show that the neo-documentary – or complimentary – approach in Library and Information Science by no means is conservative, but highly necessary also in today's digitized media landscape. An example from a digitized photo archive is chosen to demonstrate the importance of a complimentary analysis that considers both material aspects as well as social and mental ones.

Design/methodology/approach

By taking Jenna Hartel's description of the neo-documentary turn as point of departure, the paper focuses on one case, the portrait of Johannes Abrahamsen Motka taken by Sophus Tromholt in 1883 and discusses different versions of the photograph from glass plate negatives to digitized versions in different contexts and media.

Findings

Many of the same paratextual elements can be found in different versions, also the digitized ones, to help the viewer to establish a historical context, but the images exhibited today are nevertheless no longer the same ones taken by Tromholt at the end of the 19th century. Not only have the material properties changed, but also – and probably even more important in most cases – the social and mental aspects. More re-contextualization is needed for today's audiences to recognize and understand a historical photograph taken in a colonial context. Focusing on document's material elements is not novel within the LIS-field, but the so-called neo-documentary turn was also a reaction on political and technological developments during the 1980s and 1990s. The increased focus on understanding a document in a complimentary way has demonstrated its impact during the last decades and is, at the same time, still work in progress.

Research limitations/implications

As a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.

Originality/value

In providing a case study, this article illustrates the necessity of employing a complimentary approach when analyzing documents. This also implicates the claim that the neo-documentary turn – or complimentary as it rather should be called – by no means is a conservative one, but a highly necessary one in today's digitized media landscape.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 17 December 2020

Roswitha Skare

The purpose of this study is to provide a discussion on how to apply Genette's concept of the paratext to analyze digital documents. The article argues that the concept, despite…

693

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to provide a discussion on how to apply Genette's concept of the paratext to analyze digital documents. The article argues that the concept, despite its shortcomings, is useful because it gives us the terminology to analyze elements often ignored and overlooked.

Design/methodology/approach

By taking Gérard Genette's concept of the paratext as point of departure, the paper focuses on three controversial issues in the scholarly work about paratext and digital documents: the division of paratext into peritext and epitext, the explosive growth of paratext and the question of authorization of text and paratext.

Findings

Questions related to the spatial division of the paratext into peritext and epitext, the difficulty of where to draw the line between text and paratext and the question of authorization are not new for digital documents but did already occur in the analog world. Even if many decisions like what to include and what to exclude in an analysis are left to the researcher, this does not mean that Genette's concept is unsuitable for digital documents. On the contrary, the concept gives us the terminology to analyze elements of often ignored and overlooked, also for digital documents.

Research limitations/implications

As a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.

Originality/value

In providing a discussion of digital documents and some of the controversial issues discussed by other researchers, this article shows the relevance of Genette's concept, also for our work with digital documents.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 77 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 19 August 2021

Andreas Vårheim and Roswitha Skare

In museum research, museums are held as vital in maintaining the public sphere. This scoping review takes stock of the present status of museum–public sphere research by providing…

604

Abstract

Purpose

In museum research, museums are held as vital in maintaining the public sphere. This scoping review takes stock of the present status of museum–public sphere research by providing an overview of the existing literature as a point of departure for future research. In short, it maps the research aims, theoretical concepts, research methods and findings within the field and identifies research gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

A scoping review methodology is used to provide a knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere literature. This approach is instrumental for researching multi-disciplinary, fragmented or underdeveloped research fields. Reviews can help identify otherwise easily overlooked gaps in the research literature and are an essential tool.

Findings

Overwhelmingly, the published literature consists of case studies, some of which are theoretically ambitious. Still, cases are selected without explicit goals regarding analytical or theoretical generalization, and the studies are not placed within a theory-building framework. Moreover, the museum–public sphere research primarily focuses on museums in the core Anglosphere countries and is conducted by researchers affiliated with institutions in those countries. The museum–community relationship is a common research theme addressing engagement with the public through either visitor participation or community participation.

Originality/value

This is the first published scoping review or systematically conducted review and knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere research literature to our knowledge. The article finds and discusses a range of research gaps that need to be addressed theoretically and empirically.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 78 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Roswitha Skare

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on whether more traditional documents like a film of the classical silent era can be discussed as an unbounded document.

828

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on whether more traditional documents like a film of the classical silent era can be discussed as an unbounded document.

Design/methodology/approach

By taking Gérard Genette’s concept of the paratext as point of departure and focussing on the exhibition of Nanook of the North during the silent era, the paper discusses elements neglected in most of the academic writings about the film, thereby illustrating the highly problematic notion of film as one original or authentic document that comes as a repeatable unit with clear borders.

Findings

More a “one-time performance” (Hansen, 1991, p. 93) than identical repetition of the film is one argument for talking about a document unbounded. Genette’s concept of the paratext provides a tool to handle the fluid character of these performances and makes us conscious about the complexity of elements both outside and inside the document and on the border between the inside and the outside. In documentation studies the concept of the paratext provides us with a terminology that allows us to place and name elements of a document belonging to its materiality.

Originality/value

In providing a case study based on archival material that has not been used before and is not available to a wider public, this paper shows the relevance of investigating films not as a repeatable unit with clear borders, but rather as an unbounded document.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 72 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 4 September 2009

Roswitha Skare

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on the concept of complementarity and to show how it can work in a concrete document analysis.

1465

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on the concept of complementarity and to show how it can work in a concrete document analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

Starting out with the question of whether it is correct to refer to Bohr's principle of complementarity in the field of document analysis, the paper discusses literature written on the subject, before it uses an example to show that it would be more accurate to view complementarity as a relationship between parts that form a whole, thereby not mutually exclusive.

Findings

The paper finds that the various approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They could be investigated either parallel to one another or nearly simultaneously, even though synchronous observation is not possible. The extent to which a complementary document analysis with an equal weighting of all aspects is actually feasible remains an open question.

Originality/value

The principle of complementarity is rather new in document analysis. The concept introduced by Niels W. Lund is discussed here for the first time.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 65 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 24 April 2024

Michael Keeble Buckland

264

Abstract

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 14 November 2022

Iulian Vamanu

This study examined dossiers of informative pursual (DIPs), a particular type of secret police files, before and after the fall of Communism in Romania. These DIPs were often…

190

Abstract

Purpose

This study examined dossiers of informative pursual (DIPs), a particular type of secret police files, before and after the fall of Communism in Romania. These DIPs were often weaponized against citizens perceived to be anti-government.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on Buckland's (2017) concept of a document as an object with physical, mental and social parts, the study used thematic analysis to examine volumes of DIPs from 1945 to 1989 Communist Romania as well as several recorded reactions to the DIPs by the victims who were targeted by the Communist secret police.

Findings

Four themes were revealed by the study's findings and discussed within the manuscript: DIPs as unreliable epistemic tools, DIPs as tools to construct the identity of the “People's Enemy,” DIPs as weapons to fight the “People's Enemy” and DIPs as tools that could be used in counterattacks during post-Communism, including in political-economic blackmailing.

Research limitations/implications

There are two major limitations to research of DIPs. First, since many DIPs have been stolen, copied illicitly or even destroyed, it is difficult to articulate precisely their actual or potential social and political effects. Researchers may often detect these effects only indirectly, based on information leaks in the news. Second, many victims of surveillance practices during the Communist period have chosen not to leave records of their reactions to reading the DIPs that targeted them.

Social implications

Current and future comprehensive studies of DIPs can reveal possible parallels between surveillance by the Communist regime and the massive data-collection that occurs in democratic societies, particularly given the increased technical capabilities for processing data in these democratic societies.

Originality/value

Within documentation studies, secret police files and document weaponization have been particularly under-researched, therefore this study contributes to a small body of literature.

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Article
Publication date: 10 January 2019

Marc Richard Hugh Kosciejew

The purpose of this paper is to begin a conversation about the term “nondocument.” It analyzes this term’s possible concepts, components and contexts.

390

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to begin a conversation about the term “nondocument.” It analyzes this term’s possible concepts, components and contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper draws upon the work of documentation studies scholars, including Michael Buckland, Bernd Frohmann and Niels Windfeld Lund, to begin an exploration of the term “nondocument,” framed within the context of the 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations brokered by the USA. It is comprised of seven sections revolving around different questions regarding non-document.

Findings

The document at the center of the 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations aimed to establish a framework for an eventual final-status peace agreement. There was skepticism, however, about the document’s proposed reservations inscription permitting either party to express reservations with any part of the framework. It was claimed that this reservation inscription made the document self-negating and therefore a non-document. This document was arguably a hybrid entity: a document-non-document. It was a document in the context of the negotiations. It became a non-document in the context of the collapse of the negotiations.

Research limitations/implications

The 2013–2014 peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, brokered by the USA, revolved around a diplomatic document outlining provisions for a final peace settlement. The two parties were skeptical of a proposed provision permitting reservations to be expressed over other provisions within the document. An official involved in the negotiations stated that this provision made the document a non-document. But what exactly is meant by this term? This paper takes the opportunity to begin exploring such a notion. The aim, however, is not to definitively define non-document but instead to raise questions and provoke further discussions of this term.

Originality/value

The concept of non-document is underdeveloped. This paper presents questions and conceptual tools to help develop this term whilst providing possible points of departure for further examinations of how documents are or might be non-documents. These questions and tools also point in directions for various other approaches to phenomena that could be regarded as documents in some respects but not in others, or the ways in which something could is “almost” but “not quite” a document, or even help determine what is “not document.” Ultimately, this term could help expand other “conventional” approaches to documentation.

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Article
Publication date: 8 February 2024

Ronald E. Day

The purpose of this paper is to examine Robert Pagès' 1948 conception of “auto-document” as a possible forerunner to the neo-documentalist conception of “documentality” as…

90

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine Robert Pagès' 1948 conception of “auto-document” as a possible forerunner to the neo-documentalist conception of “documentality” as offered in Bernd Frohmann’s 2012 article “The Documentality of Mme Briet’s Antelope.”

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual and historical.

Findings

Robert Pagès' concept of the “auto-document” in his 1948 article proposed an understanding of documents that depends on the “uniqueness” of a document. His article proposed a post-Otletian theory of documents similar to a discussion of documents by Bernd Frohmann in 2012 with the concept of “documentality.” Further attention to Pagès work and to Frohmann’s works could result in new understandings of Briet’s works, could illuminate other works and authors understood as belonging to neo-documentation and could yield new understandings of documents and information from the perspective of documentality as a new philosophy of information and documents.

Research limitations/implications

Further attention to Pagès' work and to Frohmann’s works could yield new understandings of documents and the relation of documentary types across natural and sociocultural domains and bring renewed attention to documentality as a new philosophy of information and documents.

Practical implications

Attention to these issues could broaden the study of documents and documentation, increase the historical understanding of Suzanne Briet’s works and bring light to other works in neo-documentation, particularly in regard to the concept of documentality as a new philosophy of documentation and information.

Social implications

Attention to these issues could broaden the study of documents and documentation to include more broadly animal and other natural entities and our relationships to them. The works cited also illuminate an empirical science understanding of documents, documentary evidence and information.

Originality/value

This is one of the first papers commenting on Robert Pagès’ works and brings renewed attention to Bernd Frohmann’s works, as well as to neo-documentation and its concept and philosophy of documentality, as a new philosophy of information and documents.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

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