A symposium dedicated to investigating what are/ought to be the most important considerations when collecting sources for Social History now and in the future.
The theme was discussed from the perspective of academic considerations, linking purpose and use of social history with the materials collected. What has proven to be and is considered to be important and what less or not at all? How important were/are the interactions between researchers and collection specialists and what has been the role of historians in building collections? How intrinsic is this relationship? What have been best practices and worse practices, the role of political considerations, international security, the rescuing of materials from unstable regions, the associated ethic code of conduct, etc. What is the remit and the role of academic institutions in particular circumstances (e.g. state-sponsored), the relationship between academic independence and the rescuing of threatened collections?
The last session consiered the future. How do we envisage the future and how will changes brought about by the digital age affect collection building practices for social science? What is the influence of academic institutions in the trias informatica (state-press-academia) now and in the future?
Introduction paper by Titia van der Werf
The organizing committee
Marien van der Heijden
Jan Lucassen
Monique Kruithof
Marcel van der Linden
Titia van der Werf
Erik-Jan Zürcher
