CNI Report and the Changing Role of Documents in Society and the Role of Cultural Heritage "Memory" Institutions

CNI Report

Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch will present highlights of the recent CNI members meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The Changing Role of Documents in Society and the Role of Cultural Heritage "Memory" Institutions

The Past has passed. History is composed of narrative claims about it. Understanding culture in broad sense, cultural heritage is what we have now, inherited from or constructed about the past. “Memory Institutions” usually means archives, libraries and museums, but is broader. The separation of these three is based partly by their different kinds of collections and partly by separate professionalizations. However, their cognitive and political functions are similar and they operate in the same political and economic environments. Technology “affords” but also limits and there is conflict between culture (fluid) and technology (fixed, yet unstable). Editors’ notes as an example of change.