Collecting our thoughts and re-collecting our stories: The collection of personal records in archival institutions.

摘要

This study demonstrates that the motives behind a collecting mentality are necessary for archivists to understand, however, since the forces driving some individuals to collect objects mirror those that inspire others to create and keep personal records. As such, the desire to control time, explore personal identity, create memory, develop life narratives and come to terms with human existence are all reasons why individuals both collect objects and create some types of personal records.; Chapter One will examine the psychology of collecting to establish what human needs are fulfilled in the collection of objects. The themes discussed will then be extended to the creation of personal records, where it will be illustrated that the same human needs are fulfilled through the collection of thoughts and stories as through the collection of objects. Chapter Two will review existing literature on the subject of archival appraisal, in particular highlighting how archivists have understood "collecting" to be related to the acquisition of records. Chapter Three focuses on the results of a case study of women's records at the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections and the Archives of Manitoba, which demonstrate how the themes at work in collecting objects have driven the creation of these personal records. It will be concluded, therefore, that the collecting mentality is one that archivists should understand, rather than dismiss, for it reveals some of the value and deeper functions of personal record keeping. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)