Visual analytics, cognition and archival arrangement and description: studying archivists' cognitive tasks to leverage visual thinking for a sustainable archival future

摘要

This paper explores the possibility of using visual analysis to support archival functions. It first reviews the current state of experimentation with the use of interactive visual interfaces in the archival domain, noting several gaps including the absence of formal studies of cognitive and perceptual tasks. The paper then reports on preliminary results from a cognitive task analysis of archival arrangement and description, providing a broad brush description of archival analysis during arrangement and description as an example of archival sense-making. It then suggests some possible leverage points where visual analytics technology might be applied to support archival arrangement and description and concludes by reflecting on some theoretical and practical aspects of visualization technologies.