Trust and professional identity: narratives, counter-narratives and lingering ambiguities

摘要

In the field of archives, professional identity is constructed around the twin notions of archivists as trusted custodians and archival institutions as trusted repositories. This essay examines the historical links between professional identity and trust and the ways in which those links are being attenuated and reconfigured in the digital world. It argues that new information and communication technologies and shifting currents of thinking inside and outside the field of archives are challenging and transforming the archival understanding of the relationship between trust and professional identity.