Column: Citizen archivist

Citizen archivists is a term coined by David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, to call a new breed of users of archives. Visitors who not only come to take information, but bring it as well. Visitors who help to create access to archives by contributing in the form of comments, transcripts or tags. The benefits to the archives are clear, but why would visitors even bother? Let's take me as an example. Whenever I find a Dutch immigrant on Ancestry with a hopelessly mangled name, I … [Read more...]