The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) is pleased to announce the publication of five new articles:
"Planning to Preserve: Creating a Digital Preservation Roadmap at a Small Archive," written by Amanda Garfunkel.
Download the article: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/8/
Abstract: The preservation of electronic records according to best practices can seem overwhelming for archives with limited staff and resources. Creating a digital preservation implementation plan is a thoughtful exercise that allows archivists from a broad range of institutions to articulate achievable goals and create a roadmap towards a mature digital preservation program. Using tools that are flexible will help small repositories take the first step towards better stewardship of their electronic records. This article will discuss the creation of a digital preservation implementation plan at a small institution that includes activities such as surveys, benchmarking, and creating documentation. Practical steps and key takeaways demonstrate that this process can be emulated by any repository.
"The Dwellings of Ybor City Project: Using Archival Recovery and Mapping to Examine Historical Erasure," written by Stephanie M. Mackin.
Download the article: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/9/
Abstract: This article examines how digital archives and spatial humanities can address historical erasure. It focuses on reconstructing the lost residential landscapes of Ybor City, a culturally significant Tampa, Florida, neighborhood. The area was transformed by mid-twentieth-century slum clearance and urban renewal. The Dwellings of Ybor City project uses archival theory, participatory ethics, and GIS-based storytelling to geolocate and reinterpret a Depression-era album called "Photographs Showing Dwellings in the Ybor Slum Area." By pairing digitized historical photographs with contemporary rephotography and mapping them to their original sites, the project restores visibility to homes and neighborhoods largely erased from both the physical and archival record. The project is hosted on the University of South Florida Libraries' Tampa Through Time Portal. It integrates GIS mapping, metadata enrichment, and visual storytelling to provide dynamic, location-based access to historical and contemporary imagery. Its curated "Then and Now" features, community engagement projects, and educational outreach encourage public interest in local history. These features also deepen understanding of Ybor City's transformation. The project faces challenges, including incomplete provenance and limited temporal coverage. However, it provides a scalable foundation for future expansion, including other neighborhoods and community-contributed stories. Overall, the Dwellings of Ybor City project demonstrates the power of digital humanities to connect scholarship, public memory, and urban history through accessible, place-based storytelling.
"TEACH and CARE: How Community-Centered Archival Practice May Transform Education, Archives, and Community History," written by Thuy Vo Dang.
Download the article: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/10/
Abstract: Academic librarians and archivists may work toward transforming education, archives, and community history (TEACH) through implementing a CARE approach. This includes a commitment to critical, liberatory, and person-centered praxis in archives co-creation and partnership with community organizations at the frontlines of documenting and preserving marginalized histories. Caring, in the archival context, begins with an acknowledgement of the harm mainstream archival institutions have caused for minoritized groups and then moving towards implementation of non-extractive, flexible and ethical partnership and/or stewardship of historical and cultural heritage materials. Caring also demands critical, rigorous, ongoing commitments to activation of the archival records by centering the needs of the people those records represent.
"Reflections on Language and Translation: Toward a 'Translation Turn' in Archival Studies," written by Fiorella Foscarini.
Download the article: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/11/
Abstract: As the dominant lingua franca, the English language acts as an invisible, hegemonic force that exerts a strong influence over the framing of the global world. By using English unreflexively in research, education, and professional cross-cultural exchanges, we may unwittingly support unequal power structures, the homogenization of research, and the marginalization of traditions and knowledge systems based on languages other than English. In most cases where translation is involved, the translating act is treated as a fait accompli or a mere technical process, without acknowledging that exact equivalence is impossible to achieve, and that translation has important epistemological, methodological, and ethical consequences.
The purpose of this article is to increase reflexivity in the use of language and translation in archival scholarly and professional communication, and by doing so, support the visibility and survival of local, non-English-based recordkeeping cultures. Through a review of key linguistic and translation concepts, the article introduces various translation approaches-notably, those that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, when the discipline of translation studies undertook a "cultural turn"-and examines their relevance to archival research, scholarship, education, and the profession. It also discusses insights gleaned from social science disciplines that have embraced a "translation turn" in the last few decades, with the hope to encourage a similar turn in archival studies.
"Toward Healing and Justice: Building Equitable Relationships with Community Archives in El Salvador," written by Giada Ferrucci, Amanda Oliver, Tom Belton, and Fernando Chacon.
Download the article: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/12/
Abstract: The article examines an archival component of a larger research initiative. Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador is a multidisciplinary, cross-sector partnership. The overall methodology of the project is participatory and survivor-centered. It aims to document and commemorate the history of the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) and prevent future violence. The component of the Surviving Memory partnership the authors describe in this article elucidates the crucial importance of community archival practices undertaken to support memory, healing, and justice in El Salvador. The authors are co-investigators and collaborators who have supported the work of community archivists in El Salvador through a series of in-person and online workshops and needs assessments. The authors begin with a review of the literature surrounding community archives, trauma, and historical memory work in El Salvador. The main part of the article is a case study of the Centro Arte para la Paz (CAP) and its efforts to implement trauma-informed practice and move toward healing and justice.
JCAS is a peer-reviewed, open access journal sponsored by the New England Archivists, Yale University Library, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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Sally Blanchard-O'Brien
Marketing & Outreach Associate
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies
email.jcas@gmail.com
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