Archive Talk: Reclaiming Memory

Dominique Taffin (taffin@cg972.fr) of the Archives départementales de la Martinique shares with us their plans in developing Caribbean Archive content.

Reclaiming Memory: how can Caribbean archives contribute?

The rise of historical consciousness

1.1 An overview of Martinique

• 403 000 inhabitants



• A French territory since 1635



• From the colonial status to that of overseas region



• Citizenship since 1848

1.2 Public history : history as a leisure or as a need?



1.2.1 Searching and teaching history in Martinique from the XIXth c. to present

1.2.2 New practices : Amateurs and general public, genealogy



1.2 Public history : history as a leisure or as a need?



“We were never taught our history” : the “our ancestors, the Gauls” syndrome

• Teaching Martinican and Caribbean History at school



• Decolonization, nationalism and identity : the role of history



• The slavery issue

1.2.5 New practices : Amateurs and general public, Genealogy

• First clubs : the “béké” club



• The migrants’ club



• Local clubs : family history, friends of Archives…

II First responses of Archives to the demand

2.1 Flashback on the history of archives in Martinique

• 2.2 New directions for outreach since 2000



• 2.2.1 Knowing more about the audience



• 2.2.2 The action plan



• 2.3 Outreach programs in education



• 2.4 Outreach programs for the general public



• 2.5 Assessing outcomes

2.1 Flashback on the history of archives in Martinique

• Established 1949, building in 1973, extended 1998



• Most old documents kept overseas



• Educational programs since the beginning



• But keeping themselves beside the public debate on history and its public usages

2.2 New directions for outreach since 2000

• 2.2.1 Knowing more about the audience



• Reading-room users



• Visitors

2.2.2 The action plan :

• how to reach new audience and reflect social diversity in the use of archives



• How to address the urgent claims for memory



• How to develop trust and make the Archives the Archives of the people : outreach and donors

2.3 Outreach programs in education

• Meetings with the teachers :



• The 2007 conference on « teaching history in the Caribbean »



• Visits and workshops with schoolchildren



• Publication of educational thematic books



• Indian immigration



• Women



• World War I

2.4 Outreach programs for the general public

• Exhibitions



• Free colored people,



• Catholic church and popular religion…

2.5 Assessment

• Success of the education program



• Improvement of the media image of the Archives



• Exhibitions



• What is left to do :



• Moving from an « elite » audience to a popular audience



• Developing traveling exhibitions



• Conferences : targeting public expectations

III New perspectives

• The Banque numérique des patrimoines martiniquais



• The Martinican cultural Heritage Portal

3.1 Goals (Purpose and objectives)

• 3.1.1 External objectives



• a way to reach our distant public



• a response to the urging demand for direct access to documents and knowledge : an ATM to history and culture?



• reaching a younger audience



• tuning “old world” notion of cultural heritage with a “new world” approach

3.1.2 Internal objectives

• Revising our notion of Archives : resource +services



• Refining the skills of the staff in interacting with the public



• Learning how to work together with people having other skills

3.2 Merging access strategies to cultural heritage

• 3.2.1 Archives, historical landmarks, artworks, untangible heritage altogether in one portal



• 3.2.2 Networking and partnership wanted!

3.3 A tentative user-friendly approach

• Integrating a GIS system



• Easy search and filtered search



• Multilevel approach for different audiences: general public, specialists, education



• Collaborative indexation

As a conclusion

A renewed reflection on our 2002 outreach objectives

network and partnership : a better investigation on the social networks, and now the virtual ones that Facebook etc. have allowed

a deeper impact assessment of our actual audience so as to keep up with priorities of action

An efficient communication

And, above all, keeping from routine!

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Archive Talk: Digitization Goals

The Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Archives, with the Society of American Archivists are to have their annual Roundtable Meetings in August.



The guest speaker this season is Tim Law of the Imaging and Production Manager Caribbean and Latin America at FamilySearch.org, his talk is on:

Digitization Goals and Projects in Latin America

and the Caribbean

Tim Law is Imaging and Production Manager (Caribbean and Latin America) for the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), aka FamilySearch, the research and document preservation arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.



Since 1938, GSU has been microfilming vital records from all corners of the globe, making them available to church members and the public through its Family History Centers worldwide. More than 2.4 million reels of vital records have been microfilmed to-date. In 1999, GSU’s FamilySearch Web site was launched, making many of these records more accessible than ever. In its first six months in operation, www.FamilySearch.org online databases containing 640 million names received over 1.5 billion hits, and its scope and usage continues to grow.



For the past several years, GSU has gradually ceased its microfilming operations worldwide, and new resources are now being added in digital format. The FamilySearch Record Search Pilot project consists of indexed and scanned images of newly captured records and converted images from its older microfilm records. These digital resources are key resources for researchers, social scientists and historians and are being made available to the public at no charge.



Every year vital records in Latin America and the Caribbean are lost to the devastating effects of heat, humidity, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanos, sub-standard storage conditions and political instability. For many countries in the region, preservation funding sources are scarce and there is limited access to technical training for digitization projects. By forging collaborations with government archives, churches and historical societies, FamilySearch’s regional digitization services are making a difference by providing affordable access to and preserving the intellectual content of records.

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