Course talk:ARST573/Archives in Southeast Asia

Alison—this is going to be an exhaustive and excellent resource when you're through with it. Well done!

One thing to consider: playing around with heading/title formatting. The layout works great, but one thing I noticed reading and scrolling back through your page was that the headings for sub- and sub-sub-sections 2 kind of blended together. Headings for each country and 'material', 'mission,' 'challenges' are all bold and relatively the same size and I'd loose track of where I was. Maybe make each country's nations archives it's own section (with only sub-sections within it)? Keeping 'National Archives of Southeast Asia' as an independent section, maybe this is where a brief discussion of similarities/differences/general trends (as Allison mentioned) could go, setting up for the sections that followed.

Does that point and those suggestions make sense? Purely a visual thing that may fix itself as more content gets plugged in.

Hey Amy, this is an excellent suggestion. I feel similarly re: blending of sub-sections. I will incorporate your & Allison's suggestions and see if that allows the page to flow more smoothly. Thank you!

I like your changes, I feel as if I'm able to pop in and out of sections more easily. Devoting each country its own section is also a nod to the ideas your present in your introduction.

Allison- 1) Your page is looking really great. I know you mention right off the bat (which I found super helpful) that the grouping and organization of these countries together into SE Asia is more of a western idea and a way of grouping than a real connection between them, and I know there are still some sections you are working and maybe they will answer my question, but after reading through your page I was left wondering how these countries have affected one another and if there is any collaboration or similarities between them. I am fascinated how so many countries have gone about archival work differently even when in close vicinity such as Canada and the United States. I know this may come down to the Colonization section and seeing as many of them were colonized (or lacked colonization) by different countries, I think it would be really interesting to see how this has affected their archival practices and perhaps connected some and distanced others. With this I am really interested in how these countries have connections and in some cases maybe disconnected. - Also with the colonization will you be mentioning if some of the records for these countries are not currently in these counties? colonization can be tricky and I was wondering if perhaps any of the countries have requested their records back from the countries that colonized or influenced them. ( hopefully some of my questions if they have answers will be helpful in the areas you have left such as colonization)

2) I actually was wondering about the National Archives of Myanmar, you mention that not much was done to preserve records but does that mean that there are no records? or do you suspect that there are records but they are just not combined in any sort of formal setting? I know with this one there really might not be much information and It is my curiosity getting the better of me but If there is any mention or speculation of what type of records might be around? or perhaps even found in other locations that would be considered the records of Myanmar?

3)In the Tropical Climate section will you be commenting on preservation and perhaps some difficulties?

4)With all the different histories and governments and colonization differences I think you have done a really great job organizing and explaining each of these countries.

Hey Morgan, Thank you for your detailed comments! I really appreciate it.

1) Totally. I hope to add more content related to collaboration between nations in the "Considerations" section -- by this afternoon/evening there should be more information available : ) 2) I might've been too hasty with my initial intro to Myanmar -- I've since updated that section, with one sub-section still in progress (details of UNESCO aid). Let me know if there are any other questions you might have and I'll try to find a way to answer them! Myanmar is definitely an interesting case for archival work 3) Tropical climate section: definitely will comment on preservation/conservation concerns. Paper (which is used most of the traditional manuscripts in the region) is not the biggest fan of humidity heh

Hi Alison, Having a map of the area is visually appealing; your introduction is very well written and lays out perfectly what’s going to be talked about on the page. In your section “Common Archival Considerations” are you planning on writing more on each of the topics you listed?

Hey Cathryn, thanks for the comments. Re: Considerations section -- definitely planning to write more about each of these. That is what most of today will be tailored to -- hopefully by this afternoon/evening there will be more content available : )

Hi Alison, I know you haven't had a chance to get much up, but I thought I'd try just going off the outline you have right now! Have you thought about maybe pulling the commonalities out into their own sections? I feel like each probably has a lot you can say about it, although climate and digitization are probably very closely related, so they might benefit from the metaphorical breathing room of standing on their own. I'm looking forward to seeing more stuff on your page! It's a really cool topic and not an area we've talked about much. Best, Other Allison

Hey Allison, for sure, the four subject headings under "common archival considerations" are where I was thinking of diverging. I'm trying to think of way to pull out "dislocation/ missing records" which for many of the countries is a result of both colonization and war... I'm wondering if I should just make that ("dislocation") a topic unto itself, in addition to colonization. Hm. Thanks for your comments! -Alison

If it's a big concern then I think pulling it out is totally valid! Also, I think your page is looking great. I like how you've added mission/materials/challenges under each country heading where appropriate. The delineation works really well.

Awesome, thanks, Allison. I'm glad you think so re: the breakdown for each country -- I had considered just lumping everything together but found that made my writing too scattered.

Hi Alison,

Your outline looks great so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress with the page. You mention colonization and have it as a subtitle in your outline, so I was wondering if you've taken a look at Kelsey's Postcolonial Archive wiki? Some of her information or sources may be useful to you. Another idea, have you found any evidence of western archival influence on the archival practices developed in the southeast asian regions? I don't know if this occurred, and it would depend on the time period of their archival growth in relation to the rest of the world. And finally, you mention that only 7 of the 11 nations have national archives, do the other 4 have other types of archives worth mentioning?

Hey Morgan, thanks for the tip! I will definitely look at Kelsey's wiki, as well as few other classmates whose topics are off-shoots of this (let me know if you see any others that might fit?) Re: western archival influence, I've definitely found this to be the case (e.g., Indonesia has deferred to the Dutch for many of their archival practices, and Thailand to the U.S.). I'll be sure to incorporate that information! Great point : )

Hi Alison,

Looks like a good start! I didn't realize that Thailand was the only Southeast Asian country that was never colonized. It would be really interesting to see how archives and archival thinking developed there in comparison to countries that were colonized. Will you be looking at archives primarily as place, or also as material and program?

Hey Marisa, you make a great point. I'm primarily focusing on archives as place & program (for each of the national archives available), though I hope to delineate archives as material in the "common archival considerations" section. I will try to specify as much as I continue writing.