Open Collections

Abstract

While access is core to the purpose of archives and archival activities, there has not been robust theory developed to articulate what is unique about access in archival contexts, particularly when compared to access in other fields like library studies. To address this gap, my research employed grounded theory methods to explore how the concept of access may manifest uniquely in the archival discipline. The research for this project consisted of two focus groups of academic archivists brought together to discuss their perceptions of access. From grounded theory analysis of these discussions, eight tentative categories of access emerged: access as central to archival work, access as an ongoing process, access as contextual, access as an obligation, access as intersecting with other archival activities, access as mediated by the archivist, access as an experience, and access as requiring resources. With these categories defined, I demonstrate the ways in which they can be seen to be intersecting across the multiverse of archival practice, and point to several key areas of archival theory and archival work where a more robust framing of access as an archival concept can refine how archivists understand and undertake their work. I conclude by discussing several future directions for research that could be pursued to test and refine these tentative categories to continue to develop a theory of archival access.