Articles

The Records: Where Archival Universality Resides

---

Abstract

Media of communication, particularly material media, are seen by some as the main factor of an increasing cultural integration towards Marshall McLuhan's global village, and by others as the core component of a common supra-national and supra-ethnical culture. Archivists in North America have tended to act from within their own culture, and to reject the idea of a universal body of knowledge, on the grounds that records are unique expressions of unique societies. Will they be able to cope with the global record of a very close future without the support of a global conceptual underpinning? This article maintains that, albeit unrecognized by many, a common body of theoretical and methodological archival knowledge has existed for a long time and has guided the practices of archival professionals everywhere, and that such body of knowledge rests on the universal nature of records, a nature that will allow archivists to cope with the challenges presented by the new global forms of communication. This article is a revision of the Plenary Address given by the author at the Midwest Archives Conference Meeting, October 14-16, 1993, in Davenport, Iowa.

How to Cite:

Duranti, L., (1994) “The Records: Where Archival Universality Resides”, Archival Issues 19(2), 83–94. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/archivalissues.10636