Affective Collections: Care Practices in Digital Community Archives

Abstract

This paper will present the literature, theoretical framework, and preliminary findings of my MLIS/MA thesis. My research explores how digital community archives use participation-based methods to build a feminist ethics of care into the archival process. These participation-based methods encourage community members to contribute to the collecting, describing, and creating of records. I will use thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis to explore communitymade content associated with the Flin Flon Heritage Project and Harvest Moon Oral History. I am specifically exploring how community archives could enact an ethics of care through the use of care practices in a digital environment.